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2012 iMac a sober and detailed dissection with a nice comparison chart
- Thread starter theSeb
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Agreed. Great chart and write up by the way. My concern is you are so limited on the 21" with either the slow HDD or fusion drive (not quite got my head around the lifespan of that drive). If you go base 27" it's got a rubish 512 GPU. Not sure i can run to the higher 27" by the time I have added AppleCare, SuperDrive, Timecapsule and software. I also would have liked the full SSD but as I don't rob banks for a living it ain't gonna happen!
The reason for the change might be that the 7200 run hotter then the 5400 therefore, reduction of heat which was an issue in the previous models.
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goodlittlesquid
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Any chance it will be possible to upgrade the high end 21.5" drive to 7200rpm by choosing the fusion drive?
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Depends on your starting point... if you bought in 2011, you may need to reach to the right end to get serious upgrades.
If like me you are upgrading from 2009, landing anywhere on the chart is pretty much a great thing. But it sure helps to see some of the trade-offs this way. Thank you.
Thanks for the chart. I'm rethinking some of my disappointment with the new iMacs.
I guess the bottom line for me, is that you can still get a lot of computer if you're willing to spend the money and go for the 27". It's too bad that Apple has crippled the 21.5" (slow HD, no user upgradeable ram).
I'm still leaning towards a 2011 refurb, but I'm taking a second look at the new 27" iMac.
I guess the bottom line for me, is that you can still get a lot of computer if you're willing to spend the money and go for the 27". It's too bad that Apple has crippled the 21.5" (slow HD, no user upgradeable ram).
I'm still leaning towards a 2011 refurb, but I'm taking a second look at the new 27" iMac.
You can wait a life time if you want the next model, now is a good time to buy the new iMac if you need one. Wait 6 months and then you might as week wait for the next model if you don't need one at that time.
They will always be better value next year, more bang for you buck... and if you want one with built in DVD then get to your local Apple retailer NOW and pick up the 2011 model, you might get a discount and the only thing you loose (apart from the new design) is USB3 and a slightly faster CPU.
They will always be better value next year, more bang for you buck... and if you want one with built in DVD then get to your local Apple retailer NOW and pick up the 2011 model, you might get a discount and the only thing you loose (apart from the new design) is USB3 and a slightly faster CPU.
I agree, but I am going to reserve my judgement on the 5400 RPM choice until I see some benchmarks of it. Maybe it compares favourably to the previous model's 7200 RPM drive.
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The fusion drive is a combination of a 128 GB flash SSD and a 7200 RPM hard drive. The high-end 21.5" can be upgraded to a fusion drive. Therefore the correct answer to the question is, yes.
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Yes, it is possible.
High-end 21.5" storage options:
1TB (5400-rpm) hard drive
Configurable to 1TB Fusion Drive.
The 1 TB fusion drive is a 7200 RPM hard drive + 128 GB flash
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Now that I have 3 Macs without DVD drives, I've become quite used to not having a DVD drive. The external only comes out a couple of times a year that I really need to use it. My BR, DVD and CD media has been encoded and is sitting on my NAS. The 2012 iMac makes sense and is moving in line with the other Mac products. If people don't like the direction, they need to vote with their money and jump off the bandwagon. That is unfortunately the only sensible advice. Frothing on a forum that feature x is missing isn't going to change anything.
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Got a 27" 2011 iMac. At first the screen seemed too big, but after a few months I was wishing for an even bigger screen. The 21" screen would be ample for my mother, and she wouldn't be pushing the RAM limits either. So looks like they simply targeted two ends of the market. I like simple purchase choices.
Or, alternatively, the thermal envelope on the 21" model won't support a 7,200rpm drive... After all, if it did, I'd have expected to see it as a BTO option but to see 5,400rpm drives across the line suggests it's a physical limitation of the chassis. I have a sneaking suspicion that what Apple's after long term with this generation of iMac (once the price is right of course) is Fusion drives for all which, more or less, instantly renders the speed of the HDD moot for the vast majority of users.
Have to say the 27" is really tempting me to unchain the wallet after Christmas to replace my gaming PC. Sure it won't be as powerful as a build it yourself PC desktop but it's more than good enough to run everything I currently play at really high settings and the screen itself is reported to be superb. With an education discount applied and the fusion drive and 680 options ticked it's an incredibly good package for an all-in-one. Of course that's assuming Apple get the 3Tb options working with Bootcamp...
