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The latest iMac is a pitiful computer
- Thread starter Kung gu
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No. Target Display Mode was removed a few years ago by Apple. You could Remote Desktop into it, however.
What it’s always interesting to me is that these individuals that post negative thoughts and rant on and on only post the original rant and then go away. They never come back and explain themselves further.Don't feed the trolls! (you know who)!
He isHow...Wrong...You...Are...
Ah, but if the OP had written "Disappointing" in the Title heading instead of "pitiful" then they wouldn't have got the number of reactions that they so crave.
Yeah, that is something that still holds me back from iMac, I don't want to go back to needing one screen for Mac and another for a PC.
Just for the sake of being Devil's advocate: Forget PCs, the M1 Mac Mini is $700, plenty of 4K HDR displays in the $400 range... leaving more than enough change from $1300 for (third party) keyboard & sundries (if you don't already have them knocking around). Pick a display that can run off the Mini's HDMI port and you've got basically the same spec as the $1500 iMac, not the port-knobbled $1300 one. So, if you can do it with Mac hardware then, of course you'll find a cheaper PC alternative that "does the job".
...but, of course, that doesn't get you the speakers, web cam, touch ID, love/hate colour scheme or the debatable advantage of magsafe on the desktop. And if Apple are true to form. the display should be worth $1000 on its own.
That's the thing with all-in-ones, though - if you actually want all the bits, they're great value, but:
- You may want a different type of screen - maybe a 32"+ one that you can use in 1:1 4k mode, maybe an ultrawide, maybe a matching pair of smaller screens...
- You may already have a decent screen. Ditto keyboard, mouse etc.
- I'm sure the speakers are great for all-in-one invisible speakers, but only relatively so, and if you're serious about sound you're still going to want a decent pair of external speakers, possibly with an externalDAC/audio interface.
- Ditto with microphones - if you're a heavy video conference user you'll probably get a headset or desktop mic.
So far, though, that's not an issue with the M1 iMac since - as noted - the M1 Mini is a perfectly good alternative if you want a "component" system. If I were going to jump on M1 I'd get a Mini - and use the displays, keyboard etc. that I already have. The limitations come from the M1 itself - ports, number of displays, max RAM - which aren't unreasonable for an entry-level chip that is primarily designed for ultraportable Airs and iPads.
I'm hoping that when the M2 (or whatever) comes out we'll see a M2 Mini or something alongside whatever replaces the 5k iMac, offering the same choice. Technically, the sticking point before was the lack of Intel desktop-class CPUs with anything more than minimal integrated graphics - so I'm hopeful.
So, yeah, I think the 24" iMac does what is needed at that point in the range, and if you don't like it either get a Mini or wait for the M2. I don't like the styling, the need for a power brick, or the after-the-fact rationalisations for putting ethernet on the power brick and, sorry, the $1500 model should have either 16G RAM, 512GB SSD or both - not just the USB and ethernet ports they pointlessly left out of the $1300 one... but frankly that's just par-for-the-course Tim Cook nickel-and-diming and I don't think those are deal-breakers for something that has a significantly better processor and display than the similarly-priced iMacs it replaced.
It’s funny - my 5k imac just died yesterday (well, it’s having problems booting up, and while I have an apple store appointment tomorrow, I suspect the hard drive is dying and since AppleCare has expired, I am open to the idea of getting a new mac if Apple quotes me too high a price for servicing).
So if I were to upgrade (the fusion drive on my imac has also been annoying me for a while now), I can now choose between the Mac mini + external monitor or the new imac.
The problem with the new imac is that I am getting a delivery date of mid June, which is more than a month away. I have a MBA that will still suffice for me in the meantime. But I am not sure how I will adjust to a 24” display after being used to 10 years with a 27” screen.
An upgraded Mac Mini could be delivered next week, though if I were to get the accompanying accessories (4K display, webcam etc), the price adds up to around there as well. And as you mentioned, I have flexibility of getting a screen more suited to my needs. And I still have the wireless keyboard and trackpad from my current Mac. Plus if my Mac mini does have issues down the road, or I want to upgrade, it’s less expensive to do so since I am not throwing out a perfectly good monitor together with it.
