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Sigh. iMac then...
 

[Closed] Sigh. iMac then...

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To bring some purpose to my lunch break I popped into the Apple store. Unfortunately the high spec iMac was being monoplosied by an old guy.

So I only got to test the latest 1TB iMac 3.2GHz (HDD not hybrid). I opened every app that was in the dock and they all opened within a blink of an eye, with the slight exception of iTunes and iMovie, but still not anything that would bother me. Startup from cold was slow though - I gave up waiting. But that's a once a month occasion, desktops are usually left to go to sleep in my household. Overall, it was slower to react than my 2011 iMac with a full SSD, but not so slow that you'd notice.

Take from that what you will.


 
Posted : 24/11/2016 1:48 pm
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His 'what cheese to use in my fna-fna cheese & fennel tart as waitrose no longer stock the fna-fna' was the last straw for me.

That wasn't me.

Take from that what you will.
A £90 saving from not requiring a fusion drive?


 
Posted : 24/11/2016 1:56 pm
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Take from that what you will.

Opening apps isn't a good test. It's the general background crap that your apps all end up queueing to do on an HD that takes time, esp on older systems with more software. SSD does make a huge difference on any system.


 
Posted : 24/11/2016 1:58 pm
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If it's only an extra £90 to go from 1TB HDD to 1TB fusion, then I'd play safe and get the fusion.


 
Posted : 24/11/2016 2:01 pm
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My understanding is that fusion drive has some Apple OS smarts.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6406/understanding-apples-fusion-drive

"Startup from cold was slow".
My iMac is currently needing a reboot a lot more often than any previous version of MacOS. My macs have never needed it before but some of the caches don't seem to clear themselves in Sierra (activity monitor doesn't show anything to cause concern but much snappier after rebooting).

"Uncles laptop had something wrong or full of junk"
That was my thought. I stopped out everything I could to no avail.


 
Posted : 24/11/2016 3:32 pm
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Useful link thanks, so that confirms its not about the storage, its about how the SSD is utilised. I'll be getting the 1TB fusion.


 
Posted : 24/11/2016 4:49 pm
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So here's a question; I'm currently posting via my work windows LT, effectively but not docked - plugged into big PC monitor, keyboard and mouse.

If my defunct PC setup becomes the iMAC, how do I work on the desk? I'll need file transfer I can't mirror my laptop on the big screen?


 
Posted : 24/11/2016 6:42 pm
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As I said I'd buy 1tb hdd and either immediately (voiding warranty) or wait a year and put a 500gb ssd in it (guessing £200 for someone to do it) and put the hdd in a £15 caddy and use it as an external drive. If you leave the machine on sleep you'll hardly notice the hdd vs fusion.

How big is the photo library btw ? 50-100gb ?

So many choices 😉


 
Posted : 24/11/2016 6:43 pm
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If my defunct PC setup becomes the iMAC, how do I work on the desk? I'll need file transfer I can't mirror my laptop on the big screen?

I don't understand the question...


 
Posted : 24/11/2016 7:17 pm
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I can currently sit at my desk having "docked" my work Windows Laptop currently, using my defunct XP PC's 19" screen.

With the iMac here, how am I going to have a big screen to do the same? I can't plug my LT into into it. Or can I?


 
Posted : 24/11/2016 7:52 pm
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You can't.

Note: iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014) and later iMac models can't be used as Target Display Mode displays.


 
Posted : 24/11/2016 7:56 pm
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Hmm

So I'll to re-enable my drop box then I guess, work on the imac, send stuff back to myself.


 
Posted : 24/11/2016 7:58 pm
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Looks like your in for a MacBook too then so you can use handoff.

Or just Remote Desktop onto your laptop from the iMac.


 
Posted : 24/11/2016 8:00 pm
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Oh hold on. I'm due a new work LT in Janaury, I could of course ask for a Macbook.

*Googles remote desktop*


 
Posted : 24/11/2016 8:02 pm
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Ah result, thanks.


