I'm sorry, I know it's a minor cosmetic thing, but those bezels make it look so dated that I can't really see it as new. Not that it matters since I will probably never buy an iMac again after experiencing the issues with dust getting beneath the glass of my last iMac 5k.
27-inch iMac gets a major update
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Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update
#282Earlier quoted context omitted.
I still don’t fully understand this world, I ‘downgraded’ from an i7 to a slower i5, and my computer got faster. I wish they’d use sensible clear names for the generations so you can clearly understand what’s better.
Your comment seems a bit disingenuous - how much time passed between when you got the i7 and when you got the i5? Today's i5's can be faster than long-ago's i7's but todays i7's are still far faster than today's i5's.
Their comment isn't disingenuous - that's just how a regular, normal, non hardware nerd would most likely interpret Intel's branding. Bigger number = faster, as far as consumers are concerned. If you understand the i3/i5/i7/i9 tiers, you're in a small minority.
Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update
#283Earlier quoted context omitted.
the 12" macbook is my favorite laptop of all time. Mine is the 2016 version and it's starting to feel dated and I'm hoping that they rerelease this on the new silicon first. I'll be smashing the buy button the day it's out.
I think my favorite computer was my late-2010 MacBook Air. It was such a departure from the big & clunky Windows laptops I'd owned up until that time. And of course I have fond memories of my first computer, an IBM PC Jr (although I really wanted the 2nd disk drive, and copying floppy disks with only one drive & 128kb of RAM was suboptimal).
I recently found a pic of my friend holding up my Air that I had just got delivered at the office. She has this look of awe on her at how thin the thing was.
I still have that Air. Love that thing.
Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update
#284Only the $2300 model has an option of upgrading to 5700XT for an extra $500, and that's not even a high-end GPU.
5700 XT is a very high end GPU, especially the 16GB option (can you even buy a 5700 XT with16GB for PC? I can't find any in the local price aggregator, all of them are 8GB). It isn't the fastest GPU you can buy, but it is still a high end one. If anything, this is the first time i see an iMac which has a good GPU. Though considering iMac's form factor and my experience of having a PC with a 5700XT i wonder about ther…
Yeah the 5700 XT is roughly on par with a 2070 Super, which isn't bad at all even if it isn't a 2080Ti.
Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update
#285> T2 ... makes transcoding HEVC video up to twice as fast as the previous generation So the T2's processing power is used to augment the main CPU and graphics card's power. This seems like a new development, but maybe it's been known for awhile?
Not new. Obscure! But not new.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/04/09/apples-t2-chip-ma...
Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update
#286This essentially confirms Apple's strategy to just refresh existing models/chassis without redesigns going forward; the new Apple chips will be used exclusively for redesigned/relaunches like the Macbook. Smart move since it increases the appeal of the Apple-powered Mac devices. The pricing difference will also help, as based on the expensive base configurations (RAM, SSD as others have pointed out here), it will mak…
Seems like this would be part of the reason the Mac Pro launch was such a teeth-pulling exercise. It crunched them on both sides. It was just too long of a wait from the old design (which couldn't be refreshed for thermal reasons).
Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update
#287Earlier quoted context omitted.
Schools need Macs at that price point or they can’t buy them .
It's only rich schools that buy them, and most places that do would be better off without them.
Until you have to manage a lab full of Windows, then MAC becomes a much better value. With a Mac you don’t have to buy MS office, you get iWork. You also get iMovie, GarageBand and other Apple software that covers almost everything a typical school would need. And you never have to buy updates for either the OS or the other Apple software. You also have less malware to deal with.
Having worked at a school with labs full of Windows machines, the real cost of IT support is not to be discounted.
Maybe a Mac isn’t the best solution for everyone, but in the school environment, they’re great. Most schools have kids doing video projects, presentations, desktop publishing, etc. —- tasks for which an out of the box iMac can handle with aplomb and with minimal hassle or additional expense.
Sure there are probably FOSS alternatives, but if you are the computer lab teacher, the last thing you have time for is managing a lab full of temperamental Linux boxes and the multiple flavors of FOSS software alternatives that frankly, aren’t that good compared to what Mac gives you included. For example, what’s a FOSS version of iMovie that works so powerfully and intuitively?
Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update
#2888GB RAM is pretty derisory for a 2020 machine. Is there a RAM shortage somewhere I haven't heard about?
My wife has an 8 GB Macbook Pro and she's quite happy with that. For most uses (and she usually has a dozen Word documents open at any time) it's perfectly fine and the machine is quite snappy.
OTOH, I'd expect the average HN user to need a lot more. I'm currently finding 16 GB a bit constrained and would be delighted to have 32 in the same footprint. The server under my desk has 64 and the swap indicators tell me it should have more (or less stuff to do).
Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update
#289“SSDs across the line with quadruple the storage” 1/4 TB of storage in the $1800 model, 1/2 TB in the $2300 one. Ugh. (So before the lower-end one had 64GB? [Edit: Nope, 1 TB Fusion Drive, thanks smnrchrds!] That would be FULL just from installing the one game the press release mentions.) What kind of magic fairy dust SSDs are they using that you can't have a sensible amount of storage space at those prices? Looking…
> What kind of magic fairy dust SSDs are they using that you can't have a sensible amount of storage space at those prices? The kind where Apple can make a 300% or more margin, knowing that people will still pay. Don't think Apple have ever sold SSD upgrades at anything remotely resembling competitive $/TB prices. Clearly they don't need too because people still buy their machines.
Apple NVMe disks are fast as hell - faster than any other single disk else I’ve used, outside of the dell NVMe disks we have in some of our servers that cost like $3000 each. I can also trash whatever disks Apple is using for years without ever running into failure, whereas I’ve blown out the wear leveling on plenty of “affordable” SSDs.
Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update
#290Solid spec bump. Interesting how much emphasis they put on the camera, speakers, and mic; makes total sense in the age of Zoom. I’d also speculate this means iMac won’t be the first computer getting Apple Silicon. I wonder if it will be the last? What’s the consensus guess now? Perhaps a new MacBook Air with good performance but the real “breakthrough” is > 12 hours battery life?
It will almost certainly be a low end macbook. In fact, there's a non-pro 'macbook'[0] that already exists which would be perfect, it was discontinued a year ago, but used ultra-low power CPUs. In fact when they were talking about them (prior to release) they thought they would have ARM CPU's back then. They are fanless and have a 5W thermal envelope, which fits in with the current A12X too. The major criticisms of t…
> Intel CORE-M is truly, truly painful
No, it wasn’t. I used to ru Xcode, iOS Simulator, World of Warcraft, League of Legends on the fanless MacBook with 8 GB of RAM just fine enough.