2011 iMac line

Apple Updates iMac Line – Thunderbolt & Quad Cores All Round

Just as we’ve been expecting Apple today updated its iMac line, bringing quad-core CPUs and Thunderbolt to all models.



Sporting the new Sandy Bridge CPUs from Intel, the new range starts at just $1199 for the base-model, a 21.5inch 2.5GHz quad-core affair with 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard disk. Graphics are catered for by a 512MB Radeon HD 6750M card. Not bad at all for the entry-level unit we’re sure you’ll agree.



As for the top of the range model you’ll be looking at stumping up $1999 before any built-to-order additions. Your two grand does get you a hefty chunk of performance though, with 3.1GHz-worth if CPU and a 27inch screen sporting a whopping 2560×1440 resolution.



Various configurations are available in-between, with custom orders available as well though the 24 hour shipping estimate does start to increase the more you deviate from the stock models. The usual Magic Mouse, Keyboard and SD card slot are still in attendance.

The new iMac features quad-core Intel Core i5 processors with an option for customers to choose Core i7 processors up to 3.4 GHz. These next generation processors feature an integrated memory controller for an amazingly responsive experience and a powerful new media engine for high-performance video encoding and decoding. With new AMD Radeon HD graphics processors, the new iMac has the most powerful graphics ever in an all-in-one desktop.

Mmmmmmm...

New iMacs: Teardown, First Benchmarks

Following yesterday’s release of the new iMacs with Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt technology, the guys over at iFixit immediately started tearing down a 21.5-inch model. In their official teardown article, available here, there are a few notes of interest: iFixit notes how, design-wise, nothing much has changed in the new iMacs, which can be opened in the same way of the old generation units by pulling off the magnetically-held glass and removing the screws holding the LCD in place. The display is manufactured by LG and it’s the same used in the previous-generation iMac. iFixit also gives the machine a 7/10 Repairability Score, noting that average users can easily replace RAM, but accessing the CPU and GPU requires to take out the whole logic board, which is described as a “tricky process.” The teardown also reveals the Thunderbolt connector is similar (but not the same) to the one found in the early-2011 MacBook Pros; one heat sink is reserved for the CPU, with the other assigned to the GPU.

As noted by 9to5mac, the first iMac 2011 benchmarks have started appearing on Geekbench’s website, revealing good performances for the new machines with results sometimes (depending on the model) above 2010 Mac Pros and early-2011 MacBook Pros. Here’s a screenshot from Geekbench’s browse section I took a few minutes ago:



Compare the first results above with a list of official old Mac benchmarks that include Mac Pros, early-2011 MacBook Pros and a mid-2010 iMac:



Macworld also tested a new 27-inch Core i5 iMac with 3.1GHz processor using Speedmark 6.5 and noted it was 16% faster than the old high-end iMac model in overall usage, while it was 22% faster than the old iMac in an iTunes encoding test. You can read the full report here, and more tests will be published in the next days.

Another 2010 BTO model, the 27-inch 3.6GHz Core i5 iMac, used a dual core processor at a faster clock speed. In terms of overall performance, the new standard 3.1GHz Core i5 iMac outperformed the 3.6GHz 2010 BTO iMac by 14 percent. In applications that make efficient use of four processors (Cinebench, Mathematica, and Handbrake), the new iMac was dominant, finishing 35 percent, 67 percent and 42 percent faster, respectively. In many tasks, however, having faster but fewer processors is an advantage, as can be seen in zipping and unzipping folders, and opening a Word document in Pages.

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New iMacs To Use SSDs As A “System Cache” For Spinning Hard Drives?

Yesterday, we noted the new iMacs featuring Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt technology came with an option in the Apple Store’s online configuration page to pack a hybrid Serial ATA Drive + SSD setup at an additional cost. What’s curious about this hybrid setup is the note left by Apple to inform users that OS X will come preinstalled on the solid state drive, leaving space for documents and other media on the bigger (but slower) spinning hard drive.

iMac also offers an optional 256GB solid-state drive (SSD), which has no moving parts and delivers increased drive performance for many operations. The 256GB SSD can be purchased in place of the standard hard drive or in addition to it.

If you configure your iMac with both the solid-state drive and a Serial ATA hard drive, it will come preformatted with Mac OS X and all your applications on the solid-state drive. Then you can use the hard drive for videos, photos, and other files.

This led to speculation as to whether Apple was planning to install OS X on the SSD and show the other drive as a mounted volume in the Finder, or they developed a brand new system to automatically handle the processing of files and system info across the SSD and the spinning drive. Several bloggers and Mac users wondered how Apple could manage to easily allow the new iMacs to quickly switch between drives, save the OS on one drive and media on the other, symlink the user’s Home folder to content saved outside the SSD. These technical questions also had to face the 4-6 week delay that showed up when ordering a new iMac with hybrid configuration. However, the solution may be pretty simple, as it could lie in Apple’s use of Intel’s new Z68 platform, which — combined with the upcoming “Larsen Creek” SSDs — allows for a new caching system called ”Smart Response Technology.” Intel’s BD82Z68 Platform Controller Hub is indeed being used in the mid-2011 iMacs, as iFixit confirmed earlier today.

Intel’s Smart Response Technology works like this: in a hybrid configuration such as the one possible in the new iMacs, the smaller SSD acts as a “system cache” for the bigger & slower HDD. The OS (boot files, resources, extensions) are cached on the SSD for faster loading times, but the user only sees one drive in the Finder / Windows Explorer.

