Next imac speculation thread.

[Hank Carter]

i suppose this is why macs (according to consumer reports) are 1/3 less likely to fail in their first year and over three years are half as likely to fail as their windows counterpart? so they get hot under a heavy load. the fans ramp up and they cool down. the current imac is fantastic and there is no windows machine that comes close imho. there is no evidence that these have design flaws that will shorten their life. not to say apple doesn't make mistakes, they've made plenty. but this, so far, knock wood, doesn't seem to be one of them.

I have two friends who's first gen 5k fried itself. Both editors.

There are several repair men on this forum who will gladly tell you about the rise of heat related failures they have seen with the past two models. Running a GPU / CPU for hours a day at 80-100 C is not a good idea no matter how you cut it. Sorry, that's just physics and has nothing to do with opinion.

Do a google or youtube search about iMac 5k heat issues. It's a much discussed topic in the content creation business. Nice machines, but unfortunately crippled by bad design decisions. With Jobs gone the only person at Apple who has the authority to overrule a design decision by Ive is Tim Cook and that would only happen if a product literally crashed and burned. Heat is a problem for anyone pushing these machines heavily on a consistent basis, especially if you live in a warmer climate. The Skylake iMac is an improvement, but under load it runs just below the thermal limit and considerably hotter than the Mac Pro. And you'll have to listen to the fan blowing on your keyboard.

Believe me I take no pleasure in the current situation. I've used Apple machines since the days of the Apple II and the Fat Mac. If I purchased an iMac the first thing In would do is drill a large ventilation hole in the back and maybe even add a small exhaust fan. That would probably eliminate any heat related issues. Not pretty, but better than frying a machine.

 

[Cape Dave]

I have two friends who's first gen 5k fried itself. Both editors.

There are several repair men on this forum who will gladly tell you about the rise of heat related failures they have seen with the past two models. Running a GPU / CPU for hours a day at 80-100 C is not a good idea no matter how you cut it. Sorry, that's just physics and has nothing to do with opinion.

Do a google or youtube search about iMac 5k heat issues. It's a much discussed topic in the content creation business. Nice machines, but unfortunately crippled by bad design decisions. With Jobs gone the only person at Apple who has the authority to overrule a design decision by Ive is Tim Cook and that would only happen if a product literally crashed and burned. Heat is a problem for anyone pushing these machines heavily on a consistent basis, especially if you live in a warmer climate. The Skylake iMac is an improvement, but under load it runs just below the thermal limit and considerably hotter than the Mac Pro. And you'll have to listen to the fan blowing on your keyboard.

Believe me I take no pleasure in the current situation. I've used Apple machines since the days of the Apple II and the Fat Mac. If I purchased an iMac the first thing In would do is drill a large ventilation hole in the back and maybe even add a small exhaust fan. That would probably eliminate any heat related issues. Not pretty, but better than frying a machine.

So good when someone speaks the unvarnished truth. Heat is the enemy of sensitive electronics. Period. PERIOD.

 

[briloronmacrumo]

How about reasonable SSD pricing?

Also larger SSD options ( such as a 2TB + ) would be wonderful.

 

[Sirmausalot]

I have two friends who's first gen 5k fried itself. Both editors.

There are several repair men on this forum who will gladly tell you about the rise of heat related failures they have seen with the past two models. Running a GPU / CPU for hours a day at 80-100 C is not a good idea no matter how you cut it. Sorry, that's just physics and has nothing to do with opinion.

Do a google or youtube search about iMac 5k heat issues. It's a much discussed topic in the content creation business. Nice machines, but unfortunately crippled by bad design decisions. With Jobs gone the only person at Apple who has the authority to overrule a design decision by Ive is Tim Cook and that would only happen if a product literally crashed and burned. Heat is a problem for anyone pushing these machines heavily on a consistent basis, especially if you live in a warmer climate. The Skylake iMac is an improvement, but under load it runs just below the thermal limit and considerably hotter than the Mac Pro. And you'll have to listen to the fan blowing on your keyboard.

