27-inch iMac gets a major update • Hacker News Board

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#331

Post by simonklitj » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 6:04 PM UTC

fmajid wrote: post #309

Presumably you cannot install Mojave on these, only Catalina. I sacrificed a Mac to Catalina, then wiped it back to Mojave. Hopefully Big Sur will fix the flaming dumpster fire that is Catalina, but I am not hopeful and working on my Linux migration plan.

Curious about the bugs in Catalina that made it useless for you. Have been on it since the public beta, and haven't really had anything that has made it impossible to do things I used to do. Care to elaborate? (Edit: I did on 10.15.13 have a bug where I couldn't access files and folders on the desktop, and had to repeatedly reboot. Downgraded to 10.15.12 and went to 10.15.14 when that came out and fixed it. Will admit that this was incredibly frustrating!)

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#332

Post by efficax » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 6:04 PM UTC

kingkongjaffa wrote: post #218

efficax wrote: post #48

Earlier 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.

what were the thermals like?

gets a little hot but I have the m7. Not too bad! Fanless is a big plus

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#333

Post by noahtallen » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 6:05 PM UTC

sukilot wrote: post #142

johncalvinyoung wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sitting around waiting on the 2020 CPU revision of the 16" MBP. Will be getting that top GPU too. Just don't want to buy right now if we might get that CPU upgrade in the next 1-3 months.

What's the point of maxing out CPU/GPU on a form factor that can't manage thermals?

To be fair, it stops throttling when I hold it over the A/C unit. ;)

/s

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#334

Post by outworlder » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 6:05 PM UTC

n3k5 wrote: post #134

“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…

Apple SSDs have been historically leaps and bounds ahead of the competition. Apple started using SSDs driven by PCIe while consumers were all using SATA. Jacking up the price was justified.

Not anymore. Fast NVME drives are commonplace. Unless these drives are again significantly faster than the competition, which I doubt, that's just Apple doing their thing and not adjusting fast enough.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#335

Post by dcchambers » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 6:05 PM UTC

asadkn wrote: post #15

It just feels wrong to buy anything new from Apple with "Intel Inside" - when they're clearly going to dump it soon, in favor of ARM (excuse me for not using the cringey term Apple Silicon).

Nah I think it's good news that apple is continuing to release Intel-based devices. It means all of us with existing Intel macs will get support for years and years to come.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#336

Post by gnomesteel » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 6:05 PM UTC

minerjoe wrote: post #324

Wonderful computer. How much you wanna bet that in < 5 years they drop support forcing almost everyone that purchased one to throw it out and get a new one?

I'd take that bet. Apple is generally good about keeping old machines working.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#337

Post by pvarangot » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 6:05 PM UTC

localhost wrote: post #305

samtheprogram wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iMac competes via its 5K display and having macOS in general. Remember that Apple’s comparable offerings for this tier display were priced at $1299, in the same price range as many 5K displays. The $1800 price point isn’t hard to grasp once you consider the display. EDIT: I previously compared to / referenced possibly sub-$1000 5K monitors, but it seems the ones I was looking at in that range were actually 4K.

It’s like buying a 5k display and getting a subsidized computer. There’s ~1 5k monitor on the market today (LG)? I wonder how expandable this is? Buy the bottom end machine with the CPU you want and upgrade SSD and RAM? I would imagine SSD is upgradeable but RAM soldered onto the mobo?

On Apple laptops "SSDs" are also soldered PCIe flash memory chips or something like that, so maybe on this very thin desktop computer they will also be doing that.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#338

Post by rsynnott » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 6:06 PM UTC

_ph_ wrote: post #243

ogre_codes wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can Apple say their new CPUs are the best/ fastest... but aren't good enough to ship in their flagship laptop? This first launch is going to be the most scrutinized & criticized Mac Apple has launched in years. Apple knows this and they are going to put a beefy CPU in their new machine to silence the critics. If they can't beat Intel performance at launch, what are the chances they are going to be able to beat th…

That is the reason why I think at least one of the MB Pros will be available on Apple Silicon from the start, I am just not sure they will start with the 16", as they would have to replace a dedicated GPU for that machine.

> I am just not sure they will start with the 16", as they would have to replace a dedicated GPU for that machine.

Why? The 2015 15" came with an integrated GPU option (and that was by far the most popular SKU, AFAIK).

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#339

Post by anentropic » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 6:08 PM UTC

rbanffy wrote: post #253

mikestew wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is no longer supported. See my reply to sibling comment.

I believe no Retina iMac ever supported it. Having mentioned that, it'd be awesome if we could plug it into a MacBook Pro via USB-C and use it as a power supply, an eGPU, and an external monitor. And maybe also mount the disks. That would be great.

Agreed, I would actually consider buying an iMac in that case

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#340

Post by rsynnott » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 6:08 PM UTC

skohan wrote: post #256

paulpan wrote: post #202

This 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…

Is there credible evidence the new devices will actually be cheaper? It hasn’t been the trend with Apple product launches

They've been cutting low-end prices (and raising high-end price via introducing a Pro tier) on iOS devices for a while.