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Apple Releases New Sandy Bridge Quad-Core iMacs with Thunderbolt

About $50 US per Gig for additional RAM from Apple... Just a minor beating this time, instead of an all out rape like they usually do compared to third party.

Wish I had the money to get one right away.
 
fila97 said:
Is it easy for us to install an SSD by ourselves? (I'm not a geek)
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Previous iMac HD upgrades have involved removing the screen - yes, really.

Hope these are better in that respect.

UK prices start at £999 for the 21.5" with 2.5GHz quad-core i5, vs $1,199
that's a really poor exchange rate dollar to pound !
 
arkmannj said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)



maybe our day will come soon,
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next tuesday or following tuesday ... with iPad 2 cranking out sales like anything, you need time for releasing products

before summer will be cool, white macbook and mac mini updates.

when is the Lion released? Summer!!! cannot wait :D
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_i5_microprocessors#.22Sandy_Bridge.22_.2832_nm.29_2

The 2.5GHz and 2.7GHz models look to be Low-Voltage 65W Core i5, which is why Apple is able to fit quad cores in the 21.5" enclosure. But does that actually mean the 3.1GHz Core i5 in the 27" is actually cheaper than the slower 2.7GHz Core i5 in the 27"? Intel doesn't sell a 2.7GHz standard voltage Core i5 unless its a custom model or Apple is underclocking the 2.8GHz Core i5, which seems like an unnecessary waste of free clock speed room.
 
j800r said:
The way they've been able to keep the price low while using quad-cores in EVERY iMac has been by downgrading the GPUs. The Graphics Cards in EVERY model are now mobile. In the last line of iMacs they were full powered desktop GPUs.

So, you see, while there's an upside (the processors), it doesn't come without a down (the GPUs). At first glance I was really annoyed as the £999 one (which is what I got before the refresh) had an i5 quad core, then I saw the graphics memory and got even more annoyed, but THEN I noticed the large shiny M at the end of the GPU name. THAT's how they've been able to bring us them processors and still keep the price down. They've downgraded the GPUs. As my i3 processor practically acts like a quad core anyway and is virtually never pushed to it's limits I think I'm more than happy with what I have. The GPU may only have 256MB dedicated memory but at least it's not mobile.
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They have been mobile since the switch to Intel. Though the 24" with 7300/7600GT does stand out.


commander.data said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_i5_microprocessors#.22Sandy_Bridge.22_.2832_nm.29_2

The 2.5GHz and 2.7GHz models look to be Low-Voltage 65W Core i5, which is why Apple is able to fit quad cores in the 21.5" enclosure. But does that actually mean the 3.1GHz Core i5 in the 27" is actually cheaper than the slower 2.7GHz Core i5 in the 27"? Intel doesn't sell a 2.7GHz standard voltage Core i5 unless its a custom model or Apple is underclocking the 2.8GHz Core i5, which seems like an unnecessary waste of free clock speed room.
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Underclock and relabel is not anything new.
 
Eidorian said:
Once again, the iMac packs more processing power than the Mac Pro. (Even if you have a single hex-core.)
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Right, which is why I really need to wait for the Pro, just to see if it's price is reasonable, and if it really makes it a worthy and expandable option over the iMac.

I would've chosen the iMac over the Mac Pro in the last iteration of either machine. This new iMac is making the "expandable" option a little more moot.

I will learn how to solder and service an iMac if it saves me $1000+
 
JordanNZ said:
I think you're confusing TFT with TN.
They're not the same thing.
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There are several kinds of TFT displays. TN displays are the cheapest and lowest quality kind of TFT displays; IPS displays are a more expensive and better kind of TFT display. The new iMacs have the better IPS kind of TFT displays.

And it is amazing how people get excited and angry for no good reason at all, just because they don't understand something and come to all the wrong conclusions.
 
Embedded processor

Anyone find it odd that the only 3.1Ghz Quad-Core i5 listed on intel's website is a Embedded Intel® Core™ i5-2400 Processor (6M Cache, 3.10 GHz) Unless they released the 27" with a brand new i5?
 
JS77 said:
Really good to see the update (finally)... but I am disappointed they didn't bring the 24" back :(

The 27" is too big, and the resolution on the 21.5 is laughable for an upgrade of this magnitude.
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The 21.5" is about the same size as the 24", just cut down to a 16:9 aspect ratio. (1920x1080 resolution instead of 1920x1200 on the old 24")

jayducharme said:
But the next iMac upgrade should be pretty amazing. (8-core base model?)
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Not until Intel releases such a CPU.

mdriftmeyer said:
Having gotten used to a 24" panel, it's hard to step down to a 21.5. Obviously, it's nice to step up to the 27", if one has the extra disposable income. The 16GB RAM is a nice reality option, especially if the default were 8GB.
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I hope you don't consider getting the RAM as a BTO option directly from Apple since that would be just a waste of money. Get the 27" model and upgrade the RAM yourself.
 
