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iMac (aluminum) Hardware Updates for Spring 08 Speculation

How likely is it that Apple would NOT release updated iMacs ready for Back to School?

Assuming there will be an update this Summer (June/July/Aug) in time for those purchases, I think it's very realistic to expect an interim update in the coming weeks. In which case we won't be seeing Montevina in these.

If nothing shows by the end of April though, I would say it'll be a mid-late Summer release like last year.
 
hmm, out of curiosity, do you think that desktop chipsets will become cool/small enough to be fit inside the imac chassis?
 
stevo1 said:
How likely is it that Apple would NOT release updated iMacs ready for Back to School?

Assuming there will be an update this Summer (June/July/Aug) in time for those purchases, I think it's very realistic to expect an interim update in the coming weeks. In which case we won't be seeing Montevina in these.

If nothing shows by the end of April though, I would say it'll be a mid-late Summer release like last year.
Click to expand...

If there is an interim update, besides a price cut, it'll be increased HD sizes and/or a better GPU and probably increased standard RAM from 1 --> 2 GB, as seen in the Macbook's.
 
takeabyteoutta said:
It seems pretty likely the iMac won't be updated for atleast a month now, and it seems more likely they'll wait for Montevina in approximately 2-3 months. Hopefully we'll see a price cut in the mid-term, but that seems unlikely.
Click to expand...

It seems to me that yesterday's macbook (not the pro - which we all expected) update indicates that Apple will have to refresh the iMacs soon. Perhaps in the next two weeks.

Macrumors reported: "According to our sources, Apple was forced by Intel into upgrading the MacBooks at this time. Intel is aggressively phasing out the older generation 65nm Merom chips over the coming months. As a result, Apple needed to upgrade the MacBooks in the interim to maintain a proper supply."

https://www.macrumors.com/2008/02/2...enryn-battery-life-updates-sooner-than-later/

If that was true for macbooks, it must also mean that Apple is facing a dwindling supply of chips for the iMac and will move those to 45nm penryns soon too. Apple is not waiting for Montevina for the macbook or the MBP, and it appears that the same force may push them to update the iMac before montevina as well.
 
hey i was wondering if anyone compared the 20inch and 24inch displays before. Cos i am thinking of buying a new imac and i checked the tech specs, the 24inch had a brighter display. So i was wondering if anyone actually noticed it.
thanks
 
No new graphics cards.

Reasoning: Mobility HD2600XT (the basis of the iMac card) came out only a month or so before the iMac. HD3600 is no big improvement. HD3870 comes out in March. Probably too soon for Apple. The only other choices are nVidia 8700m or the 8800m. The 8700m is not faster enough from the HD2600 to really give a big WOW factor. The 8800m is therefore the only possible choice. They may use this card but with a new platform only 4 months away, why bother now?
 
Ryanb1281 said:
It seems to me that yesterday's macbook (not the pro - which we all expected) update indicates that Apple will have to refresh the iMacs soon. Perhaps in the next two weeks.

Macrumors reported: "According to our sources, Apple was forced by Intel into upgrading the MacBooks at this time. Intel is aggressively phasing out the older generation 65nm Merom chips over the coming months. As a result, Apple needed to upgrade the MacBooks in the interim to maintain a proper supply."

https://www.macrumors.com/2008/02/2...enryn-battery-life-updates-sooner-than-later/

If that was true for macbooks, it must also mean that Apple is facing a dwindling supply of chips for the iMac and will move those to 45nm penryns soon too. Apple is not waiting for Montevina for the macbook or the MBP, and it appears that the same force may push them to update the iMac before montevina as well.
Click to expand...

Perhaps. I doubt it'll be in the next two weeks though with the iPhone SDK unveiling coming up in 2 weeks.

Even so, it's pretty clear that potential iMac, MBP and MB would be better off waiting for Montevina to drop.
 
flopticalcube said:
No new graphics cards.

Reasoning: Mobility HD2600XT (the basis of the iMac card) came out only a month or so before the iMac. HD3600 is no big improvement. HD3870 comes out in March. Probably too soon for Apple. The only other choices are nVidia 8700m or the 8800m. The 8700m is not faster enough from the HD2600 to really give a big WOW factor. The 8800m is therefore the only possible choice. They may use this card but with a new platform only 4 months away, why bother now?
Click to expand...

How much improvement do you think, if they upgrade to the 8800m, would you think there would be?
 
Ryanb1281 said:
It seems to me that yesterday's macbook (not the pro - which we all expected) update indicates that Apple will have to refresh the iMacs soon. Perhaps in the next two weeks.

Macrumors reported: "According to our sources, Apple was forced by Intel into upgrading the MacBooks at this time. Intel is aggressively phasing out the older generation 65nm Merom chips over the coming months. As a result, Apple needed to upgrade the MacBooks in the interim to maintain a proper supply."

https://www.macrumors.com/2008/02/2...enryn-battery-life-updates-sooner-than-later/

If that was true for macbooks, it must also mean that Apple is facing a dwindling supply of chips for the iMac and will move those to 45nm penryns soon too. Apple is not waiting for Montevina for the macbook or the MBP, and it appears that the same force may push them to update the iMac before montevina as well.
Click to expand...

