The iMac and Mac Pro anticipation thread! (likely summer 2011) (1 Viewer)

[mattCR]

Originally Posted by Sam Posten

Not gonna change. Be reasonable and do it Apple's way and get a hub. Or preferably a Thunderbolt to USB hub, you know, when those actually start shipping.

It does seem that way. But I can't believe that anyone finds this convenient. Nobody I know of finds it convenient. Even die hard apple people all have a hub.

 

[KeithAP]

Originally Posted by mattCR




It does seem that way. But I can't believe that anyone finds this convenient. Nobody I know of finds it convenient. Even die hard apple people all have a hub.

As long as your cables have a little extra length, I find it easy enough to simply spin the iMac around a bit to get access. Or, I can reach behind and plug them in blind. To me the bigger problem, that will never change, is the basic design which requires mobile GPUs instead of more power desktop GPUs.


Now Apple, if you please, give us new Mac Pros.


-Keith

 

[Carlo_M]

Very tempting upgrade. Now the million dollar question for me: which will come first, the annual Apple Back To School Promo (where they offer essentially a free iPod with a purchase of a Mac) or a Mac Pro upgrade. Last year it started on May 25.


After seeing this refresh, I'm fairly torn between buying this and waiting for a Mac Pro. The Pro has the increased horsepower, but to be honest even with Pro Tools and Logic Pro the high-end iMac will be more than enough. If they don't refresh the Mac Pro within the first couple of weeks of the Back To School promo, I will be too tempted by the offer and likely just buy an iMac and get a free iPod Classic (I have less than 4GB of space left on my old 120GB iPod Classic).


I do hope the Thunderbolt external RAID solution from Promise ships soon. I'm very tempted to go 256GB SSD internally only and keep all of my media and files externally on a Thunderbolt RAID enclosure.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam Posten

Now with TWICE AS MANY completely useless Thunderbolt ports!

I wouldn't poo-poo it -- the first Mac other than a MacPro than can drive three monitors. I'm sure the Thunderbolt disk drives and other device will come soon enough... Very nice machine...

 

[Sam Posten]

You don't understand. These are even more useless than the Thunderbolts on my Macbook Pro. You can't use these with a MiniDisplayPort Monitor!

http://www.tuaw.com/2011/05/03/target-display-mode-missing-in-action-on-new-imacs/

http://www.macstories.net/news/new-imac-notes-dual-external-display-output-os-x-on-ssd-no-video-input/

 

[Ted Todorov]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sam Posten

You don't understand. These are even more useless than the Thunderbolts on my Macbook Pro. You can't use these with a MiniDisplayPort Monitor!

Why not? -- are you saying the Thunderbolt ports on the iMac are somehow different?? That's not what Apple is saying:

Quote

High performance on display.

Thunderbolt I/O technology provides native support for Mini DisplayPort displays. It also supports DisplayPort, DVI, HDMI, and VGA displays through the use of existing adapters. So you can connect your Apple LED Cinema Display or other existing display, along with multiple high-speed devices, all from a single port.

http://www.apple.com/thunderbolt/


I clicked on your links and they too say nothing of the sort. What are you looking at? The only thing they are complaining about is that the new iMac can't be used as an external monitor for a MDP device -- but if you have a MBP with Thubderbolt you will be able to use the iMac as an external display, plus either one should be able to drive ANY kind of display from MDP, to DVI/HDMI to VGA.

 

[KeithAP]

Two Dell 30 inch displays connected to a new iMac courtesy of Engadget:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/03/apple-imac-hands-on-with-dual-30-inch-displays-video/


UPDATE:


I just saw Anandtech put up a story about the new iMacs. http://www.anandtech.com/show/4312/the-new-2011-imacs-specs-and-details


This in particular caught my eye...

And, finally, we’ve arrived at the high end 27” iMac, which gets a 1GB 6970M to replace last year’s 1GB Mobility Radeon 5750. The 5750 is more or less a midrange graphics part – the mobility 5600 and 5700 series GPUs all share the same core, codenamed Madison – but the 6970M is a true high-end part, complete with a 256-bit memory bus (compared to a 128-bit bus for the 5750) and more than double the shaders (960 in the 6970 versus 400 in the 5750). This, again, will drastically improve the new iMac’s utility as a gaming machine – the 6970M is much more capable of driving the 27” iMac’s 2560x1440 pixel display.

The new high end GPU seems like it will be a substantial bump in performance. Hopefully we will get some benchmarks soon.


