Arrogance? Because I don't think computer manufactueres should get away with stuffing Mechanical HD's into computers that cost $500 or more. If you say so.
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Apple Discontinues 512GB and 1TB SSD Configurations of 4K 21.5-inch iMac
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Clearing out their remaining inventory before the new model? I’m eagerly awaiting the new design.
Seems more realistic than having a fusion main HD. However Version 2 external SSD's are getting cheaper and cheaper and extremely fast, but then if you have your external fusion you can always upgrade if need be
Yes, and replace it with a 23-24” Apple Silicon modelThis sounds crazy, but are they going to kill the 21" iMac?
I don't see new iMacs shipping until later this year....so why discontinue these larger sized options?
I wonder if the iMac M-series might be launching earlier than we think? Maybe at least the "lower" end 21.5 models with a M1. Then later in the year higher end 21.5s and 27s with a M2? (obviously the screen sizes may be changing with a redesign but you know what i mean).
Considering the fact that Apple’s first and lowest-end chip is beating out the speed of its highest-end 16” laptop should be a pretty good indicator of the possibilities.
M1 MacBook Air vs 16" MacBook Pro - Final Cut Pro Test
Which is best in the battle of M1 MacBook Air vs 16" MacBook Pro? My Final Cut Pro test didn't disappoint.
markellisreviews.com
I can fault somebody for being worried; it’s a worry that makes no sense. It‘s a bit like being worried about the power of an upcoming Ford truck because you drove a Ford Fiesta.
Do they honestly think Apple is switching all their Macs to new chips but they haven’t yet figured out how to allow more than 16GB of RAM? That is beyond absurd. I don’t believe the critics are being honest in their supposed worries.
I think they are releasing the Apple Silicon soon, so they’re clearing inventory on Intel models and not replenishing certain configurations once they sell out. Also, if the 512 and 1TB are build-to-order, they may have already switched those assembly lines to make the new iMacs, so they’re not going to offer them anymore.
That is your opinion. If you don’t want a computer with a HDD, don’t buy one. Right now, the 21.5-inch iMac is the only Mac with a spinning hard drive. As soon as the Apple Silicon iMac comes out, you will be getting your wish of no spinning drives in any Macs.
“Apple’s too slow to get rid of outdated tech!” (Spinning drives)
”Apple’s too quick to get rid of outdated tech!” (USB-A ports)
Can’t win.
OK Apple. Quit teasing us. New iMacs are clearly coming soon. Get them out here so we can all see them!
Surely this week Apple will send out the announcement for their next big unveiling.
Surely this week Apple will send out the announcement for their next big unveiling.
I am still very happy with my mid 2011 21.5in. iMac. It’s upgraded with an i7, 32GB RAM and a 500GB Samsung Evo SSD for my 3D modelling. That said I’m eager to get a new M1 iMac: 24in., at least 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD. If the RAM can be upgraded at home by the customer then so much the better because you can buy it cheaper separately than what Apple will charge you.
Scaling back choice and availability for the current 21.5in. speaks loudly to me that release of the M1 iMac isn’t far off.
Scaling back choice and availability for the current 21.5in. speaks loudly to me that release of the M1 iMac isn’t far off.
I’ve said nothing of the M1 SoC’s performance, which is more than acceptable. As for the bolded portion, it’s that or they haven’t yet figured out how to have more than two Thunderbolt ports, because those are the only things holding them back from fully transitioning the Mac mini and 13” MacBook Pro, among other Macs. I’m skeptical that they just decided to hold back on the remaining Intel-based models of those machines, not to say it’s a crisis.Considering the fact that Apple’s first and lowest-end chip is beating out the speed of its highest-end 16” laptop should be a pretty good indicator of the possibilities.
M1 MacBook Air vs 16" MacBook Pro - Final Cut Pro Test
Which is best in the battle of M1 MacBook Air vs 16" MacBook Pro? My Final Cut Pro test didn't disappoint.
I can fault somebody for being worried; it’s a worry that makes no sense. It‘s a bit like being worried about the power of an upcoming Ford truck because you drove a Ford Fiesta.
Do they honestly think Apple is switching all their Macs to new chips but they haven’t yet figured out how to allow more than 16GB of RAM? That is beyond absurd. I don’t believe the critics are being honest in their supposed worries.
They have two thunderbolt controllers on M1, just like on the intel macs. Each controller has the same bandwidth as each controller on the intel macs. So they could do 4 ports if they wanted right now, with equal performance to the intel macs.
