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2011 Thunderbolt iMac w/ SSD Shipment Tracker

M

mrfoof82

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 26, 2010
578
15
Lawton, OK
Due to constant sabotage by trolls, the sheet is now more cumbersome to use. If someone wants to take over maintaining the sheet, please contact me.


When the Thunderbolt MBPs came out, folks decided to share their shipment and delivery information for their configuration. Considering the potentially long waits for the new 2011 Thunderbolt iMacs configured with solid state drives (SSD), I figured that folks here might want to share said information yet again.

Please do not add your order if you did not order a solid state drive (SSD). I no longer maintain this sheet. Everyone will need to restore revisions if trolls run loose. This is a publicly editable Google Docs spreadsheet.:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spr...MndiRTVqY0NUUE9EaUE&hl=en_US&authkey=CMWE_KoI

Interesting statistics are now available courtesy of rsokiba.

Add your information, and don't hesitate on updating your information when your iMac ships or is delivered, so everyone else can get an idea of when theirs will show up.

UPDATE: The first 21.5-inch SSD-equipped iMac shipped on May 23rd, 2011. The first delivery was May 26th, 2011.

UPDATE: The first 27-inch SSD-equipped iMac shipped on June 7th, 2011. The first delivery was June 13th, 2011.

Thanks in advance to everyone who participates.

----- ----- -----

NOTE: You can get the Estimated Ship Date and Estimated Order Date from the Order Status Page on store.apple.com.

NOTE: Do not send me requests for the sheet to be shared. It is shared with *everyone*. Anonymous users can edit the sheet, and the revision history allows anyone to fix the sheet in a few seconds if some troll sabotages it.
 
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ty - a great help. once i press the order button, i'll update the spreadsheet. i'm still stalking the apple campus for a discount... :)
 
LOL MrFoof82... I spec's mine exactly like yours except I did not spring for overnight shipping. Hopefully it really doesn't take as long as projected to build.

Mike
 
m5mike said:
LOL MrFoof82... I spec's mine exactly like yours except I did not spring for overnight shipping. Hopefully it really doesn't take as long as projected to build.

Mike
Click to expand...

I figure overnight shipping only increased the cost by about 1.5%. If I was going to wait weeks as it was, I didn't want to wait yet another week simply because it was in transit.

Despite using the free shipping option, the 16GB of Crucial memory I ordered from NewEgg showed up in just 48 hours instead of the quoted 4-to-7 business days.
 
mrfoof82 said:
I figure overnight shipping only increased the cost by about 1.5%. If I was going to wait weeks as it was, I didn't want to wait yet another week simply because it was in transit.

Despite using the free shipping option, the 16GB of Crucial memory I ordered from NewEgg showed up in just 48 hours instead of the quoted 4-to-7 business days.
Click to expand...


Cool I'm planning on getting 16GB (4x4) from crucial as well. Might as well go ahead and order it too.

I'll probably regret not spending the extra $ on shipping but I have had some apple items arrive really quick even with standard (if I remember correctly).
 
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I had one ordered, cancelled and just ordered the BTO without the SSD.

Reasons.



Add SSD later via thunderbolt which is faster than the enternal Sata 3
Don't know what drive Apple will use. 3gps drive?
You can add your own drive that is faster, better.
Upgrade when you want if you add the SSD your stuck with it and its speeds. When SSDs become available at a cheaper price your stuck.

Good luck Hopefulliy they ship them quicker than june 15th.

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10549
 
iamthedudeman said:
I had one ordered, cancelled and just ordered the BTO without the SSD.

Reasons.



Add SSD later via thunderbolt which is faster than the enternal Sata 3
Don't know what drive Apple will use. 3gps drive?
You can add your own drive that is faster, better.
Upgrade when you want if you add the SSD your stuck with it and its speeds. When SSDs become available at a cheaper price your stuck.

Good luck Hopefulliy they ship them quicker than june 15th.

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10549
Click to expand...

Today's firmware update enabled 6Gbps (SATA-III) on the new iMacs. And good luck getting a 256GB SSD plus a Thunderbolt external enclosure for less than $500. Besides, I'd be shocked if an SSD can saturate a 6Gbps connection, much less Thunderbolt's 10Gbps link. And any drive you buy to drop into an external enclosure is going to be a SATA drive anyway, so the drive won't be able to perform at theoretical Thunderbolt speeds since it'll be constrained by its own SATA interface.

