Woo Hoo! There IS a Z68 chipset in the new iMac!

[bushman4]

Well, check out that link at the top of this topic.
Since the new imacs have the new (not yet released really) chipset, they will be able to utilize the new drives that intel is going to be releasing. Some think that the ssds in the new imacs will indeed be these new intel models and that is why there is a delay on those BTOs with the ssd options.

Part of the new chipset feature is being able to have a hybrid drive (counts the hard disk drive and ssd as one 'disk.'

I guess we won't really know everything for certain until someone receives their ssd equipped BTO machine

I think you have it right, as Intel is releasing the new SSD in 2 weeks and the official Z68 chip release is next week.

 

[yustas]

Link

I was really hoping Z68 was the reason for the delay. Now to figure out how to get SSD/HD hybrids to work in there...

I am sorry, but I do not get it. What is so special about this? You can order the SSD/HDD combo now, and yes, it takes longer to get it, but so what? What am I missing? How does it change anything for the current model?

 

[yustas]

The second benefit is Quick Sync which offloads the CPU when it comes to video encoding and greatly speeds up the process. Not clear whether Apple will enable this function.

I am not sure I understand what Quick Sync has to do with the kind of HDD a given system has. I thought it offloads the CPU regardless of SSD or HDD, no?

 

[eoren1]

What is strange about Apple's use of the z68 chipset is that they only offered a very big ssd as a BTO option. With that big a disk, you don't need to use the hybrid option of the z68 chip.
What we really need is the option for a 20 gig SSD that would be seen by the OS as a single drive together with the standard HDD. No issues from a user standpoint as to where to put files and the drive would be effectively much faster than the mechanical alone.
As for Quick Sync, it is separate from the above SSD/HDD discussion but is the second benefit from using z68.