How many people aren't getting the new iMac because of the hard drive?

[Emathieu]

You mean the new iMac that comes with Thunderbolt? I realize this causes problems if the internal drive dies, but for most people, the primary concern with the hard drive is expandability. It seems Thunderbolt would offer expandability at speeds that would more or less nullify this whole issue.

This is exactly what I was going to say. The fact that it has two Thunderbolt ports would make this a non-issue for me. If I needed more space in the future, I'd simply attach a Thunderbolt drive (they'll be out this summer).

I'm sure the number of people who immediately need to upgrade the internal drive on their new iMac (before the Thunderbolt drives come out) is tiny.

 

[Baunkjaer]

I´m not happy at all. The plan was 27" iMac base model, and then replace the original HDD with a 160GB Intel 320 SSD.
After reading a lot about it, I´ve dropped the plan, and will be on the market for a refurbished Mac Pro.

 

[Monkeyoe]

I´m not happy at all. The plan was 27" iMac base model, and then replace the original HDD with a 160GB Intel 320 SSD.
After reading a lot about it, I´ve dropped the plan, and will be on the market for a refurbished Mac Pro.

You can keep your hard drive as well as sticking in an SSD. Several users here have done it with no fan problems or anything.

 

[wangkom]

Havent any of you guys read this thread?
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1150900/

And here is the direkt link to the site:
http://blog.chargedpc.com/2011/05/2011-imac-ssd-install-guide.html

They do change the HD to SSD, and they put up a very good guide for ya!

Really? because I still see the original HD in there...you need to look again. They added a SSD as an additional drive.

 

[Meever]

Currently using 300GB of my 1TB internal and 300GB of my external FireWire drive, so do I give a damn about a year in the future when presumably I'll buy a 2TB thunderbolt SSD drive and be done with it.
Honestly, people who angst about p*ssing about with iMacs need to get a grip.

So the fact that Apple went out of it's way to IMPEDE choice is completely okay with you?

I'm having a hard time understanding....

It's one thing if they add something proprietary because they changed the internal around or something. Or if they did a complete redesign. But that's not what happened. Apple specifically went out of it's way and spent money and time to add this irritating hurdle.

I get it. Thunderbolt is fast. But it'll cost a bundle until it's standardized years from now. I do use a external for my raws but the point of a all-in-one is to get something that's ALL IN ONE, not all-in-one+ accessories. If I wanted to go that route I would just go with a monitor+desktop setup.

 

[mark28]

Proprietary hard drive.... REALLY?! Odds are if a user can even pry open the iMac they know what they are doing. What the hell was the point of this?! When 3tb hard drive become affordable we're going to have to wait until Apple decides they want to offer it as an aftermarket option?

I was insanely excited for the new iMac and now I'm pissed. Do I get a cheaper inferior previous gen model? Do I wait for the next update and prey to the tech gods that Apple decides to undo this horrific mistake?

When Apple offer 3Tb drives, they will be insanely overpriced.

 

[ezekielrage_99]

I think only 20% of iMac users could careless about user serviceable HDDs, look most people are home users and when it comes time to update they'll end up replacing the desktop.

Does serviceability concern me? Well yes it does, I like the option to upgrade a HDD will it effect my buying pattern to position to buy a Mac Pro? I think it's the Apple market team working overtime to get me to buy a Mac Pro over a decked out iMac.

Still an external HDD is still an option, 2TB for a WD USB for $110 is a cheap upgrade imho.

 

[bushman4]

There's several posts saying that the owners replaced the HDD with other ones or an SSD. I even saw instructions posted.
Bottom line, if its true that Apple changed the connector, there must be a reason for it other than going into the business of replacing Hard Drives. I'm thinking that perhaps the caching feature in the Z68 chipset may have something to do with this. We'll know more when the SSD on the new IMAC 2011 start to ship.
In any case i'm sure in a month or two drives with seven pinn connectors will be out......if the story is true.

 

[gnasher729]

So the fact that Apple went out of it's way to IMPEDE choice is completely okay with you?