I added my details to the spreadsheet. For some reason I haven't received an order acknowledgement email from Apple...is anyone else in the same boat?

UPDATE - Just called Apple and they manually sent me the order confirmation email. Weird -- I had to do the same thing when I ordered my iPad 2.
 
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iamthedudeman said:
Add SSD later via thunderbolt which is faster than the enternal Sata 3
]
Click to expand...

I had the same thoughts- but AFAIK, Thunderbolt ports don't support booting yet. I could be wrong tho.

kfscoll said:
And good luck getting a 256GB SSD plus a Thunderbolt external enclosure for less than $500. And any drive you buy to drop into an external enclosure is going to be a SATA drive anyway, so the drive won't be able to perform at theoretical Thunderbolt speeds since it'll be constrained by its own SATA interface.
Click to expand...

The 256GB SSD option through BTO is $500 anyway so I don't see your point with that statement.

Also, If you get a Thunderbolt capable enclosure, you'll be getting a Thunderbolt interface- not SATA.
 
You miss my point. The Apple upgrade costs $500, and there is no guarantee that the ssd that they install will be a sata 3 and can be a sata 2 drive, like
the Mac book pros. The Mac book pros SSd's are sata 2 drives and the mother boards are sata 3.

The lacie external enclosure is priced at 500 for a 256 SSD and has a 6gps and intel 510 drive. You can upgrade that and just buy a inclosure when ever you want. I ordered one of each one for the office a BTO with sad and a BTO without.

a vertex 3 is better than anything Apple is putting in BTO. And when SSD become even faster, which they will thunderbolt will be able to handle faster drives.

you also have more flexibility in your SSD drive, ability to upgrade more often also.
 
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BigBeast said:
I had the same thoughts- but AFAIK, Thunderbolt ports don't support booting yet. I could be wrong tho.



The 256GB SSD option through BTO is $500 anyway so I don't see your point with that statement.

Also, If you get a Thunderbolt capable enclosure, you'll be getting a Thunderbolt interface- not SATA.
Click to expand...

Called Apple today and talked to a Apple engineer, Thunderbolt is the replacement for FireWire. And yes you can boot from thunderbolt. They will just not support it.
 
I don't like the size of that drive from Lacie. Why the huge external heat sink shell like a 2Big? If I get an external SSD you better believe it will be the size of a portable HDD! Why would I buy an ext. SSD with no moving parts and less heat produced in a BIGGER container? Back to the drawing board for Lacie.
 
iamthedudeman said:
They will not provide software support if you boot other than the internal HD. Or SSD. If you screw up your imac, no support.
Click to expand...

Psh. Who cares? If you're booting from an external TB SSD, you could just clone your SSD regularly to a HDD partition inside the iMac and boot from that for support. Plus, booting from a TB SSD isn't going to do anything to the iMac. This seems like a non-issue.
 
Stats so far...

  • 80% of buyers have purchased the 3.4GHz i7, which means none of the MC814LL/A buyers stood with the 3.1GHz i5. 20% purchased the 2.7GHz i5.
  • 53% of buyers are opting to upgrade memory themselves. 34% paid for extra memory to be shipped. 13% are sticking with the basic 4GB.
  • 47% of buyers went with a 1TB 3.5" HDD. 40% opted for 2TB. 13% went without a 3.5" hard disk. Those going without a hard disk at all surprised me.
  • All Core i7 buyers also upgraded the 6970M to have 2GB of texture memory.
  • 93% of buyers went for the bluetooth keyboard. Only one is getting a wired keyboard.
  • 46% are getting a Magic Mouse. 27% are getting a Magic Trackpad. The other 27% are getting both. No one wants the Apple Mouse (Mighty Mouse).
  • 73% went with standard shipping. 20% went with 2nd Day Delivery. Only one paid for Guaranteed Next Day.
For the record, I went for a Trackpad since I already have a Magic Mouse around, and went for a Wireless keyboard since I already have a Wired Keyboard with Numeric Keypad. I'll probably continue using my existing input devices, but I figured I'd get the "different" pack-ins in case I change my mind.
 
