Teardown of New iMac Reveals Upgradable Processors, RAM (macrumors.com) 205
According to an iFixit teardown, Apple's new 4K 21.5-inch iMac has both removable RAM and a Kaby Lake processor that's not soldered onto the logic board. Whereas the previous models had soldered memory modules, the new iMac's memory sit in two removable SO-DIMM slots. MacRumors reports: iFixit made the discovery by disassembling Apple's $1,299 mid-range 3.0GHz stock option, which includes 8GB of 2400MHz DDR4 memory, a Radeon Pro 555 graphics card with 2GB of VRAM, and a 1TB 5400-RPM hard drive. After slicing through the adhesive that secures the 4K display to the iMac's housing and removing the power supply, hard drive, and fan, iFixit discovered that the memory modules aren't soldered onto the logic board like previous models, but instead sit in two removable SO-DIMM slots. Similarly, after detaching the heatsink and removing the warranty voiding stickers on the backside of the logic board, iFixit found that the Intel SR32W Core i5-7400 Kaby Lake processor sits in a standard LGA 1151 CPU socket, making it possible to replace or upgrade the CPU without a reflow station.
5400 RPM? (Score:1)
Now thats premium. It a 5.25 inch drive?
Re: 5400 RPM? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yup, as predicted, there's a comment whining about Apple's significant upgrades to the iMac line. Grow up, kiddies.
Enough with the childish references. Finding 5400RPM spinning rust in 2017 Apple hardware is like buying a million dollar home and finding vinyl flooring. There is simply no other excuse other than being very cheap. I also wouldn't call 8GB worth of memory a 2017 "wow" factor either.
The actual significant event here was finding that Apple managed to get help for their solder addiction to revert back to the old way of building hardware. One hell of an "upgrade" path.
And everyone should be thankful Apple did this, for I can assure you the amount of obscene profit Apple was demonstrating with a sealed-box design full of solder was moving to become the standard for every other maker of hardware.
Now let's hope they continue to downgrade their laptops.
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Pray you never have to use one of these things with a 5400 drive in it. They are so slow you really do wonder if there is something wrong with it. The fusion drive should be the minimum spec, and even that is only just useable
In the days of every laptop coming with an SSD they still can't manage to put it in every desktop.
Good work Apple
Re: 5400 RPM? (Score:4, Informative)
If that's the problem, you can wipe the OS and install a linux distro, then the 5400 rpm HDD will be fast enough. Even with things bloating up (GTK3 instead of GTK2, etc.) it's stayed reasonable and this kind of hard drive does above 100 MB/s.
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Hey Grandpa! We use SSD's these days, even on Linux based systems. Spinning disks are reserved for archiving large amounts of data.
No reason to use spinning disks for the main drive unless you're trying to be cheap.
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I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the manufacturing process and logistics operation becomes cheaper and easier with modular construction of CPU and RAM. Instead of doing multiple runs of boards that have different CPU and RAM combinations, you can just snap in whatever is necessary on a single production line before it gets glued in. (wtf glue?)
You put it perfectly when you referred to their solder addiction. Now they need to get off the glue too. Seriously, Apple - one or two screws are fine.
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"This particular motherboard"? Do you really think Apple puts regular ATX/mini-ITX/etc motherboards in their computers?
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Apple makes their own motherboards? I don't think so.
Yes, production capacity is a concern. Just because you have a sweet design doesn't mean it can be produced in the quantities you need at your desired price-point and on schedule.
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Re: 5400 RPM? (Score:2)
In recent history, isn't this the exception to the rule? Also, it seems like a whole lot of work.
And no, I don't hate Apple. Not even remotely.
Re: 5400 RPM? (Score:5, Insightful)
If you want to replace the hard drive, you're certainly able to do so.
After slicing through the adhesive that secures the 4K display to the iMac's housing and removing the power supply, hard drive, and fan... Similarly, after detaching the heatsink and removing the warranty voiding stickers on the backside of the logic board... making it possible to replace or upgrade the CPU ...
So you basically have to deconstruct the whole thing and lose any kind of warranty, but it is technically possible I suppose.
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It does at least give it some added longevity.
