Glad I got a 2011 iMac, rather than a 2012

HenryDJP · Jan 19, 2013

smoking monkey said:
Take it easy, buddy. Proof? Try google. There was a known problem with the Superdrives around 2009 as well.

And once again, another poster talking down the 2012 who also just happens to own a 2011... The pattern is amusing

You're the one that needs to calm down. You're talking rudely to people here. I also had a 2009 iMac that was replaced by my now 2011 iMac and guess what, the 2009 I had for 3 years had zero problems with the ODD. If you need to tell people to use Google then you're full of it because you can't even back up your own nonsense statements.

Uh, you need to read posts properly, I never once talked down the 2012 iMac but it seems like you're feeling the need to defend your recent purchase because let's face it, while the 2012 iMac is certainly a nice machine there's nothing groundbreaking about it. You sound like you're one of the more recent switchers to Mac. I've been on Mac exclusively since OS 8 so I know when I see Apple doing something seriously groundbreaking and the 2012 iMac just isn't.

I always keep the most recent Macs but why should I give up my 2011 iMac for the 2012? Surely you can't be so blind to the fact there's just not enough of an upgrade.

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kennyap said:
Let's be clear about this: the 2012 iMac's new design is groundbreaking. It's simply beautiful, and I don't say that very often. The improvement in the GPU offered (680MX) is a huge deal, bigger than I think you realize. That sucker is fast (for real-world application). And there are other lesser improvements (CPU, RAM speed, etc.).

Taking out the ODD gives Apple an easy opportunity to make a slimmer cabinet, an upgraded GPU is always welcome, but as you say, "it's a bigger deal than I realize?" and exactly what seriously big deal, so you can play Windows games? I like the fusion drive and of course a faster processor but at the end of the day, the new iMac is advertised for it's new slim design which puts the customer at more inconvenience since upgrades are not as easy anymore and the ODD is gone requiring legacy users of optical software to buy an external drive. I would hardly call this groundbreaking.

WilliamG · Jan 19, 2013

HenryDJP said:
You're the one that needs to calm down. You're talking rudely to people here. I also had a 2009 iMac that was replaced by my now 2011 iMac and guess what, the 2009 I had for 3 years had zero problems with the ODD. If you need to tell people to use Google then you're full of it because you can't even back up your own nonsense statements.

Easy there. I'm sure some people had SuperDrives fail. I had a 2009 iMac for 3 years with no drive failure, but it was a ridiculously slow drive at ripping DVDs to my computer, and that - for a lot of people - is a deal killer. Read up about BitLocker and how Apple drives just simply suck at ripping protected DVDs. $30 will buy you a drive that will literally read DVDs five, ten times faster? It's a big difference. I experienced it myself, and gave up using the internal drive because it quite simply sucked the big one for creating a media library. Oh well.

smoking monkey · Jan 19, 2013

HenryDJP said:
You're the one that needs to calm down. You're talking rudely to people here. I also had a 2009 iMac that was replaced by my now 2011 iMac and guess what, the 2009 I had for 3 years had zero problems with the ODD. If you need to tell people to use Google then you're full of it because you can't even back up your own nonsense statements.

Uh, you need to read posts properly, I never once talked down the 2012 iMac but it seems like you're feeling the need to defend your recent purchase because let's face it, while the 2012 iMac is certainly a nice machine there's nothing groundbreaking about it. You sound like you're one of the more recent switchers to Mac. I've been on Mac exclusively since OS 8 so I know when I see Apple doing something seriously groundbreaking and the 2012 iMac just isn't.

I always keep the most recent Macs but why should I give up my 2011 iMac for the 2012? Surely you can't be so blind to the fact there's just not enough of an upgrade.

...genius told me last summer that he will be happy when all macs are SD free. I got more but can't be arrsed.

Never said you should give up your 2011. In fact if you own an 2011 it's a great machine. You don't need the upgrade. I don't need to justify my purchase (I'm coming from a 2008!) and you don't need to justify why you didn't. But that doesn't change the fact that it is a significant upgrade. It's certainly not a spec bump now, is it?

As for you assertion I'm a newbie, perchance take a look at my sig... But really this isn't a measuring contest and that's kind of my point.

