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Apple updates its iMac line

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Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#321

Post by mbell »

derefr wrote: post #253
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…

If someone could figure out a legal way to offer recommended-hardware Hackintosh builds as a service†, that'd be pretty ideal for what you're talking about, in the sense of "you could buy one for your mom", and it would "just work" (and hopefully continue to "just work" through updates, if they do it right.) † I guess, if you were to operate a "Hackintosh OEM", you could sell the hardware build itself without actuall…

> If someone could figure out a legal way to offer recommended-hardware Hackintosh builds as a service†, that'd be pretty ideal for what you're talking about, in the sense of "you could buy one for your mom", and it would "just work" (and hopefully continue to "just work" through updates, if they do it right.)

Is this not what tonymacx86.com provides via the buying guide / golden builds forum?

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#322

Post by jwr »

aczerepinski wrote: post #302
jwr wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Ok, thanks. That's a similar setup to mine, but I'm very tired of plugging, re-plugging, and using the stupid OSD menus in monitors. Plus, I really think that for 27" a 5K resolution is required.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#323

Post by BoringBox »

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…

The 21" does not support memory upgrades.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#324

Post by caprese »

drewg123 wrote: post #53
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.

What seems worse to me is that the default drive for the 21.5" is a 1TB 5400 spinning rust drive, not even a fusion drive. This is just shameful. People who don't know any better will get the cheapest drive, and have horrible performance. This is exactly what happened to an older friend of my wife. And since it is an iMac, it is next to impossible to replace the drive later (on some models, you need to unseal the LCD…

My world has been totally SSD for the past decade. (Yes at a premium during times when I had an abundance of money and times when I had little. Priorities.)

I am A LOT rougher with computers. I don't think twice about picking up my NAS in mid operation.

A fusion drive wouldn't work for me.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#325

Post by Rebelgecko »

noonespecial wrote: post #278
specialist wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To the parent's point... I'd recommend a hackintosh Intel NUC. I got blisters stuffing RAM SIMMs into daughter cards. I've agonized over IRQ choices for peripherals. I'm so over fiddling with my daily driver. I've got Audrinos and RPi projects for scratching that itch. Uncertainty over the keyboards is precisely why I postponed replacing my laptop. I'd probably use my iMac more if I could find a keyboard & trackpad c…

I've been using Synergy in place of teleport. Not as good but gets the job done. There's a top shelf paid version but an older free version does the job for me. https://symless.com/synergy

If you build a newer version from source you can get the best of both worlds: Free, while also not blasting your passwords across the network in plaintext

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#326

Post by brigade »

BossingAround wrote: post #11

Huh... The title of their press release seems to me somewhat clickbait-y... Why not 'iMac got a hardware refresh; now with 2x performance'? When I read this, I thought, 'oh wow, Apple really outdid itself with their SW optimisations'. Overall, I'm kinda disappointed that the 21' and 27' macs get different CPU gens. Why? Why not just have the latest gen in both of them? Is it price, or is it more about artificial perf…

Blame intel maybe? 9th gen only has the 95W SKUs fleshed out; at 65W TDP the 8th gen parts still have SKUs with higher clocks.

(as in there is an i5-9400 to replace i5-8400, but no refresh of the i5-8500, i5-8600, or i7-8700, which are all faster than the i5-9400.)

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#327

Post by runjake »

jen20 wrote: post #315
runjake wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the cost of all that external junk adds up and you create what is essentially a dongle town on your desktop. It defeats the whole purpose of a Mini. I know because I tried to do this with a 2018 Mac Mini. Aside from the very lackluster GPU performance, it's a pretty speedy machine. I had a fairly generous budget for a new computer. 32GB of RAM was about $200 from Crucial. The external SSD storage options were…

This sounds interesting - do you have a description of the hardware you used to hand?

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/jake541/saved/#view=ZnVr6h

As of today, the prices are higher than what I paid. If you're going to buy, monitor /r/buildapcsales on Reddit and buy your parts when they go on sale. I bought my stuff over a period of a couple weeks and saved substantial money.

Samsung SSD prices fluctuate by 10s of dollars. Other SSD manufacturers such as Intel and WD offer steep discounts at times. The RX 580 GPUs go on significant sales pretty often.

At some point, I need to finish my guide and publish to Github. I largely followed corpnewt's Vanilla Guide for Mojave [1], and followed the Coffee Lake train. It's important to follow each step closely.

Again, I do not recommend a hackintosh, but for me it worked out really well.

1. https://hackintosh.gitbook.io/-r-hackintosh-vanilla-desktop-...

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#328

Post by greglindahl »

aczerepinski wrote: post #236
naravara wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if the Mac Pro is the computer of all our dreams, I doubt it will meet the poster’s needs. Seems like they want a fairly bare-bones, minimalist and simple computer. I doubt a Mac Pro is going to come in at under $3.5k at the entry level.

$3.5k entry would be very disappointing since the Mac Mini doesn’t have a graphics card so it struggles with even 3-5 year old video games or hobbyist video editing. I really hope they make a high end mini or low end pro in the $1.5-2k range that can meet the needs of a lot of monitor owning folks who used to be Apple Computer’s core demographic.

If your budget is $1.5k+ you could put an external GPU on a Mac Mini and call it a day.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#330

Post by brandon272 »

javagram wrote: post #101
dijit wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's SATA so you can replace it with anything you like; if you're not fond of paying the extra $200 for 25% of the storage capacity. A bit like buying an OS-less PC. But I agree full-heartedly that it's counter-intuitive to the brand.

Replacing the hard drive in these macs requires separating the display. Possible but a delicate operation. https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+27-Inch+Retina+5K+Di... I’d just throw a thunderbolt or usb3 SSD in a port instead. I boot off a USB3 SSD on my Mac mini and that seems to work fine, despite not being quite as good as an internal or TB drive would be.

I recently replaced the drive on mine. The most annoying part of the process is the fact that you have to purchase adhesive strips to be able to re-seat the display.
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