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Mac Mini or MacBook Pro + external monitor

Hieveryone

Hieveryone

macrumors 603
Original poster
Apr 11, 2014
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My question is, what made you decide to buy an iMac over maybe a Mac Mini or MacBook Pro with an external monitor?

I bought a MacBook Pro recently which I use with an external monitor.

The good thing is that the external monitor can be used with future Macs.

I was wondering what the benefit was to buying an iMac.
 
Y

yjchua95

macrumors 604
Apr 23, 2011
6,725
233
GVA, KUL, MEL (current), ZQN
Hieveryone said:
My question is, what made you decide to buy an iMac over maybe a Mac Mini or MacBook Pro with an external monitor?

I bought a MacBook Pro recently which I use with an external monitor.

The good thing is that the external monitor can be used with future Macs.

I was wondering what the benefit was to buying an iMac.
Click to expand...

Although my 15" rMBP (2.6GHz, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD and 2GB GT750M) is pretty powerful, it heats up pretty quickly when doing intensive tasks. When on an iMac (both my 21.5" and 27"), they run silently even when doing heavy tasks (rendering, video editing).

In terms of raw power, the rMBP may be on par with the iMacs but when it comes to thermal management and throttling, the iMacs are way more efficient.
 
Hieveryone

Hieveryone

macrumors 603
Original poster
Apr 11, 2014
5,622
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USA
yjchua95 said:
Although my 15" rMBP (2.6GHz, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD and 2GB GT750M) is pretty powerful, it heats up pretty quickly when doing intensive tasks. When on an iMac (both my 21.5" and 27"), they run silently even when doing heavy tasks (rendering, video editing).

In terms of raw power, the rMBP may be on par with the iMacs but when it comes to thermal management and throttling, the iMacs are way more efficient.
Click to expand...


I got it. So the iMac is definitely a better desktop in that sense. Excuse my ignorance, but what does throttling mean? Is that like bottleneck i.e. having an awesome processor but only 4GB ram?
 
Y

yjchua95

macrumors 604
Apr 23, 2011
6,725
233
GVA, KUL, MEL (current), ZQN
Hieveryone said:
I got it. So the iMac is definitely a better desktop in that sense. Excuse my ignorance, but what does throttling mean? Is that like bottleneck i.e. having an awesome processor but only 4GB ram?
Click to expand...

Throttling means that when a component (such as the CPU or GPU) reaches a high temperature (probably above 99°C), the component will throttle itself to a lower performance (i.e. 75% or 50% of max performance) until the temperature drops below the throttling point.

The iMacs rarely reach throttling point even under heavy loads. The RMBP reaches throttling point pretty fast (can be in around 10 minutes to half an hour), unless you've a cooling pad to cool it and stop it from reaching throttling point (but it'll probably only delay the throttling point by 10-20 minutes or so).
 
Hieveryone

Hieveryone

macrumors 603
Original poster
Apr 11, 2014
5,622
2,337
USA
yjchua95 said:
Throttling means that when a component (such as the CPU or GPU) reaches a high temperature (probably above 99°C), the component will throttle itself to a lower performance (i.e. 75% or 50% of max performance) until the temperature drops below the throttling point.

The iMacs rarely reach throttling point even under heavy loads. The RMBP reaches throttling point pretty fast (can be in around 10 minutes to half an hour), unless you've a cooling pad to cool it and stop it from reaching throttling point (but it'll probably only delay the throttling point by 10-20 minutes or so).
Click to expand...

Wow! Thanks. I had no idea about this. I never knew the CPU adjusts like that when it gets hot. I guess you learn something new everyday.

I see now why someone would want an iMac if they're looking for a desktop as opposed to just using the MBPr as one. Thanks again.
 
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