“In early April of this year, Apple executives met with several specially selected tech journalists in efforts to reassure professional users that they still had the love,” Gene Steinberg writes for The Tech Night Owl. “That came with the admission that the 2013 Mac Pro redesign was a misfire, though those words weren’t used. But it was promised that a new Mac Pro is under development, but it won’t arrive this year.”
“Also promised was a version of the iMac with pro options, which implies models with higher-end configurations,” Steinberg writes. “As it stands, the iMac is made up of basically notebook-grade components, largely to keep things from running too hot. But that doesn’t mean an iMac isn’t a powerful computer. When topped out with the fastest available CPU, it can beat the Mac Pro in canned benchmarks, except for apps that can exploit more than four cores.”
“Now it certainly hasn’t been verified, but a forum post at a tech site, AnandTech, claims to contain leaks about forthcoming Intel i9 CPUs, sporting up to 12 cores and 24 threads,” Steinberg writes. ” With the claim that the most powerful chips would have power requirements equivalent to comparable Xeons, I suspect there would be concerns over whether an iMac in its current form could handle such heavy-duty needs. I suppose it’s possible that Apple could redesign the iMac with a heftier power supply and more elaborate cooling to accommodate more powerful parts, all without seriously changing the basic form factor.”
Apple iMac (Mid-2011)MacDailyNews Take: We still have a few 27-inch iMacs (Mid 2011) running just fine here. That’s because, as usual, we maxed them out when we bought them (with 3.4GHz Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2GB). The end result is that, yes, we spent more than your typical iMac buyer on these machines, but these babies just turned six years old and they still have plenty more life in them! ($3506.94 divided by 6 years = $584.49 per year; $3298.93 divided by 7 years = $500.99 per year; etcetera.)
TCO. Macintosh is unmatched.
That said, a new iMac from Apple with the right specs and we’ll be convinced it’s time to upgrade our older iMacs (and maybe even our newer ones) in mere seconds!
Laptop components and a hard drive you can’t replace. Who wants to pay Apple’s over inflated repair prices, then you get a refurbished machine and you hard drive and data go to god only knows. Having to “buy more” then I need is silly, I should be able to upgrade with what I think I need and at 1/3 the price.
I’m glad my horsepower needs are met by 2011/12 hardware because those are the last years that you could readily upgrade and replace stuff yourself. The 2011 iMac is actually really easy to upgrade even/especially behind the screen once you get used to it.
So your need are met by 2011/12 hardware, but you’re glad it was upgradable so that you then wouldn’t do it? But then you imply that you have done it so often that you’re used to it? So your needs are not and have not been met? Clearly I’m confused.
and yeah, I have done it a lot, I’ve replaced a neighbors hard drive when it went. and even bought and fixed up slightly broken ones on eBay for fun and a little profit
I work with a 2011 iMac most days. Bumped it 32 GB Ram and 850 SSD a few years back, and it still keeps me satisfied for 90% of what I ask of it. Just last week however, a render for 6 seconds of HD/60fps 3D animation to more than 48 hours. Don’t want to do that too often.
32 inch screen please, I also have a mid 2011 iMac maxed out, I want a larger screen size and I have no interest in 4k,5k, or 6k with a now small 27 inch screen.
Larger screen size for sure! We have been in a 27″ rut for far too long. 32″ (or larger) 5K monitor would be fab. Having a larger screen size for pros would also accommodate more space for hotter (and faster) CPU’s & GPU’s.
Loving my 34″ Ultrawide! But now want the 38″ one.
Buy a Mac mini and you can have any size screen you can find. And you won’t have a spycam staring at you.
If Apple made a decent Mac mini many users would be content. Discrete GPU, Quad Core CPU, memory upgrade slot.
$3+ K for an iMac is obscene.
A glued shut glorified laptop passed off as a serious desktop for people apparently so clueless or desperate that they will willfully be ripped off.
The iMac is supposed to be an inexpensive all in one- not a Pro machine.
The knock on Apple is increasingly true- yesterday’s computer at tomorrow’s prices. Don’t forget to pick up a new watchband and Coffee Table Book when you pick up your $3,500 glorified laptop.
Forget PC towers, there are *laptops* that beat out the best iMacs currently available, because they managed to put in a desktop-grade graphics card. The most you can upgrade an iMac to is a two-year old laptop-grade one, and you’re paying at least $2550 for it.
