Based on animations, the hot air is vented to the side, not downward:
https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2017/06/imac-pro-thermal-100724910-orig.gif
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iMac Pro Available to Order December 14, Starting at $4,999
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Based on animations, the hot air is vented to the side, not downward:
https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2017/06/imac-pro-thermal-100724910-orig.gif
Thanks I forgot about that animation from the annoucement and the iMac Pro main site.
Thank you. Originally I thought the 75% improved airflow over standard iMac doesn't mean much because well, this isn't a standard iMac to begin with (apples to apples). 500W produces a LOT of heat when under heavy load in a computer especially one so thin - yet maybe the heat pipes and fan/volume of air it moves is very efficient. The design, as I'm corrected above to move the air outwardly not downward as I thought from the iMac stand/arm is a plus as well.
I'm hoping they have it covered though. For those purchasing this will be something to keep an eye on within the first 30 days of ownership under heavy load.
I am a developer, so I'd say that qualifies me as a Pro.
I have a 2009 Mac Pro, which is still perfectly usable today because I've upgraded the firmware, CPU, drives, video card, etc. Being able to upgrade inexpensively over time is one of the reasons the higher up-front cost was worth it.
There is no 2009 iMac that would still be at all useful to me today. So I'd be on my 2nd one at least most likely at greater cost than the Mac Pro overall. Of course, Apple would probably prefer I've purchased 2 Macs instead of just one that I keep updating since they don't get any additional revenue from that.
So my concern is about the longevity of a $5000+ computer. Granted computer improvements are not all that significant year-over-year like there were in the past, and maybe the "upgrade process" is simply to sell the iMac Pro (since it will likely retain good value) and apply that towards the cost of a newer one. However, I think it is unwise to invest in these until we find out more about the supposed Mac Pro replacement next year.
Happily my Mac Pro is capable of soldiering on for another year.
I have a 2009 Mac Pro, which is still perfectly usable today because I've upgraded the firmware, CPU, drives, video card, etc. Being able to upgrade inexpensively over time is one of the reasons the higher up-front cost was worth it.
There is no 2009 iMac that would still be at all useful to me today. So I'd be on my 2nd one at least most likely at greater cost than the Mac Pro overall. Of course, Apple would probably prefer I've purchased 2 Macs instead of just one that I keep updating since they don't get any additional revenue from that.
So my concern is about the longevity of a $5000+ computer. Granted computer improvements are not all that significant year-over-year like there were in the past, and maybe the "upgrade process" is simply to sell the iMac Pro (since it will likely retain good value) and apply that towards the cost of a newer one. However, I think it is unwise to invest in these until we find out more about the supposed Mac Pro replacement next year.
Happily my Mac Pro is capable of soldiering on for another year.
You do not understand business. It is a question of lifespan; for example a $30000 camera (Hasselblad) in our studio reaches its lifespan after 12 months, so it gets retired. As long as we make much more profit in this time frame I am glad to replace the equipment after a year. So if the iMac Pros, which I will buy in 2 days are not up the task in a year, well my kids will find a use for them and I will get the one that is "5 times faster". So the business worked pretty good for the last 25 years.. For gamers it might be different, but please do not call them "Pros".
I don't mind "voiding warranty" and opening the machine once AppleCare wears out if it's physically possible to open the machine (which I imagine is a necessity for repairs).
My 2011 27" has 32GB of RAM packed in, Apple rates it for up to 16GB.
My only concern is with RAM as I have NAS and other external storage (including some cloud) for data retention, and the experiential degradation of performance over time is due to heavier requirements from the OS and applications.
I'd like to know if it's physically possible to upgrade the memory, even if it's slightly unreasonable from an effort standpoint. That's in contrast to "very unreasonable" if say… replacing soldered components in a MacBook Air.
I'm still rocking a 2010/Nehalem Mac Pro. It's got x3 1TB HDs and a 500 GB SD Home Drive and 32 GB RAM. Love love it!!!
And to counter this argument? I work for a company that's certainly under the heading of "creative professionals" - helping universities and Fortune 1000 firms develop internal marketing strategies and campaigns.
