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Computer related questions => Mac computer questions, tips and how to's => Topic started by: picsfor on October 21, 2009, 11:10:11 PM

Title: New iMac
Post by: picsfor on October 21, 2009, 11:10:11 PM
Apple have announced the upgrading of this model to:
Quad core prcoessor, 16gb ram, 2 Tb hard drive and 27 inch screen with increased pixel level.
All for £3k

2 Tb HD and 27 inch screen is nice - but 16gb ram? Who on earth would come close to exhausting that much memory?

I can't even get my current 24 inch model with duo processor to exhaust 4gb ram!
Title: Re: New iMac
Post by: anglefire on October 22, 2009, 05:19:49 AM
Ask Jonathan Ryan -I think he has 16Gb.............

Oh I remember the days when 4Mb was considered a lot of memory...... I must be getting old.
Title: Re: New iMac
Post by: picsfor on October 22, 2009, 08:19:04 AM
But does he exhaust it?
Also, isn't his fitted to a Mac Pro? That's an entirely different beast - designed to be expandable to the nth degree.
The iMac is designed to be an all in one space saving but usable desktop for home use.

The specs indicated must surely undermine the Mac Pro market?
Title: Re: New iMac
Post by: pocketwitch on October 22, 2009, 10:54:55 AM
I'm using one of the 1st 17" Intel Macs, I upgraded to 1GB of ram, it does just fine.  May treat it to another upgrade to 2GB tho, just cos I can!  16GB, bit of overkill there I think!

Doesn't stop me lusting after one of the new ones mind....ah well a woman can dream  :D
Title: Re: New iMac
Post by: picsfor on October 22, 2009, 12:56:06 PM
Quote from: anglefire on October 22, 2009, 05:19:49 AM
Oh I remember the days when 4Mb was considered a lot of memory...... I must be getting old.

I go back to an old ICL 1900 main frame at Suffolk College.
It had the capacity to process 19k worth of program and data.
That was when you punched your own cards, sent them in for batch processing and used enough paper to exhaust an acre of the Amazonian rain forest!

Mind you it was easy to work out how much system capacity you were using - each box on the coding paper which was occupied equalled a single bit of space!
80 possible buts per line - 40 lines - you were taught to be very frugal with your coding!
And let's not forget the flowcharts you had to create.
Modern day education would call one project a 'thesis' and give you a doctorate!
Title: Re: New iMac
Post by: oRGie on October 22, 2009, 01:15:03 PM
my guess would be for video editing, you can easilly find yourself dealing with 2gb - to 20gb files just as an amateur with short films of 3 mins to 30 mins, so more ram the smoother things like ripping and coding video files will be :)
Title: Re: New iMac
Post by: happypaddler on October 22, 2009, 01:46:38 PM
I would benefit from such huge ram when using statistical analysis software such as STATA or SPSS - both very boring unless you are a stats nerd (I'm not - it takes me ages to work out what to do when I use them) - but necessary when I'm doing various socio based research projects. Currently, when I have a massive data set, I need to leave the mac working and not open any other apps. With that kind of memory (and more processing power) I could continue working in other areas whilst the stats crunch in the background. But alas, finances will not allow this little dream to come true... (even if the lower memory spec was purchased and higher ram myself - a much cheaper way of doing it).
Title: Re: New iMac
Post by: hevans on October 22, 2009, 04:48:16 PM
Quote from: happypaddler on October 22, 2009, 01:46:38 PM
I would benefit from such huge ram when using statistical analysis software such as STATA or SPSS - both very boring unless you are a stats nerd (I'm not - it takes me ages to work out what to do when I use them) - but necessary when I'm doing various socio based research projects. Currently, when I have a massive data set, I need to leave the mac working and not open any other apps. With that kind of memory (and more processing power) I could continue working in other areas whilst the stats crunch in the background. But alas, finances will not allow this little dream to come true... (even if the lower memory spec was purchased and higher ram myself - a much cheaper way of doing it).
Blimey, does SPSS still exist (statistical package for the social sciences, if i remember correctly).?!  :o Last time I used that it was 1981...

