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2011 iMac Predictions?

M

Mitchelino

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 24, 2009
403
0
Ontario, Canada
I plan on buying an iMac in July or August 2011 (still a while away). I was wondering what you think the hardware will be like by that time. I'm specifically interested in the more powerful iMac option (for example, the Quad-Core option).

What do you think the processor will be like? Any major changes?

Do you think the 27 inch screen will be the biggest? Or do you think they'll release bigger? I'm certainly fine with a 27 inch screen :p

I'm thinking RAM will be 8GB minimum, anyone agree or disagree? I'm hoping 16GB will be a lot cheaper by then, as that's the number I'd like to get.

Do you think internal storage will increase from the current 1 or 2 TB?

What do you think the price will be like? Similar to today's iMac? Cheaper? More expensive?
 
Probably if invented cheaply, 1.5 tb standard, faster spinning drives, sandy bridge microarchitecture processors, radeon hd 6850 mobility graphics, since ddr4 should come out in a few years, ddr3 will be made a higher standard at maybe 6 gb or 8gb. Maybe a redesign with better speakers, accesbility, upgradeability, new os and more for someone that still has a working computer, i would wait until late 11' or mid 2012 :0 rememebr, always buy imac from :apple:
 
aLSO, PROCESSORS could hit 3.6 ghz quad or more. intel is apparently focusing on reducing the tdp of its processor while making power and speed also a priority and price effectivness. I would like to see intel really push the lowness of the price of its 32nm processes, to admit, nehalem was good but sandy bridge... BETTER. :D
 
peakchua said:
Probably if invented cheaply, 1.5 tb standard, faster spinning drives, sandy bridge microarchitecture processors, radeon hd 6850 mobility graphics, since ddr4 should come out in a few years, ddr3 will be made a higher standard at maybe 6 gb or 8gb. Maybe a redesign with better speakers, accesbility, upgradeability, new os and more for someone that still has a working computer, i would wait until late 11' or mid 2012 :0 rememebr, always buy imac from :apple:
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Thanks for the reply! August 2011 will probably be the date I buy it, as I am buying it for university.

I'm hoping to spend a fair bit on a nice iMac and keep that for at least 5 years. I'll also be using it to write music, so it's not just for writing papers :p And I certainly plan on buying it from :apple: (along with the free iPod touch deal, as it's for university) :)
 
southern islands gpu and sandybridge cpus are about as specific one could speculate about the 2011 lineup.
 
peakchua said:
Probably if invented cheaply, 1.5 tb standard, faster spinning drives, sandy bridge microarchitecture processors, radeon hd 6850 mobility graphics, since ddr4 should come out in a few years, ddr3 will be made a higher standard at maybe 6 gb or 8gb. Maybe a redesign with better speakers, accesbility, upgradeability, new os and more for someone that still has a working computer, i would wait until late 11' or mid 2012 :0 rememebr, always buy imac from :apple:
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Ha looks good but unfortunately no faster spinning drives. iMac already uses 7200prm hard drives which is as fast as its going to get in the mainstream, and the 8x DVDRW drive is as fast as its going to get as far as laptop DVDRW drives.
 
SSD technology will probably mature enough to be both bigger capacity and cost a bit less by the latter part of 2011.
 
I would like to see SSDs as a BTO option, but I doubt they'd go from selling 1tb iMacs to 128 or 256gb ones. It would be nice though.

Perhaps they will star building in tv tuners too. That would really make it the ultimate bedroom/dorm room computer. I wouldn't mind myself watching a show in the corner while working on something boring for work.
 
Sandy Bridge CPUs, some talk about Ivy Bridge and six core in late 2011 or 2012. ATI 6xxx. Possibly 3TB as option, maybe even SSD as an option. I doubt they do anything for the screen size but high-end should have 8GB as standard though

Very hard to say what's coming after a year as there are no details available yet
 
Mitchelino said:
I'm thinking RAM will be 8GB minimum, anyone agree or disagree? I'm hoping 16GB will be a lot cheaper by then, as that's the number I'd like to get.
Click to expand...

4GB minimum will stay. 8/16GB will be options.


Mitchelino said:
Do you think internal storage will increase from the current 1 or 2 TB?
Click to expand...

Probably 1.5TB maybe 2TB


Mitchelino said:
What do you think the price will be like? Similar to today's iMac? Cheaper? More expensive?
Click to expand...

Hopefully cheaper... will depend on finance. If you can foresee the financial structure of the world then that's of quite importance compared to the next iMac =p
 
I'd like more VIDEO RAM on the 21.5" model

I, too, will probably buy an IMAC, but I want SMALL whatever size that may be, however I'd like an option to buy SMALL one with a video card with 500 - 1000 megs of ram.