I mean, the warranty only lasts so long, and steadily increasing demands are eventually going to render it severely underpowered - at which point you can (hire someone to) upgrade RAM, HDD, and/or CPU and give it a new lease on life.
At the very least it increases the resale value for the suckers who are just going to replace it with the newest shiny, and keeps it out of the landfill for a few more years.
I suppose that's an improvement, but... (Score:5, Informative)
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yeah apple just didn't bother yet with soldering the components yet since they don't have market data about demand so it's easier for now.. and you have to break the glue anyways, making it a no no for most users.
they might start doing that for cost cutting without telling anyone though once the new line is up to speed in production.
Re:I suppose that's an improvement, but... (Score:5, Informative)
Well, the processor is easy. Intel doesn't sell BGA parts yet. Apple's only one customer of Intel and they're only able to buy what Intel can supply. Most likely what Intel can supply immediately in the quantities Apple wants at the price they want precludes BGA parts and soldering.
Apple did the math - Intel can custom produce the CPUs for Apple, but likely the demand is such that Intel doesn't really want to (everyone is waiting for Kaby Lake processors, so when Intel started providing them in quantity, Apple became like everyone else) so quoted Apple the "if you really want it, we can do it" price. Or they can take what Intel is making right now and supplying everyone, with the benefit that it's no longer a custom order and Apple can buy what they need, at the expense of making it socketed. Or in other words, it's cheaper socketed right now because Intel is providing them in quantities to everyone in that format.
Re: I suppose that's an improvement, but... (Score:4, Informative)
So you've forgotten iMacs where you could just flip open the plastic door and replace the RAM, with no tools and no consumable, and no chance of fucking up the process of cutting the display out?
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Back when I used Macs almost exclusively, I'd normally upgrade the RAM about midway through the life of the computer. (I'm sufficiently old that I found it hard to believe that a megabyte wasn't really useful for anything except weird jewelry.)
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Re: I suppose that's an improvement, but... (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not saying they should use obsolete components, just that they should allow components to be replaced. With your analogy, I can replace the battery, spark plugs, injectors, ignition units and ECUs on my car pretty easily. I don't need to cut the bonnet open and glue it shut when I'm done.
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You are right. Times change. Prices drop on SSDs, ram, and graphics cards improve.
So having SODIMM slots and M2 slots for memory is a great idea. Making it easy to add memory or storage is also great.
My Macbook Pro has 16 GB of ram and an SSD.
I have yet to see any good argument as to why iMacs should not have an easy way to upgrade ram and mass storage. And just to get it out of the way making a desktop thinner is not a good reason. Would a few mm make any difference? Not to me.
The Mac Pro was the disaster
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It's not really about repairability, for consumer electronics that doesn't really happen. Apple needs to get back to it's roots for PC, computers as a hobby. Fully customisable PCs with a range of parts to choose from, either sold as kit or built in store to customers specifications. Apple lacks that power user computer, the computer aficionado's range of parts to build from.
This as a new line separate from the consumer just use it ranges, if it really wants to tackle M$ head on. Start selling power user'
Mac is 1,000 times the size of the hobby market (Score:3, Informative)
> Apple needs to get back to it's roots for PC, computers as a hobby.
Apple could do that if somehow their products completely failed and they were in survival mode. Apple is currently the largest computer company in the world and the ninth largest company in the world. They sell 17 MILLION Macs every year, for 23 BILLION dollars in Mac sales.
The entire "computers as a hobby" market is maybe a 23 million dollars each year, one tenth of one percent of Mac sales. They would literally give up 99.9% of their
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Hobbyists aren't going to buy Apple-branded RAM for $300 if they can get similarly speced RAM from Kingston for $200.
Neither are professionals. My mom had a Mac IIci back when those were hot, for graphic arts. She ordered it with minimum specs, and then I helped her to source RAM, HD, and laser printer from other vendors, saving her thousands of dollars. Only idiots will buy that stuff from Apple, which is why Apple focuses on the idiot market.
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Whole lotta idiots out there.
Apple cries all the way to the bank.
I am absolutely not disagreeing with the effectiveness of their business model. If there is a problem with it, it's that they have to continue producing interesting products to keep their halo, and it's not clear that they can do that with their current leadership.
