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

I can see the iMac Pro being "squeezed" a little from either side: "Normal" iMacs are getting more powerful, and a new Mac Pro is soon to drop.
 
I had a iMac once, back in the old days. Never again. They're glorified laptops on the back of a unchangeable monitor. Then they introduced the 'pro' model which is more desktop like (but still not remotely like a desktop - the backplane and PCB is still laptop). And as others have mentioned, for a fortune, and I believe still only takes more expensive laptop ram sticks.

The cheese grater MP's were a good deal. Just a little more than a PC and you can upgrade to the sky. I have hacked and modded my 2009 and it's still current (using it now actually), and runs Logic just fine. Biggest issue is no TB.

A possible leaked MP2020 looks like it will be a winner, as long as they don't go crazy with the price (yeah what am I saying).
 
Great point, and really important.

You are going make me buy a new mac pro. My wife would like a word with you.

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
 
So the 8-core with a 512GB SSD instead of that useless fusion thing is $2800.

But can you update the memory yourself? $1K to bring it up to 64GB is silly, but if it's affordable elsewhere this looks like the best machine Apple has come out with in years.
 
So the 8-core with a 512GB SSD instead of that useless fusion thing is $2800.

But can you update the memory yourself? $1K to bring it up to 64GB is silly, but if it's affordable elsewhere this looks like the best machine Apple has come out with in years.
It's still the same design as before, so yes, you can :) You can save hundreds when buying the RAM yourself. Very easy to install too.
 
64gigs at owc is $449 for the 2019 iMac, Nick. Unless you meant the mac mini? 64gigs for that is still... whoops just checked it's now $549 for 64gigs for mac mini at owc. Still stupid expensive, but no longer at Tony Soprano vig level I guess.


So the 8-core with a 512GB SSD instead of that useless fusion thing is $2800.

But can you update the memory yourself? $1K to bring it up to 64GB is silly, but if it's affordable elsewhere this looks like the best machine Apple has come out with in years.
 
64gigs at owc is $449 for the 2019 iMac, Nick. Unless you meant the mac mini? 64gigs for that is still... whoops just checked it's now $549 for 64gigs for mac mini at owc. Still stupid expensive, but no longer at Tony Soprano vig level I guess.

So $3200 for an 8-core with a 512GB SSD and 64GB of RAM (EDIT: if you put in your own drive and memory). Pretty good.
 
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I just compared the specs vs. the 2017 model, and in spite of all the hype from Apple's marketing lit, it seems the "only" change (though an extremely significant one) is the processor boost.

That should make it easier for people to decide which one they need, as the other specs probably were already the deciding factor (as they were for me) in picking which model.
 
I just compared the specs vs. the 2017 model, and in spite of all the hype from Apple's marketing lit, it seems the "only" change (though an extremely significant one) is the processor boost.

That should make it easier for people to decide which one they need, as the other specs probably were already the deciding factor (as they were for me) in picking which model.

Looks like the RAM's also a little faster, from 2400 to 2666 MHz.
 
Hah; I compared the specs three times and specifically looked at RAM speed! I brought back the specs page for the older model just now, and reloaded the new product page. There it is! But scrolling can be very hard on web pages and it's easy to skip past stuff.

Next time I'll load them side-by-side on my screen instead of depending on my not-so-good linear memory, going back and forth between browser tabs. :)

At any rate, it will be interesting to see whether the slightly faster RAM changes the upgrades costs for Apple RAM or OWC RAM (which are identical; both the same Samsung RAM that went through the same test procedures, from what I was told a couple of years back).
 
Hah; I compared the specs three times and specifically looked at RAM speed! I brought back the specs page for the older model just now, and reloaded the new product page. There it is! But scrolling can be very hard on web pages and it's easy to skip past stuff.

Next time I'll load them side-by-side on my screen instead of depending on my not-so-good linear memory, going back and forth between browser tabs. :)

At any rate, it will be interesting to see whether the slightly faster RAM changes the upgrades costs for Apple RAM or OWC RAM (which are identical; both the same Samsung RAM that went through the same test procedures, from what I was told a couple of years back).

Which I am quite afraid of, except the lack of upgrability but that’s now what the product is, is the lack of ventilation. Thermal throttling could then drastically low down the performances of the i9.
 
I did quite a bit of work on older iMacs in the Fine Arts Media Center of the college I studied music tech at. It could get pretty freakin hot in there sometimes (32 iMac stations and 2 Mac Pro's with a couple of 55 inch tv monitors, 10 large format printers for the fine arts students).
I was usually cranking out some serious track counts in Pro Tools (the macs had tons of software installed). I can't remember ever hearing the fans come on.
Also, in the 4 years I was there, I never saw one of those abused iMac's ever go down (saw plenty of crashes).
The school had iMacs everywhere. Probably hundreds.
 
Could you update us with your first impressions? Especially regarding thermal throttling and fan noise? I'm on the edge of buying the same model as you. Thanks a lot!
Hi Grégory

I am not the guy to push the machine to the limit for the sake of it, so you would not be hearing any benchmark reports from me. My first impressions will be what they are, based on my workflow and template, which I already anticipate being a welcome change from my 2-core, i5, 2014 iMac at this point!

For what it's worth, these specs represent (as Nick suggests), a robust machine that, for me, hits a sweet spot on many levels. The timing is really good for me.

Best,

Greg (also a Gregory, lol).
 
For me personally the problem with this machine that it's an iMac, and I have all my computers in the garage next to my room. But I think it's no longer true that Apple doesn't offer a viable Mac for music production.
 
Hi Grégory

I am not the guy to push the machine to the limit for the sake of it, so you would not be hearing any benchmark reports from me. My first impressions will be what they are, based on my workflow and template, which I already anticipate being a welcome change from my 2-core, i5, 2014 iMac at this point!

Greg (also a Gregory, lol).

If you happen to use Logic, could you run the New Logic Benchmark test linked in this thread when the iMac arrives.
https://vi-control.net/community/threads/newlogicbenchmark-test.77575/#post-4318886
 
So $3200 for an 8-core with a 512GB SSD and 64GB of RAM (EDIT: if you put in your own drive and memory). Pretty good.
I looked at OWC and tried to find SSD prices for the new iMacs, but couldn't find any. Are you sure you can replace the internal SSD?
 
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