Will Apple release new iMac in March?

[joema2]

...I see the current iMac as a Laptop on a stick approach.

I have a top-spec 2015 MacBook Pro and a top-spec 2015 iMac 27. The iMac is not remotely a laptop on a stick. In actual world-world production use, it is much faster and quieter than the MBP.

...When I look at what I could build in a relatively small form factor using good quality components with a good quality monitor for much less than the cost of the iMac, then it starts to become a no-brainer....

The iMac is an All-in-One design. You cannot build anything beating that performance and form factor for the price. If that were possible, Dell or some other company would have. The Dell XPS 27 is not cheaper nor faster, nor quieter than an equivalent iMac 27. This is despite Dell being able to buy bulk parts by the thousands and negotiate special deals that no hobbiest building a one-off machine can.

You are talking about a self-built "box" PC vs a mass-manufactured All-in-One iMac. That is not an equal comparison. You can also build your own Hackintosh, just like a PC. Most people don't want to build and support their own machine but if you do, this is easily possible for a Hackintosh using a standard build template. Here is a high performance video editing Hackintosh for $998:

 

[xgman]

I get the impression Apple simply don't know where to take the iMac next.

I get the impression from reading this thread that the choices for an upgrade are so boring and lackluster in comparison to what we already have as to really make the case for Apple not to bother anytime soon. Let's face it, the desktop component (or at least the imac) excitement of the past is pretty much stalled out due to shrinking market size and resulting lack of any meaningful platform development. As an old timer, it's sad for me to see this, but alas I am still hopeful of at least some modest updates this year.

 

[ascender]

Maybe the rumoured iMac Pro will see a redesign of the case to be able to cope with higher-performance components which need more space in order to be cooled efficiently?

I think "laptop on a stick" approach is harsh though. The current iMac is more than powerful enough for the majority of customers, but there's clearly a small number of users who need something much more powerful and upgradable.

You've probably always been able to build a micro-form PC using good quality components for less than an iMac. And that option is still there for people who are happy to use Windows.

 

[cynics]

The current design of the iMac besides being terribly dated also constrains what hardware can be used within it. There needs to be a fundamental rethink re: design versus space versus hardware. They need to stop thinking 'thin' all the time and make something that whilst looking aesthetically pleasing to the eye is also able to make best use of both current and future hardware innovations.

I see the current iMac as a Laptop on a stick approach. When I look at what I could build in a relatively small form factor using good quality components with a good quality monitor for much less than the cost of the iMac, then it starts to become a no-brainer. Windows 10 would be a more than capable replacement for MacOS.

This could be exactly the reason we don't see an update now.

We aren't too far from Intels 10nm process which will pack more power into a package less demanding on cooling system. Same applies to GPUs which we are starting to see with nVidias 10 series. Hopefully we start seeing better from AMD when it comes specifically to performance vs TDP.

If for example the 8700K had a TDP around 80w (7700K is 91w) then the current design is more then adequate for near silent operation even under load. My source for silent operation is i5's that have <85w TDP at 100% load on all cores not exceeding 85-90c with the fan at 1200RPM.

 

[JMacHack]

I get the impression Apple simply don't know where to take the iMac next.

Why does it need to be taken anywhere?

 

[Stacc]

Why does it need to be taken anywhere?

Right, I think the indecision is on our part. Each person here wants the iMac to be perfectly tailored to their needs. Some want high performance graphics cards, others want massively parallel CPUs, or make it cheaper, or for Apple to come up with some radical redesign.

I am sure Apple knows where the iMac is going. They have consistently updated it. We will just have to wait longer than some of us would like to find out what that vision is.

 

[theluggage]

They need to stop thinking 'thin' all the time

I agree with you, but for that to happen would be a case of "who are you and what have you done with the real Tim Cook and Jony Ive?"

and make something that whilst looking aesthetically pleasing to the eye is also able to make best use of both current and future hardware innovations.

...in which case, the first step is "don't make it an all-in-one" so we wouldn't be talking about an iMac.

What the Mac ecosystem needs is a straightforward, headless, Micro-ATX mini-tower system with a couple of PCIe slots that can take full-fat graphics cards and other expansions. In the past, when a mini-tower was the "standard unit of computing" that would have cannibalised the lucrative MacBook/iMac/Mac Pro market and lost Apple money. Now... the mass market mostly wants ultrabooks and slick all-in-ones - the mini-tower would be strictly for those of us who actually prefer a pickup truck to a sports coupe.

Such a machine wouldn't be a top seller, but it would be dirt cheap to design and produce using mostly generic PC parts, and would stop power users, developers, gamers and other pro users defecting to PC.

I just don't see it happening.

 

[jrichards1408]

Is it worth buying a imac now or wait?

 

[JMacHack]

Right, I think the indecision is on our part. Each person here wants the iMac to be perfectly tailored to their needs. Some want high performance graphics cards, others want massively parallel CPUs, or make it cheaper, or for Apple to come up with some radical redesign.

I am sure Apple knows where the iMac is going. They have consistently updated it. We will just have to wait longer than some of us would like to find out what that vision is.

