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What to expect from iMac 2012 - Discussion
- Thread starter Schonert
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My observations
I see there are a lot of people here that don' t have any experience with SSDs but sure have strong opinions.
I stopped waiting for a new iMac a while ago as you can see here.
I bought the 2.7ghz with an SSD and a 2TB hard drive. I keep only some of the data on the SSD like preference files, mail etc. All documents, movies, photos etc. are on the internal spinning drive.
I ordered the computer with the least ram I could get and upgraded to 16gig of ram from macsales.
I think it's a mistake to think that SSDs only help to launch applications. They speed up everything in your daily workflow. You won't end up waiting for your computer to catch up. Also, keeping your data on an internal spinning drive works very well. It's not true that the SSD suffers from the fact that it has to wait for data from the spinning drive.
I do keep some data on external drives, such as a drobo, a network attached LaCie and a LaCie connected via FireWire 800. Fetching data from those is a bit slower, but that's why I use those only for storage and backup. The data I need to access often is on the internal drive, and that works very well.
Given that now almost everything happens instantly, I have a hard time imagining that a new iMac is going to give you huge speed gains over the current one. Ram is cheap, so loading up on it is a no brainer if you consider the benefits.
I couldn't be happier that I bought the current iMac. Not sure that there's anything the new one could possibly have that would make me regret my purchase.
I see there are a lot of people here that don' t have any experience with SSDs but sure have strong opinions.
I stopped waiting for a new iMac a while ago as you can see here.
I bought the 2.7ghz with an SSD and a 2TB hard drive. I keep only some of the data on the SSD like preference files, mail etc. All documents, movies, photos etc. are on the internal spinning drive.
I ordered the computer with the least ram I could get and upgraded to 16gig of ram from macsales.
I think it's a mistake to think that SSDs only help to launch applications. They speed up everything in your daily workflow. You won't end up waiting for your computer to catch up. Also, keeping your data on an internal spinning drive works very well. It's not true that the SSD suffers from the fact that it has to wait for data from the spinning drive.
I do keep some data on external drives, such as a drobo, a network attached LaCie and a LaCie connected via FireWire 800. Fetching data from those is a bit slower, but that's why I use those only for storage and backup. The data I need to access often is on the internal drive, and that works very well.
Given that now almost everything happens instantly, I have a hard time imagining that a new iMac is going to give you huge speed gains over the current one. Ram is cheap, so loading up on it is a no brainer if you consider the benefits.
I couldn't be happier that I bought the current iMac. Not sure that there's anything the new one could possibly have that would make me regret my purchase.
I really wish that Apple's OS would manage the location of data and programs across SSD and HDD.
There's absolutely no reason that the user should have to keep track of which drive is used. Leave that kind of mindless drudgery to the linux users.
There's absolutely no reason that the user should have to keep track of which drive is used. Leave that kind of mindless drudgery to the linux users.
They've reached those 60 FPS on high settings in a perfect situation.
Do you really expect to reach 40 FPS when there are so many soldiers, vehicles, explosions, dust/snow and other animations in front of you?
I can assure you that a GT 650M will never reach that frame rate in high graphic settings.
...and what about to reach those frames on a 24-27 external display at 1920x1080?
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Good for you. I'm waiting to post in the set up picture thread, but don't want my current Dell and ball of wires to look so naff against all the macs.
25 days to go (hopefully)
Ikea Vika beach desk top with drawer unit underneath. I have quite a small home office, but this worked for our setup.
My biggest hope is that there is a drop in price for the SSD + HDD BTO option that is more inline with the current Macbook Pro's. Currently there is a £80 difference for 256GB SSD between the two product lines.
USB 3.0 is a given, 8GB RAM will probably be standard on the high end 27" and hopefully the GeForce GTX 680M GPU. A bigger screen e.g 30" would be great as i'm coming from a 24" Dell UltraSharp so it would be bigger leap but i wont hold my breath on that.
USB 3.0 is a given, 8GB RAM will probably be standard on the high end 27" and hopefully the GeForce GTX 680M GPU. A bigger screen e.g 30" would be great as i'm coming from a 24" Dell UltraSharp so it would be bigger leap but i wont hold my breath on that.
