Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
So, replacing parts with more modern varieties and expanding memory makes a system more powerful?

Ffs, I wish I’d known this years ago, the money I could have saved on replacing computers is insane.

And that money’s hard to come by you know. Have you any idea how many trips to the sperm bank I need to make to buy an Apple computer? I can barely walk by the end of the week.

Ahem, anyway, actually a pretty cool wee project. It’s nice to see what could have been, if Apple actually gave the small iMac some Intel love.
The power draw and can action compared to the M1 though, I dread to think.
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: the8thark
what's the price of a name brand PC with that chip, a nice industrial design and a quality 4K display.

not snarking. would like to know.

I couldn't say exactly. I do know that a lower CPU spec 4K HP all in one. That looks like it was designed by Sharper Image in the 90's. Costs about $1,700. To be fair it has an OK GPU. Certainly better than the iMac 21.5 and a bit better than the M1.

All the differences in specs, custom parts and lower DPI panel. I'd put the HP and M1 iMac at about the same user value. The HP costs a lot more.

 
This brings one interesting thing about these new iMacs - their prices. I know it’s been said many times, but the fact that Apple is offering a 256/8 configuration for $1250 is just absurd. I’ve seen phones with more memory. Or let me put it this way - the money they ask for upgrading these is sick, especially now when nothing in these devices is user-upgradable. It’s just ridiculous.
And before someone says “if you don’t like it don’t buy it” - I’d love to buy one, but I’m not gonna pay 2x more just because I want a 16/1024 configuration.
The 16GB/1TB is $2099, not 2x more, which would be $2598. Fact remains, buy it or don’t, this is how Apple sells it.
 
This brings one interesting thing about these new iMacs - their prices. I know it’s been said many times, but the fact that Apple is offering a 256/8 configuration for $1250 is just absurd. I’ve seen phones with more memory. Or let me put it this way - the money they ask for upgrading these is sick, especially now when nothing in these devices is user-upgradable. It’s just ridiculous.
And before someone says “if you don’t like it don’t buy it” - I’d love to buy one, but I’m not gonna pay 2x more just because I want a 16/1024 configuration.

Hardly absurd. A huge number of Apple customers, who need an entry level computer for just email, browsing the internet with Safari, and lightweight spreadsheeting with Numbers will do just fine with entry level storage and memory on a new iMac. $1,250 is a great price for that configuration and performance level - Apple will sell loads of them at that price

Have requirements that need more storage/memory? Simply pay for it. Easy.
 
This brings one interesting thing about these new iMacs - their prices. I know it’s been said many times, but the fact that Apple is offering a 256/8 configuration for $1250 is just absurd. I’ve seen phones with more memory. Or let me put it this way - the money they ask for upgrading these is sick, especially now when nothing in these devices is user-upgradable. It’s just ridiculous.
And before someone says “if you don’t like it don’t buy it” - I’d love to buy one, but I’m not gonna pay 2x more just because I want a 16/1024 configuration.
Apples consumers have to be pretty ignorant, it's the only explanation as to why Apple can continue to get away with ripping them off.
 
One thing that isn’t mentioned here is power usage. Why? I know that was one of the issues that Apple said was being addressed by these chips.
Because the Apple chip uses so much less power that it's not even funny. Apple started with its lowest-end chip, it just happens to stand its ground against the competition on performance.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mabhatter and JDGwf
Yeah there’s no denying the 21.5” iMac was neutered over the years. It used to be closer in performance to the 27”, just smaller. (Same thing happened with the Mac Mini, which used to have a dGPU until 2014). So I hope the 24” is offered with an M1X or whatever it ends up being called. I love the form factor of the 24” iMac but wish it had a bit more GPU power.
Mac mini lost its dedicated graphics option in 2012.
 
I wonder what the energy consumption of an M1 vs. a Core i9 CPU is. It's a little more tricky to measure on a desktop, where a laptop you can use battery consumption as a quick gauge.
 
All that effort to say it's faster than a low-power chip that's in the iPad pro.

The M1 was never to be a powerhouse, just a marker down to cover the entry-level of consumer-focused products. The i3/i5s should be what they are compared to.
 
I'll just wait until the M5. It was featured on Star Trek episode "Ultimate Computer' and Spock was very impressed with Apple's latest CPU and its high performance over Intel.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: E.Lizardo
Apples consumers have to be pretty ignorant, it's the only explanation as to why Apple can continue to get away with ripping them off.
Funny, I always thought that people valuating the product they want by the price difference to products they don’t want to be the ignorant ones.

How much money the manufacturer makes on the product I want has zero interest to me. You can easily have an inefficient low-margin product that is worse than a highly efficient high-margin product. Happens all the time. Try focusing on the value a product actually gives you instead, it’s actually quite liberating. I can get coffe for free, that doesn’t mean that the tea I would much rather drink is automatically expensive.
 
  • Wow
Reactions: Shirasaki
Poor Intel, they probably paid this guy. LOL, an i9 is Intel's top of the line CPU's (something never offered in the 21 inch iMac's). It's the 27 inch iMac's that offered top of the line CPU's if you wanted to pay for them. The CPU itself is horrendously expensive and its being compared to a CPU designed for low power usage in low end laptops and iPad's.

Not that it matters, but it should be compared to what comes in the 27 inch replacements - and if the past M1 benchmarks are any indication the i9 will get stomped in everything but hardware based edge cases (where the i9 has some special circutry for something that other processors don't), power usage and heat generation.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mabhatter
Apples consumers have to be pretty ignorant, it's the only explanation as to why Apple can continue to get away with ripping them off.
Nobody is ripping me off…I know exactly what I’m buying when I buy a Mac. Your lens is buying and building PCs. Fine. Enjoy it. But don’t act like your superior because you saved $5 on a RTX3070 so that Lara Croft’s t*** look more realistic at 144Hz, because no one here f***ing cares.
 
How are people missing the fact that the intel iMac had a dedicated GPU? Isn't that going to help a lot with the blender score? Plus, is it really fair to compare a 65W desktop CPU to one designed for an ultrabook? Even at load in a mac mini, the M1 maxes out under 40W.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.