When there’s a five year old Windows PC hammering away right next to that Mac which cost half as much as the iMac … perhaps you’ll re-assess your willingness to pay that much just to have OS X. I know I have – and with Apple killing off Aperture and much of the rest of the Ecosystem that my workflows have used, I’m moving to be more OS-agnostic because my lips will never touch the Trash Can.
It turns out I HAVE a similar spec’d five year old Windows machine right next to it, that DID cost WAY less then half the iMac. I use that maybe 10 hours a month. It costs me two hours a month in support.
It isn’t worth it. The iMac, of course, runs windows in a VM MUCH BETTER then the windows machine.
Spend the money on a Mac,you’ll be glad you did.
Sounds like our experiences are vastly different….and FYI, I’ve been an Apple customer for longer than they’ve sold the Mac. Unfortunately, they have, as I pointed out, lost their way and product differentiation as the better platform…at least for the prices they try to demand.
Case in point, a year ago, I priced out how much it would cost to replace each of our Mac Pro’s with the Trash Can or a Windows tower .. BLUF was that a Mac which used to cost $5500 per seat (hardware only) would stay at about that by going to Windows, but staying with Apple would cost us $7500 per seat. Yes, an extra $2K per desktop. OS is nicer than Windows, but not that much nicer.
Oh, and running Windows in a VM … been doing that since the 1990’s vintage “SoftPC” days…and the current incarnation with an Intel Mac since at least 2012. It’s still not quite as good as running a real Windows PC.
If you’re only using your PC a few hours/month, you really should start to ramp it up, if for no other reason than to broaden your options. Apple has historically been a sharp company, but they don’t have a monopoly on good stuff. And as a very longtime Apple customer, it really is painful to have to say that… but honesty comes first.
-hh
There is no doubt Apple has fallen on their face as far as desktop/pro machines. I’m hopeful “they have seen the light” and will correct the problems quickly.
Bluntly, after using DOS/Windows machines for THIRTY FIVE YEARS and suffering, the iMac is a joy to use day in and day out. And, as an added bonus running Windows in a VM solves most of the problems with running windows because if something goes wrong the VM is “blown away” and I’m back up and running in THREE MINUTES. The iMac runs windows with no detectable slow down. And I do CAD work with my iMac.
I’m sick of people telling me “how great windows is”. I know better. And you’ll lose that 2k you think you are “saving” in dealing with Microsoft bullcrap over the next year instead of what makes you money. There will be a day (hopefully by the end of 2017) that I’ll stop using Windows COMPLETELY. I’ll NEVER again have a windows PC as my primary work computer.
You’re not the only one who has suffered working on Windows for decades…
…but to MS’s credit, their product is much better today than what it was years ago. I’ve been able to move quite easily between Win7 and OS X and both of them are comparatively stable such that the premium for Mac simply isn’t as compelling for my workflows anymore.
And given how Apple aphas messed up on both their Pro hardware as well as their a Mac Apps, when it comes down to choosing which to run things like Adobe on, there really isn’t a profound differentiation anymore, let alone one which carries a $2K per seat premium. You’re welcome to YMMV, but I’m spending that savings literally right now with a second week of scuba diving in the tropics….and last year’s went into a 400mm f/4 lens…
Yep, I have a 2011 Core i7 iMac as well. I put an SSD in it about 3 years ago. When the graphics board died recently, I went on e-bay for a replacement, less than $300 later I was back in business. I was ready to replace this machine at the five year mark, but none of Apple’s current offerings are a significant improvement. Sure, the retina display would be nice, but $800 for the 1T SSD has me waiting on the sidelines rather than buy a machine that’s already a year and a half into its release cycle.
I had an iMac in the early days. The height of the screen never worked for me and I hated it and sold it on eBay.
I bought a Mac Pro instead. Lovely machine in many ways. But stupid, stupid, really stupid, f*****g stupid enclosure. The sort of machine you could only design with one hand in your pocket.
It runs windows 10. I will run it until it stops. But it won’t be replaced by another Mac.
I have a MacBook. Prettiest machine I have ever owned. But absolutely the worst machine to use. It’s the crap keyboard and the single port. It’s getting very unreliable now. About a year old. Its hugely expensive to fix. When I get fed up with it I will replace it with something from hp most likely.
I’ll never buy another Mac. I felt I have been f*****d over by wankers who never use a computer to do any work.