I tend to use ITT/IDL now. Quite nice, and fast. Usually load a 32Gb dataset into our 128Gb Linux machines and let it churn away.

H.
Title: Re: New iMac
Post by: Jonathan on October 22, 2009, 06:13:35 PM
Quote from: anglefire on October 22, 2009, 05:19:49 AM
Ask Jonathan Ryan -I think he has 16Gb.............

You see this is how rumours start.....

I don't have anything like 16GB.  I have a paltry 11GB.  A slimline 2 X 2.66 dual core Xeons and 5 X internal 1TB drives and a 400 GB temporary internal drive.

If I'd bought the memory differently then I may have 16 but 11 is enough (some people argue 8 is enough).  I bought it with 3 and added 8 more later for a bargain price when the dollar was weak.

Since I'm not yet on Snow Leopard, no app can use more than 4GB.  So that's 4 for Lightroom, 4 for Photoshop and 3 for grunt work like OS X, Mail, Napster, Twitter etc.  The processors do get a little bit slammed though I don't need an 8-core yet.  The memory works beautifully.  I can have Lightroom running full tilt (say rendering 1:1 previews), use Photoshop properly and still have enough left over to keep the machine ticking over.  The advantage is that the apps hardly ever swap to disk.  I can chuck 500 MB files around in Photoshop without really noticing.  Whilst it's doing other stuff ;)

I used to have a swap drive running RAID 0 but with the memory I don't need that any more.

When I go to Snow Leopard and CS4 (or more likely CS5) I may max it out to 16GB.  But if I was speccing a new 8-core tomorrow I'd probably load it to 16 rather than 32 because 4GB boards are still very pricey.
Title: Re: New iMac
Post by: picsfor on October 22, 2009, 08:09:38 PM
Quote from: Jonathan on October 22, 2009, 06:13:35 PM
Quote from: anglefire on October 22, 2009, 05:19:49 AM
Ask Jonathan Ryan -I think he has 16Gb.............
You see this is how rumours start.....
I don't have anything like 16GB.  I have a paltry 11GB. 

Probably another bug in the 1D MkIII focusing :2funny:
Title: Re: New iMac
Post by: Oldboy on October 22, 2009, 09:07:58 PM
Quote from: picsfor on October 22, 2009, 12:56:06 PM

I go back to an old ICL 1900 main frame at Suffolk College.

At my old workplace we had an ICL system 10 with built-in printer, but you had to give it a kick to get the printer to start. My first PC was a ICL SX25 with 4mb ram and a 85mb hard drive!  ::)
Title: Re: New iMac
Post by: happypaddler on October 22, 2009, 11:10:59 PM
Quote from: hevans on October 22, 2009, 04:48:16 PM
Quote from: happypaddler on October 22, 2009, 01:46:38 PM
I would benefit from such huge ram when using statistical analysis software such as STATA or SPSS - both very boring unless you are a stats nerd (I'm not - it takes me ages to work out what to do when I use them) - but necessary when I'm doing various socio based research projects. Currently, when I have a massive data set, I need to leave the mac working and not open any other apps. With that kind of memory (and more processing power) I could continue working in other areas whilst the stats crunch in the background. But alas, finances will not allow this little dream to come true... (even if the lower memory spec was purchased and higher ram myself - a much cheaper way of doing it).
Blimey, does SPSS still exist (statistical package for the social sciences, if i remember correctly).?!  :o Last time I used that it was 1981...

I tend to use ITT/IDL now. Quite nice, and fast. Usually load a 32Gb dataset into our 128Gb Linux machines and let it churn away.

H.

Unfortunately it is - though I believe IBM acquired it recently and have renamed it PASW Statistics. Both SPSS and STATA have become the stalwart  analysis for the social science community. I prefer SPSS (I'm law and criminology), where as it seems those coming from a political bent prefer STATA - which I hate with a passion. SPSS is more user friendly for my head, but each to their own. From my point of view its they are a bit like photoshop, in that SPSS and STATA are all singing all dancing, but I use only a small part of it - and both are very very expensive!
Title: Re: New iMac
Post by: anglefire on October 23, 2009, 07:40:25 AM
Quote from: picsfor on October 22, 2009, 08:09:38 PM
Quote from: Jonathan on October 22, 2009, 06:13:35 PM
Quote from: anglefire on October 22, 2009, 05:19:49 AM
Ask Jonathan Ryan -I think he has 16Gb.............
You see this is how rumours start.....
I don't have anything like 16GB.  I have a paltry 11GB. 

