Just ordered my 5k iMac...

[StefanYFC]

I've been using this forum off and on since I picked up my rMBP in mid-2012. It's been a fantastic machine but at the end of this month my AppleCare finishes. Instead of sitting on my hands I decided to look at what I could do. Theres a vendor in my area that does trade-ins and I decided that since I'm not longer in school and my laptop hasn't moved from it's spot in 6 months that I'd trade it in for the beautiful 5k iMac. I just want to say a couple of things after looking around this forum for the first time in a few months.

1. I came from PC. I had built 4 machines. I had 2 laptops. I was, for the most part, against getting an Apple laptop/desktop. I honestly don't even recall what changed but I couldn't be happier that it did. Even to this day, some of my friends tease me about it. I don't PC game anymore(PS4 now), as a matter of fact I dont even do anything particularly intensive on my mac. But everything I do, it just works. It's smooth and it's beautiful. I've never had a single software issue in 3 years. The hardware issue I did have at the beginning (a few dead pixels and a creaky chassis) were dealt with no problem when I brought it in to Apple.

2 (and lastly) I'm so excited. I'm not worried about heat. I'm not worried about noise. I'm just excited. For a beautiful, brand new, fully covered machine. Moving from 15'' to 27'' is particularly breathtaking and I couldn't be more stoked for it.

No issues, no complaints, no questions. I'm just happy.

Sorry if this breaks some forum rules but I don't really have anyone gush to and it needed to happen.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your day ladies and gentlemen.

 

[Butchie-T]

SCORE for you!!! Congrats on the new 5K iMac. I'll be doing the same as soon as I finish saving for mine. I'm about half way there so I figure sometime towards the end of this year. What configuration did you finally end up with?

 

[StefanYFC]

SCORE for you!!! Congrats on the new 5K iMac. I'll be doing the same as soon as I finish saving for mine. I'm about half way there so I figure sometime towards the end of this year. What configuration did you finally end up with?

Thanks! 3.5/8gb/290/1tb FD

My current rMBP is only 256, so having a 1tb internal will be nice to go along with my 2tb external. As my friend said, it's never a bad time for a new Mac. Hope you get yours soon!

 

[jerwin]

The fan really isn't objectionable below 1600 rpm. Normally it runs at 1200 rpm, which seems close to silent. 2200 rpm is pretty noticeable, though normally a game has a soundtrack.

 

[Serban]

Even in a game, i focus , the fans runs at 2200 just for the first 5 min after they come at 1800rpm. They go again at 2200rpm only if you go cmd+tab for something

 

[aliensporebomb]

Just ordered mine too. But until I receive it I won't say a peep! Congrats!

 

[biscuitsxluv]

Congrats! I hope you enjoy it!

 

[Cape Dave]

Get the SSD.

 

[StefanYFC]

Get the SSD.

I dont run anything intensive. I understand things might boot faster or install faster but I'm also never in a rush like that. I'd rather have the space. I dealt with 256gb on my rMBP for the past 3 years and I'm happy to be getting 1tb now. 512gb just isn't in my price range as I'd rather have AppleCare. Maybe in the future I'll upgrade to it when the cost comes down a bit.

 

[Blujelly]

depending on what updates happen from now until October, when I move to my house I'll be doing the same

 

[Cape Dave]

I dont run anything intensive. I understand things might boot faster or install faster but I'm also never in a rush like that. I'd rather have the space. I dealt with 256gb on my rMBP for the past 3 years and I'm happy to be getting 1tb now. 512gb just isn't in my price range as I'd rather have AppleCare. Maybe in the future I'll upgrade to it when the cost comes down a bit.

You have 14 days to see if you like it. SSD turns it into a fire breathing beast. Fast external storage is cheap. Upgrading is not easy.

 

[filmak]

I dont run anything intensive. I understand things might boot faster or install faster but I'm also never in a rush like that. I'd rather have the space. I dealt with 256gb on my rMBP for the past 3 years and I'm happy to be getting 1tb now. 512gb just isn't in my price range as I'd rather have AppleCare. Maybe in the future I'll upgrade to it when the cost comes down a bit.