1. The iMac hard drive was _never_ user servicable.

2. The new hard drive has a much better temperature control than before. I suppose it's there for a reason. It's obvious that good temperature control will make your iMac last longer.

I think only 20% of iMac users could careless about user serviceable HDDs, look most people are home users and when it comes time to update they'll end up replacing the desktop.

When people around me have computers that get old, it is usually me who they come to for advice. For the iMac, the situation is exactly the same as before: _I_ would not have opened their iMac, therefore the internal drive wouldn't have been replaced, so they would have got an external drive. The new iMac is better than before, because it has the additional option of Thunderbolt, which in three years time when it is relevant will be cheap and fast.

For professional users: There are three iMacs close to my desk. We would _never_ open them because the hard drive is not user servicable. If it breaks, it gets fixed. If we need more hard drive space, there is a long chain of people to hand it down to, or we would buy an external drive. Again, this is irrelevant.

 

[maclaptop]

Apple only cares about money, its understandable given the massive profits they make. Its this type of tactic that reveals their single minded greed and contributes to throwaway mentality. The iMac has always been the proof positive that Apple will always place form over function. Offering what is for them, the lower priced entry level "drug" to draw new users in.

 

[mark28]

I think only 20% of iMac users could careless about user serviceable HDDs, look most people are home users and when it comes time to update they'll end up replacing the desktop.

Does serviceability concern me? Well yes it does, I like the option to upgrade a HDD will it effect my buying pattern to position to buy a Mac Pro? I think it's the Apple market team working overtime to get me to buy a Mac Pro over a decked out iMac.

Still an external HDD is still an option, 2TB for a WD USB for $110 is a cheap upgrade imho.

If user serviceable HDD's are no concern for most people, why is there such a big market for external hard drives if storage space is no problem?

A desktop that is less user serviceable than a laptop = fail. But people will still keep buying these iMac's so I won't be surprised if Apple in 2012 will do more funny stuff to make more profit.

If you want to upgrade your HDD, you got to pay a big Apple tax now.

Anyway, maybe some 3rd party vendor will find a solution to this barrier Apple created.

 

[maxinc]

If you want to upgrade your HDD, you got to pay a big Apple tax now.

Considering you have the skill and guts to actually service an iMac, installing a small freeware app to safeguard the temperature on the HDD doesn't seem like such a big deal to me. Is like you got a blu-ray drive and need to install a device driver. But I guess most people would have Apple or someone who knows what they are doing to handle it for them.

Anyway, maybe some 3rd party vendor will find a solution to this barrier Apple created.

Most certainly will.

 

[tsugaru]

Considering you have the skill and guts to actually service an iMac...

That's the thing. Even if you get an Apple Authorized Service provider to professionally install a new drive, you can't, due to Apple's firmware/sensor finagling.

installing a small freeware app to safeguard the temperature on the HDD doesn't seem like such a big deal to me.

To you it doesn't.

You wouldn't want to have to go to your dealership to have your car's PCM reprogrammed just to use a different gas stations' gas, would you?

 

[maxinc]

That's the thing. Even if you get an Apple Authorized Service provider to professionally install a new drive, you can't, due to Apple's firmware/sensor finagling.

It it's an Apple authorised service provider, it will have the correct drive for you.

You wouldn't want to have to go to your dealership to have your car's PCM reprogrammed just to use a different gas stations' gas, would you?

I don't think that would happen with my dealership. If I decided to choose a cheaper car specialist, I would accept the tradeoff because of the cost savings as long as there are not safety issues and car would run the same.

 

[tsugaru]

It it's an Apple authorised service provider, it will have the correct drive for you.



I don't think that would happen with my dealership. If I decided to choose a cheaper car specialist, I would accept the tradeoff because of the cost savings as long as there are not safety issues and car would run the same.

Wow you really are daft.
I can go (in Edmonton,) to MyMacDealer or Westworld and have them put in a new hard drive/SSD upgrade for me. Guess what? They are an AASP. They sell upgrades. And they don't use RAM or HDs from Apple, unless it is for a warranty repair. And hey, the warranty would still be intact. However, now with Apple's firmware fiasco, they can't do that, and due to that, I can't upgrade my hard drive without having to get an Apple branded drive.

