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The new iMac - God damn this thing is sexy

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jfxphoto
Posts: 2038 - Karma: 2,346
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Baseline specs-

Display:
21.5-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology; 1920-by-1080 resolution with support for millions of colors

Processor:
2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz) with 6MB L3 cache

Memory:
8GB (two 4GB) of 1600MHz DDR3 memory
Configurable to 16GB

Storage:
1TB (5400-rpm) hard drive

Graphics:
NVIDIA GeForce
GT 640M graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR5 memory


Anyone thinking about picking this thing up? I know most people have kinda moved on from desktops and onto tricked out macbooks but this thing is pulling me in.

Thoughts?
Oct 23 2012 3:35PM
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TWoods
Posts: 10014 - Karma: 8,385
I do all my design work on an 27 inch imac. I will probably pick one of these up for my business if everything goes well next spring.
Oct 23 2012 3:46PM
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Laurent.
Posts: 10054 - Karma: 25,277
I'm nursing a semi as we speak.


Evolution:

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Oct 23 2012 3:51PM
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eheath
Posts: 61098 - Karma: 118,247
Damn, you can make the most high end model so ill, about 2500 though ha
Oct 23 2012 4:11PM
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Chinchi
Posts: 1591 - Karma: 4,210
boner acheived
Oct 23 2012 4:20PM
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BolderPro
Posts: 767 - Karma: 426
It is so sick!! im currently in love with my 26" though now, so i dont think I'll upgrade for a while but this thing is a monster!!! only thing is is 16 the max ram? cause right now im at 32 and it would make sense if the new one only had 2 slots instead of 4...
Oct 23 2012 4:20PM
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eheath
Posts: 61098 - Karma: 118,247
No you can upgrade to 32gb. You can do 3.4 ghz too and a nivida 675 too, pretty sick
Oct 23 2012 4:24PM
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Official_Recap
Posts: 1075 - Karma: 525
Pretty excited, as I have had my finger on the trigger to invest in a maxed out 27" for the past couple weeks leading up to the announcement. However, not thrilled that they aren't available until December.. Also dropping the optical drive is slightly annoying, as well as no firewire 800 (though not sure if they had those in last model or not).Overall, I'd say it's a positive step for the iMac family.

Somewhat unrelated - Is the Mac Pro simply being left out to die over time?
Oct 23 2012 4:35PM
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Laurent.
Posts: 10054 - Karma: 25,277
I guess so, in my local Apple reseller (We only have one Apple store in the Netherlands.) they haven't sold a single Mac Pro in the past three years.

It's just too expensive for 99,5% of the people.
Oct 23 2012 4:41PM
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CrotchKiller
Posts: 9037 - Karma: 6,940
want to sell my MBP and buy one of these reallllllly bad
Oct 23 2012 4:50PM
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Splice.
Posts: 1381 - Karma: -192
Mine has better specs. Tekserve made a 3.6 ghz 27inch 8gb ram for me.... and they're doing 16gb ram as we speak. I don't know how they're doing it.
Oct 23 2012 5:23PM
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eheath
Posts: 61098 - Karma: 118,247
lol you cant change anything in an imac, theyre obviously lying to you, it can probably turbo boost to 3.6ghz. But, when mommy and daddy are paying i guess 3500 on a desktop imac is worth it, shouldve asked them for a mac pro.
Oct 23 2012 5:50PM
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Mkvackay
Posts: 1903 - Karma: 5,460
am i reading this right, you're using 32 gigs of ram? holy fuck

i could really use some of that these days, 2 gigs of ram + cinema 4d+fcp+psd+ae isn't cuttin it anymore haha
Oct 23 2012 6:06PM
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.qzyxya
Posts: 1479 - Karma: -26
Damn. That's sweet.
Oct 23 2012 6:18PM
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BolderPro
Posts: 767 - Karma: 426
yea the deal was right and I had to get it :) but I was having alot of issues with the stock 4gb ram and ae. I cant image cinema 4d on 2 haha
Oct 23 2012 6:32PM
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AwR
Posts: 5147 - Karma: 1,878
junk in the trunk

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Still hoping to see a mac pro update this decade.
Oct 23 2012 7:25PM
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TijmenDal
Posts: 4849 - Karma: 1,295
Sexy looking for sure, but considering the power it packs after a 500+ day upgrade, it's quite pathetic. No i7 standard? Paying 2000$ for a computer and having to pay to upgrade to i7 is kinda sad.
I don't deny it's an awesome looking thing, one of their most beautiful products yet, but it's not powerful enough without upgrading it a ton. Same for the 13" rMBP. Even more disappointed in that.
Oct 23 2012 8:28PM
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gusestomp
Posts: 1377 - Karma: 746
If there's a way I can raise 2500, I will most def buy this. The screen is so damn sexy ;)
Oct 23 2012 8:52PM
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tomPietrowski
Posts: 7099 - Karma: 17,043
Looks nice but seriously under powered for todays standards, for the money.

