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Apple updates its iMac line

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Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#301

Post by slantyyz »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #287
todd8 wrote: post #201

It's just frustrating, I switched the household over to Apple devices when OSX came out, and now there really aren't any systems from Apple that look interesting to me. I've been programming since before the (Unix) dawn of time, and Apple devices have been good development machines for me since OSX was released 18 years ago. I'm comfortable on Linux, but the Apple iOS devices and computers are all over my home and in…

> I'd love to see Apple make a system that supported upgradeable memory, SSDs, High capacity hard drives, graphics, and separate larger monitors Apple does a pretty good job supporting the needs of most people, in a slim clean form factor, with the iMac. It supports memory upgrades, and external monitors. There is a small group that needs nearly every component to be upgradeable or swappable, and they offer the Mac P…

>> they offer the Mac Pro for that use case.

I'm not sure I buy this as an argument until the new Mac Pro is released.

Having said that, the Mac Pro is prohibitively expensive for a lot of people. I think a lot of people want something between a Mac Mini and a Mac Pro. Something that could be called Mac "Midi" that would allow for some commodity parts (ram, storage, gpu) to be used.

>> I don't see a scenario where the cost/benefit of adding removable graphics cards to an iMac would make sense.

In any case, this is probably a non-issue with TB3 and eGPUs.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#302

Post by aczerepinski »

jwr wrote: post #249
aczerepinski wrote: post #105

I really wish I could buy a headless Mac with similar performance (including a real video card) and price. The mini doesn't quite meet my needs and the pro at $3k+ is way too expensive. These specs look good (although I would greatly prefer SSD) but I really don't want an extra monitor on my desk.

I'm curious: why would you want a headless machine with a real video card? If, as I'm guessing, you want to connect an external monitor, what would be your monitor choice (and how would you connect it) to get 5K? From my research, the iMac (or iMac Pro) was pretty much the only way to get a working non-crappy 5K setup.

I have a 27" LG 4k monitor that I connect to my work MacBook pro during the day. Then I'd like to flip a switch (or swap one plug) to use my personal computer with the same monitor. Currently that personal computer is a 2013 iMac sitting right next to my LG monitor but I'd love to get rid of it and free up the desk space.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#303

Post by maxxxxx »

lesss365 wrote: post #96
tambourine_man wrote: post #24

Still selling brand new machines with 5400 rpm HDs. In 2019. It undermines the brand. Any Mac a customer buys should have good enough performance. 5400 spinning disk hasn’t been fast enough for a decade.

Does it still hold that SSDs are harder to recover data from than HDDs? Or is that out the window?

From my experience SSDs die hard and you will get nothing back from them. I always thought they may go into read only mode but I have never seen that.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#304

Post by dijit »

xavieralexandre wrote: post #281
dijit wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. But the drive that is inside is listed as being SATA. I haven’t seen a tear down but it’s not soldered or proprietary at least.

The spinning disc drive is SATA and non proprietary ( https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+27-Inch+EMC+2546+Bla... ). The SSD is not and use a proprietary PCI-e connector ( https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+27-Inch+EMC+2546+Bla... ). You can find adapters though ( https://www.amazon.de/Sintech-M-2-PCIe-2280-SSD-Karte-MZ-JPU... ).

That's pretty gross. Thanks for the info. :\

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#305

Post by gshubert17 »

noonespecial wrote: post #284
S_A_P wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought one of those from best buy and quickly hit the wall with the 5400 rpm drive. I bought the iMac repair kit from ifixit and put a 1tb ssd in its place. It screams now. I have literally never had a drive swap make such a HUGE performance improvement.

Can confirm. 2012 Imac with 1TB rust disk was truly feeling its age. Swapped to small SSD I had laying around just to see what would happen and just SuperDuper-ed the old OS. Could not believe the difference. You just have to see it happen to get it. Best upgrade ever.

Agreed. I had a 2009 iMac with 640GB (7200 rpm) disk and 4 GB ram. I swapped to a smaller (250 GB) SSD and upgraded to 8 GB ram and it's like a new machine for me--a great upgrade.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#306

Post by mixmastamyk »

CoolGuySteve wrote: post #48
fiblye wrote: post #13

Bought my iMac 7 years ago with 8GB as the default memory option and a 1TB fusion drive. And here we are, nearly a decade later. Still 8 GB in the newest models. Still 1 TB fusion drives. GPUs haven't even seemed to take a jump over last year's models.

It’s very likely that the high DRAM prices from 2017 to now have been due to market collusion, similar to what happened in 2010. Like your example shows, they’ve basically set the entire industry back years for a modest profit. It’s heinous.

Yes. However we forget that 8GB was an ungodly amount of memory in the late 90's; it required industrial gear like an SGI Origin to get that much. That a browser would fill it is another abomination.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#307

Post by js2 »

todd8 wrote: post #201

It's just frustrating, I switched the household over to Apple devices when OSX came out, and now there really aren't any systems from Apple that look interesting to me. I've been programming since before the (Unix) dawn of time, and Apple devices have been good development machines for me since OSX was released 18 years ago. I'm comfortable on Linux, but the Apple iOS devices and computers are all over my home and in…

I'm in your boat. My history with Apple goes back even longer, to the Apple II and Mac SE. I've lost track of how much Apple gear I've purchased in the last three+ decades. The only non-upgradeable part that cheeses me is the storage. And the battery should be user swappable. Aside from reliability issues like the keyboard/display which Apple obviously has to fix, those are the only two parts which I almost always need to upgrade or replace later. Storage just keeps getting denser and cheaper over time. Batteries wear out. But CPUs and memory, these days I can figure out what I want at purchase time and those will be good for years.

I recently purchase a 13" air, despite the ancient design and shitty screen, because I refuse to buy something that I couldn't swap the SSD and battery. (And I couldn't find a suitable used 2015 mbp.)

I was just lamenting to my wife as I was browsing Apple's web site and the mess that is the Apple lineup: there's no way Steve Jobs would have put up with this shit. Yes, I know he was responsible for the G4 Cube, and some other silly things... but today's Apple lineup, shipping a brand new iPad with only Pencil 1 support? Cook would go to Jobs and say, "but look at the process efficiency" and Jobs would just say, GTFO! I'm sure of it.

Look I get that most consumers aren't opening their devices. But throw the pros a bone already. All Apple is making these days are Lamborghinis. That's not what pros want: just give us a really fast pickup truck! Please Apple?

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#309

Post by aczerepinski »

nudded wrote: post #271
aczerepinski wrote: post #105

I really wish I could buy a headless Mac with similar performance (including a real video card) and price. The mini doesn't quite meet my needs and the pro at $3k+ is way too expensive. These specs look good (although I would greatly prefer SSD) but I really don't want an extra monitor on my desk.

The mini + eGPU seems like it would be a candidate then?

I suppose so. I don't know much about eGPUs. I see the cheapest one available on the Apple store is $700 which includes a Radeon Pro 580 (appears to be the same card offered on the top of line iMac from today?). With SSDs on the Mini being as expensive as they are ($800 to upgrade to 1TB), I'd probably want an external HD as well, so minimum 3 boxes on my desk and more chords to deal with.

It would meet my needs and I might reluctantly get one.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#310

Post by scarface74 »

0xffff2 wrote: post #288
scarface74 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Colleges aren’t buying labs full of Chromebooks...

Are many colleges buying computers at all? My university CS and engineering schools both just required that students supply their own computer that was sufficient for the coursework.

Yes. There are departments outside of the CS and engineering schools and also colleges that cater to lower income students that don't require you to purchase a computer.
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