Well I'm one of the lucky few who have already received their 27" iMac pre-orders and I'd like to share my thoughts and experience with this product.
I've been a Mac user since high school where I used my first iMac (the transparent bubble as I like to call it) and then later in college with the Mac Pro's. Shortly after college I purchased my first mac, a refurbished 15" MacBook Pro top of the line.
Well, after many years of use, the 2007 model finally died this year. Ironically enough two months after I upgraded the HDD to an SSD and the ram to its max potential and I also added a secondary hard drive by omitting the superdrive. And surprisingly enough I was more than content with its performance up until the logic board crapped out on me.
Now I was deciding between what to get next. I quickly jumped on the new release of the MacBook Pro 15" Retina display with maxed specs in October. A slight disappointment as I found the HD4000 graphics to be somewhat laggy with the interface. The screen also had a great deal of image retention. But I wont get into much more. I returned it within my 14 days.
I then purchased a 2012 mac mini which was also fully spec'ed out. To my surprise it was pretty good. Except it sounded like a jet plane was about to take off whenever we watched a video (HD or non-HD) and whenever I played Counter-Strike: GO. Speaking of Counter-Strike, I could only manage the lowest settings to get an enjoyable smooth experience and even then it struggled getting 28-40 frames per second. Also to my surprise, the HD4000 does not provide the smoothest user interface experience as well. But that could be a driver or hardware issue.
![1.jpg]()
But I knew this going into integrated graphics. I just needed a computer in the meantime while i awaited for the 27" iMac, which we were all waiting for.
Luckily I wake up around 5AM for work everyday and I was lucky enough to get on the first pre orders and with that I made sure I was getting the best system I could get.
![2.jpg]()
Also there were some good incentives to buying the iMac. As an Airmiles Card Holder, they were having 25x the airmiles event. Now anyone who has an Airmiles Card knows how it can take a while to accumulate points. So this deal was just too good to pass.
My configuration:
3.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
32GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM-4x8GB
3TB Fusion Drive
NVIDIAGeFrc GTX 680MX 2G GDDR5
AppleCare
Magic Mouse + Trackpad + Wireless Keyboard
I had a few phone calls with Apple Representatives and was able to save an additional $50.00 CDN and also got a Super Drive added free of charge and my order upgraded to Expedited Shipping. And boy did that pay off as the iMac came in last night.
And with that, I present to you my 27” iMac sitting perfectly on the table.
![3.jpg]()
![4.jpg]()
![5.jpg]()
![7.jpg]()
On the table surrounding this beautiful piece of art are M-Audio’s BX5 D2’s, Apogee Duet 2, Audio Technica’s M50’s the wireless Keyboard and Apple Magic Mouse, Apple Super Drive and Razer’s Mamba mouse.
![6.jpg]()
I’ll give you my thought’s on the 27” iMac. It’s flawless, no damages, no screen issues but I have a few things I noticed about the screen. It is a bit more yellowish than the Thunderbolt Display - but its not an issue, just needs a calibration. The colors are more vivid. Apples obviously does not want to do away with glass. Since most of their products are made of metal and glass, this just falls into their design specs. And rightfully so, they are the two best pieces of material to use because of durability and longevity. But nothings perfect, as we know and I know, the Thunderbolt display was very reflective. This new display certainly improves on that one issue many of us had. Unfortunately it does not eliminate it, nor do I think it will ever because glass always has a reflectiveness to it. But laminating the LCD to the glass removed a good chunk of unwanted reflection. I’m much more content with the screen. Also, I prefered the height of the Thunderbolt display. As I sit in my chair at the lowest setting I felt the screen was at eye level. With the iMac, I must raise the chair up a bit. No big deal. And if you guys are wondering, I prefer no chin, but since the keynote we know that is their trademark for the iMac and will live on.
I don’t really notice a difference between the processor speed and power from the mac Mini, and I doubt I will anytime soon. Both are close in results and realistically I haven’t used it to its full potential and therefore I shouldn’t say much more.
The Graphics is where I noticed a huge difference. Now I’m not a hardcore gamer by any means. I play Counter-Strike: GO. Thats about it. On the Mac mini I was averaging 28-40fps on the lowest settings. On this, FPS is over 120. Now this isn’t really pushing this card to its limits but it serves my purpose great and should support future releases which I’m comfortable with. But I must say I have encountered an issue. When the game is loading, the computer has crashed and restarted with a white screen saying the computer has restarted due to an issue.
The fusion drive is quiet. I do not hear a thing. Mostly because its running mostly the OS on the SSD. But the hard drive will spin up every now and then when I’m accessing my huge music library or going through RAW photos. Although it spins, the sound is very faint and most of the time, I don’t even hear it unless I pay attention to it. Unlike my old Macbook Pro.
Anyways, on to the test results. I basically conducted three tests: Geekbench, Blackmagic Disk Speed Test and Cinebench.
