“Apple’s iMac range continues to be the most preposterously expensive series of home computers known to man. Towards the top-end, the 3.1GHz quad-core i5 edition with 27in display is one of the most pernicious offenders, setting you back in excess of £1,600 for the shallow glam of brushed aluminium, unnecessary space-age design and the kind of performance that’s wasted on its target domestic buyer,” Alistair Dabbs reports for The Register. “In other words, it’s god-damned gorgeous.”
“Now, before I go any further, there is a 3.4GHz quad core-i7 build-to-order model available, which, if you went with all the possible hardware extras (16GB RAM, SSD etc), would set you back in excess of £3k,” Dabbs reports.
MacDailyNews Note: Our SSD-equipped 3.4GHz i7 27-inch iMacs arrived on Tuesday. Over two weeks early. Leave it to Apple to under-promise and wildly over-deliver! We got our 16GB RAM from a third-party vendor, so we saved big there. Friends don’t let friends buy RAM from Apple!
Besides soft and, hence, easily-strippable, phillips head screws on the RAM cover plate that we’ll have to replace, these machines are perfect and, more importantly, obscenely fast. Thanks to the SSD, they start up in around ten seconds. Apps are running before you finish clicking them in the Dock. Even Photoshop launches quickly! Our Docks have never experienced such a dearth of icon bouncing. The 2GB AMD Radeon HD 6970M graphics chipsets don’t hurt either.
Our Geekbench results:
• 32-bit
• 64-bitWe now restart our Macs for the fun of it.
As usual, we expect to have these machines for years along with their companion 11-inch MacBook Air units, just like the 2.16GHz Core Duo do-everything MacBook Pro 1,2 units (which we got in spring 2006) that they replaced. Divide the purchase price by 5 – or even 3 – years and the price is more than right. The MBPs never failed us and no additional costs were ever incurred. They just worked – every damn day for half a decade. Macintosh. You get what you pay for.
Dabbs continues, “Register Hardware’s current testing methodology for Mac computers is to instal 64-bit Microsoft Windows 7 natively (remember, you can dual-boot a Mac) and run our standard PC tests. When I last did this on one of Apple’s previous range of 27in quad-core iMacs, it turned out to be the fastest PC I had ever tested.”
Advertisement: Students, parents and Faculty save up to $200 on a new Mac.
“Factor in the beautiful screen, superb performance, top-quality input devices and (let’s face it) minimal support downtime, this 27in 3.1GHz iMac is the ideal affordable workstation for the creative professional,” Dabbs reports. “Frankly, if you’re in the market for a home computer, forget it – it’s too good for you.”
Much more in the full review here.
Mine is exaclyt the same as MDN’s, sans the ssd hd.
“In other words, it’s god-damned gorgeous.”
Yep!
Hey watch your mouth, brother …..
We LOVE our new 27″ iMac …. Super fast and beautiful ….
So a DIRECT quote of the article above, gets a nastygram from you. Thanks.
If you want to know, read the last sentence of the very first paragraph.
Makes me want to sell my Mac Pro 2009 and get this puppy!
Just don’t add Windows unless your forced to do it. Poor iMac has to carry that old luggage around for some users. 😉
MDN, congrats on your new purchase! Could you answer a question about the SSD/Hard Drive combination in the new iMacs?
Does the OS automatically handle saving documents to the hard drive and installing new applications to the SSD? Or does the user have to do something to make that happen?
I ask because I recall reading somewhere else that the user had to set up “symbolic links” to make the OS accomplish that.
Hi Islandgirl. I’m by no means a Mac expert but I’ll try to give some answers to your questions.
If you’re asking about the factory optioned iMac, there’s no way for a HDD to coexist with a SSD. It’s an either or situation: either SSD or HDD. So your example of saving apps in one drive and documents in another drive will not arise. If, however, your Mac-Fu extends to installing a HDD in the DVD slot then you will need to decide where to install the apps. It’s generally a good idea to install the OS and apps in the SSD and documents in the HDD.
How you do this would simply be to create a folder nestled in the main documents folder that points to a space that resides in the HDD. Then default save it to this folder in Pages or other file creation apps, e.g. Photoshop or iMovie.
Hope this helps.
No. They install a SSD in behind the Optical drive and it also has the old school Hard Drive. Thy show up as normal 2 drives will in finder. It’s up to you to put files where you like.
Actually, the new iMacs offer a built-to-order option of an SSD + regular hard drive, as seen below, in language I copied from Apple’s Store…
“Configure your iMac with a large 7200-rpm Serial ATA hard drive. Or choose a solid-state drive, which has no moving parts and provides greater responsiveness and durability. Or select both a hard drive and a solid-state drive……
iMac also offers an optional 256GB solid-state drive (SSD), which has no moving parts and delivers increased drive performance for many operations. The 256GB SSD can be purchased in place of the standard hard drive or in addition to it.
If you configure your iMac with both the solid-state drive and a Serial ATA hard drive, it will come preformatted with Mac OS X and all your applications on the solid-state drive. Then you can use the hard drive for videos, photos, and other files.