Interesting they are still use Mobile GPU, and i5 shows that they are marketing these to familys as the home pc, not as a serious computer. No Mac pro just proves this more. Apple are not interested in the pro market, as they know they will sell enough to people who think there still the best computers out there.
Oct 23 2012 10:05PM
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_DUSTY_
Posts: 1097 - Karma: 686
How the hell would you use 32gb of ram? I have 10gb of ram for use with protools and even on large projects I don't come close to using that.
Oct 23 2012 10:17PM
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saxon
Posts: 1159 - Karma: 551
dammnnnnnn that is so nice ! they've really done a nice job with that. that will definitely be our next desktop for sure.
Oct 23 2012 10:54PM
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tomPietrowski
Posts: 7099 - Karma: 17,043
Audio production is actually very easy on a computer. If you use something like after effects its recommended you have at least 2Gb of ram for each thread of your CPU. So if you use something like an i7 with 8 threads, that means 16Gb is the minimum recommended.

I can tell you AE eats through 16Gb of ram in no time. 32Gb is pretty much the norm now for digital creation
Oct 23 2012 11:01PM
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messplay
Posts: 4483 - Karma: 1,065
Coming in here to through you some knowledge.

I doubt many of you have the TOTL iMac like myself from 2011 - but this thing is just as bad of an upgrade as the iPhone 5.

The resale value on my computer just went up due to them dropping the Optical Drive, which is first thing.

Second, why did they focus the complete new model on making it 1/2" thinner so to speak for something that sits over 16inchess from my face and always will? If you're a true apple fan, or have been with apple for some time, then you can agree just like 90% of the users that have an iMac pre my model, and the model before that.

The screen is nothing but the same despite lamination to prevent reflectiveness. No option for Solid State drives which absolutely shit on this Hybrid BS that has been in the market for more than 2 years already. The GTX 680m is the ONLY reason for upgrading as well as the option for 32GB of RAM. My 6970m 2GB GPU still shits on the 680m and can run laps around all base 27" models.

If you're buying this due to the asthetic appearance, I say wait until next year when retina is actually put into place, an actual desktop graphics is installed instead of the Mobile chips, and an actual redesign is taken into effect.

Chances are, if you have last years model and spent what you may put into this one, you're going to get maybe 10% overall performance increase and will not be able to have user-friendly installs for your own upgrade considering this thing will cost a fortune for upgrading parts since it is fully laminated.

GLHF
Oct 23 2012 11:40PM
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BolderPro
Posts: 767 - Karma: 426
you could do that on the mid 2011
Oct 24 2012 12:10AM
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blatt
Posts: 5584 - Karma: 3,097
Damn dude, you must edit some pretty sick videos with that system!!
Oct 24 2012 12:15AM
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_DUSTY_
Posts: 1097 - Karma: 686
That's true for most applications. The new protools however can load up all the audio files into the ram so everything works very quickly. It's recommended to have 4gb of ram so 8gb is plenty for me.

That's pretty crazy how quickly video applications chew through ram, I guess I'm used to audio which is pretty nice to a computers ram.
Oct 24 2012 1:16AM
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.qzyxya
Posts: 1479 - Karma: -26
Why don't they just make another imac with an actual desktop processor/gpu that's thicker?
Oct 26 2012 1:24PM
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Pudge
Posts: 3718 - Karma: 3,117
I am all for the new iMac but I was really hoping for an update to the pro.

I got shafted when I bought mine, it is the same shell and everything as the pros but it's the 13 inch that is just called a "Macbook". I don't know if anyone knows what I mean. It was before they reduced the price by 100 bucks and added some ports
Oct 26 2012 1:34PM
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Laurent.
Posts: 10054 - Karma: 25,277
Ah yes the elusive 2008 Macbook unibody "I look like a Pro but I'm not a Pro."
Oct 26 2012 1:39PM
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UBC_Freeride
Posts: 116 - Karma: 2,994
Hahaha.


