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But if you think Apple is going to get your machine back for a failed hard drive component of a Fusion Drive or for some other hardware failure and then check your RAM and say "warranty voided because this is not Crucial's iMac-certified part!", you're just wrong.

To underscore your point, I had to get the fusion drive on my 2012 iMac swapped out under AppleCare for just that reason and I have 4 sticks of aftermarket RAM in it. It was no problem at all.
 
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I usually just take out the aftermarket RAM before bringing in the Mac for service.
Ram is now installed. It spat out a couple of errors at first and crashed the machine twice but then it booted up fine and no issues so far.
That doesn’t sound good. Which RAM?

Run memtest.
 
It is Crucial actually. Didn't do a memory test as I was busy messing around in Apple Motion. Haven't seen any issues since.
 
Reviewing: 27-inch, 3.4 GHz, i5, 8 GB Ram, 256 GB SSD.

Coming from a mid-2011 iMac the new screen is a huge improvement, but most of all I enjoy the completely silent machine that is also super fast in booting and opening apps. And as a bonus unlocking with Apple Watch is nice too. Quite happy with my purchase so far.
 
Way back when I started this thread to help me decide which one to buy. After a lot of hemming and hawing I picked the 3.5i5/575/1TBSSD/8GB. It finally came Wednesday. I added 32GB of RAM, fired it up, and have been using it happily since. Here are my observations for what it's worth.

  • I picked the mid-range i5 so it would be silent. No, the iMac is not silent. It's not annoyingly loud, but I hear it. I didn't hear my old Mac Mini, but in fairness I moved it to the far corner of my desk so that I wouldn't hear it. With an iMac, you don't have a choice in where to place it.
  • The screen is a bit high for me. I'm only 5' 6" and when seated comfortably at my desk, the iMac is a bit too tall and neck strain is the result. I really wish you could move it down a few inches. In fact, I wish it enough, that I will probably either replace my desk or modify my desk to lower the stand base 2-3 inches.
  • The monitor is everything. It's stunningly clear, bright, gorgeous. Photos never looked this good. I bought an iMac to get that monitor, and despite the neck strain and constant whir of the fan (yes, I'm over-sensitive) I'll be keeping it.
  • I have the nagging thought that since I can hear it all the time anyway, maybe I should have just gotten the i7 anyway. If the thing is going to have that whir sound at idle anyway, you might as well have the horsepower when you need it, right? Regardless, I got by on half the speed for the last 5+ years, so this is all the CPU I really need.
I want to thank all of you who have contributed your reviews and observations over the past few weeks. I found it very helpful, and now I've added my opinions to the opinion stew. Hope it helps others with this buying decision too.

JayFromNoVa.
 
Way back when I started this thread to help me decide which one to buy. After a lot of hemming and hawing I picked the 3.5i5/575/1TBSSD/8GB. It finally came Wednesday. I added 32GB of RAM, fired it up, and have been using it happily since. Here are my observations for what it's worth.
Exactly what I have. :)

I have the nagging thought that since I can hear it all the time anyway, maybe I should have just gotten the i7 anyway. If the thing is going to have that whir sound at idle anyway, you might as well have the horsepower when you need it, right? Regardless, I got by on half the speed for the last 5+ years, so this is all the CPU I really need.
No. The ramp up of the fan means much more noise, and it can happen not just with hardcore video encoding and such, but occasionally some more moderate usage as well. Infrequently, yes, but if you're sensitive to noise it would be an issue for you.

I tried to convince myself of that, but in the end I'm happier with the "slower" machine. YMMV though.

Yes, I can get up and let the machine render while I go get a coffee, but sometimes I don't want to do that. With your iMac, you can continue to use your iMac with the same low fan, but with the 7700K, it will be loud.

The screen is a bit high for me. I'm only 5' 6" and when seated comfortably at my desk, the iMac is a bit too tall and neck strain is the result. I really wish you could move it down a few inches. In fact, I wish it enough, that I will probably either replace my desk or modify my desk to lower the stand base 2-3 inches.
I'm 5'7". I ended up buying a VESA mount for my 2010 iMac and lowered it by about 2.5 inches. However, it was a pain because it was not as 100% stable as the iMac stand, and having the iMac so low meant anything on the table got in the way. The main problem is the stupid chin there. Plus I wonder what it would do to fan noise and fan effectiveness in the current models, since the fan vent is at the bottom.

iMacVesa.jpg


Plus, as you can see, it wasn't very pretty. :p I just wish they could somehow come up with a way to eliminate that chin, even if it meant making the iMac thicker.

I had contemplated just getting the smaller iMac, but the value just isn't there if you want to get lots of RAM and a big SSD. It's unfortunate though, since its height is perfect for us short people. Plus, the 27" is a match for my old one, for a dual iMac configuration.

