Build-to-Order Pricing for New iMac Models Revealed

Ha! I love all the complaining and whining. It happens on here with the introduction of EVERY new iMac—so many hate this or that. Fast forward a few weeks when there in short supply, most everyone is clamoring to get one then obsessively checking for shipping notifications and tracking delivery flights from China.

jdegid said:

Holy schnikes! $2,568 for the configuration I want without tax??? Plus I need to upgrade the ram later? WTF man I can have like two and a half really nice PC's for that.

Ugg... I'm rethinking my whole idea of switching to Apple.

how am I supposed to get the wife on board for a $3,000 desktop?

I'm dying over here

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The easiest way to compare is to remember that the imac includes a 27" display (typically $700-1000 for a comparable stand-alone model). If you don't need or dont want the large display, then the imac becomes a pricy proposition.

If you subtract out the cost of the display, you're left with a very competitive base package. Core i5, GTX 680, SSD+HDD, etc. for around $1600

can someone please tell me if the hard drive is upgradable by user? i want to order the 27" imac on day 1, but dont want to pay $1300 for that stupid ssd if i can buy one and install it myself.

elvetio said:

200 for the RAM.. give me a break

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Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat Bar!

I'm planning to buy a maxed out 27" model. But I'm leaving the ram as low as possible. There's no way I'm paying the Apple prices for RAM.

jddar said:

Ha! I love all the complaining and whining. It happens on here with the introduction of EVERY new iMac—so many hate this or that. Fast forward a few weeks when there in short supply, most everyone is clamoring to get one then obsessively checking for shipping notifications and tracking delivery flights from China.

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Hi Tim.

topmounter said:

The amount of "shock", "outrage" and general grousing about Apple's pricing and configuration options just goes to show how much their market has broadened since "the good old days"

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Yeah but they where running motorolas 30-pin sim and where exclusive for the mac. (i dont remember if you could push in whatever you want, as I remember the voltage didnt match)

Now, its just whatever module they get their hands on. I bet they charge the same in %.

DIMEZ said:

i really want to know if we can get into this thing before i purchase.

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No they TIG weld the aluminum case shut after assemby is finished.

Robdon771 said:

thanks for the help. I know that everything helps. But to a newb like me, it's all just numbers at some point. I would have picked the extra ram not knowing the difference. thanks. Looks like itll be a fusion drive then!

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I also agree with everyone - fusion drive definitely looks like the best option for you.

I'm just sad fusion not standard across the new iMac line, that would be awesome. Especially because in countries like mine, where Apple is not yet directly present (only resellers), non-default configurations are very complicated to purchase.

jddar said:

Ha! I love all the complaining and whining. It happens on here with the introduction of EVERY new iMac—so many hate this or that. Fast forward a few weeks when there in short supply, most everyone is clamoring to get one then obsessively checking for shipping notifications and tracking delivery flights from China.

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Until the next product release and then people whine and complain all over again. If people think their stuff is underpowered, over priced and not customizable enough quit buying it. The best way to send Apple a message is to not buy their stuff.

what's the best option for an external drive?

I'm going to need a dvd burner and cd rom for work. Should I go with the superdrive? Is it worth the $? Or is there another option that will work fine with my new iMac?

thanks for the help

I was thinking about buying new iMac, I am fed up with my current one without SSD, but seeing upgrade options, I will skip this, apple is heading somewhere I dont like it...

derbothaus said:

No one knows yet. I have not seen anything of substance as they have not shipped yet and no one else is using a 680mx. 680m's are close to desktop GTX480. OK. But this is Apples consumer desktop it should at least be at desktop GTX660/670 and it won't be. Especially having a 27" screen. Still scrapping by. I AM impressed that they even got to GTX480 actually. Apple does not care about GPU performance. Just enough to get the job done.

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The 680MX is a full desktop 680 part, but with lower clocks/better power management. What more do you want?!

Arghh.... why the butt-raping?

Why 5400rpm drives on the 21-inch model? Heat dissipation when compared to the 27" one shouldn't be that much worse to not be able to compensate for the extra ~10°F that a faster drive will generate. That's just sh__ty on their part, since it seems that they're only purposely crippling the performance of the cheaper model, only to get you to buy the more expensive one.

Same with the price of the RAM: $600 is just usurious. Apple computers are a bit pickier when it comes to RAM (i.e., you can't usually expect cheapie, generic modules to work reliably), but their OEM memory is nothing special. Good-quality, system-specific RAM from Kingston, OCZ, etc will work reliably and for a fraction of the price.

And as far as the drive upgrades, one could only expect these systems to have the same issue as the previous two generations when it comes to the HDD temp sensor, but I'm willing to put up with the noise (and/or a software solution to control fan speed) if it means not having to live with a slow 5400rpm drive, or not having to pay $250+ for a Fusion Drive configuration (which can be replicated without a ton of effort, it seems). Specially true on the 21" model, which one can "only" upgrade to a 1TB Fusion drive. If the computer can fit a 1TB 3.5" HDD, it should be able to fit any 3.5" HDD (SATA interface limitations don't come into play until a magnitude of storage sizes later). Same concept applies to the second port for the SSD: while there might not be a bracket to hold a drive in place unless you order a Fusion Drive option, the port should at least be there and be usable. Will have to wait and see.