The thing I imagined the iMac to be for is a general use computer, with the higher-end stuff useful for people who want something more powerful than a standard iMac but less expensive than a Mac Pro.

The Mac Pro would then be ball to the wall performance with money as no object.

Besides "Easy to set up and easy to use", what does the iMac really need? The general populace doesn't upgrade ram, drives, or whatnot, they just use the computer until it breaks or becomes completely obsolete. The Pro market does all of these things, but Apple should cater to them with the Mac Pro.

Personally I like the option of upgradeable parts, but if I wanted that I wouldn't be in the market for an all-in-one in the first place. Thus putting me In the Mac Pro market (maybe someday they'll update it).

As it stands, the iMac just needs marginal updates in my opinion. More ram, higher resolution, SSD, TB3, and a GPU upgrade. Processors haven't advanced enough to warrant waiting on a new gen anyway.

 

[danielwsmithee]

I have a top-spec 2015 MacBook Pro and a top-spec 2015 iMac 27. The iMac is not remotely a laptop on a stick. In actual world-world production use, it is much faster and quieter than the MBP.



The iMac is an All-in-One design. You cannot build anything beating that performance and form factor for the price. If that were possible, Dell or some other company would have. The Dell XPS 27 is not cheaper nor faster, nor quieter than an equivalent iMac 27. This is despite Dell being able to buy bulk parts by the thousands and negotiate special deals that no hobbiest building a one-off machine can.

You are talking about a self-built "box" PC vs a mass-manufactured All-in-One iMac. That is not an equal comparison. You can also build your own Hackintosh, just like a PC. Most people don't want to build and support their own machine but if you do, this is easily possible for a Hackintosh using a standard build template. Here is a high performance video editing Hackintosh for $998:

Even with self built hackintosh box PC once you compare true Apples to Apples the iMac cost is very competitive. A full build including a $1000 monitor, and M.2 Pcie NVME in a hackintosh is pretty close to to cost of a similarly specified iMac.

The one area where you can get a lot more bang for your buck with a Hackintosh is video cards...

 

[CWallace]

The only alternative direction I can see is the Surface Studio way - but 27" high quality pen digitisers don't come cheap, so I don't think that would be a viable replacement for the mainstream iMac.

And throwing everything into a small box at the base has it's own issues. The Surface Studio uses lower-performing laptop-class CPUs due to thermal constraints compared to the more powerful (and hotter) desktop-class units in the 5K iMac.

Maybe the rumoured iMac Pro will see a redesign of the case to be able to cope with higher-performance components which need more space in order to be cooled efficiently?

If the Mac Pro is retired in favor of an "iMac Pro", the chassis is going to have to get thicker (probably pre-2012 era when it had an optical drive) in order to fit Xeon CPUs and workstation class GPUs as well as cool them effectively.

I agree with you, but for that to happen would be a case of "who are you and what have you done with the real Tim Cook and Jony Ive?"

Well the new iPad and Apple Watch are thicker than their predecessors and the next iPhone looks like it might be gaining some girth, as well, if it adopts the original's design ethos...

So perhaps "thin at all costs" is no longer a core design requirement at Apple.

Is it worth buying a imac now or wait?

If you can wait, you might as well. If not, the current iMac 5K is still a solid machine for most general application use.

The thing I imagined the iMac to be for is a general use computer, with the higher-end stuff useful for people who want something more powerful than a standard iMac but less expensive than a Mac Pro....Besides "Easy to set up and easy to use", what does the iMac really need? The general populace doesn't upgrade ram, drives, or whatnot, they just use the computer until it breaks or becomes completely obsolete.

And that's possibly the main disconnect between us on this forum and Apple's predominate Mac customer base now. We all came from the PC era (Windows or Mac) where machines were towers that one could upgrade and replace most every component (CPU, RAM, drives, video, connectivity) over time.

Apple abandoned that strategy some time ago - and it started under Jobs, not Cook. There is no money in it long-term and Apple doesn't sell in the volumes that the largest PC makers due where they can afford to have a segment of their user-base only buy a machine once a decade (upgrading it in situ over that decade with third-party components). Apple sells more "disposable" Macs now then they ever did when they were functional equivalent to PCs so making their laptops thicker so that everything can be replaced would likely just mean less Macs overall were sold as us old-timers bought once and upgraded for a decade and the newer generations eschewed the Mac for sleeker, "disposable" Ultrabook laptops from PC vendors like Dell and HP.

 

[Lankyman]

Is it worth buying a imac now or wait?

Old tech at top dollar prices. It has to be your call, but..........

 

[Babbles]

Is it worth buying a imac now or wait?

Wait if you can. I have been waiting for a decent upgrade since 2014. Unfortunately I cannot wait any longer so I am building my own computer. As someone on here once told me: Get what you need when you need it.

I do hope that they make the iMac crazy awesome. Besides the fantastic 4k screens, they have been a letdown the past few updates. --This is just my opinion, of course.

 

[jrichards1408]

Old tech at top dollar prices. It has to be your call, but..........