DualiMac.jpg
 
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So I got my i5/580/16/1TB today and the machine is lovely, however, I can't decide if the screen is a good one or a bad one. There's no classic gradient tint from left to right, but brightness uniformity from certain angles suffer from some shadow spots (maybe 2-5% difference), there's also a bit of backlight bleed on one side. I don't really know what to expect from the 5K screens, it's easy to be blown away looking at photos but I tend to verify by looking at black and white screens (it's unhealthy, I know) :p
 
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So I got my i5/580/16/1TB today and the machine is lovely, however, I can't decide if the screen is a good one or a bad one. There's no classic gradient tint from left to right, but brightness uniformity from certain angles suffer from some shadow spots (maybe 2-5% difference), there's also a bit of backlight bleed on one side. I don't really know what to expect from the 5K screens, it's easy to be blown away looking at photos but I tend to verify by looking at black and white screens (it's unhealthy, I know) :p
Sounds like mine, more or less. I'm not going to worry about it.

However, I'm not a designer or a pro photo guy either.
 
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The screen is a bit high for me. I'm only 5' 6" and when seated comfortably at my desk, the iMac is a bit too tall and neck strain is the result. I really wish you could move it down a few inches. In fact, I wish it enough, that I will probably either replace my desk or modify my desk to lower the stand base 2-3 inches.

I also wish the screen was height adjustable - too high for me as well - but - I have 4 adjustable height electric desks in my house. How did i ever live without them :). 3 out of 4 go from 24" to 50" tall. Only way to fly IMO. 1000 uses.
 
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I have 4 adjustable height electric desks in my house. How did i ever live without them :). 3 out of 4 go from 24" to 50" tall. Only way to fly IMO. 1000 uses.
That helps, but the problem is changing the height of the desk also changes the height of the keyboard.

My desk is height adjustable too, but I found I just prefer the standard height for the desk. Mind you, maybe it's time to reassess.
 
I love my iMac. It's beautiful and is super fast. I got the 1tb fusion drive. I am going to get an external SSD and use as the boot drive at some point to get more speed. I'm happy with the price versus what I got (got the i5 575 version at $1999).
 
That helps, but the problem is changing the height of the desk also changes the height of the keyboard.

My desk is height adjustable too, but I found I just prefer the standard height for the desk. Mind you, maybe it's time to reassess.

But of course the keyboard is in its own adjustable thing too - not sitting on the desk :) The desk is where Mixing control surfaces and keyboards go!
 
Here's my half-assed review. Wish I had more time and motivation to give an in-depth review, but instead I'll just touch on a few points and observations.

A little background: a dear friend of mine got me into the Macintosh universe with me a hand-me-down desktop G3 almost 20 years ago and I've been in love with Macs ever since. (I really, really miss OS9!) I am not a rich guy though, and over the years I've had to buy low-end or used Macs to keep up. The 2017 iMac is the first time I've ever owned an new, high-end Mac and it's actually my first iMac ever. I've never been keen on an all-in-one due to the lack of power and upgradability. That said, I am hopelessly in love right now, I want to try to at least appear unbiased! I think I can safely say that the 2017 iMac is a thing of beauty and it looks like Apple did listen and get everything right.

I am not a power or pro user, just a regular guy. Though we have MacBooks and iPads/iPhones/iPods around the house, the last Mac desktop I bought was a mid-2010 Mini (2.66 Core Duo, 8GB RAM - both max at the time). Obviously, this 2017 iMac is a giant step up for me. Here is my final configuration:

4.2GHz i7
40GB RAM (added 2x16 Crucial sticks - not the "certified for Mac" kind and working fine!)
2TB Fusion
Radeon Pro 580
Extended Keyboard

I did some benchmarking last night, so for giggles, let's compare to my 2010 Mac Mini:

Geekbench
Mini single core: 1748, multi core: 3021
iMac single core: 5716, multi core: 19988
Cinebench
Mini: 12.11 fps
iMac: 129.28 fps
Unigine Heaven on Medium setting, 1440p
Mini: 3.4 fps, score: 86 (lol!)
iMac: 49.4 fps, score: 1246

My Mini barely ran Civ V and the iMac runs Civ VI flawlessly. It's glorious. The Civ VI benchmark put my iMac in the 99th percentile which made me feel pretty nice, I have to admit. I only got to play for an hour or so last night, and during that time, the CPU cores did peak here and there around 100C. I'll have a week vacation coming up to see how it holds up to extended gaming, but I'm not worried about temps any longer. I'm also eager to see what else it can do with an FPS or racer.

The Fusion Drive works great for me. Sure it isn't ideal, but I'm quite happy with it. I try to look at it as a 128GB SSD with lots of bonus storage thrown in for free. I have a giant media library and I do see a hiccup here and there (which may get worse over time as the platter drive fills), but I'm thrilled to be able to keep it all internally rather than running 2 external drives like I was doing.

The 5K display of course steals all the attention and it is truly stunning. I still don't have a 4K tv, so I'm late to the party with 4K content. I find myself still staring in awe.

There's never been a better time to buy an iMac and I simply couldn't be happier with my purchase. It is everything I've pretty much ever wanted in a computer, in a slim, sharp package. Finally, I can retire the ole' Mini to the living room where it can live out the rest of its days as a Netflix box. Happy computing everyone!
 
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Still waiting for my replacement, they messed up the first return, the second one seems to take forever (at least they extended my cancellation window to 30 days due to all the screwups).
 