But 32GB of ram and that graphics card on this beast is ridiculous. Imagine 6 monitors, each rendering a different video ridiculously fast
Oct 26 2012 2:27PM
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1337
Posts: 31038 - Karma: 29,003
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Damn man, I don't know if they make ladders long enough to get you off that high horse you're riding!

-In what programs does your 6970m outperform a 680mx? Because the 680mx is significantly better if we look at benchmarks, not to mention is a nvidia kepler based and will destroy any adobe or other CUDA optimized programs. Which are most design/creation/graphics programs now. I wont even bother discussing the lower models, because you want TOTL
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

-You won't see apple move away from a mobile based gpu for a while now that they've taken the "slimmer is better" design. Mobile cards offer significantly cooler temps and maximum efficiency over a bulky card. They may perform slightly worse than a regular GPU, but not by much. Want better GPU performance that a 680Mx won't offer? Get an actual tower with a physical card. You wouldn't look at an imac anyways if you were doing anything that required top of the line graphics performance (fixed primary monitor) and you sure as hell wouldn't be shopping a Geforce card (think Tegra/Telsa workstation cards)

-Optical drives are being phased out everywhere, glad apple took this step. BlueRay failed to take off like DVD did, and now a digital marketplace/medium is where the consumer and producers want media to be sold as quality is much higher and connivence is second to none. Name three things that you want to use a DVD drive for, and why buying a $20 USB one (that will be faster read/write than a built in one anyways) can't fix that problem. Don't say budget, i think anyone looking at the TOTL model can spend $20 extra.

-No SSD? Configure 768gb of flash storage, might be the most expensive option but thats TOTL at apple. Need extra storage and wanna bitch about that? Thunderbolt will give you performance faster than any drive can read/write, configure an external or two that way. Don't you have to remove that precious optical drive you so desperately need to configure a second internal anyways? Regardless of that, anyone looking at this TOTL computer would be investing in external raid setups/hard drives (And won't be moving a 27" computer around where that'd be inconvenient, I'd hope)

-Lastly, I'm just curious, but what do you do that requires the TOTL iMac? I swear all you do is pay attention to your tumblr
Oct 26 2012 2:43PM
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eheath
Posts: 61098 - Karma: 118,247
This is sad, but very true. Sure, optical drives will stay around another 5 years until they're completely gone, but online distribution is cheaper, faster and easier. Why would anyone want to order a disc of something, wait a week for it to arrive when you could download it in a few hours and use it the same day you bought it? Unless you're making dvds/blurays (which im sure you wouldnt care about an imac) what do you really need an optical drive for anymore? Nothing really. I haven't put a disc in my computer in years, my roommate has a mbp with a broken disc drive and didnt even want to waste his time going to the apple store to have them fix it for free.
Oct 26 2012 4:24PM
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1337
Posts: 31038 - Karma: 29,003
Not to mention the quality is terrible on DVDs, so if you're suggesting you'd still use it to watch movies, fucking sit down at a tv or spend a measly $20 to watch it. It won't be that fun on your 2560x1440 monitor
Oct 26 2012 4:31PM
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TijmenDal
Posts: 4849 - Karma: 1,295
'Bout time optical drives start disappearing. I have used mine maybe twice in 3 years and even then it wasn't necessary.

I wouldn't say DVD's 'never took off' though. DVD's have dominated the market for at least 10 years.
Oct 26 2012 4:53PM
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1337
Posts: 31038 - Karma: 29,003
"BlueRay failed to take off like DVD did" OMG READ NEXT TIME!1!ONE!! ;)

DVD totally changed mass-delivery of movies and hard copy delivery still can't change because of it's widespread use.
Oct 26 2012 4:56PM
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Splice.
Posts: 1381 - Karma: -192
You can change stuff in an imac. I got new ram today. they do maxes of 16gb ram for a flat $199.

We bought the comp a year ago for 1200 dollars
Oct 27 2012 2:09PM
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eheath
Posts: 61098 - Karma: 118,247
duh you can change ram you were talking about other parts. and 16gb costs $80 your parents got played
Oct 27 2012 2:35PM
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BolderPro
Posts: 767 - Karma: 426
exactly your parent payed $120 for something that takes 5 minutes and a screwdriver...
Oct 27 2012 2:37PM
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TijmenDal
Posts: 4849 - Karma: 1,295
We, as in all the filmers and editors at splice productions? I love you...
Oct 27 2012 4:15PM
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CrotchKiller
Posts: 9037 - Karma: 6,940
mom on the color correction, and pop on the sound design
Oct 27 2012 4:21PM
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