-Keith

 

[Sam Posten]

Yeah I read it backwards. It can't be used as an external monitor for anything besides Thunderbolt (ie you can't hook a PS3 up to it and use it as a nice little home theater monitor), not that you can't hook MDP devices on to it as external monitors 2 and 3. Sorry for the misinformation.

 

[Sam Posten]

This sounds cool:

http://www.9to5mac.com/65319/new-imacs-use-intels-unreleased-z68-chipset-allows-for-hybrid-ssd-hdd-and-may-account-for-ssd-imac-delays/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+9To5Mac-MacAllDay+%289+to+5+Mac+-+Apple+Intelligence%29

 

[mattCR]

It is cool, Sam. But I don't see how (or really why) Apple would adopt this here, though they probably will for the MacPro. The port only exists on the 27" to do both, and while the transfer jump is very nice in early testing, there is a lot of leery-ness about it because of what happened to Intel last time (see: massive recall on prior SandyBridge MBs which all had to go back, and wait for a B3 stepping to fix).

It could happen. The Z68 was built for it. But I don't think current OS supports it, it's a unique driver combination, and it might be something doable under Lion.

 

[Carlo_M]

And not to beat the "bag of hurt" Jobs comment to death...but with Lucasfilm now debuting Star Wars on BD...it can't be that big of a bag of hurt!

 

[Sam Posten]

Don't try to introduce logic!

 

[Carlo_M]

Hahaha, far be it from me to second guess Jobs or Lucas!


So which do you think will happen first:


1. We get the Star Wars OOT on Blu ray (or better)

2. Blu ray on a Mac (official Apple support, not just a workaround)

3. Hell freezes over

4. The world ends in 2012 so it all doesn't matter anyway


Seriously, I'm going to buy either an iMac or a Mac Pro by summer, so I've given up on the whole BD on my Mac dream. I guess if I buy a Pro, it's more user-upgradable in case #2 comes true within a few years and I can just install the drive. But I suppose the external solution is still an option if I get an iMac.

 

[Carlo_M]

I know the new iMacs just came out, and the Mac Pro refresh isn't even here yet, but what do you all think about the rumored 2013 transition of Apple from Intel to ARM processors for their notebooks and maybe desktops?


I'm personally very much against it, because I don't think ARM processors can compete with Intel. CPU transition in itself is not a cause of panic for me: I was one of those who rejoiced when Apple went from Motorola to Intel. I think this could be a very bad move for us power users. No doubt Apple is moving toward an iOS type of future OSX, which would play very nice with an ARM processor, but what about all of us Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Final Cut Pro type of users who won't be well-served with an iOS type of operating system?


All I know is if this is true, I'll be buying the last top-of-the-line Intel machine for both desktop and laptop in 2013 to tide me over until the fallout from the ARM transition is complete. I have no doubt that if they go to ARM in 2013, by 2016 they'll have workable versions of those "power" programs on whatever type of iOS/ARM system they're pushing, so the last Intel build should tide me over until then.

 

[KeithAP]

Originally Posted by Carlo Medina for their notebooks and maybe desktops?

It is not going to happen. My best guess, that article was pure click bait.


-Keith

 

[Carlo_M]

Keith - I'm really hoping so! But just in case I'm starting a "Buy The Last Intel Macs in 2013" slush fund!


Logic says that it would be a huge undertaking having to recompile all existing software they wanted to work on ARM processors, or make software devs create ARM specific versions, but in a way that's what they did (on a slower scale, allowing Rosetta to run older programs for several years, which is apparently being completely discontinued with OSX Lion) with the PPC to Intel move. If there's one thing I've learned about Apple, to get where they want to go (or, where Steve thinks they should be) they aren't afraid of making some tough and surprising decisions that other companies would quite frankly be scared s@#tless to make!

 

[KeithAP]

Just an FYI, Barefeats has some benchmarks up on the new iMacs.

http://www.barefeats.com/imac11b.html


-KeithP

 

[DaveF]

Originally Posted by mattCR

I don't know anyone with a last generation iMac who isn't using a USB hub because of this issue.

What are you plugging & unplugging so routinely that this is a regular annoyance?


I think of it like my stereo: there's a minor nuisance to plug the cables in. But once done, I never touch them again. I'm not popping Time Machine hard-drives on and off. Keyboard cable stays there forever. iPhone and iPad cables stay behind. We don't carry those around the house to different charging or syncing locations. The digital camera uses Eye-Fi now: no cable for it.


The only infrequent case is switching the network AIO printer to local connection so she can scan something.

 

[Sam Posten]

I'm not MattCR but: Thumb drives

 

[DaveF]

Ah. Rarely use those at home.