27" iMac upgradability questions

[Loa]

Hello,

I'm waiting on the next gen Mac Pro to replace my 2009 MP. I'm planning on getting a 4K monitor to go with it as well. But the wait is getting longer and I fear the price of even the base Mac Pro will be significantly higher than previous generations. And so I'm looking at a 27" iMac.

A few questions:
1) Is the ram still user upgradable?
2) Is the HDD user upgradable (without cutting through adhesive)?
3) Can we put two 2.5" drives inside? (Like we could with older, thicker version of the iMac.)

Thanks!

 

[bizzle]

A few questions:
1) Is the ram still user upgradable?
2) Is the HDD user upgradable (without cutting through adhesive)?
3) Can we put two 2.5" drives inside? (Like we could with older, thicker version of the iMac.)

1. Yes
2. No
3. No

 

[Loa]

Thanks for que quick answers!

Not sure it's for me then...

 

[trsblader]

Thanks for que quick answers!

Not sure it's for me then...

What’s your use case? The general consensus here is to just grab an external drive that fits your needs and it’ll not only be easier than taking the screen off but be plenty fast for most users. Perhaps someone can point you in the right direction if they know your needs and goals.

 

[Loa]

Use case is very general (some gaming, photoshop are the most demanding cases). My issue is the ridiculous price Apple charge for the 1TB SSD option, not even mentioning the 2TB "tax". I could live with a 1TB and a 4 bay enclosure. But the price they charge for that 1TB upgrade is too much.

 

[wardie]

Just go with external TB3 or USB3 drives for fast external space

 

[Loa]

Just go with external TB3 or USB3 drives for fast external space

I'm not worrying about the external space. It's the damned fusion drive that I don't want (nor do I want a slow HDD). 720$ CAD is ridiculous, especially when you consider that it doesn't even include the price of the 2TB fusion drive.

I want my OS and main files on an internal SSD, but not at that price!

 

[Fishrrman]

Both trsblader and wardie give "the right answers" above.
You should take their advice.

Get an iMac with either a 256gb or 512gb SSD inside.
These are "affordable".

If you need more storage, get an EXTERNAL USB3 SSD, either 512gb or 1gb.
These are VERY affordable.

Keep the OS, apps, and your basic accounts on the SSD.
It will run very, VERY fast.

Keep large libraries of stuff (movies, music, pics) on the external SSD.
There will be no noticeable difference in speed storing them there.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

Both trsblader and wardie give "the right answers" above.
You should take their advice.

Get an iMac with either a 256gb or 512gb SSD inside.
These are "affordable".

If you need more storage, get an EXTERNAL USB3 SSD, either 512gb or 1gb.
These are VERY affordable.

Keep the OS, apps, and your basic accounts on the SSD.
It will run very, VERY fast.

Keep large libraries of stuff (movies, music, pics) on the external SSD.
There will be no noticeable difference in speed storing them there.

Is there any downside of storing the large libraries on an external? I’ve always wanted to do this but not sure how to do it.

 

[SkiHound2]

Is there any downside of storing the large libraries on an external? I’ve always wanted to do this but not sure how to do it.

