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Why the new iMac sucks so much!
- Thread starter masp84
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Have to love these made-up statistics in the vain hope that it helps back the arguement!
Pedro
Antennagate aside, the iPhone 4 was probably the most well received Apple product in living memory. Well, at least on the specs front.
As a long time user of Apple computers and devices (20+ years) I have never understood the blind fan boy following Apple attract. It's always been prevalent but in the last 5 years it's intensity has grown, Apples marketing gleefully play on it. I guess being so long in the tooth and using Apple software and hardware at the highest level in my professional capacity on a daily basis you become a little more objective in your views on Apple Corp. I truly think Apple have some great kit and, in most part, a great OS but blindly swallowing their hype is just idiotic.
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Their rigged CTO site is half the issue with the new iMac.
Regarding memory upgrade, that is the only CTO option for the $1,299 model and based on their Retina Display - pricing Apple will be charging $200 to replace 8GB of memory with 16GB; the same 16GB costs $82 from Crucial. If you want to replace that 5400rpm drive, you must first step up to the $1,499 model iMac, whether you need it or not, before Apple will grant you the privilege of spending $250 for a Fusion drive (which is just an $82 128GB SSD); there are no other hard drive options available from Apple for the 21.5" models.
If your software requires more than 512MB of VRAM, there are no CTO options for any model; you have to spend $1,999 for the top-of-the-line 27" iMac whether you need it or not - just to have 1GB VRAM. The same is true if you want strictly SSD storage, and the only option Apple will be offering is a 768GB SSD for $1,300.
I'm willing to pay the Apple tax to get what I want, but I'm not going to spend an extra $700 on things I don't need just to get the ones I do.
I think there are too many Apple users with "Champagne tastes on a beer budget"[/QUOTE]
Well that's what happens when you ship all the jobs overseas and lie about the reason.
Well that's what happens when you ship all the jobs overseas and lie about the reason.
Sorry, i was hangover, and had been working with mathematics all day.
Its just the 4th post with the same statement in 1 hour that i read.
I don't do photo editing or Video Rendering neither the majority, so I can definitely attest that the Screen panel is just not efficient for most consumers, in any case it's a waste therefore it should be removed. "oh wait, but it looks so pretty doesn't it?", still no reason to pack such a fancy screen in a core consumer PC.... How would you like iit f people started claiming for the IPS to be removed?, they downgraded HDD and gimped I/O's already, who knows?. Well actually we all do.
Current iMacs are still fantastic value! we should've just had a CPU/GPU/Mobo refresh by July not December and everybody would be happy. I'm surprised at this great deal of people that doesn't even care this are work tools for some of us, not just fashion toys and even for that matter, having adapters cables and drives coming out of the iMac isn't aesthetic either, rather a downgrade.
Current iMacs are still fantastic value! we should've just had a CPU/GPU/Mobo refresh by July not December and everybody would be happy. I'm surprised at this great deal of people that doesn't even care this are work tools for some of us, not just fashion toys and even for that matter, having adapters cables and drives coming out of the iMac isn't aesthetic either, rather a downgrade.
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1. Not everybody. There was a definite problem with the screen.
2. If it's for work and not a fashion toy then why are the aesthetics overly important?
I think the current iMacs are good value for the 21s if you can pick them up sub $1000. Also, why don't we wait for the tests to actually see if the 21s are going to be slower. Apple may or may not have something up their sleeve. Perhaps this was their way of forcing people to buy a fusion drive. It wouldn't be the first time Apple have done something like this. Certainly it seems the 21s are overpriced - but that doesn't make them bad machines.
