hey people! My wife’s 2011 MacBook Pro is starting to crap out. Her battery is constantly needing to be charged. He charger just got replaced because of exposed wires and now the cursor seems to be moving/clicking on its own. Any advice on how to fix the moving cursor issue? I was hoping to be able to wait for the iMac update but sadly this cursor issue just popped up today and now we’re thinking of buying a new computer. Budget is about $1500 max and she’s a photographer so she would prefer an iMac vs another MacBook Pro. I was even hoping for the Mac mini refresh but who knows when that will happen. This sucks but in life, you just gotta roll with the punches. So, what do you people think? Try and solve the cursor issue or just bite the bullet and get a new iMac.
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Buy or wait... advice please
- Thread starter LaloG
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Bite the bullet. There's always something new coming just around the corner. I'm using High Sierra.
Nobody has got any idea when the new iMacs will appear - could be next week, next month, next summer. Launching new iMacs (rather than iPhones or music services) in September would be unusual, but then they just launched MacBook Pros in July so who knows?
However, more likely than not they will only be modest, incremental improvements on the current model rather than game-changers and they won't turn the 2017 models into antique curiosities overnight - personal computers just aren't moving that fast at the moment.
Further, what is almost unavoidably certain is that not everybody will like them...
Also, price rises are not unthinkable (given that they seem to be good for the quarterly results, and those chickens won't be coming home to roost for a year or so...)
Most likely we'll see 2-core models turn to 4-core and 4-cores turn to 6-cores - which is a useful improvement and possibly the biggest CPU boost we'll see for a while, but won't open up great vistas of hitherto unimagined possibilities. Face ID (if you see that as a plus - however, its probably more likely than TouchID on a machine with no built-in keyboard) would be slightly surprising to see in iMacs before the MBP. Smaller bezels? Maybe, but unless a bezel killed your brother then, meh.
So it really comes down to how much you need a computer now, or whether you can afford to make do with a flakey old machine that's coming to the end of its life while you wait for news from Apple. If your wife is doing photography as a business then you should probably get a new computer now.
...then, try all the software fixes like PRAM resets, turning off tap-to-click, re-installing the OS or maybe, look at the ifixit pages about replacing the trackpad (first, just check the cable hasn't worked loose, or if you don't want to pay for a replacement just disconnect it & then use a mouse). If you fix it then, bonus! you've got a spare/fallback computer. If you brick it then, well, nothing of value was lost.
I'd suggest you "up the budget" and look at 27" iMacs, but if you can't do that...
MAKE SURE that ANY 21" iMac you buy has an SSD inside.
YOU DO NOT WANT TO BUY ANY MAC (any one of them) WITH ONLY A PLATTER-BASED HARD DRIVE INSIDE! (shouting is very intentional)
I would also recommend that you AVOID the 1tb fusion drive. The SSD portion is only 32gb -- much too small, and before you know it, it may slow down as well.
Again, an SSD is best.
Even if it's just 256gb or 512gb in size.
You can always plug in a USB3 external drive for "more space".
In fact, an external USB3 SSD is very fast if you want one.
Be aware that the RAM in the 21" iMacs is not user-upgradeable (not without prying open the case). So if you think you'll need 16gb you have to "buy it up front".
Another nice feature of the 27" iMacs is that the RAM -is- user-upgradeable.
MAKE SURE that ANY 21" iMac you buy has an SSD inside.
YOU DO NOT WANT TO BUY ANY MAC (any one of them) WITH ONLY A PLATTER-BASED HARD DRIVE INSIDE! (shouting is very intentional)
I would also recommend that you AVOID the 1tb fusion drive. The SSD portion is only 32gb -- much too small, and before you know it, it may slow down as well.
Again, an SSD is best.
Even if it's just 256gb or 512gb in size.
You can always plug in a USB3 external drive for "more space".
In fact, an external USB3 SSD is very fast if you want one.
Be aware that the RAM in the 21" iMacs is not user-upgradeable (not without prying open the case). So if you think you'll need 16gb you have to "buy it up front".
Another nice feature of the 27" iMacs is that the RAM -is- user-upgradeable.
Thank you all for the tips. I didn’t know the RAM was user upgradeable in the 27” iMac. That’s definitely a big plus to have. I was able to figure out a fix for her problem. It turns out her trackpad was the issue. I plugged in a wired mouse, turned off her trackpad and bam, her cursor is back to normal. This should buy us some time to save up some more money and go for the 27” with at least 512GB SSD. Thanks to all of you for your advice.
I'm willing to wait until October to see if the release a new imac. It will help to get a 6 core chip working with Logic Pro X so it would be worth the wait, but I'm not waiting until 2019.
I've been hungry to get back to making music and I just can't wait much more...it's all I think about like most of the day, and I couldn't go til like March-May 2019 without making music again so I'll wait a little while longer but that is it.
The 2017 imac should be good enough for what I want to do anyways....but 6 cores wouldn't hurt either.
I've been hungry to get back to making music and I just can't wait much more...it's all I think about like most of the day, and I couldn't go til like March-May 2019 without making music again so I'll wait a little while longer but that is it.
The 2017 imac should be good enough for what I want to do anyways....but 6 cores wouldn't hurt either.
