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New iMacs released. Up to 8 cores on non-pro model.

Just noticed that the new iMac has two Thunderbolt ports, whereas the new Mac mini has 4. So right now it's more processing power vs more connectivity. Arg.
 
Wunderhorn said:
I am always completely mystified to no end why anybody would fall for this iMac concept.

Almost no ways to expand/upgrade, no way to service the thing yourself, limited connectivity, often outdated technology. The built-in screen - good heavens! When that thing dies, you have to throw the whole thing away (or the other way around) and therefore a nightmare to dispose of or re-cycle.

As for me, I'll wait what the new Mac Pro will have to offer and if I don't like it I will have to switch to a Windows machine. At least there you can get cutting edge hardware.
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Well never mind. If you haven't worked out the appeal of the concept after 20+ years and millions of sales it's unlikely you ever will.
 
dflood said:
The PC market is always there for anybody, but I remember why I left it. I think about all the PC landfill I created over the years, averaging a new machine every 2-3 years. And then there’s the hours I will never get back, yelling f—k! out the window before yet another complete reformat and reinstall of Windows.

Playing around with configurations, the most I could rack up was about $6,619 Canadian for a new non-pro iMac. Expensive yes, but if it’s as bulletproof as my 2013 iMac, I’m interested. I’ll be looking for the performance benchmarks.
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Yeah, I've heard lots of these horror stories. Guess I'm lucky, because every PC I've ever owned still functions really well. Never had to replace one out of pure need. Never needed to do a clean install on any of them either.

It's funny, I love my MacBook and would never give it up for a Windows equivalent. Just so much more convenient to work on a Unix-based system. At the same time, the tasks I use my PC for... Well, I'd never switch to Mac for those either.
 
Wunderhorn said:
I am always completely mystified to no end why anybody would fall for this iMac concept.

Almost no ways to expand/upgrade, no way to service the thing yourself, limited connectivity, often outdated technology. The built-in screen - good heavens! When that thing dies, you have to throw the whole thing away (or the other way around) and therefore a nightmare to dispose of or re-cycle.
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Well, the average iMac user doesn’t care about the things you listed, so there’s your answer! As for disposing, I think Apple offers to recycle old machines.

I love my vintage iMac. Best machine I’ve ever owned. Perfect service for 7 years despite 12 hour workdays and abuse. It’s paid the mortgage and fed the kids.

I’ll happily buy another.
 
scoringdreams said:
That's a good initiative by Apple at a bad cost.

Probably considering upgrading my iMac Pro from 64GB to 128GB RAM, but using up to of 256GB RAM in a single project is quite insane.

Possible but insane.
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Possible and great, not insane. I have 2 trash cans fully loaded with OWC ram and want for nothing...:).
 
If they could just offer that without a screen and maybe. A little bigger case for good air flow and easy access to ram, internal sata ports, possibly even PCIe slots ... you could call it the “Mac Maxi” and I’d buy it. :)
 
gpax said:
Thank you for clarifying, though your title and OP were both very clear that you were talking specifically about the newly updated iMac, not the Pro. I'm not sure why some ran with the 16k scenario. The top-most iMac option is one-third of that cost.
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My confusion, sorry. They must've made a couple different announcements the same day. My jaw dropped when I saw iMac and 256GB memory in the same sentence. Sounds like it's only for the pro version.
 
I bought an iMac around 4 July 2017 because it was an extended five day weekend (from the point of view of specialty stores being open, USPS, etc.), because my 2010 MacPro became a toaster suddenly, and though I knew it was likely the video card (indeed it was), I couldn't wait a couple of weeks for a new one to arrive and possibly find out that wasn't the only issue.

I didn't want the trash can model because it defeats much of the purpose of going the pro route vs. the iMac route. The replacement video card fixed the MacPro but it was too late; I had already transitioned a few weeks before it arrived, so have that computer to my housemates.

If we could pick when our computers die, many of us would stick with a more rigid policy on which models to consider, but fate rarely aligns with opportunity. And as it stands, I've been very happy with the top-end 27" 2017 iMac -- especially after upgrading recently to 64 GB of RAM.

Obviously I was nervous about going "backwards" in some senses, and I had a rough first year regarding reliability of connections for external drives, but mostly I remembered the first seven years of my music computer life, with a G4 iMac that was basically useless for anything serious the entire time I had it (until late 2010), throwing me very far behind schedule on ALL of my music projects.

I have no idea what the new MacPro will look like or how much it will cost, but am happy to hear about this new iMac upgrade because I need a new Mac at work so I can test my software on Mojave, as my 2010 MacPro (same model as I had at home) can't upgrade anymore without doing some tricks with special video cards etc. and our I.T. department won't allow us to do anything with a non-Apple part.
 
I usually don’t do gear speak, but in the context of the discussion here I go...

Just ordered the 8-core configuration. Arriving April 4. Will be going with 64gb of ram from OWC. I went for a 512 Gb SSD, as all my sample streaming is external already (Black Magic dock). FWIW, I’ve been running a streamlined system the past few years, limiting system and production to around 120 Gb (to limit it to the ssd portion of drive), as I encountered performance quirks in Logic when filling up the fusion drive early on. My 2014 machine has a trade-in value of $570, btw.