The 21.5'' has a 512MB GPU while the 15'' MBP has a 1GB GPU, same chipset. There's no reason why would they do this except to push potential buyers to the 27''. This is ridiculous. If it were to keep the iMac price down, they would've added as a BTO.

Ridiculous.
 
Well just pulled the trigger on my first iMac. Thank god for education discounts, over £300 saving in the end.

Very happy with the refresh, pretty much exactly what I'd expected. Only real downer was the lack of i7 as standard but, frankly, I don't need it for what I'm going to use it for so the 27" with 3.1Ghz i5 and 2Gb of graphics memory is more than good enough. Would have liked to see a HDMI input but oh well, does anyone know if there's any easy (and preferably cheap) adaptor out there to do HDMI > Thunderbolt / Mini Display port?

Oh, and bit of a bummer that it's showing the 11th of May as the delivery date too, ah well, gives me time to sort out a desk to put it on next weekend :D
 
A very "noobish" question.....Are iMac's upgradable? The reason i ask is because my current computer is a Dell XPSONE 24 (all in one machine). It has been great, but is rapidly becoming outdated. I can no longer update my graphics card without issues and due to the machines design i cannot upgrade the graphics card. (power supply cannot handle anything better).

I am really considering the iMac because i love the all-in-one designs and fits what i need. However, i don't want to be stuck in this same situation in 2 -3 years.
 
mikerr said:
Previous iMac HD upgrades have involved removing the screen - yes, really.

Hope these are better in that respect.

UK prices start at £999 for the 21.5" with 2.5GHz quad-core i5, vs $1,119
that's a really poor exchange rate dollar to pound !
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is it lower or higher this time?
 
Mackan said:
Apple continues their model to suck most money out of their customers.

Example:

-Can't buy base 21.5'' with 6770M or 6970M.
-Can't buy base 27'' with 6970M.

Why does it always have to be that if you want a good graphics card, you must go for the top model, and thereby paying so much more than if you could just customize the base model with it?

Already know the answer, but let your defending excuses come.
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Three words: economy of scale.

I'll be getting one of these... Haven't decided on model though. Really nice upgrade.
 
video in anyone?

Soooo....nice upgrade!!
BUT!
Can you plug in your console to the imac's monitor? With an adapter ofcourse!
 
fila97 said:
Is it easy for us to install an SSD by ourselves? (I'm not a geek)
Click to expand...
You need some strong suction cups to remove the screen (the whole back chassis is one piece, the only access is via the screen) and more importantly a dust-free environment, otherwise when you put the screen back on (or rather the glass pane in front of the actual screen) you can easily trap dust between the glass and the monitor.
The difficult thing is the dust-free environment.
 
Finally!

I was going to spring for the refurb i5 at $1449 but then I saw the late 2009 i7 for $1369 and was wondering which model I should go for.

I'm honestly leaning towards the i7 and have a lot of faith in apple refurb products.
 
jiminaus said:
MBP doesn't have a fast enough GPU. I use my iMac primarily for development. Need raw GHz, not so much multiple-cores.


Won't sell it. It'll be handed down to family.
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ok that makes sense.

anyway people, iMac does not keep the resale value compared to the MB/MBPs they are very good machine though.

I loved mine, it has been for two years, booting from external SSD, very nice for my usage.
 
Jumpman2033 said:
A very "noobish" question.....Are iMac's upgradable? The reason i ask is because my current computer is a Dell XPSONE 24 (all in one machine). It has been great, but is rapidly becoming outdated. I can no longer update my graphics card without issues and due to the machines design i cannot upgrade the graphics card. (power supply cannot handle anything better).

I am really considering the iMac because i love the all-in-one designs and fits what i need. However, i don't want to be stuck in this same situation in 2 -3 years.
Click to expand...
You can upgrade memory and harddrives (there are two internal connectors and if you count the optical drive, three) but opening up requires suction cups (and preferably a dust-free environment).
But more importantly, the standard way to upgrade a Mac is sell the old model and get a new one. The resale value of used Macs is pretty high, have a look at E-bay prices.
 
with only the $2000 model having a 1GB graphics card option this is a useless upgrade for anyone into gaming. might as well buy an MBP and take it everywhere
 
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