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It depends on your definitions of "largest" and "computer".
If the metric for "largest" you are going with is market capitalization, then yes, they are the largest. Nobody with a working brain would do that, but hey, it's CNBC we're talking about - of course a stock market news site is going to use stock market metrics. Similarly, if you include smartphones and tablets as "computers" than Apple might actually beat Lenovo in volume numbers. Maybe. And again, only some idiot Wall Street analyst would do th
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Oh, you were replying to the GP post, who is pulling figures from his ass, that I ignored. Carry on.
Sometimes I wish Slashdot had an edit button.
Both size and profit. Lenovo 1.4%, Mac 19% (Score:2)
Yes the SIZE of a company is it's market cap, period. Revenue is revenue, profit is profit, and size is size - capitalization.
If you want to compare to Lenovo, first yes tablet computers are computers; they are the computers that everyone is buying. And Apple sells more of them than anyone. You want to pretend a tablet computer isn't a computer? You want to look only at old-fashioned desktops? Okay, Lenovo makes 1.4% on each desktop they sell. Apple makes 19%. So Apple makes more money selling desktops t
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Yes and Tesla is bigger than Ford right.
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Sorry, volume shipments means more, especially when the sell-through rate is very close to the shipments. Just shipping a shit ton of product to a reseller where it sits and rots doesn't count (Apple doesn't do this, but it's a trick used in the past to elevate reported sales numbers - Windows RT surface tablets come to mind here).
My point is that there are several metrics you could use for distinguishing "largest" - market cap is one, but it's not a very good one. Market cap is a multiple of stock price,
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I can't explain something I don't agree with.
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It's not really about repairability, for consumer electronics that doesn't really happen.
What? That's crap. Only Apple makes it so hard to work on desktop PCs. Which I have to say is fucking pathetic, if you go back in time Apple's machines used to be the easiest to work on. You didn't even need a screwdriver to open a Mac II series machine, for example, or to replace its power supply.
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It was also the time of the last good mac mini. 2011-2012 had the best models of Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, and mac mini. They are even still relevant, since Intel's CPUs haven't gotten significantly better in that time.
In my opinion, it was not a coincidence that this started after Steve Jobs died. He was no longer there to say "fuck you" to people to prevent this kind of crap from happening.
It's also not the first time that Apple made crap computers. In the '90s, before Steve came back, Apple made some reall
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You didn't need one for a G4, G5, or Mac Pro either - there was just a latch you pull on, and the whole side comes off, or hinges open.
I absolutely loved working on the G4, where the logic board was mounted to the hinged door. It was a brilliant design.
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Would you rather your phone had a better camera you could just snap in rather than buying a whole new phone?
If the answer to either of these questions is 'yes', then you enjoy and expect it when computers act like computers.
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This sounds like my iPod Video (5G). Sure, I can replace the hard drive and battery, but I'd have to gently separate the case clips and screen from the front cover just to get in.
Dedicated people can do it, but clumsy people like me can't. This sort of thing is what made 3rd party repair shops a thing, whether or not Apple gets money from it.
Either they want to give a nod to those 3rd party shops (doubtful) or they cut costs on the entire manufacturing line to use default, mass produced parts that are also
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Having to slice the adhesive securing the screen to the housing, remove the power supply, hard drive, and fan, and tilt out the logic board to swap memory modules isn't exactly user-friendly. It still gets only a 3/10 for repair-ability.
Reminds me of the guy who upgraded the SSD in his Surface Pro 3 by cutting a SDD sized hole in the metal case with a Dremel based on pictures he'd seen of a teardown. The SP3 has a standard upgradable SSD, but it wasn't exactly user friendly either.
http://surfacepro3ssdupgrade.b... [blogspot.co.uk]
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They weren't going for user friendly. They were going for simpler manufacturing. Sockets and DIMM slots gives you that - only one manufacturing line for all 21" models, with chips snapped in at the end based on the orders.
They could still give a shit about upgradeability - if you want that, go buy a ridiculously expensive and wholly outdated 4 year old Mac Pro!