Hard Drive
* 1TB Serial ATA Drive
* 2TB Serial ATA Drive [Add $150.00]
* 256GB Solid State Drive [Add $500.00]
* 1TB Serial ATA Drive + 256GB Solid State Drive [Add $600.00]
* 2TB Serial ATA Drive + 256GB Solid State Drive [Add $750.00]”
So my question was, does the OS automatically know to save new, pictures, documents and such on the hard drive, and automatically install new apps on the SSD?
OS X and apps on the SSD. Media and other files on the HD.
And this is handled automatically via the OS? Without requiring some techie intervention?
That was the question I had.
The short answer is yes. Once you’ve selected which drive to install the OS, apps installation should automatically go to this drive. You wouldn’t have to think about this.
In terms of saving the work you’ve created on the iMac using the various apps, there is normally a default folder to save your creation, be they media files or ordinary documents. This default folder is selectable from the save function in the individual app.
What you need to do is navigate to the drive you want to save the document to and click save. This will deposit your file in the HD rather than the SSD.
My Cube is coming up on 11 years. The only thing it does these days is run 24-7, stream iTunes to my stereo, and inspire awe and conversation.
I want a cube..
Just cause they are cool.
I still haven’t sold my PowerMac g4 MDD just cause I love the case design, heavy as hell though…
(off to check craigslist again)
Does it still work?
Yep. Never had a problem with it.
Wonder if I could find just the cubes case.. And stuff the guts from a new mini in it 😉
Got a cube in my kids room it streams iTunes as well. I still love it.
That is rare hardware nowadays.
I just saw one on amazon for $180…
Tempting.
(MDN, please update your app to enable logins again.. This is annoying to trick the app every few days)
Excuse my young naiveness, but what is a cube? Without even knowing what it us, it sounds interesting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Mac_G4_Cube
before it’s time.
wow… Apple still lists it on their site..
http://www.apple.com/lae/powermaccube/
I wanted a cube sooooo bad when they came out. I just couldn’t afford one at the time. It may not have been the most popular thing Apple did, but it sure was one of the coolest.
Got mine two weeks ago with the upgraded video card, then max’d it out in ram from Crucial.com. Just didn’t have the large amounts of ad revenue to afford the ssd HD like MDN ;-p
The thing simply screams through video editing and rendering. It easily competes with my son’s 1.5 year old Mac pro workstation.
And it is, in fact, g.o.r.g.e.o.u.s!!!
“Friends don’t let friends buy ram from Apple.” MDN critical of anything Apple does? It’s almost July, and hell hath frozen over!
Nah, that’s pretty much everyone that says that.
I bought 16gb for my iMac, same stats as MDN’s except the SSD, $160. Which is a ton cheaper than apple.
Mine is crucial, I can’t remember the two brands apple uses but they are not crucial that’s for sure. (samsung I think is one…)
I went with the baseline 27″ (recommended by the mac business team at the apple store, who bluntly stated that I don’t need the $1999 version or the BTO stuff) and added an additional 4 gig myself.
My original point was that MDN is usually so hardcore pro-apple on that I was surprised it was actually critical about anything Cupertino does.
Hello everyone.
Hallo ich bin der Neue,
habe das Forum ueber Google gefunden, und sieht ganz gut aus.
Hab jetzt ne Menge zu lesen, und werde danach hoffentlich auch was zu diesem und jenem sagen koennen .
Gruss an Alle
The new Mac commercial:
Don’t buy a Mac – it’s too good for you!
Во вторник мне пообещали скинуть название.
Alas, no matte-screen option. 27 inches of beautifully slick glass means lots of reflection. Why the hell would I want to do Photoshop, or even surf the web, on such a monitor? I’ll buy Apple computers for the rest of my life, but I’ll never buy another Apple monitor until they offer a matte option.
Never understood the Matte craze..
I picked up a Wrapsol Matte screen shield for my iPhone on accident, grabbed the wrong box.
I used it for a day before i couldn’t take it anymore. cuts the glare sure… also the brightness. made the retina display look worse than a 3G screen.
put a crystal clear one back on, all is perfect again.
I would never buy any screen with a Matte finish, Mac/Monitor/iPhone/iPad/Screen shield… never.
I love my Glossy stuff. Clearer, brighter, and only if i turn the screen to be in direct sunlight do i even see any reflections. Just minimized Firefox, nope.. all bright screen, can’t see me in it like the Matte faithful claim you can. even with my 100 watt bulb behind me.
If you want Matte… good for you. go buy a screen shield. If Apple would offer that as an option, that works for me. Just don’t make it the default or standard. They probably realize that Matte is the minority, most people don’t care or would rather have glossy anyway.
And it’s not like the Glossy CRT’s from 30 years ago… an LED light could screw with those screens.
the new glossy screens, are not bad at all.
And to think I paid $3k for my original 128k Mac with NO hd, tiny black-and-white screen and one 400k floppy drive….
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