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Apple updates its iMac line

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Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#181

Post by scarface74 »

vbezhenar wrote: post #122
coldtea wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's tons of competition in the PC space. If nobody makes alternative Mac-like machines people want to buy for cheaper (or if Macs are seen as Veblen goods), that's a different matter. But Apple doesn't charge $4000 for a MacBook Pro for lack of competition in the laptop space. "But only Apple makes MBPs" is not an argument. Only Acer makes Acer machines, and only MS makes Surfaces too.

The argument is that only Apple makes computers that run macOS well. If they would allow macOS to run on other computers (legally), they would face real competition.

All PC makers had to do was come up with their own competing operating system around 2000. It’s not like Apple was rolling in cash back then.

PC manufacturers only have themselves to blame for being low margin commodities.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#182

Post by BossingAround »

coldtea wrote: post #21
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…

> 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'. To me it is obvious it's about HW. These are new iMac release notes, not new macOS announcement.

> These are new iMac release notes, not new macOS announcement.

How do you know that though?

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#183

Post by jsymolon »

duado wrote: post #143
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…

Get a thunderbolt drive caddy and boot from external Thunderbolt disk. Refreshed an old iMac this wayz

I pulled the screen off and installed an SSD. Easy to do

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#184

Post by simonh »

crazygringo wrote: post #98
subpixel wrote: post #68

re: RAM, I bought a 2015 iMac with a 1TB drive on Craiglist last month, thinking it might be the perfect machine to edit and store/serve family photos (mac --> Google Photos and mac --> BackBlaze). It never in a million years would have occurred to me that 1) 8GB on a 2015 machine would be utterly, pathetically underpowered for even browsing the web, or 2) that an iMac would be sold in 2015 that would not let you upg…

...how is 8GB underpowered for browsing the web? My 2016 MacBook Pro has 8GB and it's perfectly fine. I can't even imagine what web you're browsing.

I would have thought it would be ok too, but I'm guessing your machine has an SSD, so when it occasionally needs to use swap space you barely even notice. On a machine with a bare spinning platter drive and no fusion drive, going to swap can be awful for performance. You’ll really notice it. So most of the time everything will be fine, but now and then it will suddenly start crawling.

Also Chrome with a dozen tabs open is a bit of a memory hog. Safari is a lot better, but eh.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#185

Post by danielmg »

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?

A $3k desktop for which you need to buy an external drive. At some point slavishness to the Apple brand must have a breaking point.

Not wanting to start a fanboy war but I am a big believer in the right tool for the right job at the right price. For $3k I could build a monster PC with a stunning screen.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#186

Post by scarface74 »

danielmg wrote: post #185
scarface74 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

A $3k desktop for which you need to buy an external drive. At some point slavishness to the Apple brand must have a breaking point. Not wanting to start a fanboy war but I am a big believer in the right tool for the right job at the right price. For $3k I could build a monster PC with a stunning screen.

If you’re buying a “$3000” iMac you’re not buying one with a fusion drive....

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#187

Post by SteveNuts »

dessant wrote: post #58
SteveNuts wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'll cost the same but your 5400RPM drive will have about 30x more storage.

I think you meant 3x, 30x may have been true when SSDs were first brought to market. https://www.wd.com/products/internal-ssd/wd-blue-3d-nand-sat... https://www.wd.com/products/internal-storage/wd-blue-pc-desk...

I was talking about the price of a 128GB SSD vs. what you could get in an HDD for the same price. Not "what is the maximum size SSD available".

A cheap 128GB SSD would be around $40-50 while you can get 3TB HDDs for that price.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#188

Post by bodyfour »

eckza wrote: post #35
tsmarsh wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No touch bar is a win IMHO. I'm not against it per se, but a soft `esc` was a mistake.

vim lifer here, I'm dreading the day my 2015 rMBP dies.

Was in the same boat... except my 2014 rMBP did die and I had to replace it with a 2018 model.

I also dreaded the soft-escape, but that turned out to be the least of my problems. Remapping caps lock to escape wasn't hard to get used to at all (even after 30+ years of vi use). Within a couple days that felt fine. Seemed like an OK trade for getting touch-ID unlocking.

What is absolutely not ok is this keyboard. It's the third generation "membrane" version that supposedly is better, but it's near unusable for any real work. So many keystrokes double register that my overall typing speed is probably but in half. I'm just having to backspace over the keyboard's mistakes so much! (Twice in that last sentence, for example)

And even if I put up with the keyboard somehow, I can look forward to the screen probably dying in a year or two anyway: https://venturebeat.com/2019/01/22/apples-latest-macbook-pro...

I've become so used to Apple being the premium laptop brand -- yes I had to pay a bit more for a given machine spec but the overall build quality was top notch. Now they're still premium priced but are delivering the worst laptop hardware in the industry. After being sucked into the Apple ecosystem for so long I'm being forced to switch back to linux simply because they no longer sell a minimally functional laptop at any price.

So please treat that rMBP well -- you'll definitely miss it when its gone. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple never makes a laptop as good as that one again.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#189

Post by FractalParadigm »

scarface74 wrote: post #186
danielmg wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A $3k desktop for which you need to buy an external drive. At some point slavishness to the Apple brand must have a breaking point. Not wanting to start a fanboy war but I am a big believer in the right tool for the right job at the right price. For $3k I could build a monster PC with a stunning screen.

If you’re buying a “$3000” iMac you’re not buying one with a fusion drive....

Canadian price for a top-end 27" Retina iMac is $3079, and has a 2TB Fusion drive standard. The 512GB SSD option is $120 more than the Fusion drive.

A quarter of the storage at a premium price isn't exactly appealing to a lot of people, regardless of how much faster it may be.

Re: Apple updates its iMac line

#190

Post by scarface74 »

FractalParadigm wrote: post #189
scarface74 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’re buying a “$3000” iMac you’re not buying one with a fusion drive....

Canadian price for a top-end 27" Retina iMac is $3079, and has a 2TB Fusion drive standard. The 512GB SSD option is $120 more than the Fusion drive. A quarter of the storage at a premium price isn't exactly appealing to a lot of people, regardless of how much faster it may be.

You know there is a way that you can configure what you want for your budget....
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