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The "I didn't get an i7 or upgraded graphics card" thread

RoryO said:
I ordered the base 27" and just upgraded to the 3TB fusion drive.

I was tempted to max out the GPU and CPU as well as it's only an extra £150, then only an extra £200, and then only an extra £130.....

In the end I decided that the extra money will be better spent on a new iPad, iPhone, or perhaps a new Sony RX100 camera.

One other reason I resisted the upgrades was a review I read, the reviewer had maxed out the previous iMac model (Late 2012) but found that the extra heat meant the fans ran much more often than his previous iMac. I'll be moving from a MacBook Air so I've come to appreciate silent computing so I decided to avoid adding lots of potentially hot upgrades to the machine.
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Hmm. If i was told that before i may have aimed for the i5. I actually started a thread about it but ppl said there was hardly any difference in heat.
I was going for the top graphic, gtx 780m, but was unsure about the cpu.

The machine was expensive at it was so i throw in a i7 cpu aswell.
Silent computer is a big deal for me.
 
RoryO said:
The TDP goes from 115W on the base model CPU+GPU to 184W on the maxed out CPU+GPU.
But the reviewer seemed to think it was the cause of their excessive fan activity and regretted the upgrades.
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Do you have link to the review?

And are you / the reviewer suggesting the Iris Pro would be quieter than the NVIDIA upgrades?
 
jabalczar said:
Do you have link to the review?

And are you / the reviewer suggesting the Iris Pro would be quieter than the NVIDIA upgrades?
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No link, sorry. It was part of a long bit of research trying to decide what to upgrade etc. Not the other reviewer either.

Also I'm not saying its definatly the case that it will run hotter in everyday use, but it was a little bit more encouragement for me to save the money on the upgrades. As a counterpoint Leo Laporte reviewed the same maxed out model (late 2012) on twit.tv and reported it very quiet. So who knows...?

I looked into the fusion drive as well, and I belive that will generally be spun down (the hdd part if it) so I'm hoping that will be quiet too. I'll find out soon as my new iMac is in transit now... :)
 
This is how I think of it. And I tend to think this way in many areas in life.

The iMac costs $3,949.00. That's the cost of the machine. It's a machine with a 3.5GHz i7 CPU, 32GB of ram, a 1TB flash drive, etc. It's the machine that everyone would get if money wasn't an issue.

Then Apple says "well, if you can't afford that, we can degrade the machine in certain areas and offer it to you for a lower price. We can remove some RAM, slow down the CPU, give you a worse graphics card, etc etc, and now you'll be able to afford it."

Generally it's true that in life, the things that are labeled "elite," "supreme," "ultimate," "maxed out," "authentic," etc, are simply what the default should be, and what we call "normal," "average," etc is downgraded from the standard.
 
StephenCampbell said:
This is how I think of it. And I tend to think this way in many areas in life.

The iMac costs $3,949.00. That's the cost of the machine. It's a machine with a 3.5GHz i7 CPU, 32GB of ram, a 1TB flash drive, etc. It's the machine that everyone would get if money wasn't an issue.

Then Apple says "well, if you can't afford that, we can degrade the machine in certain areas and offer it to you for a lower price. We can remove some RAM, slow down the CPU, give you a worse graphics card, etc etc, and now you'll be able to afford it."

Generally it's true that in life, the things that are labeled "elite," "supreme," "ultimate," "maxed out," "authentic," etc, are simply what the default should be, and what we call "normal," "average," etc is downgraded from the standard.
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So, what are you saying?
 
StephenCampbell said:
The iMac costs $3,949.00. That's the cost of the machine. It's a machine with a 3.5GHz i7 CPU, 32GB of ram, a 1TB flash drive, etc. It's the machine that everyone would get if money wasn't an issue.
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I hear your argument. But even if money was not an issue I wouldn't get that machine, sorry.

For one I'd prefer the 21.5-inch so no 3.5GHz i7 or 32GB RAM.

And I'd prefer an i5 over an i7, even if money was not concern. I guess we're all different.
 
jabalczar said:
I hear your argument. But even if money was not an issue I wouldn't get that machine, sorry.

For one I'd prefer the 21.5-inch so no 3.5GHz i7 or 32GB RAM.

And I'd prefer an i5 over an i7, even if money was not concern. I guess we're all different.
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Some people prefer a smaller screen, that's true. Then the maxed out higher end 21.5" would be "The iMac" with anything else being a downgrade to save money.

The rest of your post.... lol indeed.

----------
garycactus said:
So, what are you saying?
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I'm just saying, very few of us can actually afford the iMac. We can afford varying degrees of downgraded versions of it.

Though in my case I didn't get the 1TB flash because I want more internal capacity than that. So then you're looking at either 3TB Fusion or 1TB flash. Any other option is based in financial problems. I took the 3TB Fusion for the capacity, and will be upping the ram to 32GB within a few months probably.
 
2Turbo said:
lol
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Not really.

When even a Sandy Bridge i5 in a iMac runs at around 3 -4 % for the work I do, then a two generations later Haswell i5 is still a massive overkill.

So why not an i7 'just in case' if money is unlimited?

In one word: heat

The i7 runs hotter. More heat = more noise.

