Well that's a judgement call. I think we end up agreeing to disagree which is fine I respect your call on that I just think it is incorrect! I simply tried to explain why it is incorrect. I'm sure you feel the same in reverse.
I could resort to the tried and tested troll which would be " Yeah but the one screen setup is just for playing, not real work" , but I won't - dang!
You don't remember why Apple made the iMac in the first place, right?
I can't find the comparison pics for the original iMac, but this was one they used later:
5400 RPM in a machine costing over a £1000 complete with vampire video and 'lean' amount of ram.
All the laptops have SSD. The Mac Pro has SSD.
But the iMac doesn't.
The entry iMacs come with 1TB HDD so they could put in 128GB SSD for the same price. The laptop line is their biggest seller and people survive just fine with lower amounts of storage. If they designed the iMacs with a SATA connector that goes into the base, they could put a 2.5" drive in there and this would let people choose a 3rd party SSD or HDD. 1TB HDD would be $50, 1TB SSD would be just over $300. The drive in the base could be optionally used for Time Machine. They'd just cut a portion out above the hole in the stand on the internal side:
They'd drill cable holes while the stand was flat then bend the metal and just cut the 2.5" shape out with a cover held on by clasps and some screw mounts. This can go on the inside of the stand so you don't see it. They could put it right down at the bottom of the stand with the cover on the bottom but the bottom part is tapered.
This would make it easier to install upgrades in Apple Stores and resellers. They'd ship internally with 128, 256, 512, 1GB SSD and the stand port can be upgraded whenever they want. When SSDs drop in price, they don't have to redesign the internal hardware, they just ditch the stand design and cabling.
They can make this appear as a single drive or allow them separate so the SSD doesn't have to wait on a HDD spinning up/down. Having it as a Time Machine drive means that if the computer breaks, you just access the drive in the stand directly and send it in for repair.
The 5400 rpm drive wouldn't be so bad if it could be easily changed but to put that in a modern computer and behind a glued on screen is really limiting.
Marvin - I agree completely (and I'm sure others agree) that the 5,400rpm hard drive is completely and utterly unacceptable. There should be a 128 GB PCIe SSD minimum with options up to 512 GB for the 21.5" and up to 1 TB for the 27". Consider the fact that the $1,099 iMac is based off the MacBook Air (hence why I call it the iMacBook Air) with the exact same hardware.
I say the only time where an HDD might be acceptable as a default is the $499 and possibly the $699 Mac mini but it was a flat out lie that Phil Schiller said it the new Mac mini is available with flash storage and starts at $499.
At any rate, the only thing stopping the 21.5" 4k iMac from being a great machine is not having the Iris Pro 580. Yeah sure you could argue it would be better off having its own dedicated graphics would be better but they aren't squeezing a 950M in there like the Asus Zen AiO. Sorry.
The 5400 rpm drive wouldn't be so bad if it could be easily changed but to put that in a modern computer and behind a glued on screen is really limiting.
As usual, Marvin, the 'voice of reason', sums it pretty well.
Quote:
Marvin - I agree completely (and I'm sure others agree) that the 5,400rpm hard drive is completely and utterly unacceptable. There should be a 128 GB PCIe SSD minimum with options up to 512 GB for the 21.5" and up to 1 TB for the 27". Consider the fact that the $1,099 iMac is based off the MacBook Air (hence why I call it the iMacBook Air) with the exact same hardware.
I say the only time where an HDD might be acceptable as a default is the $499 and possibly the $699 Mac mini but it was a flat out lie that Phil Schiller said it the new Mac mini is available with flash storage and starts at $499.
At any rate, the only thing stopping the 21.5" 4k iMac from being a great machine is not having the Iris Pro 580. Yeah sure you could argue it would be better off having its own dedicated graphics would be better but they aren't squeezing a 950M in there like the Asus Zen AiO. Sorry.
Agreed. Good point on the 'iMac Air' comparison to the Macbook Air which comes with SSD at a lower price. Even the expensive Mac Pro has an SSD (not the biggest...) but you'd expect a 'Pro' machine to come with SSD and even bigger storage. 256 gig SSD drives are very cheap now. They could come as standard on the entry iMacs around £1000-ish. And on the high end iMac a choice of 512 gig SSD or Fusion for the sticker price. Macbook Pros come with SSDs. The whole laptop line cheap and expensive does. The iMac sits in the same price bracket as the Macbook Pro line. I don't see why we have this discrepancy for the iMacs. You could have 128 gigs SSD - 256gigs SSD as standard and if customers want additional storage they can buy one. But then, Apple couldn't gouge them on price for a 5400rpm HHD.
Why not put the 950M in there? Probably due to legal politics at the moment. But why not give customers a bit more choice on graphics for machines over £1000? iMacs used to have discrete graphics for said price and under £1000.
* * * * *
The good news, Winter...with the GPU seismic shift due this coming year in 2016...the iMac should be pulled along with it. There's been a huge amount of rebadging going on with AMD for the 'same' performance. It's telling that Apple doesn't have a performance bar for graphics on the iMac vs the last machine.
The new GPU process next year, new designs and HBM2 (with a large boost in VRAM?) should create a transformational gpu performance for desktop and laptops alike.
AMD are coming to the market with 'Zen' and who knows, between that and the impending A10 chip, Intel may feel the pressure to 'up their game' after years of glacial performance improvements CPU wise. Be nice to see eg. A 6 core cpu in the top end iMac.
Meanwhile, SSD prices will continue to fall. Along with the USB 3.1 port shake out and 4K prices continuing to fall as it goes mainstream...we may see more value and 'leading edge' iMac specs next year in cpu, SSD, ports and gpu.