We're primarily a Mac shop, but we can't cost justify these $5,000+ per machine expenditures, especially for a non-upgradeable or user-servicable desktop!
The majority of our employees (sales staff, various project managers, etc.) currently get by ok with a Macbook Air 13" as long as it's the "high spec" model with the 512GB SSD and 8GB of RAM in it.
Moving forward, we're issuing people the new Macbook Pro retina 13" notebooks as the standard. And frankly, that's the most money we've ever spent on computers for the typical employee here (by the time you add in the cost of the necessary dongle adapters and a suitable 27" display with USB-C hub built into it).
We used to have one Mac Pro workstation in each office for the people doing design work or rendering, who needed more power than the laptops. But the use of those has dwindled. Our office doing most of the 3D rendering work went to Windows workstations a while back, and never looked back. Much more bang for the buck with better video card options.
The office I work in still has a 2010 era Mac Pro tower that's practically never used anymore, other than someone powering it on rarely to try to find some old Illustrator or Photoshop file they remember was saved on its drive in the past. I asked if they thought there was any need for a new iMac Pro, and they quickly rejected it as pointless.
None of this is an attempt to discredit what you've said about your own situation. But I'm trying to point out that some multi-million dollar, award winning creative firms employing hundreds of people are saying "No thanks!" to this new Apple "pro" gear. It's not just the "gamers". We've invested a lot in both cloud-based and back-end server infrastructure in recent years, and the flexibility that gives people to access and share content from anywhere is more valuable than making sure the "fastest computer Apple is willing to sell us" sits on some of our desks. We have a good I.T. department on staff (myself included as part of that team) and we're all comfortable taking Macs apart and swapping or upgrading components. When the system has even the SSD soldered in, that's a big negative in our book. (Why pay for our skills and abilities to do that sort of work, when we can't do it with the chosen hardware anyway?)
We're primarily a Mac shop, but we can't cost justify these $5,000+ per machine expenditures, especially for a non-upgradeable or user-servicable desktop!
The majority of our employees (sales staff, various project managers, etc.) currently get by ok with a Macbook Air 13" as long as it's the "high spec" model with the 512GB SSD and 8GB of RAM in it.
Moving forward, we're issuing people the new Macbook Pro retina 13" notebooks as the standard. And frankly, that's the most money we've ever spent on computers for the typical employee here (by the time you add in the cost of the necessary dongle adapters and a suitable 27" display with USB-C hub built into it).
We used to have one Mac Pro workstation in each office for the people doing design work or rendering, who needed more power than the laptops. But the use of those has dwindled. Our office doing most of the 3D rendering work went to Windows workstations a while back, and never looked back. Much more bang for the buck with better video card options.
The office I work in still has a 2010 era Mac Pro tower that's practically never used anymore, other than someone powering it on rarely to try to find some old Illustrator or Photoshop file they remember was saved on its drive in the past. I asked if they thought there was any need for a new iMac Pro, and they quickly rejected it as pointless.
None of this is an attempt to discredit what you've said about your own situation. But I'm trying to point out that some multi-million dollar, award winning creative firms employing hundreds of people are saying "No thanks!" to this new Apple "pro" gear. It's not just the "gamers". We've invested a lot in both cloud-based and back-end server infrastructure in recent years, and the flexibility that gives people to access and share content from anywhere is more valuable than making sure the "fastest computer Apple is willing to sell us" sits on some of our desks. We have a good I.T. department on staff (myself included as part of that team) and we're all comfortable taking Macs apart and swapping or upgrading components. When the system has even the SSD soldered in, that's a big negative in our book. (Why pay for our skills and abilities to do that sort of work, when we can't do it with the chosen hardware anyway?)
A 5K display is low-tech? Really? In what universe? Or maybe you are being sarcastic. If not, then here's a suggestion - go buy an iMac Pro, hook up an eGPU with a Vega 56 or Vega 64 card and attach one of those spiffy Dell UltraSharp 32" 8K displays and let us know how it looks. Point of fact, 8K won't be relevant for end-users until well into 2020 when the Olympics are broadcast. Hopefully, by that time, Apple will have introduced a new Mac Pro, an 8K display and a larger iMac Pro with a 32" 8K display.
