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Slow 27" iMac?

maflynn

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
Original poster
May 3, 2009
73,682
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So I went to my local Apple Store today to check out the iMacs. I gravitated to the 27" models and started playing with them. One thing I noticed after really being impressed with the gorgeous 5k screen. Performance. I fired up Microsoft Word via Cmd-Space and then typing Word.

It took several bounces in the dock to come up. I repeated that with different apps. Most of the apple apps, i.e., iMessage, Address Book all came up immediately. I know those are relatively tiny compared to MS Office.

I'm guessing that the performance I noticed was due to it using a hard drive or the Fusion Drive? I didn't think to check what it was running with until I stepped out of the store.

Any thoughts to the cause of what I noticed - could it be the slow drive?

I'm thinking of getting a desktop in 2016 and the 27" iMac is on my short list but I was surprised at how long it took to start up an application.

Overall its a really nice machine and I can see myself owning one, I can also see myself sleeping on the couch for months if I bought one now, as my wife would be very upset :p
 
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Personal opinion.....go all SSD internally (less prone to failure as well as smokin' fast) and get a nice external setup.

Apple really upped their game with these new SSD speeds.

-Kevin
 
maflynn said:
So I went to my local Apple Store today to check out the iMacs. I gravitated to the 27" models and started playing with them. One thing I noticed after really being impressed with the gorgeous 5k screen. Performance. I fired up Microsoft Word via Cmd-Space and then typing Word.

It took several bounces in the dock to come up. I repeated that with different apps. Most of the apple apps, i.e., iMessage, Address Book all came up immediately. I know those are relatively tiny compared to MS Office.

I'm guessing that the performance I noticed was due to it using a hard drive or the Fusion Drive? I didn't think to check what it was running with until I stepped out of the store.

Any thoughts to the cause of what I noticed - could it be the slow drive?

I'm thinking of getting a desktop in 2016 and the 27" iMac is on my short list but I was surprised at how long it took to start up an application.

Overall its a really nice machine and I can see myself owning one, I can also see myself sleeping on the couch for months if I bought one now, as my wife would be very upset :p
Click to expand...
I'd be really surprised if they didn't have all demo models maxed out with an SSD drive.
 
Office is pretty terrible these days too. Even on my ssd macbook office takes forever to load compared to other apps.
 
Apple fanboy said:
Regardless of what you can buy, if I was demoing, it would have a SSD.
It's like cars. You never get a demo base model in the show room do you?
Click to expand...

Yeah, but I'd have to imagine most people in the Apple store don't want to play with a shiny new iMac and have to order one for shipping instead of buying right then an there. Granted.....the latest iMacs are close to the price of some base model cars. :p

-Kevin
 
Sounds like those were straight up spinners. Even my old 2012 iMac 3TB Fusion drive fires apps up very fast, unless it's Office 2016 with El-Crapitan, in which case it just beachballs for an hour or so and I have to force quite it... LOL

But seriously, latest El_Crap update is better with office. And Fusion drives are fast.
 
The base model comes with an HDD rather than an SSD or Fusion Drive. I'm guessing that's what that one had.
 
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Apple fanboy said:
I'd be really surprised if they didn't have all demo models maxed out with an SSD drive.
Click to expand...

Don't think they do. The store I was in today had the highest-end stock model that I played around with (3.3 GHz i5, 2TB fusion drive, all stock). They did not have any upgraded models for sale, so I assume all display units were this or lower stock configs.

And really, we who care about this are a tiny fraction of their customer base. The sales guy next to me spent more time showing one couple how thin it is than talking about actual features. Ugh! :eek:
 
Best Buy is even worse. All of their iMacs in the store have standard hard drives. No SSDs or Fusion drives. Sad that that's the first Mac test drive lots of potential buyers get.
 
bankshot said:
Don't think they do. The store I was in today had the highest-end stock model that I played around with (3.3 GHz i5, 2TB fusion drive, all stock). They did not have any upgraded models for sale, so I assume all display units were this or lower stock configs.

And really, we who care about this are a tiny fraction of their customer base. The sales guy next to me spent more time showing one couple how thin it is than talking about actual features. Ugh! :eek:
Click to expand...
Thinness is more important than feature us.
 
It's possible that you were using the cut price $1799 iMac, or even the $1999 version with the skimpy (32G) flash allocation.

And of course, all the portable macs don't have hard drives, so you might have gotten used to the higher speeds.
 
bankshot said:
Don't think they do. The store I was in today had the highest-end stock model that I played around with (3.3 GHz i5, 2TB fusion drive, all stock). They did not have any upgraded models for sale, so I assume all display units were this or lower stock configs.
Click to expand...

The Apple store nearest me has two configs-- 3.2 Ghz and 3.3 Ghz. It did not have the $1799 model on display.
 
Apple fanboy said:
I'd be really surprised if they didn't have all demo models maxed out with an SSD drive.
Click to expand...

Better be surprised.....

I've been to all 5 local Apple stores and looked at their 27" 5K retinas.....
Not a singling one had all SSD......some had 1TB fusion and some had standard drive.
 
Apple fanboy said:
I'd be really surprised if they didn't have all demo models maxed out with an SSD drive.
Click to expand...

I went today to my local Apple store to check those new retina iMacs. They were all stock models, I think almost always all display models are stock configurations.
 
+1 for the idea that Apple could put best foot forward by showing off SSD speeds.
But then again...
Many have complained here and elsewhere about Apple not having at least fusion as minimum spec.
So at least Apple isn't showing off performance that you'll only get with high end BTO.
That's at least more genuine and less shady.
I can't wait to count bounces when mine arrives.
(taps fingers)
 
My store had the 2 higher stock models. I opened all the apps on both which were practically the same, they opened pretty much instantly for both. 1 maybe 2 bounces occasionally.

I was going to order online custom, but just decided to get the mid model. I migrated everything from a 2011 MM, it opens everything instantly including all my MS stuff. I will open it one day and throw in an SSD or just buy an external TB drive maybe BlackFriday after some deals, but until then there is nothing slow about this computer IMO.
 
I am also very curious why Apple put Fusion drive, not SSD in highest version 5K preset spec ? only as customize choice... In many dealers, they only have demo machine that with preset spec, and customers can only buy customize machine with SSD from Apple online. If SSD as preset equip in highest 5K version, customer is more easily to experience the amazing fast speed....

I think if users choose the top one among 3 kinds of preset 5K, there is little chance they stay in Fusion drive without upgrade to SSD.
 
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