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I paid Tuesday.. but still waiting for green light (can take 2 - 4 days). So far i am the first that buy a i5 3.1Ghz in this doc :confused:
 
BigBeast said:
I had the same thoughts- but AFAIK, Thunderbolt ports don't support booting yet. I could be wrong tho.



The 256GB SSD option through BTO is $500 anyway so I don't see your point with that statement.

Also, If you get a Thunderbolt capable enclosure, you'll be getting a Thunderbolt interface- not SATA.
Click to expand...

Well, you can spend $500 now, get a built-in Apple-supported and Apple-warrantied SSD, and not have to tear the display off of your iMac, or you can wait an indefinite amount of time, spend the same amount of money, and get a less-elegant (if not equally-performing) external SSD.

If you buy a bare enclosure, the enclosure's interface will be Thunderbolt, but the drive you put into it will still be a SATA drive. That might not be the case if you buy a pre-built external drive, but it would surprise me (at least in the short term) if the drives in those aren't also actually SATA with a Thunderbolt hardware conversion chip between the drive and the external connector.

Now a RAID 0 configuration of SATA drives in a Thunderbolt enclsoure could overcome the speed limitations of the SATA interface...
 
kfscoll said:
Today's firmware update enabled 6Gbps (SATA-III) on the new iMacs. And good luck getting a 256GB SSD plus a Thunderbolt external enclosure for less than $500. Besides, I'd be shocked if an SSD can saturate a 6Gbps connection, much less Thunderbolt's 10Gbps link. And any drive you buy to drop into an external enclosure is going to be a SATA drive anyway, so the drive won't be able to perform at theoretical Thunderbolt speeds since it'll be constrained by its own SATA interface.

I added my details to the spreadsheet. For some reason I haven't received an order acknowledgement email from Apple...is anyone else in the same boat?

UPDATE - Just called Apple and they manually sent me the order confirmation email. Weird -- I had to do the same thing when I ordered my iPad 2.
Click to expand...

THIS is the point! I don't know why a lot of people talk about the external SSD with TB port.. I think it's useless, I would prefer an internal Sata-III SS Drive and external TB 1-2Tb HD Drive and turn on the external drive only when need (like videos, archive, music etc..) because the SSD is 100% silence (for example for download/stay on in the night) but not the same is the HDD… do the reverse sound pointless to me.

The only bad thing is the time to wait, aaaarrghhh 4-6 week :(
 
qap said:
THIS is the point! I don't know why a lot of people talk about the external SSD with TB port.. I think it's useless, I would prefer an internal Sata-III SS Drive and external TB 1-2Tb HD Drive and turn on the external drive only when need (like videos, archive, music etc..) because the SSD is 100% silence (for example for download/stay on in the night) but not the same is the HDD… do the reverse sound pointless to me.

The only bad thing is the time to wait, aaaarrghhh 4-6 week :(
Click to expand...

We are talking about a external with a SSD, not a HD.
And yes, the four weeks sucks, hopefully worth the wait.
 
It'd be great if we had a 21" iMac in the tracking document. Given that it's got 2-3 week shipping estimates, it'll be the best chance to find out if the 6-week estimate for the 27" is likely to hold true or not.

Also, the fact that 21" iMacs are apparently shipping in a few weeks makes it less likely that there is some as-yet unreleased SSD that Apple's waiting for, right? If Apple was waiting, why wouldn't it be waiting for both 21" and 27"?
 
Apparently some troll sabotaged the sheet. Looking into restoring from a previous known state.

Edit: Sheet has been restored to a previous known good state.
 
to those who have ordered with SSD: have your credit cards been charged already? I am under the impression they do not charge cards until the iMac has shipped, but wanted to see what you guys said.
 
JT3MacManiac said:
to those who have ordered with SSD: have your credit cards been charged already? I am under the impression they do not charge cards until the iMac has shipped, but wanted to see what you guys said.
Click to expand...
Mine's been authorized for the amount of purchase (looks like a "pending charge") but not actually charged yet.
 
kfscoll said:
Mine's been authorized for the amount of purchase (looks like a "pending charge") but not actually charged yet.
Click to expand...

Same here. There is an authorization on my debit card that expires in 4 weeks, but no charge yet. Same thing as when I buy furniture -- the authorization will be renewed every 4 weeks until it ships.
 
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