Desktop Component iMac?
This isn't about Headless mac, Mini Tower Mac. But simply a iMac with Desktop Component.
Personally i am not against AIO. But the problem is that we are stuck with Laptop Component which is much slower then Desktop Counterpart.
And with a thicker iMac. Is it technically possible to use Desktop Component.? Surely there is enough space to fit in a Single Slot Gfx card as well as normal DIMM.
Just a more powerful iMac. Why isn't it available?
Personally i am not against AIO. But the problem is that we are stuck with Laptop Component which is much slower then Desktop Counterpart.
And with a thicker iMac. Is it technically possible to use Desktop Component.? Surely there is enough space to fit in a Single Slot Gfx card as well as normal DIMM.
Just a more powerful iMac. Why isn't it available?
Comments
As for more power, I don't think they'll do that either. Really they're selling iMacs to people who are average home users, not power users or big gamers. This helps keep the price down, keeps the product looking good and therefore shifting more units. If you want more power why not buy a Pro (I know it costs a lot more, but there is a reason for that).
I think Apple want to keep their product lines as simple as possible (remember the 90's when they had so many models it was really confusing). Current line-up makes sense to me - Pro users, home users and portables for each group too. Personally I never saw where the Mini fitted in (although I'm sure many of you have them and they fill your particular needs) but there has been a lot of talk of phasing these out (Seems a bit like the old Cube model history).
Just a more powerful iMac. Why isn't it available?
Have you ever worked with one? What gives you the idea the iMac as is is not fast enough for anything you might want to use it for??
My 20 inch first generation core duo iMac is now 1.5 years old and it is more than powerfull and fast enough for anything i have ever tried to throw at it. I run aperture with thousands of pictures and it flies. 1080p h264 video plays without a single hickup. Due to its' "less powerfull" laptop components it is also the quitest desktop I have ever owned.....
so please, do tell us all what in hell you would like to do with it that you think the current iMac will not be fast enough for??? Because I can and will tell you from personal experience that the iMac already has more power than 95% of consumers will ever use.
The only groups it really is not fast enough for are hardcore gamers and Pro-users working with high definition video or otherwise extremely intensive computing.
This isn't about Headless mac, Mini Tower Mac. But simply a iMac with Desktop Component.
Personally i am not against AIO. But the problem is that we are stuck with Laptop Component which is much slower then Desktop Counterpart.
And with a thicker iMac. Is it technically possible to use Desktop Component.? Surely there is enough space to fit in a Single Slot Gfx card as well as normal DIMM.
Just a more powerful iMac. Why isn't it available?
Because they chose one configuration. It's cheaper for them to build one rather than two. A "normal DIMM" isn't going to effect anything. It's to nominal to notice.
But the problem is that we are stuck with Laptop Component which is much slower then Desktop Counterpart.
Check the recent iMac benchmarks. You'll be surprised how close they compare to the Mac Pro - closer than you'd have thought (unless your talking heavy graphics or multi-threaded rendering/compilation)
This isn't about Headless mac, Mini Tower Mac. But simply a iMac with Desktop Component.
Personally i am not against AIO. But the problem is that we are stuck with Laptop Component which is much slower then Desktop Counterpart.
And with a thicker iMac. Is it technically possible to use Desktop Component.? Surely there is enough space to fit in a Single Slot Gfx card as well as normal DIMM.
Just a more powerful iMac. Why isn't it available?
I think you bring up a good point. I think we'll see it with Penryn. Ars has an article on Penryn which claims the penryn will use less power under load than Conroe does at idle. I think the power and heat envelope of Penryn may allow it to be used in the iMac. This is when I think you'll see the specs of the MBP and iMac diverge to a greater extent than they do today. The good part is that the iMac should still be thin and quiet
This isn't about Headless mac, Mini Tower Mac. But simply a iMac with Desktop Component.
Personally i am not against AIO. But the problem is that we are stuck with Laptop Component which is much slower then Desktop Counterpart.
And with a thicker iMac. Is it technically possible to use Desktop Component.? Surely there is enough space to fit in a Single Slot Gfx card as well as normal DIMM.
Just a more powerful iMac. Why isn't it available?