It really depends on if apple has enough supply to meet the demand. Also, the iMac is a unique product due to how it is manufactured (sealed at the factory due to the display). They most likely wanted to hold out for Monetvina, but they're forced to put penryrn in, so be it.
However, I'd except the update to be a month from now (mid-march).
 
does anyone really care that the iMac is so thin? honestly, I think apple's been going about the design all wrong. if they made it 2 inches thicker, they could fit desktop processors, an extra HD port and just in general increase the customization of this wonderful design. The base already makes the footprint at least 5 inches, so what does it matter that the case is so thin.

Honestly, I have to wonder why apple and no other major brand PC makers haven't tried a design like this.
 
takeabyteoutta said:
Honestly, I have to wonder why apple and no other major brand PC makers haven't tried a design like this.
Click to expand...

Gateway One (way overpriced! 19" screen with 2.0GHz C2D for $1799)
Dell XPS One (good deal, except for integrated graphics)
 
takeabyteoutta said:
does anyone really care that the iMac is so thin? honestly, I think apple's been going about the design all wrong. if they made it 2 inches thick, they could fit desktop processors, an extra HD port and just in general increase the customization of this wonderful design. The base already makes the footprint at least 5 inches, so what does it matter that the case is so thin.

Honestly, I have to wonder why apple and no other major brand PC makers haven't tried a design like this.
Click to expand...

Because then heat would be a serious issue and you would have your fans on a lot more than Apple wants you to. Plus, you would have a computer that wouldn't last very long.
 
brop52 said:
Because then heat would be a serious issue and you would have your fans on a lot more than Apple wants you to. Plus, you would have a computer that wouldn't last very long.
Click to expand...

actually, heat would be less of an issue with a thicker frame. As I see it, the only major issue is the increased cost of the frame due to the extra aluminum in producing a bigger case. It seems like a waste to make the computer so thin if it's not even conventionally wall-mountable.
 
n1ght said:
Gateway One (way overpriced! 19" screen with 2.0GHz C2D for $1799)
Dell XPS One (good deal, except for integrated graphics)
Click to expand...

These are essentially iMac clones that offer little user customization/ upgradability and use labtop processors.

These suffer the same flaw as the iMac... trying to be kate moss thin for no good reason. A thicker frame would allow them all to use thicker, less expensive parts.
 
takeabyteoutta said:
actually, heat would be less of an issue with a thicker frame. As I see it, the only major issue is the increased cost of the frame due to the extra aluminum in producing a bigger case. It seems like a waste to make the computer so thin if it's not even conventionally wall-mountable.
Click to expand...

Its all to do with styling. Someone high up has dictated that "thin is in", just look at the MBA. I agree that a thicker case with the ability to mod would be great - for me - but maybe Apple would disagree. Desktop CPU would suck more juice which would require a bigger (and noiser) fan and a bigger PSU. ditto for a desktop GPU. This would make the case even thicker. One thing I can't understand is why they didn't make the hard drive easily user upgradeable ala the MacBook.
 
flopticalcube said:
Its all to do with styling. Someone high up has dictated that "thin is in", just look at the MBA. I agree that a thicker case with the ability to mod would be great - for me - but maybe Apple would disagree. Desktop CPU would suck more juice which would require a bigger (and noiser) fan and a bigger PSU. ditto for a desktop GPU. This would make the case even thicker. One thing I can't understand is why they didn't make the hard drive easily user upgradeable ala the MacBook.
Click to expand...

I agree 100%; The "old" G5 iMacs were not "thick" by any means, but changing out pretty much anything in those is a piece of cake. I have posted a thread on changing out the HD in the current AL iMacs and it is far from 'user friendly'. I would happily accept a machine 1/2" thicker to re-enable the easy upgrades. While we may never get easy CPU upgrades in these all-in-one machines, things like HD's, Optical Drives, better wireless technology as it comes out etc... is reasonable. Having owned both the G5 iMac, previous gen. Intel iMac and of course the AL iMac, I think the bottom line comes down to cost. If you look inside of a G5 iMac... everything is "modular" like the G5 Towers... fan shrouds, tray for the HD, retail wireless card slot etc. Those mechanisms for easy swap add considerably to the cost of a machine. IMHO, that probably played more of a role in the design of the subsequent models than 'thinning it up' a bit.
 
If new iMacs come the specs will be close to the following:

Processors, 2.1ghz, 2.5ghz, 2.8ghz
HD, as is (a consumer shouldn't need more than 320gb)
iSight, as is
Bluetooth/Airport, as is
Screen, as is
RAM, 1GB on cheapest 20", 2GB standard on high end 20", both 24" models
DVD, as is (there are no 16x notebook drives)
GPU, either 3600, or 8700/8800m on the extreme model (since the penryns will supposedly reduce the amount of heat in the computer)
 
Matt342 said:
If new iMacs come the specs will be close to the following:

Processors, 2.1ghz, 2.5ghz, 2.8ghz
HD, as is (a consumer shouldn't need more than 320gb)
iSight, as is
Bluetooth/Airport, as is
Screen, as is
RAM, 1GB on cheapest 20", 2GB standard on high end 20", both 24" models
DVD, as is (there are no 16x notebook drives)
GPU, either 3600, or 8700/8800m on the extreme model (since the penryns will supposedly reduce the amount of heat in the computer)
Click to expand...

A consumer shouldn't need more than 320gb? is that a joke? cuz im laughing. maybe the majority might not need it today, but 1 or 2 years it'll be essential. all thanks to HD video. plus, HDD have all come down in price. if there is an upgrade, you'll definitely see bigger standard HD's across the line.
 
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