Man, how many more times is this going to be brought up?
If you think this is the first desktop Mac with a 5400rpm drive, think again.
This is nothing new.
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Teardown of New 21.5-inch iMac Reveals Glued Down LCD and Dual Microphones
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Man, how many more times is this going to be brought up?
If you think this is the first desktop Mac with a 5400rpm drive, think again.
This is nothing new.
As if.
Apple is killing off everything that has any ability to work on it so they can make more money repairing it for $$$$$$$$$$$$$prices and force you to live life on iTunes and pay them more money.
Apple is now the IBM of "1984"
The Samsung ads are funny because they are true.
How do you know that? Did you take an exhaustive survey?
Wait, I think I have a clue.
"I certainly don't, therefore all users don't."
So much computing power at the fingertips,
wasted on a total absence of logic.
Yes and pixie dust and a rainbow help too.
Apple is killing off the Mac piece by piece.
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People may not personally open them, but they want to have the ABILITY to have it done without magic and paying Apple only $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Lot's of custom stuff, and custom fab process, on the new iMac. It hurts to see they're investing such a lot of money on such a custom machine, which reduces margins... will it be profitable? After how many units sold?
On the other hand, if they had put a discrete GPU option on the Mac Mini, they'd get a lot of income, and with higher margins because you can price it as high as you wish, and you don't have weird fab processes like with this new iMac.
I'm holding my purchase, because Apple offers the specs I want on laptops only, and I want a desktop.
On the other hand, if they had put a discrete GPU option on the Mac Mini, they'd get a lot of income, and with higher margins because you can price it as high as you wish, and you don't have weird fab processes like with this new iMac.
I'm holding my purchase, because Apple offers the specs I want on laptops only, and I want a desktop.
Do you supplement that SSD with an eternal drive for media?
I've got 500 gigs in my laptop, with an external 1 TB drive, and I find that to be limiting at this point. I'm not sure that I could live with 256G in a desktop.
Could you use some sort of hybrid SSD/HD setup inside the iMac?
See, harddrives are the one part of your computer most likely to fail. Back in the good ole days, all it took to replace one was running over to a shop somewhere, buying one, and spending 10 minutes replacing it.
Now? I have to track down an Apple certified store, pay them money for the repair (if I don't have Applecare), and probably leave it there for a day or two for them to get to it.
Sometimes you have no choice but to deal with your computer. When that day comes, you want it to be as simple as possible to do so. Who cares if the "average user" doesn't want to or know how to mess with it. I do. What could be a a few hours problem is now a few days of one simply because Sir Jony Ives can't stand seams.
Man, I'm getting so damn tired of these lame "the average user..." arguments. Hell, why don't we make everything non-servicable? The average person doesn't know how to work on a car. Lets weld the hoods shut and make them spend $1000 because we have to pull the engine block out to replace a spark plug! The average person doesn't want to deal with batteries! Lets sell flashlights without a way to replace them! When they die, you throw them away and buy another! Lets make everything so it's just one button you click to pay more money to the company you're buying your products from! Don't want to make it too hard for the average consumer, do we? No. But we all sure like taking their money!
If Apple wants to be the stuarts of the planet like they try to be they'd chose to make devices that are upgradeable for the future rather than devices that are basically "throw away". A device that's recyclable is one thing, a device that doesn't need to be recycled is even better. Apple is all about profit and is an evil empire.
Yep. Apple's target audience isn't the type to try such repairs and frankly given the muck up many make that Apple then refuses to fix (that machine ever under TC the customer never bothered to read), resulting in other issues for store staff etc. Well one can't blame them for locking folks out as much as possible
I really don't understand why they make it so hard to replace the hard drive or add RAM. These are basic operations that could extend the life of the computer.
Notice I'm leaving aside the cynical possibility that they want you to pay through the nose for said upgrades from Apple themselves.
I think that Apple has found that the vast majority of people in their sweet spot demographic rarely or never upgrade. A big chunk of those folks would buy a better computer if, as and when needed rather than have major parts replaced.
Some proportion of the folks who WOULD upgrade could also be turned to buy a new computer when needed. That leaves some portion of the target market who will decide not to buy another Mac because they can't easily upgrade it. I guess that the profit represented by such people is small in comparison to the profits generated by sales of more powerful new machines.
Wow, so the 21.5" version doesn't get the easy access door on the back for replacing the RAM like the 27" version? That's rather lame.
But anyways, I don't like all-in-one's all that much. Had the original Intel iMac and didn't really like it after awhile, hence my Mac Pro I got now.
