AKApple

lkrupp said:

My late 2013 27” iMac 14,2, stuck on Catalina, is begging to be replaced. Already have the go-ahead from the CEO of the household, my wife. 

My sentiments precisely! Checkbook is replenished and ready, as you stated my late 2013  27" and Catalina is boring and getting tired, CEO has signed off, the only other thing I would hope for is the colors. Keep the space grey or silver, but make the colors available for those that may want them.

macxpress said:

Not sure why this needs to exist when there's the Mac Studio and Apple Studio Display. 

The Mac Studio/Display is a morphodite set up with a specific customer in mind. Discontinuation of the 27" iMac leaves few options for those of us that have had the 27" for years. I currently have a late 2013 27" iMac that Apple has now, in their infinite wisdom, stopped supporting. I understand that its Apple's marketing strategy to push consumers to what Apple wants to sell, but some of us flat refuse to be bullied into buying something just because it's what the manufacturer wants to sell. After having the 27" for some 8 years now I am left with options that are less than desirable, I can go with the 24", or a soon-to-be obsolete Mini with either the Studio Display or some other display, or I can spend an even more ridiculous amount of money to purchase the combination that you speak of. It's beyond ludicrous for me to even consider the latter as it's way, way more than I need. If I'm being forced to "settle" then I may as well "settle" for Windows and save myself a ton of money.

JMStearnsX2 said:

slow n easy said:

I ordered one but it won't be here until the end of February, and it's also spec'ed out at $1,999.99. I debated waiting to see how it would compare to a Mac Studio but who knows how long it would take for the update to arrive.

I'm in the same situation, I'm not sure which one to get. I have my money ready, I wish I knew when the new Mac Studio is going to come out. I can wait a bit longer though.

DrBoar2 said:

Half the HD space of my mid 2011 budget and half of what I upgraded the RAM to on my own.
The real insanity is that with the M2 I have to pay as much for adding 256 GB SSD as getting a 2 TB external HD!  That is an 8:1 ratio
And why do I have to pay as much for adding 256 (256 to 512) as adding 512 (going from 412 to 1TB) !?

I agree it's insane, I wouldn't mind the soldered memory and storage as much if it were more reasonably priced. How much they charge for memory and storage upgrades is criminal. External Thunderbolt storage has a bandwidth cap, even a single NVMe 3.0 will be much faster. Move to PCIe 4.0 or 5.0 and there is no comparison.
I'm a certified Mac technician, I've seen the inside of the M1 mini. There is SO much empty space, you could fit 2x 2.5" drives inside and still have lots of air movement, much less having a few NVMe blades. The logic board & heatsink only takes about 20% of the interior volume, the rest is just air space from using the same enclosure from the last 13 years.  It would be trivial for Apple to add that capability to the logic board, but they won't when they make as much as they do on storage upgrades.

Apple/Mac has always been overpriced, yes, to the extent that it borders on criminal. But there are millions and millions of chumps like myself that continue to pay those insane prices. Until we convince ourselves that PC's will do precisely the same tasks for far less $$ it will remain as it is, and we have no one but ourselves to blame. I'm still running a 2013 27" iMac that is way, way obsolete by Mac standards, I refuse to get caught up in that "I gotta' have it because it's the latest and greatest from Apple" syndrome. Same with my 2016 MBP. Both machines still work great.

lkrupp said, "There is no point in waiting, waiting, waiting for the next big thing. People like me fell into this trap waiting for the M1 27” iMac that never happened. I will wait one more time for WWDC, this time for an updated Mini, and that’s it. If that doesn’t materialize then it’s either a 24” iMac or tricked out Mini and display. My 2013 27” iMac is still performing flawlessly but I’m stuck three generations of macOS behind. And no way will I patch Monterey to run on my almost ten year old machine."

I could have written that comment, for the most part it absolutely mirrors my sentiments. Same old late 2013 27" non-upgradeable iMac. There is a difference though. If Apple, in its infinite wisdom, does not introduce a newer version of the 27" iMac (or larger) with the M chip at the WWDC in June, i will jump ship and go back to Windows. I am sick to the gills of Apple and their marketing traps and BS. Enough is enough.