Anyway, it's all good. Enjoy the weekend.

kennyap · Jan 20, 2013

It's about improved performance/design

HenryDJP said:
Taking out the ODD gives Apple an easy opportunity to make a slimmer cabinet, an upgraded GPU is always welcome, but as you say, "it's a bigger deal than I realize?" and exactly what seriously big deal, so you can play Windows games? I like the fusion drive and of course a faster processor but at the end of the day, the new iMac is advertised for it's new slim design which puts the customer at more inconvenience since upgrades are not as easy anymore and the ODD is gone requiring legacy users of optical software to buy an external drive. I would hardly call this groundbreaking.

I would say you're the one who seems a little riled up here. I take it you aren't/can't get a 2012 iMac at this time. I also know you haven't looked at the 680MX offering. FYI, I was speaking about the speed increase and also the cuda cores in this gpu

Not game performance which is the first thing someone who doesn't wish to consider the offering would mention. As I mentioned in my last post, the 2012 iMac is a serious upgrade in performance (video/graphics) and design over the previous generation.

HenryDJP · Jan 20, 2013

WilliamG said:
Easy there. I'm sure some people had SuperDrives fail. I had a 2009 iMac for 3 years with no drive failure, but it was a ridiculously slow drive at ripping DVDs to my computer, and that - for a lot of people - is a deal killer. Read up about BitLocker and how Apple drives just simply suck at ripping protected DVDs. $30 will buy you a drive that will literally read DVDs five, ten times faster? It's a big difference. I experienced it myself, and gave up using the internal drive because it quite simply sucked the big one for creating a media library. Oh well.

Uh, easy there yourself. I never said nobody ever had issues with the Superdrives, the other poster said they were problematic widespread and he showed no proof. Gotta love MR, people here just love to fight before reading.

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kennyap said:
I would say you're the one who seems a little riled up here. I take it you aren't/can't get a 2012 iMac at this time. I also know you haven't looked at the 680MX offering. FYI, I was speaking about the speed increase and also the cuda cores in this gpu Not game performance which is the first thing someone who doesn't wish to consider the offering would mention. As I mentioned in my last post, the 2012 iMac is a serious upgrade in performance (video/graphics) and design over the previous generation.

If I'm riled up for any reason it's because of 2 things here. The OP said he was happy with getting a 2011 iMac rather than the 2012. Seems as though the 2012 iMac buyers are very defensive and can't accept the fact that not everybody sees the latest model as a serious upgrade. Secondly, I hate when people come here and make blanket statements without backing them up. Instead they tell people to go Google it themselves.

.

Now to the 680MX, excellent! If that's what's going to make you a happy puppy then by all means enjoy it. Again, you can shove all the new "features" you want into the new iMac, take away the SD, make it thinner and to some that may seem like a major upgrade but to many others it's just not and people here need to respect the OP rather than saying something rude like, "Sounds like you're trying to make yourself feel better for your purchase".

WilliamG · Jan 20, 2013

HenryDJP said:
Uh, easy there yourself. I never said nobody ever had issues with the Superdrives, the other poster said they were problematic widespread and he showed no proof. Gotta love MR, people here just love to fight before reading.

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If I'm riled up for any reason it's because of 2 things here. The OP said he was happy with getting a 2011 iMac rather than the 2012. Seems as though the 2012 iMac buyers are very defensive and can't accept the fact that not everybody sees the latest model as a serious upgrade. Secondly, I hate when people come here and make blanket statements without backing them up. Instead they tell people to go Google it themselves. .

Now to the 680MX, excellent! If that's what's going to make you a happy puppy then by all means enjoy it. Again, you can shove all the new "features" you want into the new iMac, take away the SD, make it thinner and to some that may seem like a major upgrade but to many others it's just not and people here need to respect the OP rather than saying something rude like, "Sounds like you're trying to make yourself feel better for your purchase".

Absolutely people get defensive. That's how people are. Now, I personally haven't heard of any widespread issues with the SuperDrives in iMacs (I've never had one fail personally, or know of anyone else with an iMac that has, either. Mac minis are another story...), but they are crappy even when they work, because they're just soooo...slooooooow.

And hey, we haven't lost anything else really on the 2012 iMac except the optical drive. SD slot is still there!

