New Apple Hardware - Today?

FreeStream · 20 Oct 2009 at 18:23

Not funny.

Im seriously contemplating selling it and getting a iMac...

Having a few FW800/USB HDs isn't much of an issue.

*shrug* Opinions?

Mac Pro was bought for £1897...

NickK · 20 Oct 2009 at 18:29

Lol... lots more ATI upfront rather than nVidia then change to ATI

Not surprising as Apple have bought up two months worth of ATI 4xxx series for macs..

Feek · 20 Oct 2009 at 18:29

That new top of the range iMac is what people have been calling out for. It's a decent spec desktop at a reasonably sensible price when you consider what you get. I think it's going to sell really well.

NickK · 20 Oct 2009 at 18:33

Hehe I love the twin HD mini with SL server.. *boggle* but you can attach a 4x1TB RAID5 storage array to it! Home media server... err a bit OTT!

NickK · 20 Oct 2009 at 18:37

Concorde Rules said:
Not funny.

Im seriously contemplating selling it and getting a iMac...

Having a few FW800/USB HDs isn't much of an issue.

*shrug* Opinions?

Mac Pro was bought for £1897...

Are you sure it's faster? Wait for some benchies first.

Adrianr · 20 Oct 2009 at 18:38

Concorde Rules said:
Not funny.

Im seriously contemplating selling it and getting a iMac...

Having a few FW800/USB HDs isn't much of an issue.

*shrug* Opinions?

Mac Pro was bought for £1897...

Depends. I'de never think of using Photoshop without a seperate scratchdisk, and from brief experience FW800 doesn't really cut it (But then I work with large files, you may not). Had an iMac before and the lack of upgradeability/connectors was just a complete pain in the ***. 16:9 screen isn't great although you do get 2560 x 1440 res on the 27" model. 30" screen would still be better though.

It also doesn't sidestep the fact you paid WAY over the odds for a machine that was woefully underspecced and ludicrously limited in upgradeability (at the time). But then it's not like the iMac doesn't suffer from the same problem either.

nate247 · 20 Oct 2009 at 18:38

Just IPS rather than S-IPS on the new iMac Displays. Just reading about the two NEC 24WMGX3 Displays I have (which are AMVA Panels). Which is the better technology? Should I keep what I have or will the iMac Diaplays be lurvley? Hmmmm

I wonder if they have gone with IPS rather than S-IPS because of the (so say) slightly better contrast ratio IPS offers?

EDIT: Also, just looking at some benchmarks for the ATI 4850.... looks as though running things like COD4 in Native res on the 27" screen may be a little too much for it to handle. I'm slowly changing my mind on this one and may just stick with the PC setup I have (& was happy with until about 30 mins ago)

lol

Adrianr · 20 Oct 2009 at 18:39

Feek said:
That new top of the range iMac is what people have been calling out for. It's a decent spec desktop at a reasonably sensible price when you consider what you get. I think it's going to sell really well.

I'm sure people have actually been calling out for a mid range tower with no screen needing to be included in the price?

FreeStream · 20 Oct 2009 at 18:39

NickK said:
Are you sure it's faster? Wait for some benchies first.

Its half a ghz faster.

It IS faster in the CPU department. Max boost is 2.8 compared to 3.06/3.06/3.3/3.46...

Bleh.

NickK · 20 Oct 2009 at 18:40

chrisxuk said:
Am i missing something? Apart from visually, what difference is there between the 13" Macbook and 13" Macbook Pro?

MBP up to 8GB, MB up to 4GB.

I think the MBP 13" is just something for people that want an on the move note book for work. The MBP 15"+ have better GPU and hence OpenCL.. so something if you apps support it in future.

NickK · 20 Oct 2009 at 18:43

Concorde Rules said:
Its half a ghz faster.

It IS faster in the CPU department. Max boost is 2.8 compared to 3.06/3.06/3.3/3.46...

Bleh.

I'd still wait, also there's no option to upgrade the GPU as far as I could see.. I bet the 58xx will appear on the Mac Pro soon enough.

Freakitchen · 20 Oct 2009 at 19:58

I'll be purchasing a 27" iMac, probably the Quad Core, unless I talk myself out of it, which is unlikely

Simple reasons really, I want a big, high quality LED screen, and I want to use OSX every day. The ~£60 I just saved on Windows 7 will go towards it

bigredshark · 20 Oct 2009 at 20:11

Feek said:
That new top of the range iMac is what people have been calling out for. It's a decent spec desktop at a reasonably sensible price when you consider what you get. I think it's going to sell really well.

I think it's a big step forward from apple but it's still £1600+ which is a lot for a computer these days. Also, the decent processor and graphics only get included in the 27" model which is a bit of a gripe of mine - I'd like the extra cpu and graphics power but I really don't need a 27" screen...in fact it's almost negating the extra graphics power if I want to play games.

Good though, better than I was expecting by a way...

mikeh501 · 20 Oct 2009 at 20:20

im liking this 27" model. I wouldnt have touched the imac before, but having corei7 procs and a bigger screen really does it for me.

So two questions for the mac gurus...

1. I've got a 2008 MacBook Pro 17" w/ hi-def display and iirc 2.6g dual core proc. What kinda speed boost am i talking with the top of the range imac?

2. I've got a Dell 2709W which has a "display port". Does this mean I can use it as a second monitor?

HarryPainful · 20 Oct 2009 at 20:20

I'm sold.

These are now worth the money imo, decent screen, spec, mouse.

I'll be buying one in December.

1337z0r · 20 Oct 2009 at 20:21

The 27" iMac is nice, but why would apple cripple that lovely high resolution screen with such a dated graphics card?

If you factor that out though, it is good value for money considering how apple usually are.

bigredshark · 20 Oct 2009 at 20:23

mikeh501 said:
im liking this 27" model. I wouldnt have touched the imac before, but having corei7 procs and a bigger screen really does it for me.

So two questions for the mac gurus...

1. I've got a 2008 MacBook Pro 17" w/ hi-def display and iirc 2.6g dual core proc. What kinda speed boost am i talking with the top of the range imac?

2. I've got a Dell 2709W which has a "display port". Does this mean I can use it as a second monitor?

Heavily depends what you're doing, the right workloads could see a big improvement from the move to i7, the increase in cores and the clock speed increase. I'd glance at base quad core mac pro benchmarks for a rough indicator.

Yes, you should be able to providing you can get the right cable to connect them, you may be better with mini display port to DVI and then DVI to your monitor (when I say better I mean easier to get the cable and adaptor)

tsinc80697 · 20 Oct 2009 at 20:28

Reckon the mouse will be available in store tomorrow? Might wander in with out of date student card to try and blag a discount! Can I get discounts on peripherals?

mikeh501 · 20 Oct 2009 at 20:31

bigredshark said:
Heavily depends what you're doing, the right workloads could see a big improvement from the move to i7, the increase in cores and the clock speed increase. I'd glance at base quad core mac pro benchmarks for a rough indicator.

Yes, you should be able to providing you can get the right cable to connect them, you may be better with mini display port to DVI and then DVI to your monitor (when I say better I mean easier to get the cable and adaptor)

Thanks. My usual stuff is a combination of standard web/mail, aperture & imovie and a good bit of vmware fusion.

ringo747 · 20 Oct 2009 at 20:35

Definitely am tempted by the top spec 27". I had considered a mac pro and using my two existing 22" screens but this may be a better option. The most intensive thing I would do is HD Video editing and virtual machines. Also would plan to run a few games in bootcamp. Would there be much advantage of using mac pro over this new imac?