It's my gf that needs one within the next few weeks!
I tried to persuade her to get a desktop pc that I can build her with the latest amd processor!

 

[czerney]

I ummed and ahhed over pulling the trigger on an imac for nearly a year. End of the day I just wrote out my list of what I needed in excel pitting the imac against a custom PC build and asked myself truthfully which was going to do what I wanted.

On a hardware bang for buck PC came out on top but not as much as I expected. Then once I accounted for the learning and time cost associated with switching away from FCPX quickly wiped out any savings I would have made by purchasing a PC. That said to be honest once you account for a 27" 5K screen that comes with the imac - the PC build wasn't as far ahead of the imac as I thought there'd be.

imac 27" i7 / 8Gb / 512 SSD / 395X 4Gb / trackpad / magic mouse & keyboard + 32Gb 3rd party ram (4x8Gb Crucial).

 

[jrichards1408]

In my gf case. She needs something future proof that would last 4+ years.

 

[Lesser Evets]

In my gf case. She needs something future proof that would last 4+ years.

Wait. An iMac is coming, but it could be here in April or October. Or anywhere in between.

I doubt they will wait longer than November this year. It's weird-ish that they have waited this long. Knowing Apple, they will release a computer with slightly aged processors rather than brand-spanking-just-released processors. My hope is that they break that MO and release something in October with Coffee Lake processors JUST RELEASED, rather than putting out something in May or June with Kaby Lake when Gen 8 is coming in 2H 2017. I'm not sure if the Gen 8 iMac Coffee Lake chips will be available this year or next, though, but there is talk of a 6-core coming from Coffee Lake.

 

[Lankyman]

It's my gf that needs one within the next few weeks!
I tried to persuade her to get a desktop pc that I can build her with the latest amd processor!

Wants or needs? Personally if it's just something to tide her over then get a cheap second hand PC. Plenty good ones at silly money prices. That way you can sit it out and see if Apple are ever going to get their heads out of their backsides and build something people want to buy.

I'm with you though - I would build her something.

 

[jrichards1408]

Wants or needs? Personally if it's just something to tide her over then get a cheap second hand PC. Plenty good ones at silly money prices. That way you can sit it out and see if Apple are ever going to get their heads out of their backsides and build something people want to buy.

I'm with you though - I would build her something.

Needs. Her current iMac is 6 years old and can't install and run Adobe apps that she uses for work.

Heck even Google Chrome can't be updated anymore and can't even load up LinkedIn!

 

[Stacc]

Needs. Her current iMac is 6 years old and can't install and run Adobe apps that she uses for work.

Heck even Google Chrome can't be updated anymore and can't even load up LinkedIn!

That doesn't sound right. My 2011 MacBook pro can still run Lightroom/Photoshop and chrome, even if its not the fastest in the world. Maybe some RAM or a cheap SSD could get you by until a new release.

 

[redheeler]

Needs. Her current iMac is 6 years old and can't install and run Adobe apps that she uses for work.

Heck even Google Chrome can't be updated anymore and can't even load up LinkedIn!

Does that iMac happen to be running Mountain Lion or earlier? Any Late 2009 or Mid 2010 iMac can be updated to the latest MacOS Sierra and run current versions of Chrome, Adobe apps.

The advice above is also good, as a decent-spec Core i5 or i7 Mid 2010 iMac can still perform quite well running Sierra with an SSD and 8 GB (or more) of RAM.

 

[kschendel]

Needs. Her current iMac is 6 years old and can't install and run Adobe apps that she uses for work.

Heck even Google Chrome can't be updated anymore and can't even load up LinkedIn!

That's odd. A 6 year old iMac would still be a couple years newer than our early-2009 iMac, and my wife was doing Adobe CC work on it just yesterday, and I just now updated Chrome to 57.0.2987.110 and it says "up to date". Granted, it's still running El Cap, but we could update to Sierra any time we like -- she's not in a rush to change, is all. What's really going on here?

 

[jrichards1408]

That's odd. A 6 year old iMac would still be a couple years newer than our early-2009 iMac, and my wife was doing Adobe CC work on it just yesterday, and I just now updated Chrome to 57.0.2987.110 and it says "up to date". Granted, it's still running El Cap, but we could update to Sierra any time we like -- she's not in a rush to change, is all. What's really going on here?

Need to double check but you can't run Adobe because the OS is too old . the system can only upgrade to maverick I think it is. I'll doubt check later

 

[Malus120]

Need to double check but you can't run Adobe because the OS is too old . the system can only upgrade to maverick I think it is. I'll doubt check later

Yeah something doesn't seem right there. If it's more like an 8-9 year old iMac (Core 2 Duo vintage) then the story starts to make some sense (although you should still have some options if you're willing to hack around a bit), but a 2009-2011 iMac should have no problem running Sierra.

If she's one of those then just add an SSD (via FW800, Thunderbolt, or internally if you're feeling brave), some more ram, and Sierra and she should be set for a while yet.

 

[jrichards1408]

Yes i will need to check out how old her imac really is.