Upgrade process (Score:5, Insightful)
2) Upgrade using cheaper 3rd party components
3) ???
4) Error 53
No (Score:4, Insightful)
"removing the warranty voiding stickers on the backside of the logic board"
We've got case law that explicitly forbids this. Quit spreading this fucking rumor.
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We've got case law that explicitly forbids this. Quit spreading this fucking rumor.
The stickers probably Do say something like "Warranty Void if Removed", and there might be a term of "supplementary" contracts such as Applecare that you not touch the stickers.
Even if not; as far as I know in the US there's no law against manufacturers Falsely telling consumers in the wording that the warranty will be void if sticker removed, then it becomes a lesser known fact that the company might still have to ho
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The stickers probably Do say something like "Warranty Void if Removed", and there might be a term of "supplementary" contracts such as Applecare that you not touch the stickers.
Contracts cannot trump the law. You have a right to repair with any compatible parts. It doesn't matter what you've agreed to. Computers that are actually illegal for you to open are covered by law, like smog test machines.
Even if not; as far as I know in the US there's no law against manufacturers Falsely telling consumers in the wording that the warranty will be void if sticker removed, then it becomes a lesser known fact that the company might still have to honor warranty.
That's correct, it's totally legal for Apple to defraud customers in this way.
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Contracts cannot trump the law. You have a right to repair with any compatible parts. It doesn't matter what you've agreed to.
If you sign up for an additional contract which you pay more money for such as "Applecare", then it is Not your product warranty --- your warranty was promises your manufacturer made about the fitness of your product; instead Applecare, Etc, is is a service plan which you have acquired as a separate agreement.
Contracts don't trump the law, but it doesn't have to --- special ext
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Are you going to spend more on lawyers than to fix the damn thing?
Me, personally? No. But what I will do is take every opportunity to make myself annoying and expensive until I get what I want. I will write articles, I will call up the phone chain, I will send letters to elected officials, and complain via the BBB until it's cheaper just to give me what I want. Which, by the way, is not anything I shouldn't be getting. But then, I personally won't buy shit from Apple in the first place. I think their hardware was fairly magnificent in the Macintosh II era, poor graphics p
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There's an actual photo of it in TFA:
https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfr... [cloudfront.net]
It might be unenforcable, but lots of manufacturers still do it and then try to bullshit ignorant customers.
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"removing the warranty voiding stickers on the backside of the logic board"
We've got case law that explicitly forbids this. Quit spreading this fucking rumor.
Buying lawyers to fight Apple is cheaper than buying new hardware? Quit spreading this fucking rumor.
Consumer laws hardly mean shit anymore. Even a class-action suit would be pocket change for Apple to pay, and would result in you getting pocket change as a reward years from now.
I'm not a "hardwear guy", but does this mean... (Score:2)
a Kaby Lake processor that's not soldered onto the logic board.
...that you could upgrade the CPU in the future with something that fit the same socket?
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Theoretically, yes. Though, theoretically it would be equally possible for Apple to block compatibility with non-stock parts through firmware or software mechanisms.
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In theory yes, for Kaby Lake the answer is probably no, because you shouldn't expect many new processors for that socket because Intel has already brought out the new socket. Kaby Lake X is actually inferior to Kaby Lake, but they'll have real processors out for the new socket soon enough.
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...that you could upgrade the CPU in the future with something that fit the same socket?
It is more about repairing, or salvaging.
I never upgraded a CPU in my life without also changing the motherboard and RAM, or the complete laptop.
By the time you'll want a better CPU, the latest generation will probably won't be compatible. And you might end up limited by basically everything else.
Apple. (Score:3)
Cor.
It's almost as powerful as the laptop I bought many years ago, though it obviously has a later generation of processor. It might even be "as upgradeable" but I think it's unlikely unless it has a SODIMM slot underneath a flap on the back of the case (you shouldn't need to "dismantle" in order to "upgrade").
I still don't get the Apple thing at all.
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I still don't get the Apple thing at all.
Perhaps I can help.
Computers just got so reliable, inexpensive, and integrated now that it just does not make sense for a large portion of the population to upgrade or repair computers on their own. I've seen this happen in less than five years at work.
