Late 2015 iMac 5K is a BEAST.

[joshwithachance]

I just picked up a 3.2GHz Core i5 late 2015 iMac with 1TB fusion drive open boxed at my local Best Buy (for $1750, a nice $250 discount) which I can tell was not even used; must have been an immediate buyer's remorse for someone. And I am already head over heels for this thing.

The fusion drive is working as expected; everything opens super quick and I have no issues with performance. The screen is outrageously beautiful. And my goodness, the speakers impressed me!

Hope you guys are loving yours as well. And if I had any suggestions it would be to make sure you at least get a fusion drive, because I had purchased a base model 4K iMac with 5400 rpm drive and it was actual torture trying to do anything on it.

Any tips on how to get the most out of this machine? I would love some suggestions and reviews from you guys!

 

[maflynn]

It's a great machine, congrats on your new baby

As for tips, use it as you normally would and enjoy it

 

[shaunp]

Errm, I wouldn't describe any iMac as a 'beast'. It's a nice machine, don't get me wrong, but beast? Nah. It uses laptop components. A fully spec'd HP Z840, Dell Precision T7910, etc now those are beasts. ;o)

 

[Strider64]

A beast can mean different things for different computer. It's a very nice computer for it will run 99.9 percent of today's applications without any problems and the screen resolution/real estate is simply beautiful. My only tip is to make backups of your computer, but I recommend that with any computer a person uses.

 

[MistrSynistr]

Errm, I wouldn't describe any iMac as a 'beast'. It's a nice machine, don't get me wrong, but beast? Nah. It uses laptop components. A fully spec'd HP Z840, Dell Precision T7910, etc now those are beasts. ;o)

You may be on the wrong website.

 

[dan1eln1el5en]

a beast doesn't mean better specs....IMHO my work computer is 2-3 times better than my mac. Spec-wise.
But when it comes to "action"...oh my Windows and the driver hell that ensues... if I could only get close to my lack of drivers mac

(I like the raw power of Linux, but the lack of software makes it hard to make it a viable developer environment.)

Congrats to OP with the beast

 

[roberthallin]

Errm, I wouldn't describe any iMac as a 'beast'. It's a nice machine, don't get me wrong, but beast? Nah. It uses laptop components. A fully spec'd HP Z840, Dell Precision T7910, etc now those are beasts. ;o)

That's one hell of a laptop you must have, with those nice speakers and 27" 5k screen.

 

[jerwin]

That's one hell of a laptop you must have, with those nice speakers and 27" 5k screen.

a 27" 5k screen driven by a laptop video card. The CPU is a desktop part, though.

 

[redheeler]

Errm, I wouldn't describe any iMac as a 'beast'. It's a nice machine, don't get me wrong, but beast? Nah. It uses laptop components. A fully spec'd HP Z840, Dell Precision T7910, etc now those are beasts. ;o)

The CPU is a desktop one, and the display is far from anything found on a laptop.

 

[DoNoHarm]

Errm, I wouldn't describe any iMac as a 'beast'. It's a nice machine, don't get me wrong, but beast? Nah. It uses laptop components. A fully spec'd HP Z840, Dell Precision T7910, etc now those are beasts. ;o)

Wow, after clicking through the pop-ups asking for my help with a survey, I finally made it to an image of the product on dell's website. Man, that thing looks like someone pulled it out of a Soviet bunker!

 

[Adam552]

How are the speakers on the 5K iMac compared to the 2012 iMac?

 

[ryanide]

I just picked up a 3.2GHz Core i5 late 2015 iMac with 1TB fusion drive open boxed at my local Best Buy (for $1750, a nice $250 discount) which I can tell was not even used; must have been an immediate buyer's remorse for someone. And I am already head over heels for this thing.

The fusion drive is working as expected; everything opens super quick and I have no issues with performance. The screen is outrageously beautiful. And my goodness, the speakers impressed me!

Hope you guys are loving yours as well. And if I had any suggestions it would be to make sure you at least get a fusion drive, because I had purchased a base model 4K iMac with 5400 rpm drive and it was actual torture trying to do anything on it.

Any tips on how to get the most out of this machine? I would love some suggestions and reviews from you guys!

Thanks for your post. I love hearing that people are happy with their purchase, as often many people are only here to complain about things. Makes me excited about getting my new 5K iMac.

 

[joshwithachance]

How are the speakers on the 5K iMac compared to the 2012 iMac?

Absolutely FANTASTIC. So much fullness and bass. I'm still blown away by them.

 

[ivoruest]

The CPU is a desktop one, and the display is far from anything found on a laptop.

And 99.9% of desktops!

 

[shaunp]

Wow, after clicking through the pop-ups asking for my help with a survey, I finally made it to an image of the product on dell's website. Man, that thing looks like someone pulled it out of a Soviet bunker!

I never said it was pretty. Beast yes, pretty no
[doublepost=1456360328][/doublepost]

You may be on the wrong website.

No, I just find it amusing when people refer to the iMac as a beast. I've got loads of apple kit
[doublepost=1456360387][/doublepost]

The CPU is a desktop one, and the display is far from anything found on a laptop.

So what? I still wouldn't call it a beast...
[doublepost=1456360495][/doublepost]

That's one hell of a laptop you must have, with those nice speakers and 27" 5k screen.

Errm, you do know I wasn't talking about an actual laptop don't you, and that the iMac uses laptop components as it has to work within limited space and thermal constraints?

 

[maflynn]

[MOD NOTE]
Posts were removed - people are free to post their opinions whether for or against a Mac. Please debate the topic, and do not attack other members.