And I didn't mention anything about the car repairs. I mentioned usage of gasoline in your car. If you were told you could no longer buy gas for your car at Shell because you'd need to have special parameters put in your cars' PCM to use the brand YOU want, would you be happy with that? Probably not. No different than me being unhappy about having to install software to use an industry standard hadr drive.

 

[maxinc]

Then go to Apple store and get the right one. You clearly have more intention to trash the thread than to understand the issues here so I will stop feeding your anger right here.

 

[Shivetya]

I am not skipping out on the current generation of iMac because of the hard drive having a special connector. I am skipping out because they still are not a significant enough of an upgrade from my 2009 i5.

Would the connector have changed my mind if the performance was there? No. Why? Because I don't buy an iMac with the consideration of swapping internal components out.

 

[tsugaru]

Then go to Apple store and get the right one. You clearly have more intention to trash the thread than to understand the issues here so I will stop feeding your anger right here.

Actually no. People get bigger hard drives as they choose.
Guess what? The base 21.5" iMac has a 500GB hard drive. That's the ONLY option Apple offers. What happens if someone wants to upgrade it to a larger drive later on?


The new iMac I got on Thursday came with a 1TB Seagate drive. I loathe Seagate drives. What if I want to put a Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black drive in later on? Or a 2TB? Guess what? Now I can't, due to Apple.

Just because YOU don't need to change/upgrade/replace the drive right now doesn't mean others don't, or that you won't need to later.

And as for your Blu-Ray statement. A good chunk of us want Blu-Ray support in OS X. And hey; it does have Blu-Ray support, but only for authoring, not video playback, due to Apple's insistence that the iTunes stores' offering is all you'd need. It'd be nice to not have to boot into Windows to play a Blu-Ray movie, or have to rip it and encode it to a video file just to enjoy the movie in OS X.

It's fine to state your opinion, but a - be accurate about your statements, and b - don't push your opinions on others without the proper facts.

 

[iSayuSay]

I´d rather upgrade an iMac with smaller capacity SSD (128Gb) than complain about HDD being irreplaceable by user.

I can get decent SSD for about $200, but does AASP (Authorized Apple Service Provider) willing to install third party SSD for my iMac? How much would it cost including installation fee? I don´t want to spend $600 for additional 256Gb SSD from Apple, they just cost too much, not overpriced ... but really, I dont want to spend that money for SSD only.

Any information regarding SSD installation on AASP?

 

[tsugaru]

I am not skipping out on the current generation of iMac because of the hard drive having a special connector. I am skipping out because they still are not a significant enough of an upgrade from my 2009 i5.

Would the connector have changed my mind if the performance was there? No. Why? Because I don't buy an iMac with the consideration of swapping internal components out.

Depending on what you do, the GPU is a fairly big upgrade. I upgraded from a 2009 i7, and the performance is quite noticeable.

See, I like you Shivetya. Unlike maxinc, you give your opinion, but don't state that it's the be all end all. +1 props for you.

I can see down the road where updating the hard drive is beneficial. I replaced the stock 250GB HD in my old old 2006 20" Intel iMac (ah the first Intel one) with a newer 640GB HD in 2008. The drive was faster, was SATA 3Gb/s vs 1.5Gb/s (not that it overly mattered,) used a bit less power, was much quieter, and had 32MB of cache vs 8MB (Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB 32MB cache vs. Maxtor 250GB 8MB cache.) And the drive was only $65. It cost about as much at the AASP to have it installed.

Guess looking back, it was nice back then in that the temperature sensor was literally a cable that was taped on the drive to monitor the temperature. Ah the good old days.

 

[tsugaru]

I´d rather upgrade an iMac with smaller capacity SSD (128Gb) than complain about HDD being irreplaceable by user.