From a technical point of view the SSD is better, faster, cooler, less noisy, no vibrations, no mechanical - rotating parts, so in general more reliable with better performance with the current and future OS.

I would certainly go for the SSD + external HD.

 

[Dark Void]

I'm not going to make suggestions of what you "should" or "shouldn't" be doing with your purchase, or how you should or shouldn't be configuring it. You are happy with it and that's the only thing that matters.

Just dropping in to say thanks for the refreshing post and congrats on your purchase. Best of luck and hoping you enjoy it.

 

[ZipZap]

From a technical point of view the SSD is better, faster, cooler, less noisy, no vibrations, no mechanical - rotating parts, so in general more reliable with better performance with the current and future OS.

I would certainly go for the SSD + external HD.

Faster - Yes
Cooler - Maybe...I put one of those blade SSDs in a external drive and erased it. Got pretty hot.
Noisy - I hear no noise from my fusion drive and if there is noise its inconsequential
Vibrations - I dont hung my iMac and I don't feel any vibration on my desktop so I think this is not a valid concern
Mechanical - Yes much less reliable but the SSDs can and do fail with the same disastrous results. A backup solves this.

So from my perspective the only reason for the SSD is the "Need for Speed".

My rMBP had an SSD and I did like how fast it booted. The iMac fusion boot is not bad. I could get it back it I unfuse the internal drives. For me the bottom line is Apples asking price for SSD is just ridiculous. My 3.5/8GB/1TB Fusion 5K only cost $1800. That's the sweet spot as pricing goes. I am not going to add $750 to pay full retail just to get that 512GB SSD and loose 50% of my storage.

 

[ZipZap]

........

 

[filmak]

I'm not going to make suggestions of what you "should" or "shouldn't" be doing with your purchase, or how you should or shouldn't be configuring it. You are happy with it and that's the only thing that matters.

Just dropping in to say thanks for the refreshing post and congrats on your purchase. Best of luck and hoping you enjoy it.

fully agree

 

[jerwin]

So from my perspective the only reason for the SSD is the "Need for Speed".

I don't have an SSD (only a fusion drive) mainly because I'm cheap enough to look for the sales on the default configurations.

But storage has long been the slowest part of any computer, and essentially they have a long way to catch up before they stop being *the* bottleneck. From that point of view, it's about damn time!

 

[filmak]

Faster - Yes
Cooler - Maybe...I put one of those blade SSDs in a external drive and erased it. Got pretty hot.
Noisy - I hear no noise from my fusion drive and if there is noise its inconsequential
Vibrations - I dont hung my iMac and I don't feel any vibration on my desktop so I think this is not a valid concern
Mechanical - Yes much less reliable but the SSDs can and do fail with the same disastrous results. A backup solves this.

So from my perspective the only reason for the SSD is the "Need for Speed".

My rMBP had an SSD and I did like how fast it booted. The iMac fusion boot is not bad. I could get it back it I unfuse the internal drives. For me the bottom line is Apples asking price for SSD is just ridiculous. My 3.5/8GB/1TB Fusion 5K only cost $1800. That's the sweet spot as pricing goes. I am not going to add $750 to pay full retail just to get that 512GB SSD and loose 50% of my storage.

I see that we agree that the mechanical is less reliable, so isn't this an issue with the way the fusion drive works? These particular Seagate drives are well known for being problematic, (remember the Apple recalls etc).

About the "need for speed"... Imho today's OSs are taking better advance of SSDs and the total experience is certainly smoother. The industry is moving to SSDs.
Also check the Apple's computers line... there is an undeniable movement towards SSDs, because there are many benefits of using them.

About the vibrations and noise, there were (are?) many issues with the rotating drives transmitting their vibrations to the iMac's aluminium base-desk and making noise-vibrations, many people put rubber feets or other objects to avoid this, you can search it.

Anyway I don't disagree with you and I fully respect and agree with your thinkings about the pricing / usage needs.

I wish we had really big and reasonably priced SSDs.

