I just purchased the imac 27-inch 3.2GHz quad‑core or 3.4GHz quad‑core Intel Core i5 processors Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz. I love it but I'm considering returning it to wait for the New 2015 imac. I had an old mac book from 2007 and now want something new to use photoshop etc with. I want this computer to last me about 10 years if not longer. My macbook still works but it is not longer able to be updated. Do you think apple producst are just getting to be cheaper and cheaper and it would be better to stick with the 2013 model? I'm not sure how much the new ones will be but I still want a 27 inch and to stay under 2000$. Let me know what you think!
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Should I wait for new imac (2015) or purchase 27-inch now
- Thread starter sward816
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Endless discussion here. If you think you need one now or the money is just burning in your pocket get one now.
Whatever you order get one with a SSD.
I'm waiting for my 27" with i7 and SSD (retina model was a bit too much for my budget). If you want an i7, be prepared for a long lead time... 3-4 weeks.
Personally, I don't think Apple will change much to the 2013/2014 model, except for:
- Skylake CPUs. Should give some extra performance (<10% ?), maybe cooler operation (not convinced). Maybe they will drop a discrete GPU for more cheaper models.
- Faster SSD (maybe they will use the NVMM controller from the new Macbook) performance
I hope that OSX 10.11 will bring less bugs and faster performance. Now I'm writing this.. any chance they will bring the Metal graphics API to OSX replacing OpenGL ?
I think there is a good chance we see USB type C on the new iMac which should make the machine very future proof. When was the last time the iMac was redesigned?
Thanks for the info! It helps a lot. I just personally want my computer to last about 10 years. I don't want to be stuck in 5 years with a computer that can no longer be updated and then im stuck with old software. The last time the original line of imac was updated was fall 2013. They did update to the retina display in 2014 for the larger models. I did want the i5 mostly because it is cheaper. What is the difference betwen i5 and i7? I'm mostly going to be using Adobe products on this machine.
Guess 2011 ? However, Apple tends to use industrial designs for a long time, also look at the Macbooks. The design has been there for ages.
I would not be so happy with type-C. A type-C connector with still USB 3.0 speeds makes no sense to me for a desktop machine. AFAIK, the new Macbook has a type-C connector, but still 5 Gbps speed. The waiting is for USB 3.1 host controllers supporting 10 Gbps speed. I'm not 100% sure if the Intel chipset accompanying Skylake (or Broadwell) has USB 3.1 support.
The big difference between i7 and i5 is hyperthreading. If you have applications with multiple threads, not able to use multiple cores that well, hyperthreading will help. Think of video encoding or high computational image processing apps.
For basic stuff, like web browsing, mail, viewing JPEGs in Photos etc. an i5 is fine.
If it was me and I wanted it to last me a good 10 years I would return it and wait for the new 2015 model. 10 years though? That's a long time. I would be aiming around the five to six year mark before getting rid and upgrading.
10 years supported by the latest software is a stretch, 7 or 8 is more reasonable. What I would be concerned about most of all when future proofing is the Retina display. In a few years all iMacs will have it, so if you plan to keep it for a long time Retina is a must have.
Edit: For the Retina I would recommend the M295X GPU upgrade. If you do processor-intensive work the i7 will give you a nice speed boost as it supports Hyper-threading while the i5 does not, but otherwise there isn't as much reason to worry about the CPU.
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I'm waiting for the new 2015 version. I'm still running a 2007 MBP as my "desktop" and I have a MBA that is my daily go-to. I need something more powerful than the MBA & the MBP is useless for anything that needs any processing power at all.
I went through the same thought cycle as you & decided that at best, they put out a new iMac at WWDC. At worst, they wait until the fall in-house event. (Well, at worst they don't update the iMac until next year, but I can't see that happening when this is one of their flagship computers for Christmas time.) I figured that as much as I could use a new computer now, waiting a few months will potentially buy me a few years on the back end if they put in a better processor, better hard drives, and upgraded connectivity ports.
I agree that the computer won't last you 10 years, but if you want it to go 7ish, you are better to wait & get the next one at the start of its life cycle than the current one at the end of it.
I went through the same thought cycle as you & decided that at best, they put out a new iMac at WWDC. At worst, they wait until the fall in-house event. (Well, at worst they don't update the iMac until next year, but I can't see that happening when this is one of their flagship computers for Christmas time.) I figured that as much as I could use a new computer now, waiting a few months will potentially buy me a few years on the back end if they put in a better processor, better hard drives, and upgraded connectivity ports.
I agree that the computer won't last you 10 years, but if you want it to go 7ish, you are better to wait & get the next one at the start of its life cycle than the current one at the end of it.