An iMac with Pro level, again and again needs to be user serviceable and upgradable, not use a glued screen and has to be able to handle heat for hours of continuous full CPU and GPU use. An i9 multi core of 140 watts on an iMac low internal volume may require a liquid cooling system or maybe the use of most of the backside as a cooler, but I doubt this to be convenient. I am not sure an iMac will be good for an i9 CPU but for 6 – 8 cores (12 – 16 threads). Maybe a 30-32 inch screen will have enough room for a more powerful CPU.
ok lots of people here like iMacs, have you wondered why Apple NEVER advertises them? Not even like Cheap web ads? Dell, Acer, Amazon ads pop up when I read MDN (due to my search history) but no Apple Mac Ads.
Apple doesn’t even advertise their bestselling laptops today! (the short lived ‘bulb’ ad was the only Mac ad for years. The rest were just ‘intros’ shown at launch) They spend all that time and money on R&D on the Touchbar etc but don’t tell anyone about it.
Macs make more than iPad and near Twice Watch, iPod, TV, AirPods, Beats, accessories COMBINED.
Q2 Macs = 5+ billion
iPad = 4+ b
Other Products 2+ b
All the OTHER products GET ADS but not Macs Apple’s second largest money earner next to iPhone!
If Apple management over the YEARS didn’t neglect them, slow or no updates, listened to their customers and built what they want, actually tried marketing them, imagine the sales…
If they do make a Pro version or not, I hope they put better hard drives in the iMac. My late 2009 iMac recently had it THIRD hard drive go tits up. I’m not willing to go thru the hassles of sending it to Apple to have yet ANOTHER HD put in. I’ve decided to go the ‘slow’ route and run off of an external FW800 drive……..
I have a 2011 iMac myself. The addition of a 480 GB SSD drive connected via the Thunderbolt port has given it a new lease on life.
I’ll buy a new iMac (or its replacement) when Apple upadtes the tech to reflect the speed of SSD drives for starters. And it has to keep the price competitive. I don’t mean cheap, I mean competitive.
Don’t give a sh!t about the iMac. Why lock yourself to laptop components in a non upgradeable fashion box? At least with a mac mini you can upgrade your monitor as the world leaps ahead of Apple with 4k resolution. Ah, shoot, that doesn’t solve anything because Apple has done nothing but dumb down the mini and it has a gutless integrated graphics card. 943 days since last update, and that removed as much as it added. Still kickin’ Haswell processors. Really Apple? If you don’t give a sh!t about your customers, the least you could do is rape them gently with reasonable pricing.
enough with the imac already. Give people a consumer level tower or a tiny work station like the HP Z2 mini.
Last thing we need is another iMac that can’t be upgraded or repaired easily.
I’d be fine with that. My last one was perfect. I just made sure to buy more than I think I need regarding specs. And AppleCare Plus.
Laptop components and a hard drive you can’t replace. Who wants to pay Apple’s over inflated repair prices, then you get a refurbished machine and you hard drive and data go to god only knows. Having to “buy more” then I need is silly, I should be able to upgrade with what I think I need and at 1/3 the price.
I’m glad my horsepower needs are met by 2011/12 hardware because those are the last years that you could readily upgrade and replace stuff yourself. The 2011 iMac is actually really easy to upgrade even/especially behind the screen once you get used to it.
So your need are met by 2011/12 hardware, but you’re glad it was upgradable so that you then wouldn’t do it? But then you imply that you have done it so often that you’re used to it? So your needs are not and have not been met? Clearly I’m confused.
c’mon. Bought at 4GB/500GB HD. later increased to 32GB/ SSD/ 2TB/ BluRay drive for different improvements and prices became relatively neglible.
and yeah, I have done it a lot, I’ve replaced a neighbors hard drive when it went. and even bought and fixed up slightly broken ones on eBay for fun and a little profit
I work with a 2011 iMac most days. Bumped it 32 GB Ram and 850 SSD a few years back, and it still keeps me satisfied for 90% of what I ask of it. Just last week however, a render for 6 seconds of HD/60fps 3D animation to more than 48 hours. Don’t want to do that too often.
32 inch screen please, I also have a mid 2011 iMac maxed out, I want a larger screen size and I have no interest in 4k,5k, or 6k with a now small 27 inch screen.
Larger screen size for sure! We have been in a 27″ rut for far too long. 32″ (or larger) 5K monitor would be fab. Having a larger screen size for pros would also accommodate more space for hotter (and faster) CPU’s & GPU’s.
