I have been doing a lot of reading the last few days on this decision. My early 2011 27inch iMac is indestructible. It has a small RAM upgrade (done more years ago than I can remember) to 12GB and for the last few years I have been running the OS off an SSD plugged into a USB port. Last week I had two problems - neither to do with the resilience of the beast. I could not install Office 365 on High Sierra. Second work have switched some meetings from Skype to Zoom, and I get no video with Zoom (maybe a driver issue but not one I could easily fix).
I have been working from home for a year, will do so for a few months more, and when we go back likely to be allowed to still wfh 2 days a week. The iMac format: large 27inch screen, reliable web cam and mic (that is at head level - I am dislike the lap top low camera pointing up thing) is top as far as I am concerned for wfh set up. Performance wise this old iMac (with an SSD and more RAM) was fine for this use case.
I spent a long time looking at the M1s. I am sure they are "the future" but none of them worked for me. The mini does not have the web cam. The Macbook Pro is not good value compared to the Air. The Air is the best of the bunch - but for now I still have some use to squeeze out of my early 2015 Air. It makes far more sense to replace the Air in a year or two with a 2nd or 3rd generation M1.
My iMac is one of my most loved computers, and after 10 years of daily use I really don't want to not be in-front of an iMac for a big chuck of my screen time.
Yesterday Amazon dropped the price of the base 2020 27inch to £1400 from £1799 that is a 22% saving (today it is back up to £1648). That was too good an offer to miss. My list of reasons for sticking to Intel:
1) The iMac as in Intel build has been tuned for years.
2) The only upgrade I want on a Mac is the put more RAM in. This is the only Mac I can do this on. BTW I hear the arguments that the RAM dynamic will change with the M1s - so this upgradability is maybe not a concern for the future.
3) My windows box is my main 3D PC, but I like to be able to use the iMac when the PC is stuck doing some rendering or simulation. The apps I use are mostly going to be emulated on M1 for sometime to come (Houdini, Modo, Blender, Syntheyes, Nuke, Maya, Substance for example)
4) I think the chance of only 1 or 2 years support for intel Macs to be very small - there are just too many of them out there. Yes they will stop selling them. I don't think the PowerPC comparisons are helpful - that was a long time ago and I am sure there were orders of magnitude less PowerPCs in the world than Intel (speculation). I don't expect hardware to be supported for ever. The 5 - 7 year window people refer to for Mac support I think is fine, and I have a high degree of confidence that is what Intel Macs will get. Plus the apps I use need to run on PCs so the likelyhood that I can only run an old version of an App in a few years time on a still supported Intel Macs is very unlikely. Indeed it is more likely some will be forever emulated.
So I am discounting all the don't buy an Intel Mac noise, and am very much looking forward to going from a 2011 to a 2020 iMac.
Well, - I just scored myself an “as-new” iMac Pro with full AppleCare+ equipped with a Vega64 for about half the original sales price one year ago, for 3K. I still have my sweet tower in my sig. I am fully aware that new ASoC are around the corner, but made the desition to stay with intel, and I will tell you why it makes sense.
1. I always have bootcamp and I love to have macs that are capable to that. In my spare time do some gaming on Steam, they run great on Windows 10. On top of that, I run CAD programs to run my 3D printer, because I am a Maker. Fo me, it is a complete No-Go to purchase a new Mac that can’t run Win10.
Sorry- Apple.
2. Over the years, I have added great accessories that have been expensive such as two Apple Cinema Displays that are still outstanding and are valuable to me. They have the same design language and they will not work on the new stuff But they will be outstanding on the iMac Pro. Imagine a nice All-Apple 3 screen setup with an iMac Pro in the middle.
Sorry again Apple, your new still will not fly with me.
3. I love Mac OS as an enthusiast. I don’t earn money with my setup, it’s hobby only. I absolutely don’t need the newest OSX and I am usually very happy to run an older OSX with two or three generations older.
Sorry again Apple, your incremental OSX changes are too small to justify a constant hardware upgrade.
4. I value low noise computers and hardware that is designed to run for decades or longer. Reliability is very important to me. As a professional product manager, I am aware of the value of last editions. Folks, let’s be honest here, the iMac has been refined for a full decade now. The current iMac as well as the iMac Pro is the result of a decade long refinement and ironing out flaws. This is what I want. Compared to that, with the Apple silicone you get First Gen tech (!) It will take Apple years and years to iron out flaws. Sorry again Apple, I am not your Beta tester.
5. Speed. Ok the new stuff will be faster. You might render up to 30% faster. But how does this translate into everydays reality. Do you really think, I will loose a customer, because my render speed has been 2 minute and 23 second longer in theoretical benchmarks? On which planet do you live?
6. Don’t buy into the hype train and don’t get psychological manipulated. In fact, in my world of products, new products such as cars and airplanes often are worse than older models that have been designed for longevity and durability.
There is a hazardous trend in many industries that OEMs design their products with controlled product obsolescenc. The OEM want a shorter product live cycle. That’s also the reason why legally “The right to repair” is heavily under fire.
This will not fly with me. So for everybody that is out for the new stuff, beware!
You have to know how the game is played. With new stuff, you will enter a super tight and controlled walled garden with no escape. You will be at the mercy of Apple.