Believe me I take no pleasure in the current situation. I've used Apple machines since the days of the Apple II and the Fat Mac. If I purchased an iMac the first thing In would do is drill a large ventilation hole in the back and maybe even add a small exhaust fan. That would probably eliminate any heat related issues. Not pretty, but better than frying a machine.

Yes, the first gen 5K iMac had heat problems. Well documented on this forum and elsewhere (why I wouldn't have purchased one). Apple has had graphics cards go belly up in laptops and iMacs. That doesn't change the fact that Macs are still statistically more reliable than their windows counterparts and there is not yet evidence that the new 5K iMac has any problems. Perhaps the iMac isn't the right machine for someone pushing their machine that hard and a Mac Pro is the right choice. That said, I do a ton of video editing, renders, encodes and the like and I don't see my machine 1. Having heat problems or 2. Running hot constantly.

 

[maflynn]

I have two friends who's first gen 5k fried itself. Both editors.

The new iMacs run much much cooler.

 

[Cape Dave]

I have the 1st gen and I am not aware of ANY heat issues. I would not have bought it if I thought there would be. That said, I got the i5 and the graphics card (I forget what it was) so to keep the heat down. Fan never goes above idle.

No editing, just heavy surfing.

 

[bogg]

i suppose this is why macs (according to consumer reports) are 1/3 less likely to fail in their first year and over three years are half as likely to fail as their windows counterpart? so they get hot under a heavy load. the fans ramp up and they cool down. the current imac is fantastic and there is no windows machine that comes close imho. there is no evidence that these have design flaws that will shorten their life. not to say apple doesn't make mistakes, they've made plenty. but this, so far, knock wood, doesn't seem to be one of them.

Windows machines cost anything from ~$100 to the prices of a well equipped Mac Pro. So that statistic can be quite far from the truth if it also includes low budget computers. Toshiba is the most reliable manufacturer well before Apple IIRC

 

[yuhijyu]

Ok, i really want a redesign of the 2012 design. Ideally reduce bezel thickness (they are way too big), reduce the size of the chin, and most importantly offer imacs in different apple colours. A 5k imac with edge to edge display and a smaller chin in space grey would be crazy. Also the stand should allow for wireless charging of next iphone generation if you just put it on top.

On the inside just improvements, ie. Better cooling, faster cpu/graphics, etc. Also external display mode would be great so i can finally use the display for other things.

 

[maflynn]

A 5k imac with edge to edge display and a smaller chin in space grey would be crazy.

I don't mind the bezel, but the "chin" area could use some attention and decrease the size of that, though I wonder if its there for a reason, i.e., needed for some sort of internal requirements.

On the inside just improvements, ie. Better cooling, faster cpu/graphics, etc. Also external display mode would be great so i can finally use the display for other things.

Not for nothing but the 27" iMac already has that, I'm very pleased with the performance in the CPU and GPU, and it runs very cool.

 

[PatriotInvasion]

I've been holding out for an updated 27-inch iMac case redesign to upgrade my late-2013 Haswell model to beautiful 5K. After owning a mid-2010 iMac as well, I'm tired of looking at the same front face with the overly thick bezels and long chin circa 2009.

I'm hoping with the near certainty of new Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports on all new Macs, that it will stimulate Apple to give us an all new iMac as we approach the 4 year anniversary of this thin design. I'm guessing if they have to engineer a new port layout on the back than why not? I could see them going with 4 USB-C ports, two of which Thunderbolt 3 enabled, and an Ethernet port given that it's a desktop machine. SD card reader will have to come via USB-C adapter for those that want it. Thoughts on the likelihood we see this in the fall? 4 years would be the longest stretch of an iMac design in its history.

In addition to the ports, I'd like to see much thinner bezels and an elimination of the chin. I want it to basically look like the Thunderbolt Display, if it was thinner and had thin bezels. That would be perfect. Space gray and gold would be interesting options too but doubt they'll get into that many SKU's for a somewhat niche device at this point.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I personally don't think it will be much, smaller bezels possibly a bigger screen but it's 6 months away so who cares right now anyway. Why not wait until closer the time when there may be some credible rumours to go on rather than wild speculation you'll get now. The chances of any colour seem low though just due to the cost of doing it on something that big.