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Yes because that money you spend upgrading that ssd you will totally get back :rolleyes: (not)
If you need it buy it, but you might as well bootcamp of a cheap samsung T3.
A lot of people are talking themselfs into alot of upgrades on these forums because it's a good investment down the road.
You're probably better off buying some :apple: stock or bitcoin or something..


I never said it was a good investment. I said it would add money to the resale of the computer if you choose to sell it at some point. I've seen it add a significant amount of money to the computer. Guys unloading 2014 iMacs for $2400 largely because of the 1 TB SSD. Right now it's a $400 dollar upgrade. I'm not suggesting you should do it for an investment but if you want the 1 TB SSD just know you might be able to recoup a few hundred of that on the resale. People buying these computers used are attracted to those specs. It's like a shiny sports car with the upgraded engine. They are in demand on the used market.
 
hello, i've just receive my high end iMac 27 without any BTO upgrade, I was skeptical about the fusion drive, but feel very snappy ! Like I said in an other thread, I've a good deal : 300 € less than the apple website. So for me 2300 € for the high end, (in apple website : 2599 €), and if I put a SSD in it with BTO : 2839 €.

I hope I don't feel any remorse in the futur without SSD ;) (like I said in the other thread : I can split the fusion drive and put app and my daily work files in the 128 SSD). But in my mind very difficult to go with a fusion drive but I say to myself : 500 € less !!!

For the moment I'm pretty surprise about the feeling of the iMac, very good for now !
 
Of course upgrading the internal SSD Is totally dependent on the users needs. To add an external 500 gig SSD With case will cost about 200 bucks and give you about 400 MB per second. To get an External that equals the internal SSD performance would be much more expensive. Even more expensive than the $400 to $500 it costs to upgrade the internal drive From 512 to 1 TB.
I rather have 2500 mbyte/sec read speed than 400 ..
 
Wow that's a pretty small difference between the two i5 chips given how much higher the thermal load is on the 7600K. Glad I opted for the mid-tier i5 3.5 GHz/Radeon 575 model once I decided I didn't need the i7. I'm getting a markedly cooler chip and not missing out on much performance.


Hi. Now I am thinking the same thing. Can i ask where you saw the thermal numbers for each chip? downloaded that file the other person posted but it did not show that.

Since all i do is Xcode and some screen recording, I am wondering if by going down to the mid i5 instead of the i7 would make me happier with a minimal amount of speed loss since a quiet iMac is important to me and if means 8.5% less CPU but X amount of times less the fans will kick in.

it might just be the decider for me.


thx
 
Hi. Now I am thinking the same thing. Can i ask where you saw the thermal numbers for each chip? downloaded that file the other person posted but it did not show that.

Since all i do is Xcode and some screen recording, I am wondering if by going down to the mid i5 instead of the i7 would make me happier with a minimal amount of speed loss since a quiet iMac is important to me and if means 8.5% less CPU but X amount of times less the fans will kick in.

it might just be the decider for me.


thx

There are a few threads going that reference the thermals for these chips. I was referring to the post below and the article it links to:

The new iMac is a lot noisier!
 
No.

But when I get mine, (If I go the 4.2 route) I will for sure.

In theory marking out normal apps like Email and safari from going into Turbo mode would seem to help overall leaving the real apps that really need the extra power to use it if needed.
 
No.

But when I get mine, (If I go the 4.2 route) I will for sure.

In theory marking out normal apps like Email and safari from going into Turbo mode would seem to help overall leaving the real apps that really need the extra power to use it if needed.

Icic.. Thanks for sharing. I am still deciding which route to go but what you said does really make lots of sense. :)
 
I think I will be going the 4.2 for this reason and for the whole, "even though it does not make a diff in my daily workflow I still should have paid the extra $200 to get it" ~ mostly a future proofing thing.
 
if one were to go the 4.2 route....couldn't this help to keep excessive fan noise down?

(depending on your workflow)

Turbo Boost Switcher app

https://gumroad.com/l/YeBQUF
Yes, it does help, but only to a certain extent. For really heavy stuff that can max out the CPU (like software HEVC 4K decoding), it does increase the time it takes the cores to get hot, but it will still eventually get there. It just takes longer to get there.