HenryDJP · Jan 20, 2013

WilliamG said:
And hey, we haven't lost anything else really on the 2012 iMac except the optical drive. SD slot is still there!

When I said SD, I was referring the Superdrive, not the Secure Digital slot.

WilliamG · Jan 20, 2013

HenryDJP said:
When I said SD, I was referring the Superdrive, not the Secure Digital slot.

Oh yeah. Damn acronyms! DMC!!! (Driving Me Crazy!)

harcosparky · Jan 20, 2013

I was not aware they deleted the Optical drive from the iMac.

We use the optical drive on all three iMac's several times per day.

I guess the 2011's will be my last iMacs.

We save up and prepare to migrate the work over to Mac Pro's.

If I have to have external devices hanging off the back of the iMac, I might as well go the MacPro route next time around.

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WilliamG said:
Absolutely people get defensive. That's how people are. Now, I personally haven't heard of any widespread issues with the SuperDrives in iMacs (I've never had one fail personally, or know of anyone else with an iMac that has, either. Mac minis are another story...), but they are crappy even when they work, because they're just soooo...slooooooow.

And hey, we haven't lost anything else really on the 2012 iMac except the optical drive. SD slot is still there!

As stated above we use the drives several times per work day.

Never had one fail, but then maybe the regular use 'exercises' them and keeps them healthy!

fastlanephil · Jan 20, 2013

torana355 said:
The optical drive that came installed in previous iMacs and even macpros was a piece of garbage anyway, i much prefer to buy a quality external drive.

Why not? You hardly ever use them anyway. I've used my 2011 iMac optical drive about three times for loading instrument samples. Many of those are now downloads unless they are really large libraries.

The thumb drive pretty much killed the optical and cloud storage has put a stake in it's heart.

HenryDJP · Jan 20, 2013

fastlanephil said:
Why not? You hardly ever use them anyway. I've used my 2011 iMac optical drive about three times for loading instrument samples. Many of those are now downloads unless they are really large libraries.

The thumb drive pretty much killed the optical and cloud storage has put a stake in it's heart.

That's where I'm at. I don't get this whole thing about the Superdrive being slow. Yeah, sure, external drives burn and transfer files faster but I use mine to play my Sims 3 DVD and for occasionally installing software that is still on optical disk. Sometimes family members need me to burn DVD's of software applications for them but other than that I use a thumb drive to back up files. I can't see dropping more money for an external drive unless it's going to be used extensively and speed is of a necessity. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? (referring to the 2011 iMac's SD) But that's not the issue here, someone here was saying (without proof) that the ODD's are having widespread problems across multiple generations of iMac.

When the Superdrive was more "popular" back in the day I use to burn DVD's 24/7. You'd swear my drives were gonna burn out but they never did. I've had a Powerbook G4, PowerMac G4, PowerMac G5, iMac Sunflower, iBook, Macbook Air Superdrive, Macbook Pro and a 24" and (2) 27" iMacs and neither have had issues with the Optical drives.

kennyap · Jan 20, 2013

HenryDJP said:
Now to the 680MX, excellent! If that's what's going to make you a happy puppy then by all means enjoy it. Again, you can shove all the new "features" you want into the new iMac, take away the SD, make it thinner and to some that may seem like a major upgrade but to many others it's just not and people here need to respect the OP rather than saying something rude like, "Sounds like you're trying to make yourself feel better for your purchase".

The OP is being rather level-headed and cool to the responses/any differences being discussed in this thread. You, on the other hand, appear to be taking things personally. We're just talking about two generations of iMacs here, one is obviously well-improved over the other. Don't get so upset over it

steve119 · Jan 20, 2013

I love my 2012 imac, and yeah it looks lovely at an angle but tbh I don't have my imac at an angle to enjoy it fully anyway.

I was always intending on buying an external bluray writer so it didn't bother me either way if there was a SuperDrive installed or not. The fact that I can use my mbp SuperDrive with the iMac meant that until I purchased a bluray writer, I still have an optical drive at my disposal(only used once so far).

nosnhojm · Jan 20, 2013

kennyap said:
I would say you're the one who seems a little riled up here. I take it you aren't/can't get a 2012 iMac at this time. I also know you haven't looked at the 680MX offering. FYI, I was speaking about the speed increase and also the cuda cores in this gpu Not game performance which is the first thing someone who doesn't wish to consider the offering would mention. As I mentioned in my last post, the 2012 iMac is a serious upgrade in performance (video/graphics) and design over the previous generation.