 

[redheeler]

So what? I still wouldn't call it a beast...

Then I'm curious as to your reasoning. Because it has a laptop GPU? An AIO with no expansion slots?

There are many people doing heavy work on i7 iMacs, these are powerful desktop-class performers. The 4-lane PCIe SSD and 5K display are very hard (if not impossible) to beat in the PC world. Yes, the iMacs are not the best choice for heavy gaming, but are otherwise plenty capable and very responsive on El Capitan.

 

[MistrSynistr]

I never said it was pretty. Beast yes, pretty no
[doublepost=1456360328][/doublepost]

No, I just find it amusing when people refer to the iMac as a beast. I've got loads of apple kit
[doublepost=1456360387][/doublepost]

So what? I still wouldn't call it a beast...
[doublepost=1456360495][/doublepost]

Errm, you do know I wasn't talking about an actual laptop don't you, and that the iMac uses laptop components as it has to work within limited space and thermal constraints?

I have a HP at work (without laptop components) with the same exact specs as my 2013 iMac at home and the iMac is about 10x faster, even with a HDD drive in it still, especially with programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and the like.

So I would call my iMac a beast compared to it's "equal" PC counterpart.

 

[Seed101]

Sweet...I'd call it a sweet machine as it hits a very nice sweet spot between power, performance and usability..for an all-in-one, it's super-sweet.

Yeah, you can buy/put together a 'beast' of a workstation but this computer isn't a workstation. It's a very good all rounder.

 

[shaunp]

Then I'm curious as to your reasoning. Because it has a laptop GPU? An AIO with no expansion slots?

There are many people doing heavy work on i7 iMacs, these are powerful desktop-class performers. The 4-lane PCIe SSD and 5K display are very hard (if not impossible) to beat in the PC world. Yes, the iMacs are not the best choice for heavy gaming, but are otherwise plenty capable and very responsive on El Capitan.

With the workloads I run (VM lab running Windows, Linux and ESXi servers) the iMac makes a load of noise as the fans run flat out. With the nMP I can't notice the fan at all.

As for PCIe SSD, you do know PC's had this first? Look at Fusion IO. yes it was very expensive and was aimed at the enterprise. I think they were available around 2009/2010. Now all new PC's have a PCIe slot on the motherboard for SSD's and you can get these SSD's very easily - amazon, etc. Apple did come out with the first 5K display, but not by much. Dell (and I think HP) make them so they are easy to get hold of. Okay you can't get it all in a nice package (unless dell have something new) like the iMac, but these things are definitely available in the PC world so I don't see how you think that is impossible. 5K is not that common, but SSD's certainly are.

My point about the iMac not being a beast is this. It's just a single socket computer that's no faster than any other single socket computer, and it has average GPU performance. There's no option for a second CPU, or multiple GPU's and it can only have 32GB RAM - I often need 64 and I'm getting to the point where 128GB will be required. I'm not that concerned about there only being a single disk and storage having to be external as this would be my choice on a PC too, but on a PC I could have a couple of Fibre Chanel HBA's and have multiple paths to my storage, and have access to tons of different high-end storage platforms. However I would ideally like to mirror the OS disks.

I don't hate the iMac, I think it's a fantastic package, but it's not a beast. I also don't think the nMP is a beast either. and I spent over £4k on one. Apple don't make beasts, they make beautiful machines that operate within a very small performance window.
[doublepost=1456433863][/doublepost]

I have a HP at work (without laptop components) with the same exact specs as my 2013 iMac at home and the iMac is about 10x faster, even with a HDD drive in it still, especially with programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and the like.

So I would call my iMac a beast compared to it's "equal" PC counterpart.

I think that was my point, I wouldn't describe either of those machines a beast. They are just desktop computers. Sure the iMac is a better machine, I'm not arguing that, but it's no beast either.

 

[makrom]

Is there any point in this whole discussion? What insight is there to be gained?

"beast, noun
any nonhuman animal, especially a large, four-footed mammal."

Ok I guess we can all agree that it or any other computer isn't a beast in the literal sense.
Other than that, there is no clear definition whatsoever so debating whether something could objectively be called a beast or not is totally pointless. If one perceives a computer that is surprisingly capable of doing what it's expected to do as a beast, that's completely fine by me. And if someone else has a different perception, that's fine as well. And that's pretty much it.

 

[Cape Dave]

Absolutely FANTASTIC. So much fullness and bass. I'm still blown away by them.

You may want to try an app called Boom. Makes them ever better!

 

[nkarafo]

I'm satisfied with my 5k imac too. I'm not blown away but it's a great computer! I use a lot of photoshop, video editing, websites posts, etc and I don't have any memory issues at all in comparison to windows that I wanted frequent restarts etc..
Mac OS X has still some bizarre limitations (why not folders on top, why not copy,paste icons on finder toolbar, why not video card further configuration?) but overall I'm satisfied too.

 

[firstinflight]

I also find the iMac 5K be a lovely machine. My only beef is that the Fusion Drive is not quite as fast as claimed by reviewers — many said a Fusion Drive is just as fast as an SSD, but I find my wake from sleep times to not be as instant as my SSD-only Mac Mini.

 

[nkarafo]

I also find the iMac 5K be a lovely machine. My only beef is that the Fusion Drive is not quite as fast as claimed by reviewers — many said a Fusion Drive is just as fast as an SSD, but I find my wake from sleep times to not be as instant as my SSD-only Mac Mini.

Yes, it's true. SSD is faster than mac fusion drive despite the fact that fusion drive has 24gb of ssd inside it. I don't know where exactly though. But at least fusion drive is not slow either.