However, for other more moderate usage, it can mean the difference between audible fan and inaudible fan. For example, one poster here indicates that with a Logic Pro X stress test, he can get the i7 to ramp up the fan to moderate speeds (2000 rpm). This becomes audible, which can be annoying for audio work.

But then if he turns off Turbo with Turbo Boost Switcher, it consistently runs significantly cooler, without the fan ramping up.

You can also turn off HyperThreading with Xcode, but then there is almost no point in having an i7 in the first place. You would essentially be purchasing a faster clocked i5. If you're doing that all the time, you'd probably just be better off buying the i5-7600K, and avoid all the headache of having to deal with Xcode and switching off HT with every reboot, etc.


No.

But when I get mine, (If I go the 4.2 route) I will for sure.

In theory marking out normal apps like Email and safari from going into Turbo mode would seem to help overall leaving the real apps that really need the extra power to use it if needed.
The 4.2 never gets hot enough when using just Mail and Safari, so Turbo Boost Switcher in that context is completely superfluous. With that type of usage, I'm typically in the 40+ degree range and it never goes above 50, so the fan always sits at 1200 which is the minimum speed, and effectively silent.

Hell, even running Geekbench 4.1, which takes over 2 minutes on the Core i7 7700K, won't ramp up the fan. It still always just sits at 1200 rpm and silent. Same with playing 4K 2160p30 h.264 video from my iPhone using IINA video player. Fan just sits at 1200 rpm and silent. In fact, the CPU power usage stays below 10 Watts. GPU power jumps to over 30 Watts though.
 
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Hell, even running Geekbench 4.1, which takes over 2 minutes on the Core i7 7700K, won't ramp up the fan. It still always just sits at 1200 rpm and silent. Same with playing 4K 2160p30 h.264 video from my iPhone using IINA video player. Fan just sits at 1200 rpm and silent. In fact, the CPU power usage stays below 10 Watts. GPU power jumps to over 30 Watts though.

CPU power usage at below 10W? Wow, that's nice to know. :)
 
CPU power usage at below 10W? Wow, that's nice to know. :)
Yeah, h.264 playback is in hardware. CPU usage is something like 9-12% for 4K h.264 from an iPhone but on just one core. The other cores have 0-3% CPU usage.

This is why I think it's so important if you're buying now to go for Kaby Lake (2017 iMac, 2017 MacBook Pro, or 2017 MacBook). Both 8-bit and 10-bit HEVC 4K decoding will be in hardware. Or in the very least, Skylake (2015 iMac, 2016 MacBook Pro or 2016 MacBook), which has 8-bit HEVC 4K decoding in hardware. Bad idea to get an older refurbished machine in 2017 for this reason, no matter how cheap it seems.
 
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Yeah, h.264 playback is in hardware. CPU usage is something like 9-12% for 4K h.264 from an iPhone but on just one core. The other cores have 0-3% CPU usage.

This is why I think it's so important if you're buying now to go for Kaby Lake (2017 iMac, 2017 MacBook Pro, or 2017 MacBook). Both 8-bit and 10-bit HEVC 4K decoding will be in hardware. Or in the very least, Skylake (2015 iMac, 2016 MacBook Pro or 2016 MacBook), which has 8-bit HEVC 4K decoding in hardware. Bad idea to get an older refurbished machine in 2017 for this reason, no matter how cheap it seems.

Thanks for the advice! :)
 
No.

But when I get mine, (If I go the 4.2 route) I will for sure.

In theory marking out normal apps like Email and safari from going into Turbo mode would seem to help overall leaving the real apps that really need the extra power to use it if needed.
I use that app & it seriously helps. The fan almost never runs & the performance is still great!
 
You got in early, ordered and now have received your iMac. Are you happy with your purchase? Any regrets? Wish you had upgraded the CPU, SSD or ___? What about fan noise? I'm particularly interested in whether your iMac is quiet or not and what CPU choice you made when you make that observation. If you were ordering again, what changes to your order would you make?

The rest of us procrastinators are waiting to hear from you brave early adopters!

