Your next purchase?

[Lioness~]

I am so waiting for the 27-32" M? iMac's.
It's financially earmarked since awhile back.
So I will jump on it as fast as I know what I want when Apple release those ?
The old iMac 2013 do safari, and mali, not much else ?
But the MBA is doing a great job. That's why I bought it a few yrs ago.

 

[blairh]

My iPad Pro might be replaced because my mother (she is 91) has an old iPad Air that is very slow except for the jigsaw puzzle and solitaire apps she uses. It would be nice for her to have a larger screen. So either I give her my 10.5 Pro and get something new for myself or I get her a new 9th gen 10.2 iPad and keep my current Pro. Another possibility is to find a good second hand iPad Pro, maybe a 12.9, for her for her games. She doesn’t use the iPad for anything else.

Hey man, you gotta start using the 'reply' feature in the forums if you want others to consistently read your replies. I told this to you last time too in another thread. Otherwise fellow members don't know if and when you are responding to them and will often times totally miss your direct replies otherwise.

Depends on if she will find the larger screen (12.9) to be easier to navigate or not.

I highly recommend refurbished iPads from Apple.

 

[satchmo]

Bought an M1 Mac mini last year, but haven't found a decent display that rivals Apple's iMacs.

I'll gladly trade in the Mac mini for the new 27" iMac. But only if it's not priced ridiculously high.

Or if rumours are true, maybe just pickup a new standalone Apple branded 5K display.

 

[Phil77354]

My next purchase is likely to be a replacement for my late-2014 27" iMac. I'm really anxious to see what Apple announces in the next few months.

Everything else I own is 2 years old or newer. Although a new Apple Watch with serious new health related features would also be very interesting to me.

 

[Isengardtom]

I’m looking to replace my older 21.5” iMac from 2017 with an M1 24” iMac. I will sell the 2017 model to a friend (at a low price)

I’m just not 100% sure which model to take. I’m debating between
- the base model with just an upgrade to the Touch ID keyboard (with numerical pad)
- the mid tier model with the 8 core GPU but just 8GB ram
- the mid tier model upgraded to 16GB ram.

My use cases are web browsing, office 365, some light gaming, tv shows and YouTube.

What would you guys recommend?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

None of your use cases are hardware demanding, including the memory upgrade option. So it looks like base model would do it unless you aspire to get into something in the next few years that would be more demanding. Perhaps hop into the Apple Refurb store and grab one of those for less. They have some 8/8 core ones for a few hundred less than retail, priced a little less than the 8/7 core new. That would get you the mid-tier 8/8 for the base model price minus about $30. All colors in there as I write this: https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished/mac/2021-imac

 

[CWallace]

I bought a 2020 iMac 5K in September (replaced a 2017 iMac 5K) and a 14" MacBook Pro in October (replaced a 2017 15.4" MacBook Pro) so I'm good for now. I do have a 2018 12.9" iPad Pro, but I'm debating selling it since I did buy the 14" MBP to replace both the iPad and the Intel MacBook.

So for me, I'm mainly just interested to see what Apple ships in 2022 to replace the Intel iMac 5K, the Intel Mac mini and the Intel Mac Pro as I expect 2024 will be when I am ready to do the next wave of replacements and those will be Apple Silicon.

 

[Phil77354]

I’m looking to replace my older 21.5” iMac from 2017 with an M1 24” iMac. I will sell the 2017 model to a friend (at a low price)

I’m just not 100% sure which model to take. I’m debating between
- the base model with just an upgrade to the Touch ID keyboard (with numerical pad)
- the mid tier model with the 8 core GPU but just 8GB ram
- the mid tier model upgraded to 16GB ram.

My use cases are web browsing, office 365, some light gaming, tv shows and YouTube.

What would you guys recommend?

I recommend door 3.

The mid tier model has more than the 8/8 core configuration to recommend it - additional USB ports, Gigabit Ethernet and the keyboard with touch ID, all of which make this the minimum configuration I think should be considered. (Plus you have more color choices, if that matters to you).

And it is well worth the $200 to upgrade to 16GB RAM. Remember that this can't be changed after purchase. If you think that you'll be using this for a few years then you'll be glad you went with the greater memory.

 

[coffee06]

Getting a 2-mo old base M1 iMac 24 at work next week or so…so not an actual personal purchase. Need a bit better more power there perhaps, but it beats my old HP PC. Just got a 13 mini iPhone for myself about 2 months ago that I love. For home, I’m waiting on the next Mac mini with 16 G ram, pro chip…I don’t need max chip. Seems like the eternal wait…been waiting since summer 2021 For that Intel replacement Mac mini.