At the moment, the main takeaway is the 4K display. Nice. But not with 5400rpm HHD. That's the Good...and the Ugly.
Comments
...maybe next year we'll get the ports updated to go with Skylake? :P
Lemon Bon Bon.
Would have been allot better if they upgraded the graphics chip and had USB-C also.
What? Apple actually update the specs on their desktops?
C'mon. You're reaching... :P
Lemon Bon Bon.
I'll give Apple a couple of points on the 4K and 5K retina screens intro'd and RGB gamut being widened.
That's the 'take home' message of these 'updates.'
Lemon Bon Bon.
This is such a stupid and tired argument.
"Oh, Apple could afford to do xxxx, what with x00 billions in the bank!" - that's bullshit, and it's just some bizarre attitude of entitlement.
You accumulate money primarily by not spending it.
One of the reasons Apple HAS so much money in the first place is because they look very, very closely at what they spend it on.
You don't remember why Apple made the iMac in the first place, right?
I can't find the comparison pics for the original iMac, but this was one they used later:
This is such a stupid and tired argument.
"Oh, Apple could afford to do xxxx, what with x00 billions in the bank!" - that's bullshit, and it's just some bizarre attitude of entitlement.
You accumulate money primarily by not spending it.
One of the reasons Apple HAS so much money in the first place is because they look very, very closely at what they spend it on.
This is such a stupid and tired comment.
5400 RPM in a machine costing over a £1000 complete with vampire video and 'lean' amount of ram.
All the laptops have SSD. The Mac Pro has SSD.
But the iMac doesn't.
You can't have it both ways.
Lemon Bon Bon.
The entry iMacs come with 1TB HDD so they could put in 128GB SSD for the same price. The laptop line is their biggest seller and people survive just fine with lower amounts of storage. If they designed the iMacs with a SATA connector that goes into the base, they could put a 2.5" drive in there and this would let people choose a 3rd party SSD or HDD. 1TB HDD would be $50, 1TB SSD would be just over $300. The drive in the base could be optionally used for Time Machine. They'd just cut a portion out above the hole in the stand on the internal side:
They'd drill cable holes while the stand was flat then bend the metal and just cut the 2.5" shape out with a cover held on by clasps and some screw mounts. This can go on the inside of the stand so you don't see it. They could put it right down at the bottom of the stand with the cover on the bottom but the bottom part is tapered.
This would make it easier to install upgrades in Apple Stores and resellers. They'd ship internally with 128, 256, 512, 1GB SSD and the stand port can be upgraded whenever they want. When SSDs drop in price, they don't have to redesign the internal hardware, they just ditch the stand design and cabling.
They can make this appear as a single drive or allow them separate so the SSD doesn't have to wait on a HDD spinning up/down. Having it as a Time Machine drive means that if the computer breaks, you just access the drive in the stand directly and send it in for repair.
The 5400 rpm drive wouldn't be so bad if it could be easily changed but to put that in a modern computer and behind a glued on screen is really limiting.
I say the only time where an HDD might be acceptable as a default is the $499 and possibly the $699 Mac mini but it was a flat out lie that Phil Schiller said it the new Mac mini is available with flash storage and starts at $499.
At any rate, the only thing stopping the 21.5" 4k iMac from being a great machine is not having the Iris Pro 580. Yeah sure you could argue it would be better off having its own dedicated graphics would be better but they aren't squeezing a 950M in there like the Asus Zen AiO. Sorry.
As usual, Marvin, the 'voice of reason', sums it pretty well.
Agreed. Good point on the 'iMac Air' comparison to the Macbook Air which comes with SSD at a lower price. Even the expensive Mac Pro has an SSD (not the biggest...) but you'd expect a 'Pro' machine to come with SSD and even bigger storage. 256 gig SSD drives are very cheap now. They could come as standard on the entry iMacs around £1000-ish. And on the high end iMac a choice of 512 gig SSD or Fusion for the sticker price. Macbook Pros come with SSDs. The whole laptop line cheap and expensive does. The iMac sits in the same price bracket as the Macbook Pro line. I don't see why we have this discrepancy for the iMacs. You could have 128 gigs SSD - 256gigs SSD as standard and if customers want additional storage they can buy one. But then, Apple couldn't gouge them on price for a 5400rpm HHD.
Why not put the 950M in there? Probably due to legal politics at the moment. But why not give customers a bit more choice on graphics for machines over £1000? iMacs used to have discrete graphics for said price and under £1000.
* * * * *
The good news, Winter...with the GPU seismic shift due this coming year in 2016...the iMac should be pulled along with it. There's been a huge amount of rebadging going on with AMD for the 'same' performance. It's telling that Apple doesn't have a performance bar for graphics on the iMac vs the last machine.
The new GPU process next year, new designs and HBM2 (with a large boost in VRAM?) should create a transformational gpu performance for desktop and laptops alike.
AMD are coming to the market with 'Zen' and who knows, between that and the impending A10 chip, Intel may feel the pressure to 'up their game' after years of glacial performance improvements CPU wise. Be nice to see eg. A 6 core cpu in the top end iMac.
Lemon Bon Bon.
Meanwhile, SSD prices will continue to fall. Along with the USB 3.1 port shake out and 4K prices continuing to fall as it goes mainstream...we may see more value and 'leading edge' iMac specs next year in cpu, SSD, ports and gpu.
At the moment, the main takeaway is the 4K display. Nice. But not with 5400rpm HHD. That's the Good...and the Ugly.
Lemon Bon Bon.