iMac 27 2017 or Wait ?

[EightyTwenty]

As others have said, just get it. The new iMacs are not expected for another few months, and it's doubtful that the new models will have more than the modest spec bump.

This is definitely not the year to make such a statement.

Coffee Lake is leaps and bounds beyond the Intel gen in the current iMacs.

 

[haruhiko]

Given that it's March already you'd better wait until WWDC.

 

[stylinexpat]

Well, we already know that Intel are pushing up the core count - look at the 8700.
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Hahaha. That's funny, man! When I play games on my iMac, the fan runs at 3500RPM. That's an R9 M295X. If you can keep it running at 2200RPM I'd call that that overclocking headroom you mentioned. Plus with the fan at 3500RPM, my GPU still hits 105C. (That's it's TJunction)

Perhaps a small external fans should help keep it cool

 

[casperes1996]

Perhaps a small external fans should help keep it cool

It might keep the air around it fresher would could help, but the usage of the chassis for cooling is minimal so the effect wouldn't be very big compared to doing the same on a MacBook. It's not really that big a problem though. It's still running within spec
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I wouldn't be surprised if the 2018 iMacs utilize the improved cooling design of the iMac Pro, combined with whatever Intel CPUs are available by late spring. Probably the same rear panel design, as well.

I would. Very surprised actually. The cooling design in the Pro is required for its 130W CPU and roughly 235-250W GPU. Nowhere near that kind of TDP will come to the regular iMac, and therefore the cooling system won't be needed, and one fan is cheaper than 2. And it's a premium feature of the Pro that sets them apart in the market.

 

[EugW]

I would. Very surprised actually. The cooling design in the Pro is required for its 130W CPU and roughly 235-250W GPU. Nowhere near that kind of TDP will come to the regular iMac, and therefore the cooling system won't be needed, and one fan is cheaper than 2. And it's a premium feature of the Pro that sets them apart in the market.

Same, I would be surprised if the new iMac non-Pro uses the same cooling system as the iMac Pro.

OTOH, the 7700K / 8700K need a better cooling design IMO. It should be noted that some people are reporting the 10 core iMac Pro is quieter under load than the 4-core 7700K.

 

[casperes1996]

OTOH, the 7700K / 8700K need a better cooling design IMO. It should be noted that some people are reporting the 10 core iMac Pro is quieter under load than the 4-core 7700K.

That's the general consensus, yes. And it's noise wise a lot worse with my 2014 4790K+R9 M295X. As mentioned, it can get up to 3500RPM.
But a larger internal heatsink, maybe spreading the heat to the external chassis more should be enough. Not an extra fan.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Same, I would be surprised if the new iMac non-Pro uses the same cooling system as the iMac Pro.

It would be a significant redesign of the internals in the classic iMac. Considering Xeons use entirely different sockets and desktop length ECC memory, it would also require significant motherboard design changes. That's a lot of engineering just to use the same cooler, but who knows? It would be very sad to lose that RAM door!

Images courtesy of iFixit:
5K iMac:

iMac Pro:

 

[stylinexpat]

I spent some time today comparing the 21.5” & 27” iMac at the Apple store. Putting my hand behind both iMacs in the middle of the rear where the vents are I found that the 27” iMacs seemed to run cooler compared to the 21.5” iMacs. There was a noticeable difference in temperature that could be felt by hand. Two different computers and both were the same at the Apple store.

 

[Glmnet1]

OTOH, the 7700K / 8700K need a better cooling design IMO.

Or they could be removed. It would be a good time for Apple to do it because they could still claim ~30-50% more speed thanks to the 6 cores.

 

[theluggage]

Or they could be removed. It would be a good time for Apple to do it because they could still claim ~30-50% more speed thanks to the 6 cores.

That would be my bet too (just speculation). Also leaves a nice distinction between the high-end iMacs and the iMac Pro.

Truth is, nobody really has any idea: you can construct plausible arguments for no 2018 iMacs, minor 2018 upgrades or radical new 2018 designs - there's precedents for all 3.

I suspect that the Mac story at WWDC will be the pre-announcement of the Mac Pro (if they don't make a substantial announcement by then, they might as well forget it) and that the MacBook(Pro), as the bigger money spinner, will be first in the queue for updated processors. Hey, my idle speculation is as good as the next guy's... anybody who actually knows is either under NDA or will want paying for their knowledge...

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Or they could be removed. It would be a good time for Apple to do it because they could still claim ~30-50% more speed thanks to the 6 cores.

Those are 91/95W CPUs, as opposed to the base models running at 65W. They do make an 8700P that is 65W. Maybe if they used it that instead it would help. It does seem like 6C iMacs are coming—after all, the iMPs start at 8C/16T, so there would be no overlap between the model lines.

 

[EugW]

I wanted a 27” with i7-7700 non-K but Apple only released that CPU with the 21.5”. I suspect the same will be true with the i7-8700 non-K.

If I’m right, that will be too bad, since the i7-8700 non-K is an amazing 65 W chip.