But anyways, I don't like all-in-one's all that much. Had the original Intel iMac and didn't really like it after awhile, hence my Mac Pro I got now.
With the target audience, especially for the 21.5, not really. They use what they have until it falls apart then by a new one. Some of these folks will be replacing iBooks and PowerMac g4 towers with this machine.
You bash a company for selling Torx screwdrivers, then praise another for making it hard to access usually easy to access stuff so they can gouge you at their own stores for normally simple repairs?
I mean I can understand things being difficult due to the size and shape of the machine. They're not towers. They're more difficult to work in. But we're not talking about replacing a PSU here, or a logic board. We're talking about harddrives and ram. All they need is an opening and easy access to replace.
Yeah but how many people actually have the experience and desire to tear apart their $1300 desktop like that to just replace hd and ram? Will this void the warranty? Not sure how anyone could say this design choice by Apple is innovative. Maybe for Apple.
To be fair, the responses in this thread show both sides in the extreme - yes on your point above, but also we're seeing a lot of this - "I like to repair my machines, now I can't (very easily) and as such, everyone should care, Apple sucks, everything's an epic fail and if you don't agree, you're just a fanboi".
Personally, I'd love to be able to get to both the HD and RAM in a reasonably straight-forward fashion because aftermarket RAM is cheaper, sometimes substantially, and hard drives fail. As has already been pointed out, it's highly unlikely, however, that Apple will go back to the old ways. That means people will need to make a decision on what is important and go with it.
I used to build my own high-end machines when we had Windows at my house. Turned out I spent a lot of time and $$$ keeping those machines up-to-date with the ever-changing world of graphics/CPU/MB changes, power supplies, monitors, drives. I spent at least as much money doing that as swapping out our Mac Book Pros every few years plus, quite frankly, too much time dicking around with the hardware. Computers to me now are useful tools that I don't want to think about too much - life's too short.
That said, being able to swap out the HD or RAM without being a contortion specialist would be nice.
Well for one, removing the air gap between LCD and glass reduces reflection.
Also if it turns out that the flatter layout allows for better heat dissipation, reducing the need for noisy fans (which as a moving part can break and damage machine due to heat buildup etc), that's not a bad thing. And I suspect that is where they're going with this design
This machine wasn't designed for power users but for the 99.9% percent that aren't
I don't think upgradeability is important for most users. For example, I don't care about upgrading a machine (upgrading is never efficient: when you upgrade to more RAM, more HD, or new CPU, you're investing money on an old machine, with the hope it will be as fast as brand new... but it continues being outdated and slow, no matter how you upgrade). For these reasons, I prefer to buy top-configured machines, so that they last as much as possible, and when they die or become unusable, I prefer to get a new one.
I believe complaints don't come from the lack of upgradeability, but actually from the fact that Apple is failing to meet the config the average user wants.
The average user wants a computer with good CPU and good GPU, and with the possibility of getting it without a display (because most users have at least a good display at home already).
Apple decided to cripple the Mac Mini by putting Intel graphics on it.
Then they make the only useful configuration into an iMac, which can't be bought without the display, and looks too delicate because of its thinness.
It's shocking, but the only way of getting a good Mac desktop today is to buy a Macbook Pro and use it on clamshell mode... and of course it won't be perfect because a laptop doesn't have good heat dissipation when doing heavy computing or when playing games.
Is it so difficult to put the Macbook Pro internals on a (as beautiful as you wish) desktop box with good heat dissipation?
Doesn't Apple realize such a desktop would sell in big amounts?
Shocking how Apple is missing the point.
Yes. The American car industry is a perfect example of high quality, proudly American made products.
/sarcasm
Most common doesn't equal that folks are doing them in droves. Just that they are top of the list among the minority that would selfupgrade
I'm of the same opinion. I used to love messing around with computers, but these days I want it to be as close to fire and forget as I can get. It's one of the reasons why I want an iMac.
But sometimes you have no other choice. Computers are computers now matter how nice the case or smooth the operating system. They could last 6 years without a problem, or screw up 4 HDDs in a row over the course of 3 months because they feel like it.
When the latter happens, I like to think I can easily fix it myself for $80 and one trip to a store rather than $280 and and two trips.
Tape will fail
How about the tape failing after time... Monitors crashing on desktops everywhere. Only a matter of time imo....
How about the tape failing after time... Monitors crashing on desktops everywhere. Only a matter of time imo....