It used to be that we'd have parts on hand to replace all kinds of components on computers. We had a box of Ethernet cards. We had a box of video cards. Another box with RAM. A few other boxes of more random parts like sound cards, parallel port cards, h
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I agree with almost everything you say.
It's been YEARS since I had to slot in an expansion card or do anything particularly complicated. I specifying desktops and servers and expect my suppliers to supply the right bits (I don't mind putting them in, so long as they are certified compatible by my supplier).
However, the problem I have is with this:
"Computers just got so cheap that it's just not worth the time to fix them or upgrade them any more."
Apparently, not so. My laptop cost half the price of a MacBo
Lost the taste for apples (Score:2)
I don't think I would be getting another MBP or iMac.
For a company with a quarter of a trillion in assets to offer their users 16GB MBPs, shitty Radeons, and no 10nm CPUs (sure, blame Intel on your supply management issues), is just beyond acceptable level for me. And the price markup is just insulting, its like I'm being trolled by mediocracy.
Now can we finally stop this PC vs Mac nonsense? (Score:2)
This clearly proves beyond any reasonable doubt that a Mac IS a PC. This has never been questioned by anyone who knows the slightest bit about computers, of course, but you still here this nonsense terminology thrown around. Now that they are both using the same commodity components, there really is no excuse.
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The important thing about a computer is the applications available and, to a lesser extent, the OS. The hardware is only important to support that.
Re: Response from Slashdot readers (Score:4, Insightful)
You aren't wrong, but here's the thing. When apple merely stops doing something insidious that most computer makers never do and never have done, that's not a plus for apple. That's one less negative at best. At BEST. I work as a video editor and I won't be paying for one of these. PCs are just more competitive. Companies have bottom lines and that's really the hard fact they can't solve.
Re: Response from Slashdot readers (Score:5, Insightful)
The cost of the computer is a trivial expense in professional video editing. Less than 1% of the annual cost. So your company should simply be choosing is the best equipment, whatever it is.
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For video editing, the best equipment is something you can plug as many GPUs into as possible.
That basically rules out anything running OS X. And if you're running an edit bay that costs $1000/hr+, every second counts.
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For video editing, the best equipment is something you can plug as many GPUs into as possible.
That basically rules out anything running OS X. And if you're running an edit bay that costs $1000/hr+, every second counts.
Do elaborate! The majority of video editing is making the decisions. How does your Anything but OSX (it's MacOS) hardware setup speed the decisions down to the 1 second level.
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It used to be that the majority of video editing was waiting on a progress bar that said "rendering" above it. With GPU compute, those days are mostly gone. Thus, my original post.
Apple hasn't been keeping up in the horsepower department, which has allowed Adobe Premiere back into the game. Especially with the dumpster fire that was the release of Final Cut X.
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Especially with the dumpster fire that was the release of Final Cut X.
I see. Funny, it appears that all previous versions of Final cut have stopped working, correct? Explain how exactly that happens. And Adobe Premiere? Okay if you say so. I've used both because I had to do some editing on a PC. Must be to dumb to understand how that is better.
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Maybe that's the case in online editing where you are finishing and working with the original camera files, but in offline editing, where you are making the decisions, you're using lower resolution lightweight codecs. Even in the days of FCP 7, there was not very much rendering going on in the offline.
The answer to the fellow is that he doesn't like Mac. Occam's razor. Did you know that all versions of Final cut stopped working with the release of X? It's true!
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Interesting. So I guess the decade I spent as a member of the Apple Consultants Network means I hate Macs. And supporting an actual video editing shop that used Final Cut Server, who were left in the lurch when Apple launched FCX - that didn't happen either. And nobody ever makes newer equipment and doesn't write drivers and codecs for old end of life software.
Or, maybe you're making very bad assumptions.
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Interesting. So I guess the decade I spent as a member of the Apple Consultants Network means I hate Macs. And supporting an actual video editing shop that used Final Cut Server, who were left in the lurch when Apple launched FCX - that didn't happen either. And nobody ever makes newer equipment and doesn't write drivers and codecs for old end of life software.
Or, maybe you're making very bad assumptions.