![Geekbench.png]()
![GeekbenchGlobal.png]()
![Speedtest.png]()
![Cinebench.png]()
![Novabench.png]()
I Hope you guys enjoyed this and those awaiting your iMacs, I hope your all just as happy as I am.
I've been a Mac user since high school where I used my first iMac (the transparent bubble as I like to call it) and then later in college with the Mac Pro's. Shortly after college I purchased my first mac, a refurbished 15" MacBook Pro top of the line.
Well, after many years of use, the 2007 model finally died this year. Ironically enough two months after I upgraded the HDD to an SSD and the ram to its max potential and I also added a secondary hard drive by omitting the superdrive. And surprisingly enough I was more than content with its performance up until the logic board crapped out on me.
Now I was deciding between what to get next. I quickly jumped on the new release of the MacBook Pro 15" Retina display with maxed specs in October. A slight disappointment as I found the HD4000 graphics to be somewhat laggy with the interface. The screen also had a great deal of image retention. But I wont get into much more. I returned it within my 14 days.
I then purchased a 2012 mac mini which was also fully spec'ed out. To my surprise it was pretty good. Except it sounded like a jet plane was about to take off whenever we watched a video (HD or non-HD) and whenever I played Counter-Strike: GO. Speaking of Counter-Strike, I could only manage the lowest settings to get an enjoyable smooth experience and even then it struggled getting 28-40 frames per second. Also to my surprise, the HD4000 does not provide the smoothest user interface experience as well. But that could be a driver or hardware issue.
But I knew this going into integrated graphics. I just needed a computer in the meantime while i awaited for the 27" iMac, which we were all waiting for.
Luckily I wake up around 5AM for work everyday and I was lucky enough to get on the first pre orders and with that I made sure I was getting the best system I could get.
Also there were some good incentives to buying the iMac. As an Airmiles Card Holder, they were having 25x the airmiles event. Now anyone who has an Airmiles Card knows how it can take a while to accumulate points. So this deal was just too good to pass.
My configuration:
3.4GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
32GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM-4x8GB
3TB Fusion Drive
NVIDIAGeFrc GTX 680MX 2G GDDR5
AppleCare
Magic Mouse + Trackpad + Wireless Keyboard
I had a few phone calls with Apple Representatives and was able to save an additional $50.00 CDN and also got a Super Drive added free of charge and my order upgraded to Expedited Shipping. And boy did that pay off as the iMac came in last night.
And with that, I present to you my 27” iMac sitting perfectly on the table.
On the table surrounding this beautiful piece of art are M-Audio’s BX5 D2’s, Apogee Duet 2, Audio Technica’s M50’s the wireless Keyboard and Apple Magic Mouse, Apple Super Drive and Razer’s Mamba mouse.
I’ll give you my thought’s on the 27” iMac. It’s flawless, no damages, no screen issues but I have a few things I noticed about the screen. It is a bit more yellowish than the Thunderbolt Display - but its not an issue, just needs a calibration. The colors are more vivid. Apples obviously does not want to do away with glass. Since most of their products are made of metal and glass, this just falls into their design specs. And rightfully so, they are the two best pieces of material to use because of durability and longevity. But nothings perfect, as we know and I know, the Thunderbolt display was very reflective. This new display certainly improves on that one issue many of us had. Unfortunately it does not eliminate it, nor do I think it will ever because glass always has a reflectiveness to it. But laminating the LCD to the glass removed a good chunk of unwanted reflection. I’m much more content with the screen. Also, I prefered the height of the Thunderbolt display. As I sit in my chair at the lowest setting I felt the screen was at eye level. With the iMac, I must raise the chair up a bit. No big deal. And if you guys are wondering, I prefer no chin, but since the keynote we know that is their trademark for the iMac and will live on.
I don’t really notice a difference between the processor speed and power from the mac Mini, and I doubt I will anytime soon. Both are close in results and realistically I haven’t used it to its full potential and therefore I shouldn’t say much more.
The Graphics is where I noticed a huge difference. Now I’m not a hardcore gamer by any means. I play Counter-Strike: GO. Thats about it. On the Mac mini I was averaging 28-40fps on the lowest settings. On this, FPS is over 120. Now this isn’t really pushing this card to its limits but it serves my purpose great and should support future releases which I’m comfortable with. But I must say I have encountered an issue. When the game is loading, the computer has crashed and restarted with a white screen saying the computer has restarted due to an issue.
The fusion drive is quiet. I do not hear a thing. Mostly because its running mostly the OS on the SSD. But the hard drive will spin up every now and then when I’m accessing my huge music library or going through RAW photos. Although it spins, the sound is very faint and most of the time, I don’t even hear it unless I pay attention to it. Unlike my old Macbook Pro.
Anyways, on to the test results. I basically conducted three tests: Geekbench, Blackmagic Disk Speed Test and Cinebench.
I Hope you guys enjoyed this and those awaiting your iMacs, I hope your all just as happy as I am.
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