Filed under: Desktops, Hardware, iMac
iMac benchmarks and review say it's a beast
Electronista has a much more qualitative analysis, but they still love the new machine. Their "biggest" problem (aside from the usual complaints about the glossy screen and a lack of easy-to-reach ports) seems to be just the size of it. The 27" iMac is a big machine no matter how thin it gets. But they agree: with the i7 in there and all of the extra options, the iMac is a monster, matching up to the Mac Pros sitting in the lower atmosphere.
Good stuff. I'm not personally in the market for a new computer, but man -- if I was ready to spend $2000 on a quality machine, it's tough to consider anything else a better purchase than the new iMac.
UPDATE: Chart graphic is from Timon Royer, we regret the omission.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
canyonblue said 9:24AM on 11-17-2009
be very aware of the huge amount of video card and screen issues the 27 inch macs (of any processor, or GPU flavor) are having, the return % is huge. educate yourself before your purchase:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspathreadID=2212682&start=0&tstart=0
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=808339
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canyonblue said 9:25AM on 11-17-2009
sorry about the link to the apple forum, it was in error, try this:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2212682
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Mike said 9:41AM on 11-17-2009
This pretty much solidifies my decision to get the i5 model in the Spring.
Is there anywhere that has such side-by-side comparison scores of all makes and models? I want to see how it compares to my current early 2009 MacBook (2.0 GHz, unibody) which replaced my late 2007 iMac (2.4 GHz). Plan is to go with a two-computer setup once again.
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chrism238 said 7:13PM on 11-17-2009
One comparison but, of course, it's just one benchmark:
http://www.primatelabs.ca/blog/mac-benchmarks/
robogobo said 9:59AM on 11-17-2009
Well, my Mac Pro 1,1 is finally a dinosaur. Luckily these benchmarks mean little in the real world, and I can still be happy about my storage and memory capacities. Another year without a replacement, whew.
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Joey said 11:02AM on 11-17-2009
I'm in the same boat. The Mac Pro 1,1 is showing its age but there's no way I'm dumping another $2500+ on an upgradable Mac anytime soon.
SubGenius said 1:36PM on 11-17-2009
I just upgraded my Mac Pro 1,1 with the Radeon 4870 and an Intel SSD.
I'm still eeking out more and more performance from this beast.
robogobo said 4:07AM on 11-18-2009
good idea. I just added another 8GB memory, and internal RAID makes me happy. I'm still trying to figure out if there would be an advantage to adding a second video card for Open GL processing, and if an SSD is any better than a 10-or 15000rpm drive. Of course none of this matters until Photoshop, Aperture and other essentials are 64 bit. And by then there will probably be something else that stunts the workstation. I feel like I bought this machine two years ago and then had to wait until my applications could fully utilize it, and by then the OS or memory/bus speed became an issue. Can anyone say planned obsolescence? (or shit can anyone spell it even? I got it on the fourth try)
Jordan said 10:15AM on 11-17-2009
The newest machine, PC or Mac, is always a beast. There's always something better and more powerful. I'm getting kind of tired of hearing the lastest machine is 2x this or that because in six months we're going to hear the same thing.
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Kelmon said 10:29AM on 11-17-2009
Hopefully I will be getting one of the new i7 systems next year as a replacement (well, to run in parallel with) of my old C2D MacBook Pro. Fingers crossed that Apple hits a home run with the new version of Aperture to give with new iMac.
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mindflayer said 11:01AM on 11-17-2009
@canyonblue Re: the return rate - make a friend at who will tell you what the real deal is. Those forums are often filled with people that have done something stupid, like, say, wiping the HDD and reinstalling with retail Snow Leopard media. Now, if they did something silly like that, then there would be a driver issue which would cause flickering and other screen issues.
Do your research with some sense.
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Mr Lizard said 5:48PM on 11-17-2009
That's right. Problems with Apple products are the fault of the user.
It's fanboys like you that give us a bad name.
canyonblue said 11:27AM on 11-17-2009
@mindflayer: sadly i know about this because my brand new imac i7 is affected. to see exactly what my stock 10.6.2 i7 imac looks like look no further than this video: http://vimeo.com/7442566 and everyone reporting this has the same issue. the issue is *very* real and not a small %.
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frogbat said 4:10PM on 11-17-2009
i need a new mac but i've encountered too many probs with various imacs and apple displays to go for this
once again apple.. a nice plastic tower with similar specs to the top of the range imac with at least space for 2 3.5" drives and you'll see growth in your desktop segment!
or maybe a small slab of aluminium?
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Eric said 5:06PM on 11-17-2009
Oh, I'm sorry, I thought the Apple commercials said they didn't have these problems like a PC. "Trust Me"
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robogobo said 4:19PM on 11-18-2009
problems?
jwoltman42 said 6:54PM on 11-17-2009
My own small opinion: my new 21.5" iMac (with 1TB HD, Radeon HD 4670) is wonderful! I'm upgrading from a PowerPC G5 20" iMac and man this thing screams along. Dual-booting into boot camp lets me play L4D at native resolution, and it looks great. I also have a C2D MBP (late 2007, not unibody) from work and now the laptop seems dull in comparison. I think that for most people, the 21.5 is a much better value if you don't want a "TV replacement" sized all-in-one computer.
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BiddleBubbly said 8:31PM on 11-17-2009
New Quad Cores perform better than year-old Dual Cores, news at 11.
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