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eSATA? Do people really still talk about this? Much hype but in reality its a joke in the PC world, I can't imagine how it would be relevant to the Mac.

USB3 would be nice though.

I'm not sure why it's a joke. They are cheap and certainly faster than any USB2 drives I have used. But it's a moot point since they aren't supported.
 
Heat and size would be a significant problem. Unless apple goes with towers for their next iMacs, or completely ditches either the hdd and/or odd, you won't be seeing desktop grade gpus in them. Making the iMac a couple inches thicker wouldn't solve that problem either, only surface area would.

But with that said, the 5750 (mobility 5850) is the best mobile gpu apple could have put in the iMac (barring 5870-- which is same card but 10% higher clock) or 480m-- which may as well be called a desktop card.

Well, I'm not just talking about a specific form factor, I'm talking about what the potential could be. Maybe I'm speaking in too much of a theoretical scale here for this topic. The point is that the 4670, 5670 and the 5750 are not even close to the top of the ladder with what's available today. Could ATI produce something with a higher benchmark and still fit in iMac's current case? Possibly. Also possible is that the iMac morphs to fit a slightly larger but much more powerful video card. Nobody has a crystal ball here. So, I'm not saying today's iMac + today's videocard technology = fail by Apple. I'm just saying there's potential for much better video processing and thus a possible reason to wait.

Completely off subject but... are you using that picture of Peyton Manning to mock him or because you think he looks good there? I'm not sure. LOL.

I'm not sure why it's a joke. They are cheap and certainly faster than any USB2 drives I have used. But it's a moot point since they aren't supported.

eSATA is a joke because it's just a cable inside the case that on one end is jacked to the motherboard and on the other a header to the outside with which you can connect to an external drive. Essentially an internal drive on the outside of the case. There's no magic here.

But yes, I agree it's faster than USB2.
 
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Well, I'm not just talking about a specific form factor, I'm talking about what the potential could be. Maybe I'm speaking in too much of a theoretical scale here for this topic. The point is that the 4670, 5670 and the 5750 are not even close to the top of the ladder with what's available today. Could ATI produce something with a higher benchmark and still fit in iMac's current case? Possibly. Also possible is that the iMac morphs to fit a slightly larger but much more powerful video card. Nobody has a crystal ball here. So, I'm not saying today's iMac + today's videocard technology = fail by Apple. I'm just saying there's potential for much better video processing and thus a possible reason to wait.

Next step from Juniper is Cypress and that starts from 151W while 5850M is 39W. Either very heavy underclocking or removal of other components (HD/ODD) is needed to fit a GPU like that. ATI is doing their best to provide chips for different computers but you can't jump 3 years ahead and put ATI 9990 in iMac.
 
I honestly do not know why people do not understand that

to achieve bigger graphic performance you need more power + bigger chip (size, weight, heat)

ergo you need bigger and louder power supply and bigger, louder graphic card - either fit in current iMac design

yes, I would like the idea of SSD attached to board (like MB Air) saving some space, but I doubt it will happen anytime soon, or more precisely, the saved spaced would be used on a better graphic card (still only slightly better)

important facts
1. Steve Jobs is not a gamer, we could not expect much pressure to assemble Macs with high-end graphics
2. Apple is moving its focus mainly to iToys...again some risky designs are not expected
3. Still, there are not much games so the CPU power is far more important to Mac OS X (video, science, photos)...high-end CPU in iMac is great
4. All this could be solved with xMac - theoretical Mac Tower with consumer CPU (unlike Mac Pro) and some high-end graphics - but as I said, Apple has other priorities nowadays
5. Altering graphic cards to be usable by Mac OS X computers is not really a cheap business, therefore we could not expect much variety

I think that iMac is remarkable piece of hardware - perfects screen, great CPU, now SSD, reasonable graphics and noise...you cannot have everything, If you want to play games massively, there are other options

PS. yes, the idea of making ultimate 30"screen iMac with thicker design and maybe Ati 6970 is tempting...but that is only a dream and I cannot see reasonable market for it
 
yes, I would like the idea of SSD attached to board (like MB Air) saving some space, but I doubt it will happen anytime soon, or more precisely, the saved spaced would be used on a better graphic card (still only slightly better)
I think it'd be a great idea to put maybe 64GB to 120GB in chips on the iMac just to get the operating system and major applications started faster. If I were they, I wouldn't spent a lot of money on it just yet, at least not on the next iteration of the iMac that is just a few months away

And as far as graphics go...I think this is more in the hands of ATi/AMD and less in the hands of Apple. Personally, I think it's up to them to design something that works better and fits into the iMac's design platform.

For whatever one dumb old person's opinion is worth.
 
yes buy one now if you need it. If you don't wait. Sounds like you don't need one.

And once you get to March then you get wait until June or July when Lion comes out. And get the new OS included with your iMac and save yourself $100.
 
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