Interesting - you don't post like a person who liikes Macs. Even the Apple puck mouse thinks so.
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I work with Apple stuff every day, but that doesn't mean I can't be critical of decisions they make. I never liked the taste of Kool-aid.
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Rendering...
And sometimes having to stop work because an update borked the computer.
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And either way, you spend more time waiting for rendering than you'll lose to the occasional bad update which, by the way, I've experienced on macOS as well... as recently as yesterday on a barely 6 month old 5k iMac. On the up side, my wife probably won't complain about the strict backup policy I enforce on company-owned machines anymore.
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Which isn't Apple and never will be.
Their hardware just plains pales in comparison to anything the PC market has to offer. It's not even about "what you can do for cheaper". You don't find Apple products that can run dual GTX 1080 TIs. Even a GTX 1050 ti (a $100 card) will put their Radeon 555 to utter and despicable shame.
And if it's all about thin and light, Nvidia's new Max-Q designs will satisfy you with underclocked GTX 1080s that will simply crush the MBP at the same price range while being nearly jus
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The best equipment is equipment that you can repair, so that you're not stuck buying a whole new computer if something goes wrong and you've got work to do. Only Apple users would ever pretend that hardware never fails.
?? Having done a lot of Video editing in my time, and much under hard deadline pressure, you don't have just one of whatever platform you are working on.
Regardless, that is a hardware and software issue. The editing software suites are integrated nicely among the applications, and they ran after Apple updates, unlike the Windows machines.
With projects running to the hundreds of millions, anyone worried about saving money or upgrading RAM on a few computers might be better off working at Best Buy.
W
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Which leads me to wonder. A couple years ago, I upgraded memory on my personal mid 2011 iMac.
I discovered my Apple had a terrible flaw. I removed two screws on a plate at the bottom of the computer. I then -with my bare hands, popped out the memory that was already there, and installed new RAM.
Apple had forgotten to solder the RAM in place! And it was a dumb design anyhow, since both the new and old RAM hac connector like tabs on them, instead of the DIP or SIP RAM that any other PC company would use if they were going to solder it in.
But I had to get some work done, so I took a chance, popped the new RAM in and miraculously, it worked despite Apple having only soldered in RAM. I put in connector RAM, and it worked. GO figure!
Why, certainly that would be because they didn't start soldering RAM in until 2012.
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Why, certainly that would be because they didn't start soldering RAM in until 2012.
I have a Late 2013 iMac that proves otherwise. Apple couldn't (wouldn't) supply it with 32GB so I bought some Kingston RAM from Umart and upgraded it myself. There's a small door to access the SODIMM slots on the back of the iMac right beside the IEC power socket.
If you feel like getting a pizza cutter out you can also remove the glass display panel from the iMac frame and upgrade the SATA hard disk (or SSD) yourself. iFixit even have upgrade kits for this as Apple does funny business with the temperature s
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Or you can use this [exirion.net] instead of the dongle.
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I'm fairly certain that EVERY iMac generation has had replaceable RAM, despite what TFS says.
Of course. The "live and die with what you bought because you can't upgrade" meme is alive and well because while it is a damn bald face lie, it feels so good for those who need to hate any Apple product feel really good.
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Pros don't repair, unless they are in the repair business
They call the service center and expect some guy to show up the next day with a working computer in exchange for the broken one. What happens behind the scenes is not their problem.
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No way. If I'm doing something significant, and something goes wrong, it's faster to get a new computer now to just keep working. It may be worthwhile to repair the old one, but if time is important that's a losing game.
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Why is the cost of replacement a concern when hardware costs are less than 1% of the annual cost?
That may be an average, but it's not the case for everyone, that's why.
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Beachballs generally have a happy ending. It is equivalent to Windows' Hourglass.
Maybe that's true now. The last time I spent much time with OSX, seeing one for long meant that the whole machine was in an unrecoverable state forever and ever amen.
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I want to say 10.5. Thankfully, I've been able to avoid Apple hardware since then.