Since the spring event is usually the “education” event, I fully expect Apple to release a low level iMac so that schools can plan their purchasing for the fall. At WWDC I expect Apple to announce the larger laptops for developers, maybe even a new Pro desktop with Apple Silicone, even if it isn’t released for a while. I am skeptical that the new iMacs will see a new processor, such as M1X or M2 (maybe a graphics bump, though). I think Apple will want to get the most out of the first generation processor they can for at least a year and keep the price of this first generation as low as possible. However, the “pro” laptops may see a processor bump, and the Pro desktop definitely will.
If the rumored iMac form factor comes to pass, I’d also like to see Apple release an “iMac monitor” without the computer. I think a good Apple branded monitor could sell very, very well, especially if it comes in different colors.
If the rumored iMac form factor comes to pass, I’d also like to see Apple release an “iMac monitor” without the computer. I think a good Apple branded monitor could sell very, very well, especially if it comes in different colors.
OK, second take at this, apologies for the misunderstanding the first time - I stopped at SIM having seen the LTE bit -
I'll start with the RAM issue first. The reason given for soldering RAM was to make it more reliable and to reduce the space required to enable Macs to become thinner (from being lower profile, lower power, and not having to cater for fat fingered users trying to remove it). Remember many manufacturers have since followed that example and do the same with ultra thin laptops.
And this is the point, Macs would still be a thick and heavy as the old 2012 Ivy bridge non retina MacBook Pro if they'd stuck with SATA, DVD, and replaceable RAM. That's 4.5lb (2.06kg) vs 3.0lb (1.4kg) for the 2012 vs 2020 M1 13" MBP.
The Surface Pro doesn't seem to be as thin as a MacBook Pro so I'll assume part of this is due to a certain level of serviceability.
Don't get me wrong here, I like a bit of serviceability and have added RAM and HDD/SSD to Macs before when they were serviceable. The fact that the 27" iMacs are upgradable makes them a great budget option for users who want more RAM.
Apple's next point will be about data security and reliability. Remember that they use some of the fastest SSDs available, and if it were down to an average computer user with replaceable parts they'll buy the cheapest they can find and then complain that their Mac runs like crap when it's the fault of the hardware they bought.
Remember Apple are going down a road with Unified RAM that doubles down on replaceable RAM and I think the storage is on die too - this is for performance and power efficiency reasons. They select the correct components to fit their design.
I haven't used this kind of argument in a while but how many people buying a 2230 m.2 are going to buy SSDs of a top tier quality? Are they even available because a cursory look reveals they are quite rare at higher capacities and seem to be dying out. They'll just buy cheap crap if they can and probably botch the install job. And If you're advocating that Apple leave an empty space in the machine for users to add their own storage then that's a massive error because for a majority of users it means the space will be left blank. If you think they'll out a 256Gb unit in there for people like you to replace with a 1Tb unit - great. But how well will it perform? And will you even be able to get a replacement in 4 years?
I have seen links for a Samsung 970 PCIe 3.0 x4 EVO 1Tb in a 2280 form factor (which is a lot bigger than the postage stamp sized 2230) for 122 quid on Amazon today. But a casual search for a 2230 didn't turn up much.
Let's then not forget that you can accidentally buy a SATA SSD in an M2 form factor. Imagine the frustration as the fat fingered user buys the wrong item. Thankfully these appear to be dying out, and manufacturers in the budget sector appear to be happy to swap controllers and hardware on the same product name items (bit underhand there).
If I were building a PC today I might look for a PCIe SSD to go on the motherboard but I'd buy a high performance Samsung EVO or Pro with true PCIe 3.0 x4 performance. I'd also look into the possibility of waiting for PCIe 4.0 for even more performance. Remember the very best SSDs are 2280, with heatsinks, and boast SERIOUS figures for read and write.
I daresay a lot of average Joes will be looking for cheap storage on a postage stamp they can just plug into a computer as easily as plugging in a SD card. Well, if you'd only just have a look at the murky world of SD card reliability and performance you might then come back and see why Apple won't want users raging on them after botching their install of a no-mark brand and the industry has moved on from that connector technology.
Yes, it's convenient, cheaper, but we've yet to see the performance figures for Apple's Unified architecture to see if it outperforms it to any serious degree.