Which translates to gaming performance. Quit trolling.

kennyap · Jan 20, 2013

nosnhojm said:
Which translates to gaming performance. Quit trolling.

Cuda cores for video editing. I don't play games on my computer.

nosnhojm · Jan 20, 2013

kennyap said:
Cuda cores for video editing. I don't play games on my computer.

That's true, but you'll only see performance benefits when using specifically optimized software. 99% of people who upgraded to the 680mx did so for gaming performance.

kennyap · Jan 20, 2013

nosnhojm said:
That's true, but you'll only see performance benefits when using specifically optimized software. 99% of people who upgraded to the 680mx did so for gaming performance.

Go to the Adobe forums. Many have been waiting and hoping for the iMac to get a gpu with Cuda cores. Are you saying only 1% of people will use the new iMac for Video and Graphics editing? No offense friend, but I think it's more than that. This is the primary reason I ordered the 2012 iMac, can't wait to put it in action. From the benchmarks I've seen, the gpu provides a substantial performance increase.

nosnhojm · Jan 20, 2013

kennyap said:
Go to the Adobe forums. Many have been waiting and hoping for the iMac to get a gpu with Cuda cores. Are you saying only 1% of people will use the new iMac for Video and Graphics editing? No offense friend, but I think it's more than that. This is the primary reason I ordered the 2012 iMac, can't wait to put it in action. From the benchmarks I've seen, the gpu provides a substantial performance increase.

Yes, that is what I'm saying.

AT06 · Jan 20, 2013

I have a 2011. Am I jealous of people who bought the FAR better 2012 model? Yes. Does that mean I go posting threads over how my 2011 model is a far better purchase because of a disc drive? No.

I'm happy for anyone who bought a 2012 machine, and hope they enjoy all the extra horsepower it has. Maybe the OP should do the same.

steve119 · Jan 20, 2013

nosnhojm said:
Yes, that is what I'm saying.

Is the cuda tech not in the gtx660m......just looked up the spec, it has but not even half the cores the 680 has....doh.

HenryDJP · Jan 20, 2013

kennyap said:
The OP is being rather level-headed and cool to the responses/any differences being discussed in this thread. You, on the other hand, appear to be taking things personally. We're just talking about two generations of iMacs here, one is obviously well-improved over the other. Don't get so upset over it

I'm not upset. Don't give yourself so much credit. You're powerless.

. You guys just don't like the fact that I'm not drooling at the mouth like the rest of you over the iMac and you guys keep on slamming the OP because of how he feels. You new iMac owners can't take any criticism against the new iMac. You'll need to accept others opinions and deal with it.

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nosnhojm said:
Which translates to gaming performance. Quit trolling.

Here here!!

macpro2000 · Jan 20, 2013

It's like people who buy last years mode/style of car...usually it's a cost thing. Gotta justify to yourself when you can't have the best one.

HenryDJP · Jan 20, 2013

macpro2000 said:
It's like people who buy last years mode/style of car...usually it's a cost thing. Gotta justify to yourself when you can't have the best one.

Too bad you're wrong cuz that's not always the case.

. I got my 2011 27" iMac i7 free of charge from Apple. It was a warranty replacement from my old 2009 iMac.

Apple sent me the top of the line with a 3.4Ghz 2GB GPU with 16GB ram which was much better than my 2009 model. Top that off my new iMac came brand new in the box, made in the USA. I could easily sell it and get plenty of money to buy the 2012 model but I don't want it.

thehustleman · Jan 20, 2013

I think the decision was a good one because now when a drive goes bad you wouldn't have to replace the whole computer.

It would have been a much better idea to keep the ram upgradeable and drop the internal drive.

Kashsystems · Jan 20, 2013

I bought the 2011 iMac and the biggest thing I regret it not having is USB 3.0. I made the mistake of hoping for thunderbolt peripherals to make up for my needs, but they are limited. Closest thing to what I want is the Belkin thunderbolt dock that is not out yet.

Glad I got a 2011 iMac, rather than a 2012

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