For anyone contemplating a configuration with a fusion drive, I advise avoiding it, mainly as the specs of the SSD partition are now quite bare bones on iMacs. 32 Gb SSD partition on the 1tb drive, and 128 Gb on the 2 larger drives. Go SSD if you can afford it.

Now I’m near broke.
 
The SSD portion of the Fusion Drive is strictly for bootstrapping the computer, and I don't think it's even available to the end user. I got this info from someone who works at Apple, but it's readily available if one know how to read the specs (not an easy thing, even for an engineer).
 
Mark Schmieder said:
The SSD portion of the Fusion Drive is strictly for bootstrapping the computer, and I don't think it's even available to the end user. I got this info from someone who works at Apple, but it's readily available if one know how to read the specs (not an easy thing, even for an engineer).
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Interesting. I’m no expert here either, understanding only how fusion distribution is handled by software, according to prioritized tasks of what gets used most. I also read somewhere a couple of years back that priority is given to Apple production apps, though I cannot say for sure. You may know more than I do on this front.

My early experience in early 2015, as Logic was freezing up, was to surmise then that the drive was at a threshold where (and I was only following intuition at the time), it was juggling something in an adverse way. This after troubleshooting exhaustive scenarios of other external drives and so forth for weeks. Indeed, I did a clean install and offloaded everything like photos, files, etc, onto external drives, and hence kept that drive streamlined to the theoretical use of the SSD, only - which I’d understood is only accessed until what point the HDD becomes utilized. Or at least that was the advise being published at the time. Perhaps a fluke, but the problems I had were all rectified once I pared everything down.

As for actual end-user partitioning, at least in 2016, I discovered this was possible, when around the same time I did an OS update, I got a disk install error which would not recognize the drive at all. I recall a meticulous set of command prompts I researched, and had to follow like brain surgery, with details for formatting the drive into two partitions, if desired, or “seaming” these for the hybrid use for which it was designed.

But there it was, in this resource posted online. And for a brief period I had two drives, before then entering the prompts that “seamed” these into one drive. I figured I might mess things up if I didn’t do this, considering the drive was intended to be used in a hybrid way. But that was the fusion drive as it existed on the late 2014 machine I had. Maybe now it’s a different matter.

If my previous advice above seems off-kilter, I apologize. In looking at those Fusion specs tonight, and recalling how the SSD was partitioned downward for consumer use a couple of years back, it seems like a flag worth waving as some might be factoring a choice based on budget.
 
https://macperformanceguide.com/blog/2019/20190318_0904-iMac5K2019.html

The above puts into perspective some potential limitations (or advantages) compared to an iMac pro. A single bus for a shared TB port on the iMac is not an issue for me, though worth noting for those who may need the bandwidth a pro options offer (at a greater price considering some other 2019 specs are equal to the iMac pro. As with previous iterations of iMacs, the memory slots are still user accessible.
 
My response above was overly simplified due to lack of time and fatigue (Wednesday is always my worst sleep deprivation day due to "multiple time zone friendly" conference calls). The main point is just that the SSD part of the Fusion Drive is useful from an OS developer's point of view, and some would argue is better than all-HD, but it is essentially "reserved memory" that is targeted for special purposes and not generally accessible for applications and sample libraries (for example).

In many ways, Apple is going back to an earlier approach that I am familiar with from my early days in the computer industry, which is why I brought up the bootstrapping analogy. It still pertains today, it's just that many computer designs over the years have moved away from that old philosophy of insulating the stuff that is essential for getting past startup issues or is just necessary for incremental initialization of a complex device. Partly it's a matter of discipline; of decoupling things so that there's less chance of design errors or programming mistakes blowing up on unrelated stuff.

Anyway, it's boring stuff frankly. I got into computers as a means to an end and focus primarily on domain knowledge for mechanical, acoustical, and other stuff. But sometimes the boring geek talk becomes moderately important for helping people deflect typical marketing hype and to better understand their options. The more important point is what was brought up about the bandwidth of a shared buss, which will affect some of us more than others. But Fusion Drives are a mixed bag.
 
Soundhound said:
Just noticed that the new iMac has two Thunderbolt ports, whereas the new Mac mini has 4. So right now it's more processing power vs more connectivity. Arg.
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Whats more important: Its a shared bus in the iMac 2019

iMac 2019 = Single Bus (!) / 2 Ports

iMac Pro = Double Bus / 4 Ports
Mac mini = Double Bus / 4 Ports
MacBook Pro 13 / 15 with Touch Bar = Double Bus / 4 Ports
 
Sigh, buying a new computer has become like buying a car. With this pricing, we are getting closer and closer to the expense of buying a console in the old days. Feels like a giant leap backwards.
 
Hackintosh.

Do yourself a favour and build one. If you fear you won’t be able to put it together yourself then pay someone who knows how to.

Hackintosh.

You end up with a machine that’s tailored to your needs, at a fraction of what you’d pay for an iMac. Those computers have parts that belong in laptops, and will not be upgraded.

Hackintosh.
 
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