Too much has been lost praying at the alter of thinness. I don't understand the obsession with it. This is my personal opinion, but I could care less if something is a few millimeters thinner. I'd rather have replaceable RAM and storage. Besides, its the DVD drive and 2.5mm SSD drives that really made the older Macbooks thicker. Once they moved to NVME storage and dumped the DVD, adding removable RAM and storage would make the Macbooks thicker-ness negligible.
Regarding the m.2 2230 unavailability, I also found that the 1TB versions were backordered one or two months. So...I bought a Caldigit Tough Nano 1TB external drive, with housed the coveted m.2 2230 1TB module. That was in stock - and cheaper than the module by itself, oddly enough. Problem solved
Sorry, nobody honestly thinks Apple hasn’t figured out how to add more than 2 thunderbolt ports. They just chose to minimize. They used to sell the 12” MacBook with one USB port only… remember that? Was it because they hadn’t “figured out” how to add more ports? Hmm, I’d say all their other Intel Macs with multiple USB ports would indicate the answer to that was NO. It was a design choice. People can believe whatever they want, and often do, with zero basis in reality. But if such beliefs are going to be aired in public, they just might be challenged.
The strategy with this transition seems like its focusing on just the consumer based Macs first. It just would be disappointing though to use the same 9 year chassis for the M1 based iMacs. I don't think it would sell well either with people knowing or suspecting a redesign might be in the future. Whoever planned this, should have planned it better. Just like they released MacBook Air and 13 inch Pro's using the same chassis, they should have at least had an M1 based 21 inch iMac launched around the same time. This would have given then enough wiggle room to launch major revisions by June 2021 or even fall 2021.
So, if they are gonna launch a replacement for the 21 inch iMac by April, it likely has to be a redesign.
Pretty sure the new machines will have a new processor. That’s the advantage of the SoC design methodology. It’s a lot less work for them to come up with a new processor that uses the same cores, but a lot more of them, and bigger caches. They will likely still be named “M1,” as apple seems to have telegraphed that “M1” will refer to a family of closely related chips that aren’t necessarily identical.
I never understood buying "desktops" anymore. Laptops can easily be converted into a desktop station, yet still have the flexibility to be portable (plus, built-in UPS). I see getting desktops when you need mega-power, like 128GB RAM, Xeon processors and super-high end graphics, like for video editing bays. But for most users, a laptop and a dock is the most flexible way to go.
Sounds to me like they just need to add the controllers to the M1X chipset to get 4 so I'm relatively relaxed about higher end SKUs getting 4 Thunderbolt ports. Factors here are overall cost of the extra controllers and size taken up on motherboard for ports, and when 4 ports are added they'll be independent - not 2 ports shared between 1 controller as on the Intel Macs.
Thermals. You could not take my PC and put it into a laptop form factor and maintain the same performance, there's no way.
In fact, Nvidia tried to and their mobile 3080 is a shell of a GPU compared to the desktop version. It all comes down to thermals, and probably space limits.
You're right though in that a laptop is perfectly acceptable for the vast majority of people, which is why laptop sales dwarf desktop sales most of the time. But for the enthusiast market, we'll never give up our desktops!
Understood. What about RAM? Given that Apple has never designed a SoC with more than 16 GB RAM, is it as trivial as increasing the core count to add even more RAM? Just curious, since that seems to be the only other bottleneck that would stop them from transitioning other Macs.
I’m not an expert in the field — you are — but I assume it’s a little more complicated than just attaching 1.5 TB of RAM (to replace the highest-end option on the Mac Pro, as an extreme example) to the M1 and calling it a day. Or is it really that easy?
The ram is a separate chip (in the same package), and i bet it’s essentially off-the-shelf. Adding more RAM should be a non-issue, though taking maximum advantage of it suggests they should also increase the size of at least the system cache (which should not be a problem - the system cache on M1 is actually smaller than on A14).
When you talk about Mac Pro style boxes, you probably want slotted RAM. In that case, they would probably keep a RAM chip in the M1 package, but use it as another level of system cache, to allow some of the benefit of their unified memory architecture. No way they put TB’s of RAM in the package. Couldn’t fit, at least not any time soon.
the controllers are already there, unless they want 4 for 4 instead of 2 for 4 like they have now, as you note. I really suspect they will add 2, as you suggest, because the die will be bigger and they will have room for them. Plus it’s another easy-to-achieve advantage over Intel Macs, so long as there is Sufficient internal bandwidth.