As has been discussed on a previous thread the new Iris Pro does not have a fan either when compared to the NVIDIA GPUs, which also means less noise, and a faster GPU than the 2012 discreet NVIDIA 640m from last year, which was overkill for me anyhow. So I'd rather have an Iris Pro too -- which should also provoke a 'lol'

Therefore, i5 + Iris Pro + SSD +16 GB RAM = silent, cool, fast computer in a quiet book lined room for writing on. That is *my* ideal machine for my scenario independent of money. Like I said we are all different.

Indeed, this is the machine I hope to order tomorrow!
 
jabalczar said:
Not really.

When even a Sandy Bridge i5 in a iMac runs at around 3 -4 % for the work I do, then a two generations later Haswell i5 is still a massive overkill.

So why not an i7 'just in case' if money is unlimited?

In one word: heat

The i7 runs hotter. More heat = more noise.

As has been discussed on a previous thread the new Iris Pro does not have a fan either when compared to the NVIDIA GPUs, which also means less noise, and a faster GPU than the 2012 discreet NVIDIA 640m from last year, which was overkill for me anyhow. So I'd rather have an Iris Pro too -- which should also provoke a 'lol'

Therefore, i5 + Iris Pro + SSD +16 GB RAM = silent, cool, fast computer in a quiet book lined room for writing on. That is *my* ideal machine for my scenario independent of money. Like I said we are all different.

Indeed, this is the machine I hope to order tomorrow!
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I'm sorry but I highly doubt an i7 will produce more 'noise'. And I'm willing to bet unless you are fully stressing it (as you won't be), the heat will be negligible. But, if you ever did need the i7 even just one time, then if money weren't a concern, you'd have a better system. Just my opinion. :)
 
I can afford a maxed-out 27" iMac, but I don't see the value in such a configuration for my use. So I chose a smaller SSD, less RAM and a weaker GPU to reflect my personal value proposition.
 
CWallace said:
I can afford a maxed-out 27" iMac, but I don't see the value in such a configuration for my use. So I chose a smaller SSD, less RAM and a weaker GPU to reflect my personal value proposition.
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But you would have gotten a maxed-out 27" if money was not an issue. Personal value proposition? That's like if you were to choose between a gourmet dinner and rice and beans, with there being no difference to your wallet or your health between the two, and choosing the rice and beans because "that's all you need for nourishment."
 
AXs said:
Exactly. It's like for some people it is COMPLETELY necessary to buy a Mac for gaming, any by that I mean buy a mac to run windows on bootcamp and play games.
It's ridiculous. Like you said, they'd be better off buying a ps4/xbox setup.

Completely understand scenarios where people use their iMacs professionally. Basically it's the source of income, it's worth maxing it out to your needs.

But really, some people are buying it just to use as an iPad replacement basically.
My friend just ordered the 27" iMac 3TB Fusion with 32GB RAM and i7 and nvidia 780.
And here it costs about 20% more than in the US for an iMac with upgrades.

But it's going to be his mail checking device. Not really even MS Office because he has people typing **** up for him. Just to check emails, check the stock market rates, use skype of business conferences...

Yea, 3000usd for that.

I wonder how many people are like that.
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Just priced that out $3299 WOW.

What a waste
 
I got the i7 but not he 780M - the 775M is perfect for me as I'm not gaming, just Final Cut, GarageBand, Aperture, Logic and Photoshop - work-related programs etc. A PS4 is on it's way to me in a month and a bit for the gaming side of things - I never have been and never will be a fan of PC/Mac gaming! :)
 
Does anyone know how much faster the 3.4 is over the 3.2? I am debating between the base 27 with the 3.2GHz i5 1GB GPU or the 3.4 i5 with 2GB GPU. I plan on adding a second display (Dell U2412). I don't game. Mostly my programs are Safari, Mail, iTunes, iPhoto, Pages and sometimes Aperture, Photoshop, and Final Cut, but I don't use those much. Should I spend the extra $200 for the 3.4 and 2GB GPU? Would I see any benefit? I really don't want to spend anymore than I have to on this. I am coming from a 2010 Quad 2.8 Mac Pro with the 1GB 5770 GPU. Do you think the 3.2 base model would be comparable to my mac pro?
 
Personally, I think a maxed-out 27" iMac is only for those who need but can't afford a Mac Pro or cannot deal with the clutter of a Mac Pro (extra cables, more plugs - powerful but messy).

I would love a mac pro and am waiting until Tuesday's announcement to see what they are priced at but believe getting a maxed-out 27" iMac will be more in my price range and suit my needs (Web/Print Design, Illustration and occasionally video editing) better than a entry level mac pro. Also waiting out for it to ship with Mavericks which will hopefully be Tuesday too.

What are people's thoughts on 3rd Party RAM? I could pay £480 for 32GB from Apple or buy 32GB from Crucial for around £247. I already upgraded my MBP with Crucial RAM and all seems well with it.
 
When I got my last iMac (2011 27") it was a refurbished base-model. The money saved went on a 512GB SSD and 32GB RAM :D

Still a great machine, and very rarely trouble the processor or graphics capability. Main bottlenecks are externally connected devices, which I really need to try and do away with.
 
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