New iMacs

[TangoJuliet]

shit, I want a new i7 27" so bad. My old 24" 3.06 extreme is starting to get a little long in the tooth when it comes to video editing.

anybody know what fair value on my 24" would be? Its got 3.06 C2D, ATI 4850, SL, iLife '11, 1TB hdd, and 4gb ram?

 

[Eug]

^^^ A 27" i5 Sandy Bridge would still be a huge upgrade if you want to save a few bux.

BTW, I find the pixel density on my (mid-2010) i7 27" too high for my tastes for some use. For Safari I have to increase the font size to compensate. I've never had to do that on any other Mac.

 

[TheStu]

I've been trying to get my parents to switch over but they've been saying it's fine. I'm assuming the Sandy Bridge vs the G5 is also going to be extremely power efficient (for the Sandy Bridge).

Like Eug said, if they are happy with it, why spend the money? However, in order to keep the longevity up on the system, making sure the RAM maxxed out, and maybe, just maybe consider an SSD. You might want to find out if that one used IDE or SATA, because if it was IDE, it might not be worth the money to put an SSD in since they are in pretty limited supply.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

So I'm looking at the tech specs. It looks like the high end 21.5" and the low end 27" have the same specs except its 200 more for the bigger screen. Is that worth it? How about the jump from the low end 27" to the high end 27" is that worth the jump?

 

[TangoJuliet]

^^^ A 27" i5 Sandy Bridge would still be a huge upgrade if you want to save a few bux.

Its only a $200 price difference. If I'm spending that much already then might as well upgrade the CPU to the max.

 

[Ka0t1x]

To me, the screen is definitely worth it. But I'm a programmer so multiple files open is a huge plus.

Would you be using it to play games? If not, then it will probably be fine. But I'm seeing that the 6970M is relative to 6770 ish so.. mid range card. Still great for all in one.

$$ Better spent on memory upgrade, in my world. 4GB is starting to show its age, for me.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

I'm thinking I'm going to use it for Battlefield 3 when it comes out in November. $300 extra for higher CPU and GPU a good buy? Would that be as future proofed as possible?

I'm thinking I'll wait to upgrade the RAM later on down the road like I did with the G5.

 

[Ka0t1x]

I'm thinking I'm going to use it for Battlefield 3 when it comes out in November. $300 extra for higher CPU and GPU a good buy? Would that be as future proofed as possible?

I'm thinking I'll wait to upgrade the RAM later on down the road like I did with the G5.

I'm waiting for BF3 specs, to see.

But the RAM upgrade on an iMac is pretty straightforward.

 

[GWestphal]

Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 really don't compete in the same uses. USB 3.0 will be the ubiquitous connection and Thunderbolt will be for prosumer enterprise type work, mainly high speed external storage and displays. Apple will upgrade to USB 3.0 when they have the Ivybridge refresh because it will be native to the chipset.

It will be the year of 3s,

USB 3.0 (3rd gen no less)
PCI-Express 3.0
SATA 3 (unless the move to direct PCI-E like the RevoDrive's)
DDR3
bluetooth 3.0
3rd generation of SSDs
3rd generation of GPGPUs
3D transistors in Ivybridge
ICH 13
Magic Mouse 3
3rd gen wireless N
3rd revision of Leopard (unless they unveil OX 11)
Hopefully ZFS too, we need checksums to combat BER especially for RAID

At relatively little cost to Apple for these features, they could easily make the iMac one of the highest performing machines around (except for maybe gaming, discrete graphics would still win there). Not to mention the thing would be darn near silent.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 really don't compete in the same uses. USB 3.0 will be the ubiquitous connection and Thunderbolt will be for prosumer enterprise type work, mainly high speed external storage and displays. Apple will upgrade to USB 3.0 when they have the Ivybridge refresh because it will be native to the chipset.

I see Thunderbolt as replacing USB 3.0. Thunderbolt can be used to send USB 3.0 so there shouldn't be a problem with that.

 

[GWestphal]

True, but you'd need an adapter which would costly and bulky. Tons of USB 3.0 ports can be implemented with no additional chips. Thunderbolt uses x4 PCI-E per chip and you shouldn't have more than 2 ports per chip if you want to ensure max bandwidth. Thunderbolt controller chips will just take too much space at present. If it can be similarly integrated sure, it would be great. I'd personally love to see a single cable type for all uses, but I think USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt will coexist until their successors come in 2-3 years. Thunderbolt will stick because of it's bandwidth and multi function capabilities and USB 3.0 will stay because it's decent bandwidth and compatibility.

 

[Emulex]

usb 3.0 is flakey at best so far. thunderbolt looks very nice and since it comes on the motherboards - it will win. usb 3.0 is going to go the ways of ESATA.

 

[Hellhammer]

Thunderbolt uses x4 PCI-E per chip and you shouldn't have more than 2 ports per chip if you want to ensure max bandwidth.