Thanks in advance!
JayFromNoVa
[doublepost=1498727298][/doublepost]Lovely machine to replace my 2011 27" – but for one thing: FAN NOISE!!
I'm about to raise a complaint with Apple (well, an enquiry to start with, then...)
 
Coming from a 2011 27 inch, I couldn't be more pleased. Home user...not pro...running GarageBand, X-Plane....creating some web content.....some Photoshop...some Indesign....everything is silky smooth...whisper quiet and lightening fast ....just what I wanted. At this point zero complaints.

Transition was seamless....looking forward to High Sierra

i5, 580, 16GB RAM.
 
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Upgrading was a breeze. Microsoft has a lot to learn from Apple. The entire out of box experience was so simple and it was fast. Open box, plug stuff in put in your old time machine disk. It will find and restore your computer. I was amazed that everything worked even my Universal Audio Twin MkII Quad interface. Usually that kind of stuff has drivers and licensing stuff but it just worked.

My desk looks so much cleaner since going from the 2012 mac mini to the i7 27inch cut down on the clutter big time

Oh the screen is amazing, huge difference in clarity and I had a good dell 24inch IPS monitor. The computer is fast! love scrolling through my photos library so much room.

OS X makes good use of 5K I do not feel like the letters are tiny etc.. it just looks sharper.

I was wondering how the fan noise is on your machine when doing music production stuff?

I am considering exchanging my i5 for the i7 7700k, but I'm a little worried about fan noise being too annoying while trying to mix a track.
 
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The SSD should be cooler than a Fusion drive too.

The PCIe SSD in iMacs including the PCIe SSD portion of Fusion drives are capable of producing a lot more heat than HDDs. This isn't just limited to Macs but PCIe SSDs in general. For comparison they will begin to throttle at temps many HDDs will fail outright.

When referencing temps SSD vs Fusion is moot. Only consider price, speed and storage capacity between the two.

When the case fan died in my HTPC I only noticed because of the 80C+ warning of the PCIe SSD. Some motherboards offer active M.2 cooling while others even go as far as liquid cooling solutions like some the ROG mobos from Asus.
 
The PCIe SSD in iMacs including the PCIe SSD portion of Fusion drives are capable of producing a lot more heat than HDDs. This isn't just limited to Macs but PCIe SSDs in general. For comparison they will begin to throttle at temps many HDDs will fail outright.

When referencing temps SSD vs Fusion is moot. Only consider price, speed and storage capacity between the two.

When the case fan died in my HTPC I only noticed because of the 80C+ warning of the PCIe SSD. Some motherboards offer active M.2 cooling while others even go as far as liquid cooling solutions like some the ROG mobos from Asus.
The PCIe SSDs I've seen reviewed run at about 50-75% of the power of traditional 7200 rpm drives.
 
Hell, even running Geekbench 4.1, which takes over 2 minutes on the Core i7 7700K, won't ramp up the fan. It still always just sits at 1200 rpm and silent. Same with playing 4K 2160p30 h.264 video from my iPhone using IINA video player. Fan just sits at 1200 rpm and silent. In fact, the CPU power usage stays below 10 Watts. GPU power jumps to over 30 Watts though.

Geekbench is doing specific test and isn't hammering all the cores of a CPU. It couldn't even get the temps of my iMac to reach what I see in normal day to day task.

Green is real time actual temp, line is max since boot.
Screen Shot 2017-06-29 at 7.01.57 PM.png
(click to enlarge)

I'm not familiar with that player but even software decoding h264 isn't terribly difficult.

I'm not aware of a stress test for Macs however if you download Handbrake, open that video you made with the iPhone, set the preset slider to placebo and click start it will transcode it.

You'll get something like this in a minute or so, much higher if the video is long enough.
Screen Shot 2017-06-29 at 7.20.44 PM.png
(click to enlarge)

That is the max my iMac will see (note the fan) but since its a 2013 i5 its going to be dramatically slower than yours of course (up to 50%). Which is my problem with iMacs, if you need the power prepare for fan noise. If you don't need the power its not a problem but that begs the question of why buy it in the first place right?
 
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