Why do people keep thinking its hard to run 2 drives in a computer? (SSD and HDD)
It takes all of 5 minutes to setup.
Once you boot up you simply change the location of your folders in the finder, Set the documents, photos music ect onto the HDD, Leave applications right band where it is and your done.
Other apps like photoshop you can set up to specify which drive is a tempory working drive / folder as well.
It takes all of 5 minutes to setup.
Once you boot up you simply change the location of your folders in the finder, Set the documents, photos music ect onto the HDD, Leave applications right band where it is and your done.
Other apps like photoshop you can set up to specify which drive is a tempory working drive / folder as well.
A SSD option with a connector like in the new MBA's and rMBP??
In this way Apple can:
1. use same SSD's for several models (probably make it cheaper for
, but not for us );
2. save space in the iMac;
3. make a slot nearby the RAM expansions to DIY
In this way Apple can:
1. use same SSD's for several models (probably make it cheaper for
, but not for us );2. save space in the iMac;
3. make a slot nearby the RAM expansions to DIY
One thing can be counted on HDD/SSD will get bigger. Today 2Tb is common, I'd say in a few years 10Tb might be just as common so you'll buy 1 HDD to replace 5 or more smaller ones to backup your data.
I'd be more concerned as what to do with the old HDDs, it's easy enough to shred old data DVDs with modern shredders but beyond reformatting harder to dispose of HDDs.
Sorry for the OT - blame Apple for making us wait for the updated iMac's!
ETA - just like the RAM it would be nice if Apple made it easy to add or replace the HDD/SSD. Imagine a slot (or 2) on the bottom of the case where they could just slid out to upgrade them.
i really dont think that common built in HDDs in a few years will reach 10tb.
even things like CDs, DVDs and blurays will slowly disapear as cloud services will become more common and you will just store private and confidential data on your computer, but for sure you wont be storeing music or movies...
that's exactly the point, they wont completely disapear but in a few years all that optical storage media will be as rare as vinyl is nowadays...
Maybe the vacation blackout is for the iPad mini
I would highly doubt Apple releasing an iPad mini anytime soon. Especially given the strong possibility of a larger iPhone in Oct.
Yes, you are wronging.
The military is not trying to shield against EMP? WTF? First off, of course they are. Secondly, where do you come up with a conclusion that they arent??
On your very basic points, yes, a writable blu-ray would be your best bet for long term storage, for what is available to a consumer right now. It's not perfect, though, outside of a 100 year period. But then again, we're consumers and if you think a company is going to make a product that they HOPE people will spend thousands of dollars on just to ensure data lasts 700 years instead of 200.
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So apple is announcing their Q3 earnings on the 24th, does anyone know if they had a record of releasing software/hardware or any products during such an event? The date seems to be close to the expected release date of mountain lion, and maybe, just maybe the iMac.
Edit: I just found out that Lion came out the day after the 2011 Q3 earnings call last year too on a wednesday, so its highly likely that we will see ML on the 25th. PLEASE apple, the iMac too
Edit: I just found out that Lion came out the day after the 2011 Q3 earnings call last year too on a wednesday, so its highly likely that we will see ML on the 25th. PLEASE apple, the iMac too
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Maybe the vacation blackout is for the iPad mini
Doubt it, if Apple even intros a 7" iPad it will be with the next update early next year.
RE HDD - I have no idea what capacity we'll have in a few years, my point was they are always getting bigger. I remember when 120Gb was the cutting edge and the size to have about 10 years ago. That's a 16x size increase, 5x in 5 years is not a huge leap of faith. No mater how good cloud services become there will always be a need for local storage and HDD/SDDs will get bigger.
So back to the iMac 2012, if I get the 1Tb then maybe in 3 years I'll get something bigger or a fast SSD added as I hope the iMac lasts me at least 5 years.
Also, last year the Mini and MacBook Air released on the Wednesday after their 2011 Q3 call.
I really hope we see iMac and Mac Mini refreshes on the 25th!