 

[pshufd]

I'm going to look at a 2010 iMac 27 today. It either has a quad-core i5 or i7 and that's all the owner knows about it. I'm bringing a keyboard, mouse and an external SSD with High Sierra on it. My ideal would be i7, 16 GB RAM, SSD. I would settle for any two out of three. The price is $100 or best offer but they apparently haven't received any responses because they don't have the specs. Sometimes you get something good and sometimes it's a lemon.

I will either give this to my wife to watch YouTube and other videos and her general office stuff (she has a base 2018 mini now) or add it to my desktop cluster for office stuff.

 

[Warped9]

I'm going to look at a 2010 iMac 27 today. It either has a quad-core i5 or i7 and that's all the owner knows about it. I'm bringing a keyboard, mouse and an external SSD with High Sierra on it. My ideal would be i7, 16 GB RAM, SSD. I would settle for any two out of three. The price is $100 or best offer but they apparently haven't received any responses because they don't have the specs. Sometimes you get something good and sometimes it's a lemon.

I will either give this to my wife to watch YouTube and other videos and her general office stuff (she has a base 2018 mini now) or add it to my desktop cluster for office stuff.

My neighbour across the street had a 2010 iMac, only one year older than mine. It had become brutally slow. While chatting one day I had mentioned how I had upgraded my 2011. Indeed I even offered him the 4GB RAM cards as well as the i5 I had removed from my iMac when I had upgraded to an i7 and four 8GB RAM in mine. He took everything to his local computer tech guy he trusted. He also inquired about swapping in an SSD.

The computer was his wife’s. Their tech guy told him their 2010 would not accept the i5 (which was in excellent condition) or an SSD. The added RAM helped, but the computer was still rather slow. In the end I helped them order a 2020 iMac with SSD and 1TB storage.

Apparently the 2010 isn’t as easily upgradeable as a 2011. He would have happily spent a few hundred to upgrade the old machine to something workable for a few more years, but it wasn’t to be so they opted for new.

Something to bear in mind when you look at this 2010 iMac. Will it do what you want or will it be too much of a headache?

 

[pshufd]

My neighbour across the street had a 2010 iMac, only one year older than mine. It had become brutally slow. While chatting one day I had mentioned how I had upgraded my 2011. Indeed I even offered him the 4GB RAM cards as well as the i5 I had removed from my iMac when I had upgraded to an i7 and four 8GB RAM in mine. He took everything to his local computer tech guy he trusted. He also inquired about swapping in an SSD.

The computer was his wife’s. Their tech guy told him their 2010 would not accept the i5 (which was in excellent condition) or an SSD. The added RAM helped, but the computer was still rather slow. In the end I helped them order a 2020 iMac with SSD and 1TB storage.

Apparently the 2010 isn’t as easily upgradeable as a 2011. He would have happily spent a few hundred to upgrade the old machine to something workable for a few more years, but it wasn’t to be so they opted for new.

Something to bear in mind when you look at this 2010 iMac. Will it do what you want or will it be too much of a headache?

The 2010 models supported Clarksdale and Lynnefield CPUs while the 2011 models supported Sandy Bridge. Sandy Bridge is socket 1155 and Clarksdale/Lynnfield is socket 1156 so newer CPUs wouldn't fit. Performance of the 2011 i5 CPUs is about the same as the 2010 i7 CPU. The dual-core 2010 i3 and i5 have GB5 scores of 1,000 and 1,300 while the quad-cores have 1,600 and 2,000. So very large performance differences. I'm guessing that your neighbor had an i3 and upgrading to the i7 would have doubled CPU performance. I'm surprised that his tech person could not upgrade to an SSD. You can just hang a Firewire 800 external SSD (OWC sells the enclosure). Or hang an external SSD off a USB 2 port.

I have a 2009 Core 2 Duo iMac 27 and a Late 2014 i7 iMac 27. I used the 2009 until a month ago when I bought the 2014. The 2014 is very nice but the 2009 was usable. The 2010 would be about three times as fast as the 2009.

A Dell Ultrasharp 25 inch QHD monitor costs $449 on Amazon. The 2009 and 2010 iMacs can also be used as monitors with nice speakers. Monitor prices are rather disgusting today as they are up over 100% from before the pandemic. This is one factor in deciding between the 2010 and 2011 (or later models). 2011-2014 iMacs can also be used in TDM but there are restrictions on the other system in that they have to be 2019 or earlier and they have to be running Catalina or earlier.

I'm just going down to look. I will pull the trigger if it has the right combination of CPU, RAM, Storage.

 

[MBAir2010]

my new purchase was by luck, a perfect condition mac mini 2012 i7 16GB for $125.
i did need to get a new fan, $13 and an ssd drive $53 an dow a silver 22" monitor,
while finding out that new monitors are cheaper and more convenient than getting a used one.
i was hoping on finding a nice good priced used one for the environment aspect of this planet tho.

I'm sticking with Mojave, Catalina has hidden bad things in their system that effects ssd drives when returning to Mojave i found out yesterday.