Probably another bug in the 1D MkIII focusing :2funny:

No bugs, just my memory!  :tup:
Title: Re: New iMac
Post by: jimthetrain on December 31, 2009, 04:30:55 PM
I've just treated myself to a 27" imac and an external HDD for backing up my laptop and pc desktop. Just in the process of backing up everything I want to keep off both machines,then starting afresh with the laptop and binning the pc. Had the imac in the house for 2hrs now and it's still in the box. ::) A new challenge for the new year is to get used to a Mac. :tup:
Title: Re: New iMac
Post by: stevebedder on December 31, 2009, 04:44:56 PM
Quote from: picsfor on October 21, 2009, 11:10:11 PM
Who on earth would come close to exhausting that much memory?

I've been using a Lenovo workstation recently that has 8 cores and 32Gb of memory and took it close to it's limit with some pretty big 3D models (approx 250,000 components).

I know quite a lot of engineering companies that use our software to design big industrial machinery and want to use simulation and analysis tools that are using workstations with up to 32Gb and 16 cores in them. They don't need that level of hardware but the faster it is, the less time to do the job.

Steve
Title: Re: New iMac
Post by: picsfor on December 31, 2009, 04:47:29 PM
I hope you got the version with at least a 1Tb H/D and at least 4gb ram.

The Mac comes with a back up program called Time Machine.
This works best when it has an EHD plugged in and given over to it as a slave drive. Once configured you will not have to worry about backing up your Mac stuff again! It's a fairly robust system.

I have a WD Passport EHD on which i load photos to be shared between the Windows 7 laptop and the iMac - although to be honest the laptop is only there for people i help with computers or when i go away as additional storage. My next laptop will be a MacBook.

You will be hard pressed to switch on a Windows machine again after you have got used to the Mac!
Title: Re: New iMac
Post by: jimthetrain on December 31, 2009, 05:19:21 PM
The details of it are below as I couldn't manage to link the page

3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
MAC OS X Snow Leopard Operating system
4GB Memory
1TB Hard Drive
iLife 09 pre installed
ATI Radeon HD graphics with 256MB memory
27" LED backlit display
Built in iSight camera
Slot loading SuperDrive
Wireless Keyboard & mouse included

I got the external just to shift things about and for the laptop mainly.
For the money, i'll probably get another just for the mac when I find my way round the os. Still in the box. ::)
Title: Re: New iMac
Post by: picsfor on December 31, 2009, 05:27:10 PM
Get yourself a 1Tb EHD if you can afford it - and get it with a Firewire 800 connector. (usually an extra tenner for that option)
Use that with Time Machine and you'll never look back - honest!

Oh yes - and the iSight camera works a treat with iChat. Video conferencing like out of Star Trek - no lag between Brighton and the US on our broadband system - how video conferencing is supposed to be!  :tup:
Title: Re: New iMac
Post by: jimthetrain on December 31, 2009, 05:44:37 PM
The external is a 1TB it just needs formatting if I want to use it with the mac. Haven't got as much to back up gigabyte wise as i'd thought so maybe a smaller one is alright for the lappy and then format this one for the mac. Always something else to spend your money on. ::)
Title: Re: New iMac
Post by: Jan Hagen on January 01, 2010, 09:35:03 AM
Any problems with the monitor on your new iMac27" Jim?
The oh so mentioned flickering and black screen!?
I'm still waiting for mine, but told it'll arrive some time in January. Hope it'll be 10 days rather than 30! Late Christmas present!

All the best for the new year - Jan
Title: Re: New iMac
Post by: jimthetrain on January 01, 2010, 10:01:30 AM
Only had it on while I set up the computer and everything seemed fine. Tried a dvd and the quality was excellent. I've no work this weekend so will have time to play about. All the best to you Jan

jim