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The guy did use an iMac. I won't fault him, that has a very decent display that's like a pseudo standard as well, a stupidly fast quad i5 or i7 CPU - you might call that a shit CPU but well it beats spending $5K on a dual Pentium III with SCSI and maxed out RAM doesn't it? (for the tower only). And finally it has a low footprint and is like a really really good laptop or a plain desktop. And I'm an Apple hater. So, he deserved better hardware but iMac can be a nice low end editing station.
I love listening to folks go on about a creative process, and getting their selves wrapped around the axle with the hardware.
Its the software usability, and of course you don't want a slow machine, but in the end, it is the creative process.
Now for heavy 3D rendering, you need multiple machines and fast ones at that. But for editing video footage, a reliable machine running good software is job number 1.
When severely pressed for time, I have done very good work using freaking free iMovie. It ain't
Re: Response from Slashdot readers (Score:2, Insightful)
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Get a grip. There's nothing "insidious" about soldered RAM. It has its benefits and drawbacks just like everything else. By your logic it's insidious to solder _anything_ down, because someone somewhere might want to replace it. If you want to replace your RAM don't but a computer with soldered RAM and then complain about how you can't replace the RAM.
I had this vision of hardore anything but Mac users demanding that their computers be made with those spring mounted components like the Old Radio Shack electronics kits. There is some bullshit about the article anyhow. iMacs have replaceable RAM. I have a mid-2011 imac I did just that on.
You are so right (Score:1)
Just like my new car comes with the added benefit of swapping out the foam padding sewn inside the seats, I just have to slice through the fucking leather to get to it.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
So the RAM/CPU are socketed and theoretically replaceable/upgradeable, but doing so requires CUTTING THE MONITOR AWAY. Great improvement there Apple. I remember when you could upgrade the RAM on an iMac by opening a plastic panel, with no tools or consumables required. On the LC575 (an all-in-one from the mid '90s) the back panel popped off for you to install/upgrade RAM, PDS and comm slot cards, and the internal SCSI hard disk was on a sled that just slid out.
Re: Really $1300 for a slug ? (Score:4, Insightful)
Looks nice. Which 4K monitor did you get in this build?
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It's about Xbox One performance you dumb smug nut. Don't you remember graphics cards like Ati Rage Pro, Matrox and whatever could do 1600x1200 back when you were in your diapers.
The applications using a small fraction of the GPU power would be : HTML, PDF, desktop publishing, terminal emulators, picture editing, and also some 3D shit like Google Earth requires very little GPU power.
Fuck, if Intel graphics from 2007 were more than enough for Vista/7 "Aero" in 1680x1050 don't you think something at least 10x
Re:Really $1300 for a slug ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why does theirs cost more? Off the top of my head?
- They include a 4K IPS monitor
- They weren't able to get a nerd to build it for free on his own time
- They warranty their work for a year
- They provide telephone, email, and in-person customer support
- They have fixed costs for scaling their operation so they can do more than one at a time
- They need a profit margin to stay in business
All-in-all, that's a pretty good deal for the $400 or so that you've said they're charging over you.
All of which is to say, you can build one-offs for cheaper than the big players if you're willing to work for free, disclaim any responsibility for problems, and keep no inventory on hand. They don't get to do those things if that want to stay in business.
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Until you upgrade the 5400rpm to something usable and void your warranty.
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Apparently you don't value your time. You had to research and price out each component, purchase each one, wait for shipping (or drive around town and pick them up putting miles / wear on your vehicle). You had to assemble each and every part. You had to do any troubleshooting. You had to install the OS, and each driver. And, should anything go wrong, it's your time to figure out what it is and fix it.
How many hours did you spend doing all of that? That's the "magic applesauce" that every OEM includes
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You don't have to do the extensive research yourself any more. You can just load up someone else's build, someone who's already doing what you want to be doing. The actual build takes a couple of hours tops if you don't care how purty your cable routing is.
If you're putting more than one or two systems into a corporate environment, you basically have to buy something with support. If you are trying to come up with one very good machine at home, it is almost insensible to buy it prebuilt unless you are getti
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You obviously haven't tried putting computers together with my fingers.
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Looks like you've eaten too much apple sauce.
Re: BEAUHD IS AN IMBECILE MILLENIAL! (Score:2, Insightful)
No you won't.
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