Maybe not more powerful, but if using desktop parts were possible, it would have one of few effects. Apple could drop the price and maintain dollar profits per machine, Apple could drop the price and maintain gross margins, Apple could keep the price the same and really rack in the cash.
But I believe what you envision what happen. Apple is committed to small AIO is best, period. They don't want nor will they try to capture any other markets. People that don't appreciate the benefits of small and/or AIO need not apply.
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showp...5&postcount=57
The point is, the desktop CPUs and chipsets are allowed to have max. temperature about 65 deg. Celsius. Mobile parts can go up to 100 deg. Cesius. This is a lot, and combined with the higher power consumption of the desktop parts ant the lack of power-saving features there it will require a major redesign of the case/cooling system. iMac will built with mobile parts in the foreseeable future. Get used to it!
Putting desktop components may not be that easy and will go against Apple design goals for the iMac. I wrote some thoughts here:
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showp...5&postcount=57
The point is, the desktop CPUs and chipsets are allowed to have max. temperature about 65 deg. Celsius. Mobile parts can go up to 100 deg. Cesius. This is a lot, and combined with the higher power consumption of the desktop parts ant the lack of power-saving features there it will require a major redesign of the case/cooling system. iMac will built with mobile parts in the foreseeable future. Get used to it!
Time will tell. As I said above, Penryn will use less power and therefore give off less heat. Will that mean that the iMac will get the fastest quad core Penryns? Not necessarily, but I still see 'desktop' cpus as a possibility when Penryn chips hit the market. My guess is that if it's going to happen it'll happen by this time next year.
Because they chose one configuration. It's cheaper for them to build one rather than two. A "normal DIMM" isn't going to effect anything. It's to nominal to notice.
My Main problem would be i could get 4GB of Standard DDR2 cheaper then 2GB of SO-DIMM. Surely more Memory is welcome? Unlike Windows ( Vista seems to be better at this ) Mac has a much better memory management system that could benefits the more memory you throw at it
And if i do anything like Simulation and Video Encoding. More power are always welcome. I am not whining on Desktop counter parts. As i can see in 3 or 4 years time we could finally have excess processing power then 95% of our need. Native Quad Core Nehalem with Video Acceleration from Gfx part could eat H.264 for breakfast. But for now it is not quite there yet.
I suppose i could wait for Penryn to come out as i am still waiting for Leopard anyway. SSE 4 should help greatly decrease encoding time.
Check the recent iMac benchmarks. You'll be surprised how close they compare to the Mac Pro - closer than you'd have thought (unless your talking heavy graphics or multi-threaded rendering/compilation)
I would like to have a single CPU socket motherbroad. And add in a Quad Core CPU instead of Xeon. And Non FB-DIMM memory slot. This should cut down the cost a bit. The fundermental problem with Mac Pro is that it really is Professional. It is not aimed for Power Home User or what i call Prosumers. iMac are for Main stream users.
I think you bring up a good point. I think we'll see it with Penryn. Ars has an article on Penryn which claims the penryn will use less power under load than Conroe does at idle. I think the power and heat envelope of Penryn may allow it to be used in the iMac. This is when I think you'll see the specs of the MBP and iMac diverge to a greater extent than they do today. The good part is that the iMac should still be thin and quiet
I hope it would be true. Although the TDP of Penryn is still higher then the Core 2 Extreme used in the top spec iMac.
I hope it would be true. Although the TDP of Penryn is still higher then the Core 2 Extreme used in the top spec iMac.
What is the TDP for the 2.8 ghz in the iMac? It's not a chip that I'm aware of. The core 2 extreme mobile chip was supposed to clock at 2.6 ghz. Is the chip Apple is using an overclocked version of this or is it something else.
Already it seems that Apple is trying to separate the MBP from the iMac, I think when Penryn arrives they'll increase the 'separation'. FWIW, desktop dual core penryns will have a TDP of 65 watts. The Quads are a bit higher and I can't see them in an AIO without some serious modification.
Time will tell. As I said above, Penryn will use less power and therefore give off less heat. Will that mean that the iMac will get the fastest quad core Penryns? Not necessarily, but I still see 'desktop' cpus as a possibility when Penryn chips hit the market. My guess is that if it's going to happen it'll happen by this time next year.
What you say is very true, or, could be the iMac will just get thinner requiring still lower power laptop cpus/gpus.