At present the slower card has only 128 megs of video ram which is simply inadequate. The small 21.5" IMAC, at present has 1 option for a faster video card with 256 megs of ram which is barely adequate.

I believe Apple does this intentionally thinking or wanting a purchaser to have to buy the larger IMAC if they want a video card with 500 megs of ram.

Too, bad.......because I have no intention of buying the larger computer because I simply don't want BIG, HEAVY, & power hungry computer with 30 trillion gigibits storage space on a hard drive that I'd not fill in 100 years

Then, again, I may very well wait another year to buy simply because I don't want to buy an IMAC that has a larger hard drive than I want, a slower video card than I want, & a larger size than I want with the features I want
 
lasermn said:
I, too, will probably buy an IMAC, but I want SMALL whatever size that may be, however I'd like an option to buy SMALL one with a video card with 500 - 1000 megs of ram.

At present the slower card has only 128 megs of video ram which is simply inadequate. The small 21.5" IMAC, at present has 1 option for a faster video card with 256 megs of ram which is barely adequate.

I believe Apple does this intentionally thinking or wanting a purchaser to have to buy the larger IMAC if they want a video card with 500 megs of ram.

Too, bad.......because I have no intention of buying the larger computer because I simply don't want BIG, HEAVY, & power hungry computer with 30 trillion gigibits storage space on a hard drive that I'd not fill in 100 years

Then, again, I may very well wait another year to buy simply because I don't want to buy an IMAC that has a larger hard drive than I want, a slower video card than I want, & a larger size than I want with the features I want
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Please do some research before you come up with accusations. The slowest iMac comes standard with a ATI Radeon 4670, with 256mb VRAM. The next best one is a ATI Radeon 5670, with 512mb VRAM, which is all in the smallest model iMac, the 21.5".
 
i tip on a touchscreen ,as all new iOS features in lion and ilife11 just need one to make any sense, and of course because all pc Makers have now all in one pc's with touch screen ...happy screen cleaning every couple hours
 
pointless bigger HDD's. I think most imac users would prefer the speed of SSD then a larger internal drive (most people use external drives for that much data) I would would be fine with 128gb SSD.
 
Hellhammer said:
Sandy Bridge CPUs, some talk about Ivy Bridge and six core in late 2011 or 2012. ATI 6xxx. Possibly 3TB as option, maybe even SSD as an option. I doubt they do anything for the screen size but high-end should have 8GB as standard though

Very hard to say what's coming after a year as there are no details available yet
Click to expand...

That sounds about right. I would also like to see 8 GB as standard on higher end.

Also no matter how far they ramp up the iMac in speed and RAM, the Mac Pro will have its strength in its great expandability.
 
I think it is likely that we will see , Sandy Bridge CPUs, 6xxx family Radeons, and SSD by default.

It is very likely there will be finally quad-core 21.5" model (i5 2400S) or at least as BTO otion.
 
I'm about ready to purchase but waiting to see what comes out (hopefully no later than May).

My biggest wish? A reasonably priced option to pair a 128GB Flash volume such as on the MBA with a 1 TB storage drive. Adding $500-$600 or whatever to get the SSD option right now is too much.

They should be able to add the flash memory on a card to iMacs for $200 and people would really see the difference in performance in their day-to-day tasks. Apple is heading that way on the portable and I think it is possible they will do it on the iMac.

What a great feature this would be.
 
I can't see a default SSD on a desktop; desktop users usually want a lot of space to store stuff. An option for SSD plus a HD would be fine. SSD is still too expensive and doesn't hold enough data.
 
old-wiz said:
I can't see a default SSD on a desktop; desktop users usually want a lot of space to store stuff. An option for SSD plus a HD would be fine. SSD is still too expensive and doesn't hold enough data.
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Default SSD w/o HD? Nobody suggested that.

I believe they could add a 128GB flash disk just like on the MacBook Air for $200-$250. Much better option for most people than a faster processor for ~$200. People would really see the performance of app and OS loading. But still have plenty of HD for storage.
 
I hope they re-think the the old, "bigger screen = better cpu", thing.

I am someone who would love a quad-core iMac, but I simply don't want, need, or even have the room on my desk for a 27" model. I have a 23" monitor taking up all my available space as it is (between two equipment racks) and I couldn't go any bigger if I wanted to.
 
skiltrip said:
I hope they re-think the the old, "bigger screen = better cpu", thing.

I am someone who would love a quad-core iMac, but I simply don't want, need, or even have the room on my desk for a 27" model. I have a 23" monitor taking up all my available space as it is (between two equipment racks) and I couldn't go any bigger if I wanted to.
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+1 - a 27" is 5mm too big for me enclosed desk and i love the form factor of the 21.5"
 
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