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What do you guys think of the new iMac

I think if my current iMac dies, I'll buy a MBP and a TB display and say that I am paying extra for the portability factor, since most if not all of the parts will be laptop parts.
 
My personal thoughts on the new iMac are mixed, if I was in the market for one then I'd obviously be made up and rightly excited about my December purchase (those screen yields have obviously been very problematic), however tbh anyone with a 2010/2011 iMac could honestly still be pretty happy with their current iMac.

Apples obsession with thinness for a desktop I really don't get, far better for a bit more space in there or heat dissipation and airflow. For the pursuit of a thin screen edge they've forsaken the optical drive, personally I like my optical drive and now, if you still want one, you have to attach an external which kind of defeats the all-in-one aesthetic but each to their own. SD card on the back is kind of clumsy and completely dropping the FireWire 800 port seems a generation premature.

Screen, 75% glare reduction is very good, individually calibrated is very positive (although this could be a bit of Apple PR spin on a relatively standard procedure) - and the new screen lamination will hopefully address the issues of grey smudges appearing over time on the screen - it will be interesting to see the tear down to see if there is any additional LCD isolation from the innards of the machine. The only reservation I would have is wether they have perfected the screen lamination process on this generation of iMacs considering the apparent issues they have experienced.

iMac's have always been overpriced for the technology, this I have always accepted, however on this iMac once you have selected the 27" screen, upgraded i7 chip, 680MX GPU, fusion drive and SSD to make it the machine it should be my one big reservation is will all this user configuration be ridiculously expensive? There is a limit to how much an aesthetic is worth over value.

Personally my top spec iMac 2011 is plenty for me, it would be nice to have the latest GPU for gaming but I have already decided, when I'm ready, I'll just build a Windows gaming rig which I can easily upgrade. This is in no way is to take away from those who are about to lay down the cash for the new iMac, I slightly envy those who now have that excitement we all have awaiting delivery of our new machine - hopefully if Apple hit their deadlines and get them out before Christmas it will be a rather jolly one for those that get one:)
 
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I was ready to buy it with the old case and the new Intel :confused: ,
but now I will wait to see if the new design will give heat problem or not and on top of this I think I will wait other 6 month and get the next gen of Intel that is suppose to run faster and cooler :p and also this will give them the time to iron out the new design .
:cool:
 
6ftunder said:
are you kidding? I've been reading the "what do you expect from the new imac"-like threads every other day and there were many who wanted a thinner imac. now you got it and you're not happy?

"oh a desktop just sits on your desk, who cares if it's thin?"

well a tv also sits on your desk or hangs on your wall but I'm guessing most of you have less-than-an-inch thin tv at home, right? as someone else pointed out, it's an achievement, let them gloat about it.

honestly, I don't think you will notice a 20% drop in gpu. I won't be playing games on mine.

getting a 27" in december, i7, 32gb ram which I will, (thank God), be able to add myself.
Click to expand...

People buying the 21" might notice the HDD has slowed from 7200 to 5400. And that they can't change the RAM anymore, I'm no longer happy about this, I admit I was at the media event, but this is dumb
 
iMcLovin said:
I´m really happy with the new iMac. I guess some people will never get happy. This new iMac has everything I wished for. Awesome design update, lotsa SSD, 680M gpu and 3.4ghz quad core. So, imo specs have not been compromised by the thinnes - then its just awesomely cool. And top of that I get the anti reflective glossy screen tech. It has everything.

I´m ordering the Maxed out version as soon as they let me order it.

Only thing I´m not sure of is if I should get the 768gb of flash or 3tb Fusion.
I plan on getting a 6tb 2big Lacie thunderbolt disk anyway, so maybe the 768gb flash is the best investment.
Click to expand...

Not quite. For the best things of the iMac you have to get a BTO machine.
GTX680MX, i7, fusion drive.. Those are great features but it's not accessible as walk in purchase.

And with all those upgrades, it'd end up cost $2700 easily. So yeah, for $2000 standard hi end 27" iMac (which nowhere near as cheap), one actually get a lot less for the money, compared to last year's model.
 
Dark Void said:
Something I don't really understand.

Why is it even thinner? It's a desktop, not a laptop. Who cares if it's a thin design. Is that so you can move it to on and off of a desk easier when you decide to remodel every once in a blue moon?

Just stupid to try to incorporate a thin design when it compromises so much in something that is a desktop computer. It's hardly innovative, it's foolish.
Click to expand...

Agree, just because we can do something doesn't mean we should. Thinner is not always better! I will not be purchasing one.

Cheers,
 
designs216 said:
I've waited to purchase an Thunderbolt display to see what new features appeared in this refresh. Reduced glare is the very one I've been hoping to see.
Click to expand...

Reduced glare and USB 3.0 are the only things I'm holding out for. I could care less if its its thinner as long as it looks the same from a frontal view since I have the 1st gen TBD. I wonder if the revised TBD will have an integrated SD reader.
 