Loving my 34″ Ultrawide! But now want the 38″ one.
Buy a Mac mini and you can have any size screen you can find. And you won’t have a spycam staring at you.
If Apple made a decent Mac mini many users would be content. Discrete GPU, Quad Core CPU, memory upgrade slot.
$3+ K for an iMac is obscene.
A glued shut glorified laptop passed off as a serious desktop for people apparently so clueless or desperate that they will willfully be ripped off.
The iMac is supposed to be an inexpensive all in one- not a Pro machine.
The knock on Apple is increasingly true- yesterday’s computer at tomorrow’s prices. Don’t forget to pick up a new watchband and Coffee Table Book when you pick up your $3,500 glorified laptop.
Could not agree more, well said.
‘Some’ people are serviced OK with a specced out iMac, but any PC tower configuration will beat it, at half the price.
Apple, Windows is pretty good now – you need to understand that.
Only Apple could sell con/prosumer hardware at professional prices.
Forget PC towers, there are *laptops* that beat out the best iMacs currently available, because they managed to put in a desktop-grade graphics card. The most you can upgrade an iMac to is a two-year old laptop-grade one, and you’re paying at least $2550 for it.
3k for a iMac obscene? It sure is, until you use one all day, every day for five years. 😀
When there’s a five year old Windows PC hammering away right next to that Mac which cost half as much as the iMac … perhaps you’ll re-assess your willingness to pay that much just to have OS X. I know I have – and with Apple killing off Aperture and much of the rest of the Ecosystem that my workflows have used, I’m moving to be more OS-agnostic because my lips will never touch the Trash Can.
-hh
It turns out I HAVE a similar spec’d five year old Windows machine right next to it, that DID cost WAY less then half the iMac. I use that maybe 10 hours a month. It costs me two hours a month in support.
It isn’t worth it. The iMac, of course, runs windows in a VM MUCH BETTER then the windows machine.
Spend the money on a Mac,you’ll be glad you did.
Sounds like our experiences are vastly different….and FYI, I’ve been an Apple customer for longer than they’ve sold the Mac. Unfortunately, they have, as I pointed out, lost their way and product differentiation as the better platform…at least for the prices they try to demand.
Case in point, a year ago, I priced out how much it would cost to replace each of our Mac Pro’s with the Trash Can or a Windows tower .. BLUF was that a Mac which used to cost $5500 per seat (hardware only) would stay at about that by going to Windows, but staying with Apple would cost us $7500 per seat. Yes, an extra $2K per desktop. OS is nicer than Windows, but not that much nicer.
Oh, and running Windows in a VM … been doing that since the 1990’s vintage “SoftPC” days…and the current incarnation with an Intel Mac since at least 2012. It’s still not quite as good as running a real Windows PC.
If you’re only using your PC a few hours/month, you really should start to ramp it up, if for no other reason than to broaden your options. Apple has historically been a sharp company, but they don’t have a monopoly on good stuff. And as a very longtime Apple customer, it really is painful to have to say that… but honesty comes first.
-hh
There is no doubt Apple has fallen on their face as far as desktop/pro machines. I’m hopeful “they have seen the light” and will correct the problems quickly.
Bluntly, after using DOS/Windows machines for THIRTY FIVE YEARS and suffering, the iMac is a joy to use day in and day out. And, as an added bonus running Windows in a VM solves most of the problems with running windows because if something goes wrong the VM is “blown away” and I’m back up and running in THREE MINUTES. The iMac runs windows with no detectable slow down. And I do CAD work with my iMac.
I’m sick of people telling me “how great windows is”. I know better. And you’ll lose that 2k you think you are “saving” in dealing with Microsoft bullcrap over the next year instead of what makes you money. There will be a day (hopefully by the end of 2017) that I’ll stop using Windows COMPLETELY. I’ll NEVER again have a windows PC as my primary work computer.
You’re not the only one who has suffered working on Windows for decades…
…but to MS’s credit, their product is much better today than what it was years ago. I’ve been able to move quite easily between Win7 and OS X and both of them are comparatively stable such that the premium for Mac simply isn’t as compelling for my workflows anymore.
