Formerly Roboman, still
awesome Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
|
Quote:
But after years of that awful 20" display, it's really nice to see Apple put the display forefront. Even on their front page: "The ultimate all-in-one. Now with the ultimate display." Apple even talked about how the displays were IPS in that sexy Ive vid. I've never heard them actually tout that to consumers before, which is important, because too often consumers think that displays are displays and there's size and that's it. And yes, with the low-end iMac now being 1080p, I'm sure we'll be seeing 1080p content in the near future, one way or another. and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong |
|
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Ottawa, ON
|
Quote:
I still think though, that for the full experience - hardware and software quality, and the way they work together - that the value for the money is there. Some may disagree (Luca?), but ultimately I have been a happy Mac buyer over the years. Heck, they repaired my G5 past warranty - full logic board replacement - for free, without a grumble or argument. When there's an eel in the lake that's as long as a snake that's a moray. |
|
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Ottawa, ON
|
Regarding the processors, I am thinking this is certainly the last gasp of the Core 2 Duo on the iMac. Will we not have another update in six months that will bring the whole line - except maybe the bottom basement iMac - up to i5/i7?
It was maybe a bit early to do that now (and Apple absolutely needed to release a desktop update now) but in six months it will be time. Hey, maybe I should start a new thread: What to speculate about now? New iMacs! Mach 2 Just kidding, for now. When there's an eel in the lake that's as long as a snake that's a moray. |
quote |
Formerly Roboman, still
awesome Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
|
Quote:
(If they are, they're ripping people off on the BTO i7 upgrade, as usual. ) and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong |
|
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
|
In the past I was the biggest AIO skeptic going, but since the introduction of the G5 iMac, they are becoming increasingly attractive machines. They've almost got it perfected now. The display port input is brilliant, I've been yapping about that for years... The iMac now doubles as a great display that can "head up" a future upgrade, a TV tuner, etc... It's not bigger than an average monitor anyway. If it turns out that the computer can run in the background while the display shows another machine's desktop, it goes from brilliant to genius! You might upgrade your "monitor" to a server for the whole household, back-up storage, burn discs in the background while you've docked your circa 2013 8-core Macbook Pro as the main machine?
Seriously now: A four core machine with abundant RAM and a 27" screen? What would it have cost just 1-2 years ago to get the equivalent performance and a 24-30" ACD in Mac Pro guise? $4000-5000. Only two omissions: 1.) They need to put an ExpressCard slot in it. What happens when USB3 or FW1600, or some other connection standard comes out? Every machine, regardless of price, but especially a premium model, needs an I/O upgrade path this late in the life of existing standards... 2.) Bluray. You know it's coming. Those new 16:9 screens were spec'd especially for it. Something held it back, I suspect the option will be added soon... One consideration: The SD slot is interesting. I wonder if it conforms to the SDXC spec. I don't know of too many devices out there yet that do, but it's been on the books for a year or so and provides for terabytes of storage and 300MB/s speeds... So, what to do? If I were looking for a new desktop, I'd buy one. Either the entry level or the 27" model... ......................................... |
quote |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Dallas
|
How do you swap out the HDD in these? Through the memory access?
They're beautiful, that's for sure. I like how the glass is edge to edge and the chin is smaller. Blu-rays absence is unfortunate. I'd say I wouldn't buy one because of it, but I'm not in the market for one anyway. If I were I'd hold out, the thing was built for HD movies. |
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Toronto
|
Like Matsu says, Apple got it pretty much right, with a few quibbles.
I doubt it's SDXC, but here's hoping. Similarly, I doubt the hard drive is any easier to change, but with 1TB drives that's less of a factor than it used to be (for now.) I do think the smaller keyboard is a joke, and ExpressCard would have been nice (but this is Jobs we're talking about.) The fact remains: Yesterday, a 3.06GHZ, 4GB RAM, 1TB HD iMac with a 24" screen would have cost CAN$2599. Today, you can get those specs for CAN$1799., plus a larger screen. iMac FTW! |
quote |
Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Denmark
|
I'm really close to pull the trigger on the i7-model. That thing is sweet and almost "8-core" due to HyperThreading. Wow!
BUT I want the BluRay. And before someone starts talking about Itusen moviedownloads, I just have three words: "Not in Denmark" The only movies iTunes in Denmark and most of Europe is video-podcasts and trailers. So BluRay is a musthave for me! Btw: oes any of you know, if it still is possible to easy add more memory or is it all welded shut inside that pretty body? |
quote |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Dallas
|
Quote:
|
|
quote |
Thunderbolt, fuck yeah!
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Denmark
|
I don't think you guys should put too much hopes into Bluray.
If Apple wanted it we could have had it last year, but as mentioned earlier it runs against their media strategy. It's more likely that Apple want's to see Bluray stone dead. |
quote |
Formerly Roboman, still
awesome Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
|
Apple was still shipping Combo drives in their computers this year. Apple's just never been an early adopter of this sort of thing - see CD-R. Doesn't mean it won't happen. Doesn't mean it will, but hey. That's Apple.
and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong |
quote |
Avast!
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: New York?
|
Or one nicely priced machine and bonus monitor... depends on your usage pattern. It fits mine brilliantly, though I understand why it would be a waste for some.