 

[filmak]

to OP

I wish you many years of enjoyment with your new iMac

 

[tillsbury]

Very similar story OP. I came from CP/M, DOS, Windows to the rMBP when it was announced in 2012. Never looked back. Mostly used it with a 30" Dell monitor, but was always waiting for a full-sized Retina display. I was in a coffee shop in Auckland when the riMac was announced, took me 30 seconds on the apple store to order the maxed-out model. Even dropping down to a 27" screen is worth it for the display. Have since bought three MB Airs (for others), two mac minis (son and media centre), and a rMB (for fun). I've built hundreds and hundreds of computers in my time, the riMac is so far away the best it's not funny.

 

[filmak]

Very similar story OP. I came from CP/M, DOS, Windows to the rMBP when it was announced in 2012. Never looked back. Mostly used it with a 30" Dell monitor, but was always waiting for a full-sized Retina display. I was in a coffee shop in Auckland when the riMac was announced, took me 30 seconds on the apple store to order the maxed-out model. Even dropping down to a 27" screen is worth it for the display. Have since bought three MB Airs (for others), two mac minis (son and media centre), and a rMB (for fun). I've built hundreds and hundreds of computers in my time, the riMac is so far away the best it's not funny.

Very nice. Also similar story.
I'm intersted in buying a maxed out riMac for photography -Lightroom 6.(no games).
Have you noticed any extreme heat from m295x GPU or other issues - noise?

 

[tillsbury]

None at all. The back of the screen gets warm (but nothing like as hot as my Dell monitor alone used to get). The fans spin up when running games at 5k or doing prolonged video encoding or similar heavy lifting, but they're still quieter at full bore than my old PC's power supply fan was, and if I'm running a game they can hardly be heard over the music or sound effects. I also run smcfancontrol (purely so that I can preset the fans to full speed before running games in Windows 10 under parallels), but I don't have proof that that's necessary. GPU reports high temperatures when running such games, but it doesn't affect the computer. I am usually tempted to trust that Apple's engineers know more than I do about managing the operating temperatures of chips...

 

[filmak]

None at all. The back of the screen gets warm (but nothing like as hot as my Dell monitor alone used to get). The fans spin up when running games at 5k or doing prolonged video encoding or similar heavy lifting, but they're still quieter at full bore than my old PC's power supply fan was, and if I'm running a game they can hardly be heard over the music or sound effects. I also run smcfancontrol (purely so that I can preset the fans to full speed before running games in Windows 10 under parallels), but I don't have proof that that's necessary. GPU reports high temperatures when running such games, but it doesn't affect the computer. I am usually tempted to trust that Apple's engineers know more than I do about managing the operating temperatures of chips...

Thank you very much for your kind and detailed reply. I really appreciate it...

 

[StefanYFC]

So today I finally picked my machine up but due go to time constraints I had to go right to work afterwards. As I said I traded in my rMBP but they noticed a few issues(there was a white spot on the screen and a small dent beside the Apple symbol) so before they would take it I brought it in for Apple care(it had 10 dead pixels so they replaced no problem).

Anyway! Because of the hoop jumping and waiting, they gave me a model with a 512gb SSD free of charge. I also asked when the unit was originally purchased so I knew how long I had to buy Apple Care for it. Turns out the machine was purchased in June and Apple Care is already on it. That's a good $500 of free upgrades so as you can imagine, I'm pretty excited.

It took longer than I expected but I'm ecstatic. Thanks for tuning in!

 

[filmak]

So today I finally picked my machine up but due go to time constraints I had to go right to work afterwards. As I said I traded in my rMBP but they noticed a few issues(there was a white spot on the screen and a small dent beside the Apple symbol) so before they would take it I brought it in for Apple care(it had 10 dead pixels so they replaced no problem).

Anyway! Because of the hoop jumping and waiting, they gave me a model with a 512gb SSD free of charge. I also asked when the unit was originally purchased so I knew how long I had to buy Apple Care for it. Turns out the machine was purchased in June and Apple Care is already on it. That's a good $500 of free upgrades so as you can imagine, I'm pretty excited.

It took longer than I expected but I'm ecstatic. Thanks for tuning in!

Very nice. I hope that you will be happy for many years with your new rimac.
The SSD is a real bonus,
Cheers...