For the time being, I don't think I'll be ordering any customizations, other than maybe a CPU bump.

Now i guess we now wait for the imac yellow screens,black out's and snow (via new mini's) ect.

TennisandMusic said:

600 dollars for 32gb of ram in the 27" is just plain evil. Why? Because anyone that pays it doesn't know any better, and Apple is perfectly willing to exploit those people. I just bought 32gb of ram for 150 dollars...

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Come on, its not like the old ladies etc. will want or buy 32gb mem. These prices are for the big companies who dont care about the price.

I wouldn't mind $250 extra for the fusion drive combo...but I hate how they force you onto the more expensive model.

i hope they pull something similar like they did with the retina mbp and open up more configs. the storage options make no sense. slow mechanical drive or fusion or giant ssd.....

jdegid said:

$2,568 for the configuration I want without tax???

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We got an original IBM PC at launch for that price: 0.00477GHz, 320x200x4 graphics, 0.000016GB RAM, 0.00016GB storage. Bandwidth measured in feet per second. Monitor not included.

31 years later, for the same price we're getting something 2800x faster, 345x pixels & color depth, 1,000,000x more memory, and 6,250,000x greater storage. Incomparable bandwidth. Everything included in monitor.

Never mind that the value of a dollar has dropped to 1/3rd in the meantime.

Now get off my lawn.

Apple should be embarrassed that SSDs aren't standard. Shiny new computer + spinning HD = a computer that feels like it's 3+ years old the day you get it.

I contemplated buying the new 27" iMac, but I have decided I will stick with my current MacBook Pro 13" + Thunderbolt Display setup for now. Hopefully, by the time Haswell models come out, the base configurations will be more reasonable.

BTW, RAM and SSD prices are so ridiculous it borders on Apple spitting in the face of their customers.

JordanNZ said:

The 680MX is a full desktop 680 part, but with lower clocks/better power management. What more do you want?!

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Agreed. If the concern is gaming, you're looking at the wrong machine. A decent gaming PC will cost half of the base model iMac. And an Xbox 720 (or "Infinity" or whatever its name will be) will cost even half of that.

6ftunder said:

does the whining ever stop around here? :/

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Never does.

Everybody knows how to run Apple better than Apple. If you don't like what they do, don't buy their products. Simple.

This is highway robbery like I've never seen before.

Apple has traditionally excelled at providing a great balance of form and function, but it seems they are increasingly focusing on form at the cost of function and charging outrageous prices for a user to re-balance the "function" side.

I shouldn't have to shell out $200 for a RAM upgrade just to future-proof myself. And $250 for the Fusion Drive upgrade? It only cost $30 to upgrade to a hybrid solution when I got my HP (includes 32GB of SSD using Intel's tech, which is no worse than Apple's solution IMO except for perhaps the fact that Apple gives a bit more SSD space - still not worth that price premium).

I know I personally have switched back to Windows 7 for my personal usage because I simply can't afford this kind of highway robbery that Apple is doing, not to mention that they are simply no longer in line with my desire of a balance of form and function. I shudder at the idea of having to convert the entire household to Windows, so I hope consumers force Apple back to sanity soon.

CoolSpot said:

The easiest way to compare is to remember that the imac includes a 27" display (typically $700-1000 for a comparable stand-alone model). If you don't need or dont want the large display, then the imac becomes a pricy proposition.

If you subtract out the cost of the display, you're left with a very competitive base package. Core i5, GTX 680, SSD+HDD, etc. for around $1600

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Get with the times. IPS 27" monitors are very cheap nowadays. For example, AOC I2757FH costs just $270 at Best Buy. It probably uses the same IPS panel as the iMacs (they all use the same LG panel). It's probably not as good as iMac's display but then iMac's display is not the best either. It's probably good enough for most people (not everyone edits photos for money).

GTX 680 ($450) + i5 ($180) + SSD ($300) + HDD (free) = about $950.

CoolSpot said:

The easiest way to compare is to remember that the imac includes a 27" display (typically $700-1000 for a comparable stand-alone model). If you don't need or dont want the large display, then the imac becomes a pricy proposition.

If you subtract out the cost of the display, you're left with a very competitive base package. Core i5, GTX 680, SSD+HDD, etc. for around $1600

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I am sorry but thats not true. I just made a:

i5 3570k (+liquid cooled intel cooler)
asus p8z77
GTX680
16gb DDR3 1600mhz
OCZ PCI-e 120gb SSD
Coolermaster AL chassis + 600w psu.

It came down to 1200$, including shippment.

Then add another 803$ for a dell 27" ISP 2560x1440.

We are missing a harddrive tho, but you can buy that from apple for the rest of the money