For the guy who said the base is a great value, look at this rig I've put together:
Specs: Total Cost 1446,01$
OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.2
-CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K Quad-Core Processor 3.5 GHz 8 MB Cache LGA 1155
$319,99
-Mobo: Gigabyte Intel Z77 Dual Thunderbolt ATX Motherboard with BT4.0/Wi-Fi (GA-Z77X-UP5-TH)
$239.99
-RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10) - Corsair
$79.24
-GPU: EVGA GeForce GT 640 2048MB GDDR3 Dual DVI, mHDMI Graphics Cards
$94.99
-Display: ASUS VS228H-P 21.5-Inch Full-HD LED IPS Monitor (Black)
$138.99
-OS HD: SanDisk Extreme SSD 120 GB SATA 6.0 Gb-s2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SDSSDX-120G-G25
$109.36
-Data HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200 1 TB 7200RPM SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive
$80.51
-ODD: Sony AD-7280S-0B 24x SATA Internal DVD+/-RW Drive (Black)
$22.99
-FW800: Syba Low Profile PCI-Express 1394b/1394a (2B1A) Card, TI Chipset, Extra Regular Bracket SD-PEX30009 Syba
$28.47
-Case: Corsair Obsidian Series Black 550D Mid Tower
$120.54
-PSU: Corsair Enthusiast Series 650-Watt 80 Plus Bronze Certified TX650
$81.99
-Mouse: Apple Magic Mouse
$69.00
-Keyboard: Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 for Mac Silver
$59.95
Specs: Total Cost 1446,01$
OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.2
-CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K Quad-Core Processor 3.5 GHz 8 MB Cache LGA 1155
$319,99
-Mobo: Gigabyte Intel Z77 Dual Thunderbolt ATX Motherboard with BT4.0/Wi-Fi (GA-Z77X-UP5-TH)
$239.99
-RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10) - Corsair
$79.24
-GPU: EVGA GeForce GT 640 2048MB GDDR3 Dual DVI, mHDMI Graphics Cards
$94.99
-Display: ASUS VS228H-P 21.5-Inch Full-HD LED IPS Monitor (Black)
$138.99
-OS HD: SanDisk Extreme SSD 120 GB SATA 6.0 Gb-s2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SDSSDX-120G-G25
$109.36
-Data HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200 1 TB 7200RPM SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive
$80.51
-ODD: Sony AD-7280S-0B 24x SATA Internal DVD+/-RW Drive (Black)
$22.99
-FW800: Syba Low Profile PCI-Express 1394b/1394a (2B1A) Card, TI Chipset, Extra Regular Bracket SD-PEX30009 Syba
$28.47
-Case: Corsair Obsidian Series Black 550D Mid Tower
$120.54
-PSU: Corsair Enthusiast Series 650-Watt 80 Plus Bronze Certified TX650
$81.99
-Mouse: Apple Magic Mouse
$69.00
-Keyboard: Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 for Mac Silver
$59.95
I'm with you. I've decided to give up the dream of being able to use After Effects CS6's ray-trace render engine (Nvidia card with 1GB VRAM required) on my home computer, and will likely settle for the 2012 Mac Mini with 2.6Ghz Quad-Core i7, 16GB of RAM from Crucial, and either a Fusion drive or a self-installed SSD. I'm just waiting to see the performance results for the Fusion drive before making a decision.
I have the old 24" Apple LED Display already, which I was going to pair with a 21.5" iMac, but Apple has deliberately crippled the 21.5" iMacs in ways that make the price no longer justifiable. The Mac Mini will do just fine until the 15" MacBook Pro with Retina Display delivers better bang for the buck in the future.
Fusion drives should have been standard across the board; that would have made this generation of iMacs seem more next-generation, eliminated the performance downgrade that the 5400RPM drives will cause, and justify the $100 price increase Apple executed across the lower 3 models.
Is it possible to LOVE Mac and HATE Apple... I'm there. OSX is keeping me around, but the company is distancing itself from core Mac users.. not news to this group.
Have to say removing the optical drive is not a great idea. Yes it allows for a thin Imac, but who really cares how thin it is. I'd rather have an optical drive which has many functions such as CD playing, DVD recording etc. Of course we can always buy a portable opticaL drive and keep it in the drawer.
I love those who keep comparing the ODD to the floppy disk.
These are totally 2 different things w/ different functions. The floppy disk was just a a portable storage medium that were prone to fail and was being replaced by the stick types drives.
The CDs and DVDs on the other hand, many many people still have vast amounts of em of music and movies, and many still use em to burn music, movies, files, and what have you.
Apple wanted to say that they have a new design by making the edges thin. And the only way to do that was by taking the ODD out and moving the SD card slot to the back. FORM OVER FUNCTION!
And of course the All In One philosophy. Not only are they charging premium price to begin w/ and now it's $100 more and we're getting less at a higher price!
I just seems that there are more complaints w/ this new iMac than I have ever seen in the past releases!
These are totally 2 different things w/ different functions. The floppy disk was just a a portable storage medium that were prone to fail and was being replaced by the stick types drives.
The CDs and DVDs on the other hand, many many people still have vast amounts of em of music and movies, and many still use em to burn music, movies, files, and what have you.
Apple wanted to say that they have a new design by making the edges thin. And the only way to do that was by taking the ODD out and moving the SD card slot to the back. FORM OVER FUNCTION!