The advice is always to wait if you can. With the calendar showing August, its late summer and the expectation of seeing a raft of Mac updates in a month or two is rather high, so for that reason alone, I suggest to wait if your need isn't critical or immediate.
Ignore the “there’s always a refresh round the corner” comments, because there isn’t always a refresh like this. I highly recommend that you wait if you can.
Kind of how I was thinking about it as well. Going from 4 cores to 6 is the biggest increase in performance we've seen in a while.
Refresh like what? Nobody here knows when the iMacs are going to get a refresh or what the changes are going to be.
Adopting the new 8th gen processors seems likely but whether they'll use that to offer more power for the same price or use it as an opportunity to "downgrade" the processors to run cooler so that they can shrink the case. Nobody knows what the GPU options are going to be, whether they'll keep the "legacy" ports like USB-A and ethernet, or go all USB-C, drop the expandable RAM in the 27" etc.
Its absolutely possible that the new iMacs will be more expensive, its plausible that they might down-specced to make space for the iMac Pro and new Mac Pro - or they could just get the new CPUs dropped into the old models with no other substantial change (which might not be a bad thing). On the other hand it would hardly be unprecedented if Apple just left the iMacs to go hang for a few years.
The safest bet of all is that whenever the next generation of iMacs appear not everybody will like them.
We. Don't. Know.
Plus, if a major refresh occurs, I'd give it a few months for the teething troubles to be discovered and (hopefully) fixed.
Unless its only weeks away from an already announced Apple event, or really solid rumors (like pictures of parts, FCC registrations) have started to emerge, the safest advice will still be to buy a new computer when you need one (esp. if a flakey old computer is interfering with your work).
Get this computer https://www.apple.com/shop/product/...uad-core-Intel-Core-i5-with-Retina-5K-display
*EDIT* Nevermind it's sold now. refurbs go fast
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The cursor issue comes from the battery. The battery expands against the mousepad from below. Luckily you could buy a good replacement from quality vendors like newertech (see below). If that is the case, you should hurry up. Bulged up batteries are kind of dangerous and can leak all over the place inside your laptop. Once that happens you can really throw the whole thing away.
https://www.newertech.com/batteries/
In short, go for a fast fix with a new battery and keep laptop as good spare while you wait for the new iMac 2018 next month.
This will drive down costs for used iMac systems on eBay. I am sure you can strike a super great deal on eBay once the new stuff has paralysed peoples brains.
Oh dear, I see there’s no point in arguing with you. All I will say is there will be an update this year at a separate Mac event and it will be a significant update worth waiting for. I tried hard not to correct you on your points but one thing I have to correct you on is your misconception of iMac updates - It would be unprecendented if Apple didn’t update the iMacs for a few years. They have skipped a year once in it’s history, but there is no reason to do so this year and even if there was (i.e. intel delays), there was never any question about skipping this year; The year that marks 20 years since the original iMac. People claim Apple don’t care about anniversaries but that’s simply wrong and it’ll be mentioned in the keynote.
But anyway, if you choose not to believe me, that’s okay. My advise was solely to the OP on the purchasing decision. As I stated, my advice is to wait if possible.
If that’s not possible, then of course there isn’t anything wrong with the current iMacs so purchasing them would still be a good move.
You're acting like this is trying to forecast when the next big earthquake will hit LA.
Based on 'leaked' info and other historical evidence we will probably have an update within the next 3 months either way. Anyone on the fence is probably best served to wait it unless you will not be the type of person bothered by any potential release(Your average user falls into this category)
- iMac - Kuo says to expect a significant display performance upgrade, but he does not go into detail about what this will entail and we haven't heard additional iMac rumors at this time. He says the iMac, like other Macs, will get a processor refresh.
It's not a question of anyone "believing" you, since you don't have any facts. You have guesses, estimates, and hopes, just like everyone else on this forum.
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What leaked info? And from what source?
Yeah I saw that. I didn't see any leaked info about new hardware releases. Did I miss it?
Possibly - maybe even probably - but you're asserting it as if it were a fact. You really should learn the difference between will and might.
...and couldn't possibly involve price rises, the removal of ports, discontinuation of high-end options (see 2014 MacMini) love it/loathe it design changes because... er, why exactly?
...and we'll also get some unexpected news, go on a long journey, find something we thought was lost and then, as long as a couple of those hand-wavy things actually happen, the human tendaency for confirmation bias will ensure that we we'll conveniently forget about the tall dark handsome stranger that was also meant to be part of the deal.
...because Apple have never let a product go without a significant update for more than a year or so. Apart from the original Mac Pro... and then the Mac Pro cylinder, and the Mac Mini, or the Thunderbolt display, or the current MacBook Air...
But, anyway, I'm not the one proclaiming that I know exactly what the future holds - I'm not saying that anything won't happen, just reminding people that this is all speculation and unverifiable rumours.
If you can wait you should...there are better years to buy based on value.
This year is one of them given the Core count upgrade...the 27" model has been at 4-cores since 2009. Sadly the graphics won't probably see much of an update this year however.
This year is one of them given the Core count upgrade...the 27" model has been at 4-cores since 2009. Sadly the graphics won't probably see much of an update this year however.