Next-gen iMac to include new cooling module? - Page 3

Plus the current iMac's 2600 Pro and 8800 GS graphics chips have a tdp of 45w and 105w respectively. If they go with the mobile versions of the 9600M and 9800M then they can make a cooler design.

I'm a little late getting back into this thread but if Apple does indeed go with an iMac update with what Intel has reasonably available for it right now we are in a world of hurt. The problem of course is that big gap in performance vs the Mac Pro.

It is a reality that Intel doesn't have the optimal solution available for the iMac for a January rev. So what I'm expecting to see is very little if anything changed on the iMac except fora processor bump to carry Apple through until they can design in suitable i7 hardware.

It is one thing to rev the Mini as it is obviously far behind the rest of the lineup and there is a good selection of hardware available to give it a decent boost. This however would round out the low end and Apple would have zip available for the mid range. This is why I see a Mini update in January as a certainty.


Dave

Every thing you say above is valid to an extent but for anybody in the Mac fold already the point remains that the gap between the iMac and the Mac Pro just gets wider and wider. The whole point revolves around the fact that hte Mac Pro is an easy upgrade to i7 when the right chip set combinations come out. The feasibility of putting i7 in the iMac is a bigger question and a valid one in many minds. If Apple decides the engineering effort isn't worth it then we will not see the type of performance increase that is really needed to keep any of the iMacs in the mid range area of performance.

I constantly see the Mini referred to as an upsell machine and frankly don't think that is valid at all. Each time a freshly revved machine comes out it is a good value for the money. It is a machine that many have adopted as their home machine, even a few businesses have been known to standardize around the Mini. If nothing else it has been a stable platform for Apple and the industry types that use it.

Well we could discuss that all day. The point is they are a good value at introduction and remain a stable platform for long periods of time. Many of Apples customers like that!

Is it an ideal machine for the consumer looking for something cheap. Certainly not. It is however a good machine for somebody that wants a bit of quality, flexibility and low cost Apple platform. Not to mention that the Mini can effectively operate with little power which is a quality all on its own.

I doubt the iMac will die anytime soon as it suits a particular customer base very well. But it will quickly end up with a performance problem relative to the Mac Pro. Peopel expect the Mac Pro to be fast, that is what they are paying for. What they won't be happy with is a huge gap between the iMac and the Pro when the markets are ful of PC hardware that could easily fill the role of a midrange machine.

This is why I would not be surprised to see at least one iMac with an i7 processor. If not then maybe XMac is coming after all.

Dave

One thing that has to be dealt with if you heat load goes up on a device is the heat removal system. This is commonly refereed to as a CPU cooler, or by the electronically minds a heat sink. At least back in the day we refereed to them as heat sinks.

What prompted this discussion is the use of carbon fiber in heat removal systems. In this case the heat was being removed from gun barrels but the point is it may be possible for Apple to use some new tech here that may be far more efficient at pulling heat away from the processor than copper or aluminum. A system that is solid sate as opposed to fluid.

So I'm wondering has anybody heard about carbon fiber being used in the heat sink industry? I would imagine this would be a composite type of heat sink, which would be dramatically different than the standard aluminum job.

If a heat sink can be developed that transfers heat dramatically faster than cooper over a wide area then Apple can stay with a low velocity air stream. This would manage the noise and considering the width of the iMacs there would be plenty of space for a wide heat sink. Just thinking here.


Dave

I should have said "impossible to predict." Obviously, speculation is all we got.

wasn't a patent filed a little while back regarding water cooling methods?

Sorry to revive this thread, but I had to address this point. The 8800 GS GPU in the iMac is not a real 8800 GS (the 8800 GS has only 384MB of RAM), its a rebranded 8800M GTS GPU with a TDP of 35W. According to this.

Also the power supply of the 20" iMac is only 200W (280W for the 24" iMac) so unless Apple wants to change this, they have to work within a defined power envelop and that probably means still using mobile (low TDP) GPUs even if the rest of the platform is "desktop".

As far a the Apple's desktop range is concern, my wish for 2009 would be something like that:
- Mac mini dual-core $999
- iMac quad-core $1999
- Mac Pro quad-core (8 threads) $2499
- Mac Pro eight-cores (16 threads) $2499

Have a nice year, everybody.

Interesting.

Also, Nvidia released some new mobile GPUs, the GeForce GT 130M in particular is about 17% faster than the 9600M.

I'm going to buy an iMac sometime in the next few months. Are we likely to see an update to the iMac lineup say before the end of April and if so is it likely that the Australian price would increase with the new models considering how much the exchange rate tanked shortly after the ipod announcements in September of last year.

Come to think of it is there any website that tracks the international cost and release dates of imac/ipod models over time?