 

[MajorFubar]

2011 iMac owner here (snap, other than mine's the 3.4GHz 27")

Likely my next purchase will be a 1TB 16GB M1 MacMini which I'll supplement with a similar-spec Air.
I really want a MacMini Pro, based around chips they already manufacture for their Macbooks, but it seems Apple can't give us this without some ridiculous pomp-and-circumstance streamed publicity event.

Imagine if Zanussi only gave us new washing machines at streamed publicity events.

 

[pshufd]

my new purchase was by luck, a perfect condition mac mini 2012 i7 16GB for $125.
i did need to get a new fan, $13 and an ssd drive $53 an dow a silver 22" monitor,
while finding out that new monitors are cheaper and more convenient than getting a used one.
i was hoping on finding a nice good priced used one for the environment aspect of this planet tho.

I'm sticking with Mojave, Catalina has hidden bad things in their system that effects ssd drives when returning to Mojave i found out yesterday.

Very nice deal. I see those advertised from $300 - $450.

 

[Jacoblee23]

I bought a 2020 iMac 5K in September (replaced a 2017 iMac 5K) and a 14" MacBook Pro in October (replaced a 2017 15.4" MacBook Pro) so I'm good for now. I do have a 2018 12.9" iPad Pro, but I'm debating selling it since I did buy the 14" MBP to replace both the iPad and the Intel MacBook.

So for me, I'm mainly just interested to see what Apple ships in 2022 to replace the Intel iMac 5K, the Intel Mac mini and the Intel Mac Pro as I expect 2024 will be when I am ready to do the next wave of replacements and those will be Apple Silicon.

Did you notice much difference between the 2017 and 2020? I have a 2017 and trying to figure out if I should upgrade or not.

 

[pshufd]

2011 iMac owner here (snap, other than mine's the 3.4GHz 27")

Likely my next purchase will be a 1TB 16GB M1 MacMini which I'll supplement with a similar-spec Air.
I really want a MacMini Pro, based around chips they already manufacture for their Macbooks, but it seems Apple can't give us this without some ridiculous pomp-and-circumstance streamed publicity event.

Imagine if Zanussi only gave us new washing machines at streamed publicity events.

Why not just wait? One thing about the newer operating systems is that they use more memory and you can go to 32 GB while you can't on the mini. I also have an M1 mini 16/1 but I actually use the 2014 iMac more than the mini but that's because of the display, speakers and RAM. The mini is just used for production work.

 

[Bodhitree]

I'm expecting $1,900 or $2,000 as the "rock bottom" entry-level price for the upcoming iMac Pro 27" with the m1pro CPU. That would be "the base model", which I expect to have 16gb of RAM and a 512gb SSD.

That will be "Apple's price". An I'm being optimistic -- it could be higher.

I would also expect 3rd party authorized resellers to offer modest discounts, probably 100, 150 or 200 off, not too long after the introduction...

I think it will be more, as the 24” M1 with 16 GB ram and 512 GB SSD is already over 2000 USD. I reckon the new large Pro iMac will start at 2700 USD, considering M1 Pro processor, ram, storage and screen size.

 

[pshufd]

I think it will be more, as the 24” M1 with 16 GB ram and 512 GB SSD is already over 2000 USD. I reckon the new large Pro iMac will start at 2700 USD, considering M1 Pro processor, ram, storage and screen size.

I agree, especially given that the iMac Pro will probably have the improved screen technology of the new MacBook Pros.

BTW, I watched XDR content for the first time this week and it is stunning and immersive (on the MacBook Pro 16). I imagine it would look fantastic on a 27 inch display.

 

[MajorFubar]

Why not just wait? One thing about the newer operating systems is that they use more memory and you can go to 32 GB while you can't on the mini. I also have an M1 mini 16/1 but I actually use the 2014 iMac more than the mini but that's because of the display, speakers and RAM. The mini is just used for production work.

Because we don't even know what we're waiting for or when it will arrive. If there was some certainty a Pro Mac Mini was coming at the March event I could justify waiting, but some insiders / trusted leakers are saying there's no real sign of a beefed-up Mini any time this year.

 

[Shivetya]

I really want an excuse to buy the new larger iMac (27 or larger) but damn it really seems as if Apple is making no moves to get more companies to write for the new processor. Apple really needs to make a move like Microsoft did when they bought Activision/Blizzard. Heck Microsoft buying that group may be the best bet we have of them every developing universal apps; Blizzard only did WOW and did not support any other game and even stated no plans.

I do not want to have to own separate machines for work and play

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Because we don't even know what we're waiting for or when it will arrive. If there was some certainty a Pro Mac Mini was coming at the March event I could justify waiting, but some insiders / trusted leakers are saying there's no real sign of a beefed-up Mini any time this year.