And given how Apple aphas messed up on both their Pro hardware as well as their a Mac Apps, when it comes down to choosing which to run things like Adobe on, there really isn’t a profound differentiation anymore, let alone one which carries a $2K per seat premium. You’re welcome to YMMV, but I’m spending that savings literally right now with a second week of scuba diving in the tropics….and last year’s went into a 400mm f/4 lens…
Yep, I have a 2011 Core i7 iMac as well. I put an SSD in it about 3 years ago. When the graphics board died recently, I went on e-bay for a replacement, less than $300 later I was back in business. I was ready to replace this machine at the five year mark, but none of Apple’s current offerings are a significant improvement. Sure, the retina display would be nice, but $800 for the 1T SSD has me waiting on the sidelines rather than buy a machine that’s already a year and a half into its release cycle.
I had an iMac in the early days. The height of the screen never worked for me and I hated it and sold it on eBay.
I bought a Mac Pro instead. Lovely machine in many ways. But stupid, stupid, really stupid, f*****g stupid enclosure. The sort of machine you could only design with one hand in your pocket.
It runs windows 10. I will run it until it stops. But it won’t be replaced by another Mac.
I have a MacBook. Prettiest machine I have ever owned. But absolutely the worst machine to use. It’s the crap keyboard and the single port. It’s getting very unreliable now. About a year old. Its hugely expensive to fix. When I get fed up with it I will replace it with something from hp most likely.
I’ll never buy another Mac. I felt I have been f*****d over by wankers who never use a computer to do any work.
An iMac with Pro level, again and again needs to be user serviceable and upgradable, not use a glued screen and has to be able to handle heat for hours of continuous full CPU and GPU use. An i9 multi core of 140 watts on an iMac low internal volume may require a liquid cooling system or maybe the use of most of the backside as a cooler, but I doubt this to be convenient. I am not sure an iMac will be good for an i9 CPU but for 6 – 8 cores (12 – 16 threads). Maybe a 30-32 inch screen will have enough room for a more powerful CPU.
ok lots of people here like iMacs, have you wondered why Apple NEVER advertises them? Not even like Cheap web ads? Dell, Acer, Amazon ads pop up when I read MDN (due to my search history) but no Apple Mac Ads.
Apple doesn’t even advertise their bestselling laptops today! (the short lived ‘bulb’ ad was the only Mac ad for years. The rest were just ‘intros’ shown at launch) They spend all that time and money on R&D on the Touchbar etc but don’t tell anyone about it.
Macs make more than iPad and near Twice Watch, iPod, TV, AirPods, Beats, accessories COMBINED.
Q2 Macs = 5+ billion
iPad = 4+ b
Other Products 2+ b
All the OTHER products GET ADS but not Macs Apple’s second largest money earner next to iPhone!
If Apple management over the YEARS didn’t neglect them, slow or no updates, listened to their customers and built what they want, actually tried marketing them, imagine the sales…
I just want a new iMac. Give me a new iMac. I love what I’ve got and it’s never given me any issue but it’s from 2007!!! Give me a new iMac. PLEASE!
If they do make a Pro version or not, I hope they put better hard drives in the iMac. My late 2009 iMac recently had it THIRD hard drive go tits up. I’m not willing to go thru the hassles of sending it to Apple to have yet ANOTHER HD put in. I’ve decided to go the ‘slow’ route and run off of an external FW800 drive……..
The last iMac I bought for home use was 20% more expensive than the previous one, came without a DVD drive and had a 5400rpm drive in it.
It was unusably slow so I had to buy an external ssd and plug it into the thunderbolt port to get it to a usable speed.
The 5400tpm drive which I was using as a time machine drive, has since died.
It is 2 years old.
I have a 2011 iMac myself. The addition of a 480 GB SSD drive connected via the Thunderbolt port has given it a new lease on life.
I’ll buy a new iMac (or its replacement) when Apple upadtes the tech to reflect the speed of SSD drives for starters. And it has to keep the price competitive. I don’t mean cheap, I mean competitive.
WAKE UP APPLE!!
Don’t give a sh!t about the iMac. Why lock yourself to laptop components in a non upgradeable fashion box? At least with a mac mini you can upgrade your monitor as the world leaps ahead of Apple with 4k resolution. Ah, shoot, that doesn’t solve anything because Apple has done nothing but dumb down the mini and it has a gutless integrated graphics card. 943 days since last update, and that removed as much as it added. Still kickin’ Haswell processors. Really Apple? If you don’t give a sh!t about your customers, the least you could do is rape them gently with reasonable pricing.