Ultimately I think we're seeing the same story with the iMac (especially the 21" version) we always do - the geeks hate it because it's "missing features" that only a tiny handful of Apple's customer base care about. For the vast majority of users it's going to be superb and they'd gladly take the trade offs for the visual design.
Uneducated guess:
To reduce heat. Don't 7,200rpm drives run hotter?
Perhaps during the design phase, Apple's engineers discovered that putting a 7200rpm drive into the [essentially] "sealed" enclosure of the new iMac design resulted in more heat than the cooling system could dissipate.
If that's the case, my guess is that these new iMacs will be "running towards the top edge" insofar as heat and cooling are concerned.
So when they say you have to take it apart I'm assuming that voids the warranty and its "impossible" like the MacBook Air? Or is there hope that Apple can do it for an outrageous price?
The lack of Hyper threading in more than two models is concerning...the 16GB Max RAM on the 21" is horrendous. Also when you list the CPU's and they say i5 or 37740 or whatever I don't know what that number means like if its an i7 or just a more powerful i5....Well it looks like I'll just spring for a new 15" MacBook Pro...
The RAM is user serviceable on the 27". There is no voiding warranty.
This means that you can change the memory and upgrade without voiding your warranty.
Not sure why this concerns you so much. It matches the 2011 models. I don't remember people screaming about this back in May 2011. The line up is exactly the same and the same number of models have hyper-threading. But everything is now Ivy Bridge, lower TDP and slightly faster.
I can't imagine there are many people running a 21.5" with the need for 32 GBs of RAM. If you do, then you're using a wrong computer for the job.
The model numbers make it very clear whether it's an i5 or an i7. I am not following you here at all. Sorry.
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Good question. I NEED to have this one answered without a doubt!Question 1. Why must we be sober?
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To everyone suggesting that the reason they went 5400 in the 21" may be because of thermal issues... That was my initial thought as well. Until I saw that you can possibly get the fusion drive in the high end 21.
Without knowing exactly how the fusion works it is hard to say at this point. But of they can get a hybrid 7200 of anything working in that small enclosure without heat issues, then I really don't see how they couldn't with a regular ok 7200.
It smells a lot like an upgrade scheme for anyone who bothers to do the research. You can't have 7200 in the low end Mac unless you buy the better low end version and upgrade the drive for $300 more. Only then are your thermal issues solved e_e
Without knowing exactly how the fusion works it is hard to say at this point. But of they can get a hybrid 7200 of anything working in that small enclosure without heat issues, then I really don't see how they couldn't with a regular ok 7200.
It smells a lot like an upgrade scheme for anyone who bothers to do the research. You can't have 7200 in the low end Mac unless you buy the better low end version and upgrade the drive for $300 more. Only then are your thermal issues solved e_e
The fusion drive is not a traditional hybrid drive; it is two physically separate devices - a rotating platter drive plus a SSD fused into one in software. It says nothing about the platter speed of the drive.
I honestly wouldn't get too worked up about the rotational speed of the drive - I've never ever been able to tell a difference between 7200 and 5400 rpm - it really comes down to the design and platter density of the drive. Some 5400 drives benchmark better than other 7200 models. Both are awful once you are used to a SSD though.
Thanks for the one-stop-shop chart. Perhaps when geekbench scores come out, you can do a performance per dollar figure for each of the configs?
I'm aware of how the fusion drive will work. I must have read wrong about what it will consist of. I could have sworn I read somewhere that it is an SSD and a 7200 HDD. But I can't find anywhere that says it now.
At any rate, still a strange choice, heat reasons or not. What's next, modified Zip drives in the next rev to make it even smaller and cover thermal concerns?
I feel like they should start with a base standard and build from that. Not the opposite.
At any rate, a small gripe overall. Especially if you're going BTO maxed 27
Why is that horrendous? Perhaps that's a bit of an exaggeration.
4 gig max would be horrendous. 8 gig crap. but 16gig is more than enough for 99 percent of users. If you want to do pro work, then you're looking at the wrong machine IMO.