 
Posted : 24/11/2016 8:07 pm
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Hmmm a £120 Apple store card.

I think I'll leave black friday in favor of the 6% off I get at work.


 
Posted : 25/11/2016 1:50 am
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get the fusion drive. and 16GB RAM. The difference is apparent.

Peripherals? Keyboard and touch pad (the magic mouse is...an acquired taste).

And connect it with cable to your router if you can.


 
Posted : 25/11/2016 8:39 am
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12% Off at KRCS...

https://www.krcs.co.uk/mac/imac


 
Posted : 25/11/2016 9:06 am
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16GB RAM

16Gb? For surfing and homework?

MacOS must be memory hungry, I can surf and do office fine in 4Gb on my W10 machine 🙂


 
Posted : 25/11/2016 10:26 am
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I think I'll leave black friday in favor of the 6% off I get at work.
And that's better than 15% off plus 4% Quidco how?


 
Posted : 25/11/2016 10:30 am
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Definitely get a trackpad

The other thing I'd recommend - if you're going full-bore Apple - is budget for some iCloud storage for your photos. The iCloud Photo Library is a genuinely neat way of syncing your photo library across your Mac, iPhones, iPads etc. I appreciate the likes of Google do something similar for free, but have no idea if it's any good, and my experience of Apple is that it's only great if you do things their way.


 
Posted : 25/11/2016 10:56 am
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and my experience of Apple is that it's only great if you do things their way.
Yep, there are 2 ways: the Apple way, and the wrong way 😀


 
Posted : 25/11/2016 11:20 am
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16GB RAM

The OP won't even use the 8 the machine comes with. As we already discussed adding ram to a 27" iMac involves buying it off the internet for less than half the Apple price and a phillips screw driver. You don't even have to take the old RAM out as the iMac has 4 slots


 
Posted : 25/11/2016 11:41 am
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27" 1TB Fusion 8GB RAM ordered at £1618 from KRCS above. Whoop. 🙂


 
Posted : 25/11/2016 1:36 pm
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8)


 
Posted : 25/11/2016 1:38 pm
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So here I am speaking to you with goggle eyes, on my new 27" screen. What a sexy piece of kit! My company has an MSOffice Home user offer at £9.95 so I instead Office 365 also - nice.

I really just posted to thank whomever it was up there that recommended KRCS - not only did I get a bargain price but despite the note about a 2 week delivery time its arrived 48hrs later.

Anyone know how to make STW and other websites fill the whole screen when the Safari window is maximised? SW appears to me as an A4 sized age in the middle of the desktop no matter how big the safari window is.


 
Posted : 30/11/2016 6:40 pm
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<cmd> + size it to fit

It is indeed a thing of beauty, jealous !


 
Posted : 30/11/2016 6:42 pm
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I really just posted to thank whomever it was up there that recommended KRCS

That was me - glad they came up trumps for you. I've used them for 20 odd years and bought our first Mac set-up from them (at a cost of 20k!).

Re the screen size thing - you just get used to it! With the 5k screen everything looks tiny to start with.


 
Posted : 30/11/2016 7:12 pm
 rs
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Kryton reading STW full screen (dressed as obama)

[img] [/img]


 
Posted : 30/11/2016 7:57 pm
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Doesn't MacOS automatically scale webpages to match the display scaling?


 
Posted : 30/11/2016 8:07 pm
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Lol at RS, that pretty much how it is.

Molgrips some seem to scale - I was just on the BA site and that was fine - some don't. So I have STW in front of me as an A4 page with two black sections either side.

I do have a problem with this machine - its made my work lap look prehistoric!


 
Posted : 30/11/2016 8:16 pm
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So I have STW in front of me as an A4 page with two black sections either side.

The side bars are where the adverts live. Log out of P, switch off content blockers and behold the monstrosity that is Singletrackworld.


 
Posted : 30/11/2016 8:19 pm
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