And of course the All In One philosophy. Not only are they charging premium price to begin w/ and now it's $100 more and we're getting less at a higher price!
I just seems that there are more complaints w/ this new iMac than I have ever seen in the past releases!
How on earth is that a comparison to an AIO iMac? Yes it might be only $1446.01, but seriously how ugly is that looking on your desk?
If this is the kind of kit your want, maybe a mac isn't for you. That's not meant to be a personal slight, but genuine advice! As plenty of people have already commented; Apple isn't in the spec game and never has been, it is in the all round great build quality/user experience game.
Take your pick!
In summary, for the 2012 base 21.5" model, they took out a $20 DVD drive and added $20 worth of memory. The processor will be a tad faster because of a clock speed increase and the use of 1600 MHz memory instead of the 1333 MHz memory. You need to decide up front how much memory you need (8 or 16 GBs) and you are stuck with your decision. If you select 16 GBytes you will pay above market rates. The display sounds like it will be an improvement. All of this for a $100 increase. I ordered a refurbished 2011 21.5" model and saved a bunch or money.
Yes, comparing the optical drive to the floppy drive is absurd. When Apple eliminated the floppy drive from the iMac, email had made the floppy disk's 1.3MB maximum storage capacity completely obsolete. You could conveniently email a file faster and more reliably than you could copy it to a floppy disk and move it physically. By contrast, you cannot email a 650MB file (CD), let alone an 8.5GB file (dual-layer DVD), so the optical disc is still very much relevant. Sure, there are flash drives - but if I'm sending a file out and will never get it back, would I rather drop a $60 flash drive in the mail or a twenty-five cent disc?
Apple's iTunes service has resulted in a conflict of interest with their computers; they're removing optical drives and never adopting blu-ray because they want you to purchase all of your movies and music from them.
Agree with you - I expect Apple will see an upturn in sales of their usb optical drives as a result.
For the average user, no. They have no clue what RPM is.
For the power user, no. They're both slow. Get a SSD
Also, they don't take into account the 8 Gig of memory that you are giving them back in exchange for the 16 Gig. They keep that 8 Gig of RAM and charge you full wack for the 16Gig! I have never understood how Apple gets away with this. Effectively 16Gig RAM is costing you $200 + 8 Gigs of RAM! The same thing goes for an HD upgrade, etc. They keep the original HD as well as charging full price for the upgraded one, as if all the original components that normally come with the iMac are worth zero money. It's [swearword!] outrageous.
They actually do deduct the cost of the part they're exchanging, but their prices are so overblown that you'd never know it. For example, replacing 4GB of memory with 16GB of memory on the Mac Mini is a $300 upgrade from Apple; but replacing 8GB of memory with 16GB of memory on the MacBook Pro is a $200 upgrade. The same is true of their hard drive upgrades, where replacing a 512GB SSD with a 768GB SSD is a $500 upgrade, it's a $1,000 upgrade to go replace a 256GB SSD with a 768GB SSD.
So in Apple's crazy world, upgrading a Mac Mini to 16GB of RAM is actually a $400 upgrade ($300 plus the $100 "credit" they're giving you for the 4GB of RAM they're keeping in exchange). And a 512GB SSD costs something like $1,050 ($800 upgrade plus the $250 "credit" they're giving you for the 128GB SSD they're keeping). Meanwhile in the real world, 16GB RAM costs $82 retail and 512GB SSD costs $499 retail.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!!!!!! BUSTED! so you're in for the pretty... bad boy
I have a very small wood desk for keyboard and mouse and monitor controller, I bough a wall hanger for my 42" led screen. If you see it on the front is just a huge screen floating with studio monitors by the side, I must say all my clients wowed at it
, Case is nowhere visible not because it's ugly but for sound standards needed in a recording environment. While running Lion faster than must of you I also feel like steering a space ship and it costed me less, your point defused.The mac pros are built for professionals hence the name.. (recording music, grahic design, heavy duty design, film/animation.. you get it).
Have you ever been to a major recording studio that used an iMac as their main machine??? I haven't and ill tell you what - they are not a major recording studio - its embarassing to see an imac used as a main machine for hard core computer tasks such as.. (see list above^^^).
The iMac's have been for consumers since the very get-go. They are more affordable machines. Mac Pro isn't disapearing in the near future for the pure fact that people will never use iPads, iPhones, or iMac's for serious computer work.
Get yourself a macpro and forget about the iMac if you are truly a professional Audio producer. Tim Cook said it himself that they will release an updated iMac in early 2013. Leave the iMac to the consumer and general user.