Got my replacement today, close to perfect backlight, I was very exited, some blotchiness, nothing major, and then I was looking at a photo... The top half of the screen has a completely different saturation level on the red channel compared to the bottom half. Essentially, a face goes from zombie on the bottom half to human on the top (exaggerated, but still, as a photographer this is completely impossible to work with).
It took two weeks and four hours on the phone with Apple to get to this point, not really looking forward to doing it all over again, the thing is, I only have my work laptop right now, I need a machine at home...
 
Got my replacement today, close to perfect backlight, I was very exited, some blotchiness, nothing major, and then I was looking at a photo... The top half of the screen has a completely different saturation level on the red channel compared to the bottom half. Essentially, a face goes from zombie on the bottom half to human on the top (exaggerated, but still, as a photographer this is completely impossible to work with).
It took two weeks and four hours on the phone with Apple to get to this point, not really looking forward to doing it all over again, the thing is, I only have my work laptop right now, I need a machine at home...
Sorry to hear about your issues. I have noticed tint and and color temperature fluctuations across the screen on all of them. I went to the Apple store and it's really luck of the draw. Those of us who color correct will pick it up especially if you do B&W work. But what I've noticed is that these uniformity issues are minimal on smaller screens such is the 13 and 15 inch MBPs. They are still there but much less so. I'm guessing that the 27 inch LCDs have issues with the light diffusers as they are edge lit and if the backlight diffuser is off even slightly at the factory, your get variations in backlight.
 
Sorry to hear about your issues. I have noticed tint and and color temperature fluctuations across the screen on all of them. I went to the Apple store and it's really luck of the draw. Those of us who color correct will pick it up especially if you do B&W work. But what I've noticed is that these uniformity issues are minimal on smaller screens such is the 13 and 15 inch MBPs. They are still there but much less so. I'm guessing that the 27 inch LCDs have issues with the light diffusers as they are edge lit and if the backlight diffuser is off even slightly at the factory, your get variations in backlight.
Yeah, I have a 2016 MBP 15" and it's there too (but the other way around), just a lot harder to notice (most people would never see it).
To be honest, I don't think getting an iMac for any color critical work is a viable way after looking at them in the store and the two I've received from Apple, however, the difference in saturation on my latest is quite severe and I would have reside to using half the screen pretty much which is just a retarded workflow :p
If I had the need for proper color I would probably get a smaller Eizo CG-monitor and have it next to the iMac and only use it for the last color corrections before going to print/client.
 
Ok, it's been a bit of time. Absolutely love it. Stunning Display, super fast. Run an external 512g SSD USB-C off the back USB-C slot to swap files. Have another 6TB USB 3.0 Platter for video, and images. Even though I have the 1TB SSD internal it's 78% full already even with the external drives. I bagged the BT mouse and keyboard. To much lag for me, not enough configuration options, and did not play well with my powered USB 3.0 Hub. Have a wired mouse and a mechanical keyboard now. I'm on Sierra for the first time as well. No complaints, yet. This really was a very hard purchase for me. I have been one of the 'waiting for a new tower' people. I'm very relieved that this will meet my needs. As an FYI it's a BTO i5 7600k with the 580 and 32g of Crucial DDR4 Mac ;) RAM.

It's taken a while to adjust to my first 'All in One.' I hope people with the backlight issues find relief. In the end I would recommend the 2017 iMac to anyone. With the new keyboard and mouse it's perfect. :apple:
 
True. Keep in mind if you actually need the CPU like me, you may want the i7. I shut off hyper threading because I don't need it all the time & it keeps things quiet, but once I start rendering or encoding...I need every bit of the CPU.
Will shutting off hyper threading reduce the performance of the i7 compares to the fastest i5?
 
Got a 27"i7 iMac. Pretty impressive machine NB the screen and speed. 32GB RAM and ITB SSD.

But I have two minor issues:

1. Noise

The fan has been dead quiet so far. indeed, my Time Machine backup Western Digital hard drive is noisier. However, the iMac makes an odd clicking sound now and again. Anyone else experiencing this?

2. Cookies in Safari

I am getting three times as many cookies as my old iMac on Mavericks. I have the preferences set on "Allow from current website only". Is this the wrong setting?
 
Got my replacement today, close to perfect backlight, I was very exited, some blotchiness, nothing major, and then I was looking at a photo... The top half of the screen has a completely different saturation level on the red channel compared to the bottom half. Essentially, a face goes from zombie on the bottom half to human on the top (exaggerated, but still, as a photographer this is completely impossible to work with).
It took two weeks and four hours on the phone with Apple to get to this point, not really looking forward to doing it all over again, the thing is, I only have my work laptop right now, I need a machine at home...

I've just phoned Apple (UK) to arrange return of a new 5K because of slightly patchy backlighting. They are sending out a replacement (it's CTO, but being fast-tracked to arrive in a few days), and I've not to return the unsatisfactory one until I've tried the replacement and transferred my apps and data to it. That service was immediately offered to me - I didn't need to ask. Give Apple a call and ask for the same level of service.
 
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