Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple updates its iMac line

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

351–360 of 480 posts

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#351

Post by gowld »

desireco42 wrote: post #197
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.

True. The only thing to replace 7yr old iMac is iMac Pro. I splurged, got myself one and expect to get another 7 yrs from it.

That's strange. If you can keep an iMac Pro for 7 years, then you don't need the power of the iMac Pro, or your needs are extremely high now yet won't grow over time.

Why not get a 27" iMac for half price, and another one in 4 years with whatever new thing is invented then?

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#352

Post by mbesto »

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…

> Even if Apple can't make the machines more upgradeable because of customer support issues,

As I understand it, it isn't a customer support issue but a physical limitation issue for what processing power these machines get. They are built with soldered components which means no upgradeability with the flip side being that the performance is 5 years ahead of the direct competition. In other words...you can't upgrade but you won't need to like you used to. It's a paradigm shift.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#353

Post by cma »

wnissen wrote: post #296
drewg123 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Even worse, the upgrades are insultingly overpriced. $100 for 32GB of flash to get a Fusion drive, and $700 (again, extra) to get a 1TB when you can get a nice Samsung for $350 in that size. Ridiculous.

Wow, $700? 1TB NVMe goes for like $150 on sale sometimes.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#354

Post by snowwrestler »

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 you're working on a Mac Pro, hang on another few months and you'll have a new Mac Pro to consider, one that likely hits all of these features:

> I'd love to see Apple make a system that supported upgradeable memory, SSDs, High capacity hard drives, graphics, and separate larger monitors

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#355

Post by [deleted] »

aczerepinski wrote: post #309
nudded wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

[deleted]

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#357

Post by kbutler »

scarface74 wrote: post #134
resters wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made the mistake of buying an iMac last year with a fusion drive. I assumed that since it was an Apple product it would have relatively good performance. It is unbelievably slow and negates the high performance characteristics of the rest of the system. I have tremendous buyer's remorse and rarely use the machine. Whenever I do use it, the feeling I get is "how could Apple do this to its brand?". The machine cost o…

So you couldn’t just by an SSD external drive and boot off of that?

Isn't the point of an iMac the fact that it's a clean, uncluttered device?

If you are willing to accept separate components, you can buy much cheaper hardware.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#358

Post by SZJX »

robmaister wrote: post #260
drewg123 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I've felt this pain too. 2 years ago I bought a Mac mini (2014 model) off eBay for $340 mainly as a build machine for iOS binaries. It was the lowest end model which had a 5400rpm HDD in it and 4GB of RAM. It took ~3 minutes to get to a usable desktop. Opening XCode took long enough for me to go grab a coffee or scroll through Facebook. It was swapping like crazy. I honestly couldn't believe they were selling this co…

This isn't the config for Mac Mini in 2018 though? Unless you're talking about the earlier half of 2018 when the new Mac Mini hasn't been released yet.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#359

Post by matthew-wegner »

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…

I run macOS on HP Z420s. Despite not really promoting this post, I've had a few people find it and ask various questions (sometimes about hackintosh). I always reply!

So same offer here, if anyone wants to go that route: https://www.matthewwegner.com/hp-z420-desktop-buying-guide/

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#360

Post by btown »

sahin-boydas wrote: post #144

Did you guys see this? "iMac Pro now available with 256 GB RAM option … for an extra $5200" sort of pricey. https://9to5mac.com/2019/03/19/256-gb-ram-imac-pro/

If you're buying a machine that needs 256 GB of RAM, presumably you or your company is using it for the type of graphics/video work that pays well enough to recoup $5200 in costs. The comparison is to professional equipment like cameras and audio interfaces, not to consumer products.
Post reply on HN