I can get decent SSD for about $200, but does AASP (Authorized Apple Service Provider) willing to install third party SSD for my iMac? How much would it cost including installation fee? I don´t want to spend $600 for additional 256Gb SSD from Apple, they just cost too much, not overpriced ... but really, I dont want to spend that money for SSD only.

Any information regarding SSD installation on AASP?

Depends where you go. Both places in my city (Edmonton, AB) charge 1.0hr labour to install a new drive (no OS install, you can do that yourself later and not get charged what they charge. MyMacDealer charges $95/hr. Westworld charges $109/hr.

As for Apple's price on the SSD, for a 256GB drive it's not bad. For a 3Gb/s drive. $550 gets you a 240GB OCZ Vertex 3 which will run circles around any other non-Sandforce based SSD. I'm debating doing this. It'd be $550 + tax ($577.50) + install ($100 with tax) + SSD pressure wall and cables (~$40.) So around $700. Ya it's a bit more, and you lose 16GB of storage space, but you gain a redonkulous amount of speed.

 

[maxinc]

Actually no. People get bigger hard drives as they choose.
Guess what? The base 21.5" iMac has a 500GB hard drive. That's the ONLY option Apple offers. What happens if someone wants to upgrade it to a larger drive later on?

Any of the 2011 drives, including the 27" models will work in the 21.5" iMacs as well.

The new iMac I got on Thursday came with a 1TB Seagate drive. I loathe Seagate drives. What if I want to put a Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black drive in later on? Or a 2GB? Guess what? Now I can't, due to Apple.

Just because YOU don't need to change/upgrade/replace the drive right now doesn't mean others don't, or that you won't need to later.

I do need, and I replaced it myself with something more suitable and it works fine. I also added the HDD Fan Control software for extra safety and I'm pleased to announce that is actually doing a better job than the Apple cooling system by keeping the HDD temperature lower with the same noise level.

It's fine to state your opinion, but a - be accurate about your statements, and b - don't push your opinions on others without the proper facts.

Here's some facts for you: I did open my 27" 2011 iMac, I did upgraded the SSD and HDD, I did run tests and posted results, I did find a compromising solution which I'm sharing with anyone interested. What facts did you bring in apart from bitching about Apple?

 

[tsugaru]

What facts did you bring in apart from bitching about Apple?

Uhh... the fact that this is the first time in recent history (at least that I can recall) that you have to use a 3rd party software package to control your computers' sub-system just to replace an industry standard part?

I mean, you're probably going to defend Apple if you had to use software just to install non-Apple RAM. Seems ludicrous, but it's akin to the same thing. There are industry standards for RAM (JEDEC) which Apple adheres to. And there are industry standards for SATA hard drives.

Remember how I mentioned earlier in the thread that my 2006 iMac was able to have it's hard drive replaced; no finagling or anything? EVERY OTHER COMPUTER besides the 2011 iMac lets you do that.

It's not bitching. It's constructive criticism. Apparently you think I'm the only one who's complaining about this. Open your eyes. Maybe you should realize that you shouldn't have to add something that, frankly, is unnecessary, just because the company you purchased something from is trying to be a unique snowflake, for something that didn't need it.

 

[tsugaru]

Any of the 2011 drives, including the 27" models will work in the 21.5" iMacs as well.

So you're saying I should pay $299 for a WD Caviar Black 2TB from Apple, when I can get the exact same drive from a local computer store, without Apple's firmware for $149? If you're willing to pay the difference, I'm all for it.

$150 due to proprietary firmware. For the same product.

I suppose had you wanted to go to Apple for their parts, you would have ordered the Apple BTO with their SSD.

 

[maxinc]

So you're saying I should pay $299 for a WD Caviar Black 2TB from Apple, when I can get the exact same drive from a local computer store, without Apple's firmware for $149? If you're willing to pay the difference, I'm all for it.

$150 due to proprietary firmware. For the same product.

I suppose had you wanted to go to Apple for their parts, you would have ordered the Apple BTO with their SSD.

I know, it is outrageous. This is why I've chosen to install standard hard drive and keep my money in the pocket.