There's also the competing rumor that the Mac Mini upgrade might only be to M2 instead of M1PRO & MAX. My fingers are crossed for the latter- at least as a BTO option- but I wouldn't be too surprised if Mini M2 was "it," pushing the power purchase to the iMac "bigger" and/or waiting for Mac Pro Jr.

I'm definitely a buyer of M1MAX Mini if it actually shows up and pricing is not ridiculous. If pricing is ridiculous, I probably wait to see how much more ridiculous it can get with a Mac Pro Jr. and compare refurb M1MAX Mini at the time vs. New Mac Pro Jr.

iMac "bigger" is non-starter for me unless:

• some kind of Target Display Mode returns with it. OR
• the design allows tech gut swaps to get longer-term use out of the screen when the guts mysteriously "slow down" with macOS upgrades over time.

I suspect M-series chips are going to follow the lead of A-series chips such that "faster than everything, in every way, in every measurement" will swing to "getting long in tooth" in about 2 years (just like iPhone A-series). I don't want to buy a "best monitor ever" married to M-next that would likely have 6-10 years of usefulness left but no way to keep using it when M-next becomes "long in tooth" in a couple of years.

That's the downside to all-in-one. I'm typing this on an old iMac that still has a perfectly-usuable screen. It would be nicer if I could swap out the guts and keep using the screen until it conks. Instead, the all-in-one proposition at upgrade time is "throw baby out with the bathwater:" all-in-one value at purchase time... all-in-one waste at replacement time. Thus, even if Mac Mini M-next vs. iMac M-next makes it seem like the latter is the much better value, I'm pretty mentally committed to my own next Mac being screen-less. Hoping rumored M1MAX Mini shows soon.

 

[pshufd]

I really want an excuse to buy the new larger iMac (27 or larger) but damn it really seems as if Apple is making no moves to get more companies to write for the new processor. Apple really needs to make a move like Microsoft did when they bought Activision/Blizzard. Heck Microsoft buying that group may be the best bet we have of them every developing universal apps; Blizzard only did WOW and did not support any other game and even stated no plans.

I do not want to have to own separate machines for work and play

Apple has to just announce that they are dropping Rosetta 2 support in the next release or the release after that one. I have one program that I run on Windows. I can run it on Apple Silicon but there's a huge performance penalty to do so. They do not run particularly well even on macOS Intel. There are a few other programs that I use that are Intel-only but the performance penalty is small on them.

 

[pshufd]

That's the downside to all-in-one. I'm typing this on an old iMac that still has a perfectly-usuable screen. It would be nicer if I could swap out the guts and keep using the screen until it conks. Instead, the all-in-one proposition at upgrade time is "throw baby out with the bathwater:" all-in-one value at purchase time... all-in-one waste at replacement time. Thus, even if Mac Mini M-next vs. iMac M-next makes it seem like the latter is the much better value, I'm pretty mentally committed to my own next Mac being screen-less. Hoping rumored M1MAX Mini shows soon.

My current approach is cooperative computing. Put together a couple of weak computers to do the work of a strong computer. I currently have the Late 2014 iMac i7 + 2015 MacBook Pro 15 with 4k monitor, M1 Mac mini with 4k monitor and an i7-10700 Windows desktop with 128 GB of RAM and 5 GB SSD which doubles as the home NAS. They're all connected via Synergy KM so they act like one big system. When you can find hardware for $100 to $200, it can make good sense to do cooperative computing.

 

[MajorFubar]

I suspect M-series chips are going to follow the lead of A-series chips such that "faster than everything, in every way, in every measurement" will swing to "getting long in tooth" in about 2 years (just like iPhone A-series). I don't want to buy a "best monitor ever" married to M-next that would likely have 6-10 years of usefulness left but no way to keep using it when M-next becomes "long in tooth" in a couple of years.

That's the downside to all-in-one. I'm typing this on an old iMac that still has a perfectly-usuable screen. It would be nicer if I could swap out the guts and keep using the screen until it conks. Instead, the all-in-one proposition at upgrade time is "throw baby out with the bathwater:" all-in-one value at purchase time... all-in-one waste at replacement time. Thus, even if Mac Mini M-next vs. iMac M-next makes it seem like the latter is the much better value, I'm pretty mentally committed to my own next Mac being screen-less. Hoping rumored M1MAX Mini shows soon.

This is why I - having initially got overwhelmed by the street parties which followed the launch of the Pro and Max MBPs - smelled the coffee and decided a much wiser bet for me would be a Mini, so I don't have all my eggs in one basket. An Air for portability, and a pimped MacMini for my home studio is probably where I want to be. But they are not allowing me to pimp my Mini. It's insane that I can't spec one to include chips they already build into their MBPs. I know my complaining about it won't make it happen any sooner, but come on.

I can't help feel their reluctance to give us a Pro or Max Mini is because they know it would haemorrhage sales from their Mac Pro line.