Not so much. The relative ease probably depends on the application. I have a 2012 Mini and have my LR catalog and a significant part of my image collection on a 1TB Samsung T5 connected by USB. I use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a copy on a regular portable drive. Once the initial clone is complete, the updates are fast and painless. It's way, way, way faster than a regular hard drive. I have older images stored and backed up on regular external disk drives. Now, the internal drives on the newer iMacs and Minis have higher read and write speeds but I'm not sure how big of a perceived difference one would experience if the running everything off the internal drive. Frankly, I think it's a much better option to keep most media off the internal drive. What's probably a little tricker is managing the files in Apple applications that are normally stored in your home folder (photos, itunes, etc.) but even there you can move your home folder to a different drive, you'll just need to do a little searching to figure out how. It's even very easy to move the entire operating system to an external drive and boot from that. That's probably my next step if I don't upgrade the old Mini. Apple prices for the larger SSDs is crazy. I'd probably go for a 512gb if I were buying. Big enough that you shouldn't have to be continuously managing files. Lots of folks are fine with 256. A few other comments about the current iMacs. They are almost certainly the last iMacs to not have the T2 chip. The T2 chip will make it much more difficult to do things like boot from external drives. There have been numerous reports of issues that are attributed to the T2 chip; as with most things like this the folks who have issues are much more likely to be heard from than those that don't. It does seem to offer some real security advantages. The current 27" iMac is likely the last Mac that will have user upgradeable ram. I'm speculating on that but Apple seems to be moving increasingly towards totally closed systems. Ram in the current 21.5" iMacs is not user upgradeable. The current iMacs are pretty long in the tooth. Many expected an upgrade last summer. And then it was again expected in October. They are still very nice computers but they are using 7th generation cpus which have been replaced by 8th and in some cases 9th generation chips. The current i5s have 6 cores and in some situations they offer a good performance bump over their 7th generation counterparts. It's not like the current 27" iMacs are slow, but they are not current.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

In a word Bugeye ~ NO!

 

[Loa]

Thanks for the added advice. I think I still have this old belief that internal is always better. Then again, I do have 18TB of space (used at around 80%) in my Mac Pro, so that means quite a few drives to plug into an iMac. Nearly all of that space is regular HDs where the performance isn't necessary though.

 

[JDLang76]

If i may chime in, ive upgraded almost every mac there is. If you need 4k monitor support, dont bother reading, this doesnt apply to you...

Based on what you said about youd be doing, i could recommend a 27” 2011 imac. 2 SSDs in RAID 0 + internal HDD for storage. I7-2600 should serve your needs pretty well. Amd radeon 6970m 2gb will handle 4k photos and 1080p games very well. If you need more juice, you can use a gtx 780m 4gb but you loose bootscreen and windows. Use Macs Fan Control to keep things cool. Then of coarse those can take 32gb ram. You could be in it for $1000 if you play your cards right.

 

[Loa]

If i may chime in, ive upgraded almost every mac there is.

That's a very interesting set-up, thanks for the suggestion. But I think my 2009 Mac Pro (in which the CPU, RAM, GPU and of course HDD have been upgraded) is already more powerful than that souped-up iMac. If I didn't have my MP right now, I could consider it, but I'm tired of dancing on the edge of breaking things with every OS upgrade on old hardware.

If the next Mac Pro isn't ridiculously priced, I'll get it. But in the mean time, I'm looking at alternatives and the current iMacs aren't so bad. Given that they'll likely be upgraded before the next Mac Pro, they will be even more interesting.

 

[JDLang76]

That's a very interesting set-up, thanks for the suggestion. But I think my 2009 Mac Pro (in which the CPU, RAM, GPU and of course HDD have been upgraded) is already more powerful than that souped-up iMac. If I didn't have my MP right now, I could consider it, but I'm tired of dancing on the edge of breaking things with every OS upgrade on old hardware.

If the next Mac Pro isn't ridiculously priced, I'll get it. But in the mean time, I'm looking at alternatives and the current iMacs aren't so bad. Given that they'll likely be upgraded before the next Mac Pro, they will be even more interesting.

I dont see the specs listed. (Maybe I’m just missing it)
But the 2009 Mac Pro can handle 12 core 3.46ghz cpu - 128gb ram - 1080 ti/titan xp graphics - and m.2 SSD’s in raid - up to 5 12tb hard drives.
A specced out Mac Pro 5,1 would smoke any iMac sold today. It even takes the base config iMac pro in basically every category except cpu.
I would eBay shop for those parts that you dont have and see if that is a good priced option for you. Sorry there’s not many 256gb Samsung 951’s left. I just bought most of them for mine lol.