Wondering if anyone cares to speculate on release date and specs of the 2018 iMac? I seem to recall that it might be a fairly significant revision, perhaps a new design with Touch ID, better camera, etc.
I hear ya... but I don't think Apple will make a machine with standard internal HDD bays ever again...
Now excuse me while I admire the six hard drives in my Windows PC tower...
All that data now belongs to Microsoft....
I think you're going to have to wait for an iFixIt teardown for that info. Past iMacs have had some level of upgradeability but you have to remove the screen to get in there. I also agree, if there are sockets for things like CPUs, RAM, SSDs making it possible to upgrade if you're willing to do the effort, that would be great.
Ultimately this will determine whether I consider new Apple equipment. Desktop or laptop.
Sooner or later my existing equipment won't be up to the task and I'll need something new. I'd prefer fresh Apple hardware to having to Hackintosh it. My business deserves it. But I'll do what's most viable at the time.
The artist renderings provided by Apple show two sets of DDR4‑2666 DIMMs which would be socketed, not soldered.
That's what caught my eye and led me to ask here if anyone knew. The renderings are usually pretty close to the actual setup based on my previous purchases.
Great points!
Remember when it was required in I.T. To switch out hardware components and know POST alerts?!
Welcome to the new world where:
Warranty of all components outweighs on site repairs,
Where next day global shipping for replacement machine is become close to standard as an upgradeable cost, where hardware manufacturers and/or their partners now offer to image your corporate computers (you supply the image that includes the quarterly set of patches),
Where that cloud infrastructure you’ve mentioned allows access via VPN & hosted desktop for even an iPad to access and project onto a larger screen via a simple dongle and keyboard,
Direct access to Actice Directory is being taken away,
Where water resistance is promised more for an enclosed laptop since parts are no longer user replaceable.
It’s a guaranteed upgrade cycle!
If you haven’t noticed the workstation is reverting back to a dumb-terminal Very year, slowly but surely: corporate servers are used more for corporate data, not only allowing for rapid collaboration, but also for faster and better permissions controls within a site or globally, limiting the chance of disgruntled employees for destroying or altering sensitive data before being let go. There is so much change in the corporate space that is affecting not only the user but those of us within I.T. As well.
I’m not sure how this is affecting Mac shops but in Microsoft shops the change has already begun many years ago. I’m just waiting until Lenovo, HP, and Dell all begin shipping corporate computers without end user replaceable RAM, Batteries (which some have begun in top end notebooks), and the keyboards start becoming crap across the board. The sweet spot is when all three begin shipping tablets as pure computer replacements which has been tried with quite a few convertible quirks but it’ll happen.
Things I have noticed from this thread.
•some people really over inflate what "Pro" actually means.
•why do people have a problem with bezels on the iMacs? Maybe it's just my personal preference but has anyone else noticed how hard it is to find Displays that are styled as nice as Apple ones?
•DIY/tinkerers are really over estimating just how many "Pros" actually know anything about the insides of their computer let alone how to change things.
•some people really over inflate what "Pro" actually means.
•why do people have a problem with bezels on the iMacs? Maybe it's just my personal preference but has anyone else noticed how hard it is to find Displays that are styled as nice as Apple ones?
•DIY/tinkerers are really over estimating just how many "Pros" actually know anything about the insides of their computer let alone how to change things.
I get a lot of what you are saying. I would add that "Pro" I think has changed in its implementation by Apple. In the past, Apple covered many of the people that you are saying are over inflating things with Apple's products while still enabling the other people that did not care about these things with "Just works" products. Think of it this way: It never hurt the "Rest of Us" that the people you are referring to could add and remove components from their machines. What it did hurt were Apple's margins. So if in the name of more profit and less coverage at no expense to users like yourself they moved away from this model, you can see why many of them are speaking up about it.