Ivy Bridge will bring PCIe 3.0 which doubles the bandwidth. That may not solve the issue though since TB provides up to 20Gb/s (10Gb/s PCIe + 10Gb/s DisplayPort) so for maximum performance, even two ports (40Gb/s) are too much for x4 PCIe slot (2.0 can provide 16Gb/s; 3.0 32Gb/s).

but I think USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt will coexist until their successors come in 2-3 years. Thunderbolt will stick because of it's bandwidth and multi function capabilities and USB 3.0 will stay because it's decent bandwidth and compatibility.

I agree. Everyone knows USB and pretty much all devices use it. People don't like adapters and they shall not be forced to use them. In the end, there aren't that many devices that can even saturate USB 3.0's bandwidth so it's more than fine for most devices. It will take awhile before your printer benefits from Thunderbolt speeds :sneaky:

usb 3.0 is flakey at best so far. thunderbolt looks very nice and since it comes on the motherboards - it will win. usb 3.0 is going to go the ways of ESATA.

Native USB 3.0 support is included in Panther Point chipsets where as Thunderbolt is not, according to what we have heard so far. We already have hundreds, if not thousands, of USB 3.0 devices while we are still waiting for the first commercially available TB device to be released.

Intel has the keys to do what they want. Looks like they won't be pushing TB that aggressively because USB 3.0 support is present in the future chipsets. If they wanted to kill USB 3.0, it would have been easy but I guess they have no need to.

 

[Emulex]

you can always present usb 3.0 through usb2.0 i've seen mofo's do ESATA via usb 2.0 before.

 

[Oil]

My base 27" arrived from Amazon today. I am happy with the purchase so far :thumbsup:

 

[Ns1]

$1070 after MIR/FC for a new 21.5", free ship/no tax

soooo tempting.

 

[Sid59]

I'm excited to get one but i think i'm waiting until it ships with Lion.

 

[GrantMeThePower]

Struggling so hard trying to decide between 21.5 and 27 inch. I have such a small space to squeeze it into i know the 27" is pushing it, but its so big and pretty

 

[Eug]

I like the pixel density on the 21.5" better. Safari fonts are not quite so squint inducing as the 27" (at least with Snow Leopard).
I like the ergonomics of the 21.5" better. So much so that I bought a new stand for the iMac to lower it a couple of inches.
I like the real estate of the 27" better, obviously, but would be fine with the 21.5" and an additional monitor.

 

[GrantMeThePower]

I like the pixel density on the 21.5" better. Safari fonts are not quite so squint inducing as the 27" (at least with Snow Leopard).
I like the ergonomics of the 21.5" better. So much so that I bought a new stand for the iMac to lower it a couple of inches.
I like the real estate of the 27" better, obviously, but would be fine with the 21.5" and an additional monitor.

But according to your sig you still went with the 27"!

 

[Eug]

But according to your sig you still went with the 27"!

Yeah, I wanted the quad i7 (or at least i5 with decent GPU). At the time all the 21.5" models were all Core 2 Duo.

I bought the 2.8 GHz i7 in 2009. It got replaced in 2010 with a 2.93 under warranty.

 

[lokiju]

shit, I want a new i7 27" so bad. My old 24" 3.06 extreme is starting to get a little long in the tooth when it comes to video editing.

anybody know what fair value on my 24" would be? Its got 3.06 C2D, ATI 4850, SL, iLife '11, 1TB hdd, and 4gb ram?

Try a quote from www.sellyourmac.com

I have no affiliation with them but did sell my 2006 Mac pro for more than any of the other places that would buy from me.

Of course you'll always be able to sell for more privately but it's a hell of a lot easier using a site like that.

Also Apple is now doing a buy back program that they pay in apple credit for but when I compared what Apple would pay vs sellyourmac.com, apple came in at $150 less.

I was at Best Buy today and they well selling the previous gen iMac models were selling for less.

 

[nerp]

Struggling so hard trying to decide between 21.5 and 27 inch. I have such a small space to squeeze it into i know the 27" is pushing it, but its so big and pretty

Get the 27". It is the main reason to consider an iMac, if you ask me. I bask in mine every day.

 

[Ns1]

Try a quote from www.sellyourmac.com

I have no affiliation with them but did sell my 2006 Mac pro for more than any of the other places that would buy from me.

Of course you'll always be able to sell for more privately but it's a hell of a lot easier using a site like that.

Also Apple is now doing a buy back program that they pay in apple credit for but when I compared what Apple would pay vs sellyourmac.com, apple came in at $150 less.

I was at Best Buy today and they well selling the previous gen iMac models were selling for less.

some guy quoted me 450 from SYM, I got 550 on CL.

just sayin

 

[bearxor]

shit, I want a new i7 27" so bad. My old 24" 3.06 extreme is starting to get a little long in the tooth when it comes to video editing.

anybody know what fair value on my 24" would be? Its got 3.06 C2D, ATI 4850, SL, iLife '11, 1TB hdd, and 4gb ram?

I'd probably pay $500 for it.