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Apple updates its iMac line

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Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#401

Post by raydev »

rootusrootus wrote: post #224
altcognito wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or the CPU. But we're talking an $1800 machine with a 5400rpm disc and 8gb of Ram. That's one hell of a screen and CPU.

It's probably no longer true, but when the 5K iMac came out it was the cheapest way to get a 5K screen. You got the computer for free, essentially.

I think the high quality 5k screen is still the bulk of the cost. There's nothing else like it on the market except for LG's, and that's ~$1300USD.

The high DPI monitor market is practically dead (for now) so there's no pressure forcing prices down.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#402

Post by Crontab »

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 like Apple's current lineup but I do think they have lost a certain segment of users: people who don't care about appearance or thinness and just want a modestly priced, upgradeable box.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#403

Post by mamon »

intrasight wrote: post #339
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…

Aren't the only people buying Macs those who have no choice because of the monopoly they have for iOS development? I mean really - crappy hardware (form over function), expensive, dated UI.

People typically see MacOs as "Unix-family OS that doesn't suck". The day Linux delivers a decent desktop environment will be the day people ditch Apple. Unfortunately, that day is somewhere between "20 years from now" and "never"

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#404

Post by Crontab »

BoringBox wrote: post #323
WillPostForFood wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

The Apple support document[1] makes it sound like it can be upgraded, just not by an end user. Is that what you meant?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201191#note

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#405

Post by Crontab »

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…

I have to say that I agree with you - this makes no sense.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#406

Post by noir_lord »

jwr wrote: post #242
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 curious why you think that. I mostly write code for a living and apart from the notebook line catastrophe (I'm stuck on a 2014 model of a MacBook Pro and waiting for something to come out with a reasonable keyboard and perhaps more than one port that I can use), the desktop line is improving quickly. I've been really tempted by the Mac Mini, I would buy the iMac Pro if I could afford it, and now I intend to get t…

I'm curious why you need 5K@27 for 3 columns.

I have 2x27" 4K LG's and they comfortably fit.

The effective DPI may be higher on 5K at 27" than 4K at 27" but at a reasonable distance I fail to see any difference (approx 220ppi vs 170ppi at 3 feet).

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#407

Post by pixl97 »

innagadadavida wrote: post #127
_red wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometime around 2013-2014 it began to be visible that Apple stopped trying to make "the best hardware in its class" and migrated to "how does this fit in a marketing matrix". Tim Cook and Steve Balmer have curious parallels. Both genius COO-types that can squeeze enormous profits from their processes, but both strategically undermined their brands severely. I think the board at Apple is going to discover that the cos…

The iMac has other configs and if you are a power user, you can get the specs you want. Maybe Apple does have some customers for the low end config that’s not obvious. Why should your opinions limit their choices?

Because hard drives have become "this is so slow that it harms your products reputation to use them". The bottom of the SSD pile is still many, many times faster than the fastest hard drive.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#408

Post by karlshea »

Someone1234 wrote: post #389
novok wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are probably QLC drives at those prices, while I would think apple would be selling TLC or even MLC drives given their speeds. To properly compare against apple' storage, you have to look at the prices of things like the samsung pro series, which is about $350/TB

Samsung 860 EVO 1 TB is MLC and $150 on Amazon right now (2.5" formfactor).

That's not NVMe though.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#409

Post by 8draco8 »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #65
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…

That's just a weird decision on Apple's part - don't they want the best perceived performance? I mean they could just put some soldered storage in there for the OS at the very least.

Not even soldered, they could came up with some fancy marketing name for slowest SSD drive in their line up (lets call it eSSD) and just drop-in 2.5" SATA SSD for $20 (retail cost of 120GB SSD on Amazon) instead of spinning rust. No need of redesigning chassis, no need of changing any factory procedures, machines, robots etc. Just give a box of SSDs instead of HDDs to the person that is responsible for putting them in. Here, job done, and Apple could "brag" about having SSDs in entry level options. Standard SATA SSD would increase massively performance on those machines.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#410

Post by Someone1234 »

karlshea wrote: post #408
Someone1234 wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Samsung 860 EVO 1 TB is MLC and $150 on Amazon right now (2.5" formfactor).

That's not NVMe though.

The iMac takes 2.5 inch drives, including hard drives. Apple's website doesn't list what the SSD is, and we cannot infer much from the iMac Pro since it has different lineage.
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