AMEN! (apple doesn't care because they will stand to profit from this and i'm sure they know all of the potential problems you have raised. the only main reason i'm still using a mac is because of the operating system and ease of use)

Bob T123 said:
I'm an engineer, so I know something about technical design. The thinner a computer is, the more tightly packed the components, the hotter it will run, the more likely something will fail. This is just basic "laws of physics" stuff. In addition, the fact that they had to struggle with getting the "screen bonding" process to work is another indication that they're on the hairy edge of this thing failing (e.g. screen delaminating over time, air bubbles appearing, etc). Of course it looks cool, but let's face it, the older iMac looked extremely cool also (dare I say, "cool enough"?). By pushing the packaging envelope in this way, Apple has sacrificed reliability and robustness, just to go from "ridiculously thin" to "insanely thin". And who ultimately pays the price? We do -- either by having to pay for Apple Care to protect our failure-prone new toy, or (if we roll the dice) by having to replace it years before we should have had to. I would personally MUCH rather have an iMac that is less thin, has an optical drive, and will let me sleep at night not worrying that I'm "on the edge of failure" with my new toy. Plus, I look at my computer from the FRONT -- when will I ever see how damned thin it is, and when will I care??
Click to expand...
 
just wanted to mention that they apparently changed the shape of the package a little

8119137373_bd21410460.jpg
 
nagareru said:
Well, when did you expect them to drop firewire? Next year or the year after that? It had to be dropped sometime soon, USB 3 is faster and about the same price if not cheaper.

And I use iMacs for broadcast work, I have a lot of firewire drives, they need an ultra thick, usually 1meter long cable plus a power cord, that makes your workspace very uncomfortable.

----

And I don't understand all these people complaining about the new iMac. These new iMacs have almost everything we were expecting for, GTX680MX(is not 680M but almost the same if not better), user serviceable RAM up to 32 (before up to 16GB officially), Ivy Bridge, USB 3.

Plus we got a redesign, and for those who say its too thin well it doesn't matter. It would have matter if they made it thinner and not include those specs, like a 650m top of the line plus soldered ram, it is not.

And there are many laptops, much smaller than the new iMac that have similar components, if not the same.

People in this thread is just like Lewis CK said, "Everything is amazing and nobody is happy"…

Please calm down, this is current technology, your money will be well spent.
Click to expand...


That's cute, except firewire is NOT an aging technology or legacy spec. Thousands of professional businesses around the country use it, demand it and have many many items that do as well.

New Mac Book Pros have firewire ports.....
Also we still use Mac Pros from 2 years ago just because of this as well + all of the many other options....

Just because YOU think this is CURRENT technology does not mean all of our prior items that we use DAILY should now have to be Axed.......

Imagine when USB3 came out and now all of your USB2 items were done.....
Think about that......
 
tears2040 said:
That's cute, except firewire is NOT an aging technology or legacy spec. Thousands of professional businesses around the country use it, demand it and have many many items that do as well.

New Mac Book Pros have firewire ports.....
Also we still use Mac Pros from 2 years ago just because of this as well + all of the many other options....

Just because YOU think this is CURRENT technology does not mean all of our prior items that we use DAILY should now have to be Axed.......

Imagine when USB3 came out and now all of your USB2 items were done.....
Think about that......
Click to expand...

Obviously one can buy an overpriced Firewire to Lighting Port / Thunderbolt cable but I do think Apple have dropped Firewire 800 a generation or two to early. Really, for a machine of this price they could have found a way of keeping it.
 
tears2040 said:
That's cute, except firewire is NOT an aging technology or legacy spec. Thousands of professional businesses around the country use it, demand it and have many many items that do as well.

New Mac Book Pros have firewire ports.....
Also we still use Mac Pros from 2 years ago just because of this as well + all of the many other options....

Just because YOU think this is CURRENT technology does not mean all of our prior items that we use DAILY should now have to be Axed.......

Imagine when USB3 came out and now all of your USB2 items were done.....
Think about that......
Click to expand...
The simple solution is to go and buy a Thunderbolt to Firewire adaptor. I wasn't expecting it to be dropped, but that's just how things are. There is no point in getting upset about it. Or you can vote with your money and look elsewhere for your computing needs.
 
As it looks now, I will be getting the 27" with maxed options. Too bad about the optical drive, but I only really used it to import my CDs into iTunes, so not that big of a loss for me.

The GTX 680MX looks like a beast of a card, especially for a blown-up notebook like the iMac.

However, I'll wait for the first reviews and impressions to pour in. See if they come with first-gen issues like cruddy screens or HDs.
 
A perfect example of form over function

I've been waiting to buy a new imac since June.

I'm not too impressed with a couple of features/changes.

  • First off the Ivy Bridge Processors were a necessary upgrade, no questions there.
  • The fusion drive idea seems like a good, if I can tell the harddrives what I don't want on the SSD and conversely what I do want on the SSD. I know it happens in the background automatically but I want to be able to overwrite any automatic movement of my data.
  • Now the exclusion of a CD/DVD drive is a deal breaker for my, I need to load rograms (i use windows programs a lot) and I like to watch movies. So leaving out the DVD drive defeats the whole purpose of the all-in-one concept. I would buy an imac for its form factor sitting on my desk, now I have to plug a super drive in the back and have it sitting next to my beautiful new Imac. (nope)
  • Lastly the video cards are terribly weak. The best card is a 660m (not even a TI)
  • I was hoping for nice video card options, but since they made it so slim they can't fit full size (full power) card in there (Form over Function).
  • I think the 21.5 low end card should be the 660m with an upgrade to the 670, and the 27" starts with the 670 with an upgrade option to the 680.
  • Now that would be something special.

Just my 2 cents!
 
cooky560 said:
People buying the 21" might notice the HDD has slowed from 7200 to 5400. And that they can't change the RAM anymore, I'm no longer happy about this, I admit I was at the media event, but this is dumb
Click to expand...

People may also notice the primary reason the hdd went to 5400 rpm is because the hdd went from a 3.5" desktop size to a 2.5" laptop size.

That + non-upgradable memory = FAIL.
 
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