Decisions decisions….
While it's annoying to repair, it's possible. You could replace the old hard drive with a SSD while you are at it.
I don't know which model you have, but iFixit has well written guides on how to remove the display to access the internals.
The 2017 5k model. It may be possible, but I am not really comfortable with it. Will see how tomorrow goes.
Apple will probably charge a crazy amount for the repair. Just a guess though.
I would look for local repair shops, maybe there are some in your area that offer SSD upgrades for iMacs? It's only from 2017, it would be a shame to give up on it already.
Agree an independent Mac specialist will likely serve better at a lower cost. Apple will only effect repair with the same stock components an independent shop will be far more receptive to the needs of the user.
Q-6
Alternatively, you could simply boot an SSD from an external USB enclosure. Would still be way faster than that Fusion drive.
Please post which wintel All-In-One PC with a 4k wide-gamut P3 display you're comparing to? With built in speakers, webcam, etc?
'cuz if you're comparing the iMac to a multi-component setup you've completely missed the point of the iMac, which is about it being an AIO, and you're comparing apples to oranges.
I'll tell you what a horrible deal is: Apple shipping 5400 RPM magnetic hard drives in the 21.5" 4k iMac last year. A beautiful display with the worst macOS performance possible? No thanks.
The latest iMac will be an absolute dream compared to the Apple bean counter's stubborn refusal to upgrade the iMac base models for YEARS with even the most basic storage hardware. They couldn't even be bothered to put 7200 RPM hard drives in these base models!
Hello friendHad a few myself and continue to retain one of the notoriously ill fated 2011 15" MBP's with the auto destruct Radeon dGPU, yet despite all the abuse it continues to run, stock HW and never clean installed. At this point in time it's just an exercise in curiosity as to how long it will last 😆 Like all in life, there's good & bad in all
Way back when at my old job, to be able to have them buy me a 2013 MBA, I bought out a late 2011 15" MBP and set it up to give it to my dad. I've recently had to (remotely) deal with the failed GPU and EoL'd 10.13 install. Last year I did whatever combination of steps to disable the AMD chip since discrete gets loaded first on boot?But for the past 12-18 months, I've been waiting for an iMac refresh for him. Larger screen for old person eyes and the hopefully long life of a brand new machine. That laptop does still work - to the point where he thinks it's "ok" D: - but I had him buy one the day orders opened and I'm so excited
The M1, despite being the dreaded rev A of a product , will outlast any Intel iMac by OS support alone.More on topic: iFixit said in their hot takes from the announcement "This was made for my dad" and yeah it was
And that's why it's a great product. It knows its niche because nothing is right for everyone, but this is right enough for a lot of people.
Then go back to old Intel Linux world were you get are your software free while never donating to the developers! No wonder so many developers went to i OS back in day, to get paid even with the 30% for streaming services!
Yes, that was a horrible deal for me too - 2019 iMac with a spinning 1TB hard drive that is slow as a slug - while every other Mac made in 2019 was SSD.
The 4K iMac has enough RAM, CPU, graphics, etc but the bottleneck was the HDD.
I am now booting from an external Thunderbolt SSD - snappy just like a SSD equipped iMac - makes all the difference in the world!
The least expensive and least intrusive way to bypass the internal drive:
external SSD.
I don't like to open the sealed glass using a cutting tool because I don't think my skills are good enough to put it back together without air bubbles, etc...
On my 2019 iMac with a spinning drive - the external SSD bypasses the internal drive as my boot / start up drive.
Everything runs super fast now that it runs off the external SSD.
You clearly haven’t used on of these if you think you’re gonna get an intel machine that’s better.
Not detecting any external drives at the moment (will only boot up in safe mode). I thought it might be a faulty drive, but a disk utility app I tried out shows that its in perfect health. So it could be something else (maybe processor or even a loose connection inside?). Will have to see what diagnosis says.
I guess that's tech for you. They work great, until they don't.