One of my biggest reasons for not buying an iMac is the inability for it to double as a monitor when the day comes to put it out to pasture. Having owned an PowerPC iMac that fell behind the times, I still regret not being able to use it as a 20" display. I may be selling my 23" display soon and picking up the 27". Very, very exciting. Thinking out loud here: wouldn't an iMac that doubles as a display pair nicely with a tablet with DisplayPort out? There's got to be some fun to be had there, right? "How could you falter / when you're the Rock of Gibralter? / I had to get off the boat so I could walk on water. / This ain't no tall order. / This is nothing to me. / Difficult takes a day. / Impossible takes a week." |
quote |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Dallas
|
|
quote |
Formerly Roboman, still
awesome Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
|
Quote:
But who knows what's going on inside the new iMacs? The video mentions how the extra width allows them to keep the GPU and CPU further apart, and I'm still not sure if the 27-incher is using honest-to-goodness desktop processors now. It would have been nice (external drives kinda ruin the clean look) but it's not like it's a huge deal, to me. I think being able to upgrade the RAM is more important, since it's not like you can have external RAM. and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong |
|
quote |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Dallas
|
Quote:
I was really just wondering how you got access to the internals at all. I thought on the outgoing model that you just popped off the black plastic back and went about your business. On these, the thing looks solid and I can't see a seam. I know the glass is just held in with magnets or something, so I guess that's how you gain access now. I'll just have to wait and see I guess. It's the thing I like most about the current Apple line-up. The inside is arguably more beautiful than the exterior. |
|
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Melbourne
|
Quote:
|
|
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Ottawa, ON
|
Quote:
When there's an eel in the lake that's as long as a snake that's a moray. |
|
quote |
¡Damned!
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
|
The iMac still uses laptop RAM, right? I'm 99% sure it does, but I'd like to be 100%.
Reason is I'm upgrading the RAM in the little MBP to 4GB, and thought I'd take the 2 1GB sticks and put them in the iMac. At least for a bit. I won't blows it up, will I? So it goes. |
quote |
ಠ_ರೃ
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
|
It says it uses DDR3-1066 SO-DIMMs, so yes, it does use laptop RAM.
|
quote |
¡Damned!
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
|
Awesome. Thanks.
That should give both machines a little boost until the 4GB sticks come down in price. |
quote |
Banging the Bottom End
Join Date: Jun 2004
|
I don't see why not, unless Apple causes the internal computer to shut off when used simply as a display for energy conservation purposes. Of course, I could see people hacking OS X so they could keep folding in the background or run a server or something.
|
quote |
Mr. Vieira
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
|
You've come a long way, baby!
Something I like to do, for giggles, every now and then...compare the "what was" to the latest "what is". In this case, the original Bondi iMac to the entry-level ($1,199) model announced yesterday. I had to piece some of the older info together from MacTracker, Everymac.com so every little spec might not be exact/perfect, but I think I'm 99% there). Anyway, check it out (provided for no other reason than general interest and a "wow!" smile): Quite the progression! And a $100 price drop. Last edited by psmith2.0 : 2009-10-21 at 13:54. |
quote |
¡Damned!
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
|
Quote:
|
|
quote |
Selfish Heathen
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
|
Nicely done, Paul. That's a great way of showing what a decade of progress looks like.
|
quote |
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472 Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
|
Forgive me if I missed this up the thread, but does the chipset do better with triple channel memory access over just having more RAM? I thought I read somewhere that DDR3 is fastest in triples rather than evens.
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.” Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it. |
quote |
ಠ_ರೃ
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
|
Quote:
Perhaps DDR3 is the only type of RAM capable of triple-channel, but I'm not sure. It doesn't really matter since every triple-channel capable motherboard uses DDR3. But there are a lot of dual-channel motherboards that use DDR3. |
|
quote |
¡Damned!
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
|
|
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2004
|
This somewhat relates to an interesting dilemma across most of Apple's current line-up -- their connectivity is generally up-to-date, but 2010 will be a big year in peripheral connectivity and most of the current crop of machines have no upgrade path for USB3, FW S3200, eSATA. The later two probably don't matter much, USB 2.0 has been eating FW400/800's lunch in the consumer space, and eSATA is not really a consumer solution, nor is it for anything other than storage whereas the other two have storage as well as audio, video, and peripheral connectivity uses. FW S3200 is spec'd to use all the same connections as FW800, and devices should be backwards compatible, at the lower speed.
USB3 is due on new machines and devices starting in early 2010, exactly ten years after the introduction of USB2, and while USB2 seems fast enough for many things today, storage and data streaming requirements will only grow. Moving images off my D300 already takes longer than I'd like, and 600x UDMA cards are now on the market that fully saturate even FW800. My next camera won't have smaller files and at the rate files sizes are growing, we'll need 1200-1500X cards just to keep the same pace... USB 3 is just in time. It offers very cheap, very fast connectivity in what will surely be a universal standard for consumers and the industry generally. Apple itself will likely be among the very first to adopt it sometime next year, but until then there's a problem for anyone who owns less than a Mac Pro or 17" Macbook Pro... So back to the SD Card. SD doesn't look the choice of professional cameras or video, at least not until the XC spec arrives. Wouldn't it be more useful to provide an ExpressCard slot? Of course if they are going to use SD cards, then let's have them on everything (in addition to Expresscard, or when it arrives, USB3) It could be a useful way to distribute software and share files. Plug in the card and it just works... ......................................... |
quote |
Member
Join Date: Apr 2005
|
Quote:
|
|
quote |
Posting Rules | Navigation |
Page 3 of 11 Previous 1 2 [3] 4 5 6 7 Next Last |
Thread Tools | |
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Late '09 MacBook | chucker | Apple Products | 183 | 2009-11-19 16:08 |
XCode 2.4 is out... (late!) | scratt | Programmer's Nook | 13 | 2006-08-15 12:51 |
RAM for iBook G3 (late 2001) | lawrencelry | Third-Party Products | 0 | 2006-08-02 05:24 |
It is a bit too late for freescale! | Quagmire | General Discussion | 6 | 2005-06-21 17:02 |