Apple Plans First iMac Desktop Redesign in Nearly a Decade | Hacker News Reader

Apple Plans First iMac Desktop Redesign in Nearly a Decade

bloomberg.com

26 pointstosh13 comments

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What's the betting line on memory in the 27-inch model no longer being upgradeable by the user?

Oh No!. You are right. But then how can you use upgradeable memory with Apple SoC?

Falling back to DDR4 ? Doesn't seems like possible due to bandwidth requirement.

Let's just hope they start with 16GB on Desktop.

Maybe M1X will be the first to DDR5. Nah, just kidding, time to solder everything.

POWER is shipping with it this year at some point

I imagine upgradable memory will be a requirement with the Mac Pro (if it survives the transition).

I haven't been paying attention to the engineering particulars; I just know that the two laptops and the Mac mini released have no user upgradable RAM. Are you saying there is something about these "M" chips that suggests there will be no upgradable RAM?

I'm missing something.

It was written in the assumption that Desktop M chip will have much bigger GPU and hence higher Memory bandwidth requirement.

They could use 8 Channel DDR4 which gives them 200GB/s. That is roughly 3 times the memory bandwidth of current mobile M chip. Or DDR5 and pushes it to 400GB/s. Although DDR5 is barely out.

Also worth noting, if they use 8 Channel DDR configuration, the minimal amount of RAM shipping would be 64GB.

None of the above hypothesis seems very Apple to me.

The current iMac design is really great; there is nothing wrong with bezels on a desktop monitor, what harm do they do? The chin is a good place for the apple logo, it also raises the screen so you don't need a stupidly tall looking wobbly stand and it allows you to change the screen angle without touching the screen. The current iMac stand is very solid; and it almost squats on it; in an extremely stable way. The memory is simple to upgrade, it slides out from its own little door; and the curved shape overall is very stylish in a slightly retro way. The ports on the back are the only pain you need to add a hub. The mock ups of the new iMac that have been shown look like a rather boring monitor.

  what harm do they do

Probably none, but Apple designers tend to be Rams fans, so it's consistent with their philosophy https://vimeo.com/304626830

I bought the 2020 27" iMac last August even though everyone could see this redesign coming from a mile away. Mostly because a) I was concerned about how ready M1 would be for software development b) it had all the high-level features I wanted in a desktop c) I needed Windows/Boot Camp support for various games/software I wanted to run on it d) I needed a shiny new toy for quarantine coping.

I don't regret it at all and I've been very happy with it. It'll be interesting to see how these new iMacs perform, especially since they may or may not have dGPUs which would compare with AMD's Navi.

Same boat, but my iMac is from late 2019 (bought in November, IIRC). And even then it was looking likely (but not as "for sure" as August 2020) that something was in the works. But my 2012 MBP was looking long in the tooth, and like you I'm willing to wait a year or two for the bugs to shake out. And despite the M1 having been subsequently released, the iMac is still a good machine. :)

By the time this machine gets released (if ever; remember, this is "Chinese are in your firmware!" Bloomberg) and gets some reviews, I'll be ready for a new machine.

I would absolutely buy one if it could be used as an external monitor like the pre-retina models. I love the screen on my 2014 5K iMac, but barely use it anymore now that all my work is on my work laptop.

It’s about time! Finally time to get rid of those ridiculous bezels

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