Smart Response provides a middle ground between capacious but slow and inexpensive hard drive storage, and fast but small and expensive SSD. With it, one can retain a high-capacity hard drive, and speed it up using a small SSD. The technology uses the small SSD’s low access times and high speeds to make it work as a cache of the HDD, it might even store copies of key parts of the HDD such as the boot volume and system files, to make booting faster, and the system more responsive overall.

It’s not clear at this point whether the delay in shipping times is caused by Apple waiting for Intel’s new solid state drives, and if Smart Response Technology will be enabled at all in Snow Leopard. Apple’s note on OS X coming preinstalled on the SSD surely raises some important technical questions, and we’ll know more in a few weeks when these hybrid iMacs will start showing up.

New 2011 iMacs Can Reach Wi-Fi Speeds of 450 Mbits/s

Similar to the new MacBook Pros, the new 2011 iMac can reach Wi-Fi speeds of 450 Mbits/s, according to HardMac.

It seems that Apple seeks to standardize this data flow. Thus, the new iMac is also compatible with the 450 Mbits/s. For that, Apple changed their Airport card and also installed 3 antennas (instead of 2 before), something indispensabie to be able simultaneously to use 3 channels of 150 Mbits/s.

HardMac notes that to achieve such speeds you need a compatible base station (ie Airport Extreme, Time Capsule) running 802.11n on 5GHz with widened channels enabled.

Nice one.

Apple iMac (spring 2011) review

The heaviest of heavyweights in the all-in-one field has seen another update, another batch of new internals to liven up the aging (but still classy) chassis. Apple unveiled its latest iMac refresh last week, surprising nobody with a new selection of AMD Radeon HD graphics cards, quad-core Intel Sandy Bridge processors, and solid-state storage options, all designed to do one thing: go faster.

These latest iMacs are quite naturally the speediest yet, as you'd expect, but with the right configuration they can be properly quick. Faster internals plus Thunderbolt ports on the outside turn what's supposed to be a family-friendly and eye-catching machine into an unassuming powerhouse that might just be quick enough for professional users. There's a more important question, though: is this $1,999 system the right choice for you?

Hardware

When Apple refreshed the iMac lineup last year we sampled the 21.5-inch model, svelte and sweet and a good choice for your average household. This time we moved up to the full 27-inch size, sporting a Core i5 processor that hums along at 3.1GHz. This is the processor you get if you opt for the pricier configuration of the bigger model and resist the urge to make any other customizations -- but cycle-hungry users can spend an extra $200 to step into a 3.4GHz Core i7.

Either way you get four cores, ours came paired with 4GB of 1333MHz, DDR3 RAM, installed as two 2GB DIMMs, and a 1TB 7,200RPM, SATA drive. Pushing pixels to that 27-inch, 2,560 x 1,440 resolution IPS panel is an AMD Radeon HD 6970M graphics card with 1GB of GDDR5 memory. That, thanks to the dual Thunderbolt ports tucked around the back, gives users a new-found ability to power a lot of external displays, in theory up to four thanks to the dual-channel nature of each port. We managed to get two additional displays lit up, but the LED-backlit monitor here is more than spacious enough for most use, and is certainly bright and gorgeous enough too -- but you knew that.



In fact you probably already know a lot about how this looks because, other than the faster internals, there isn't a lot new here. It's the same design that Apple's been hawking for a few years now. It still looks good, modern and understated styling matching your modern and understated life, but we're left wanting some updates. That SD card slot is still dangerously close to the DVD-ROM slot (which still won't accept Blu-ray discs), and the power button is still in exactly the right spot to confound new users and frustrate experienced ones as they accidentally hit it every time they reach to tilt the display back.

And we can't help but wish we could get a little more interactive with that hyper-glossy display, which makes for a heck of a good mirror when turned off. Apple of course has patents out for what looks like a touchable iMac and we're a bit disappointed they didn't come to fruition here -- though we would hate to smudge up that surface. There's still no matte option, but at least you can opt out of getting a Magic Mouse and substitute in a Magic Trackpad this time.

Oh, and there's a new FaceTime HD webcam stuck in the bezel, for those about to chat.

Performance



This machine has the higher of the two default configurations for the 27-incher, and we found it more than adequate for just about anything we threw at it. Obviously the gaming selection is still a little limited here, but Half-Life 2 and Portal 2 played full-res without a hitch. As you'd expect a 1080p clip loads quickly and cycles just fine -- we had five simultaneous 1080p clips going without a hint of frame drop on any.

In fact about the only the only thing that really caused a stutter was trying to edit a 4K video clip in REDCINE -- it was still workable, but we had to view it at half-res to get the preview render looking smooth. Hardly a deal-breaker. If you're looking for more synthetic benchmarks, we scored 8,465 in Geekbench, a 30-second 720p clip exported from iMovie in 20 seconds, and a 1080p clip took under a minute.

Wrap-up



So could a pro-level user, someone who spends their days in Photoshop or Premiere or even REDCINE be happy here? Yes, surprisingly, they could -- especially with the addition of an internal SSD (a $500 option for 256GB) and a high-speed external storage array connected via Thunderbolt. It wouldn't be our choice, and whether it makes sense to buy something like this versus a dedicated machine with an external display is another question entirely, but if you wanted to, you certainly could.

However, for a general consumer setup we can't help but think this is a bit too much. The vastly more affordable and still hugely capable 21.5-inch model makes a lot more sense for a lot more people. But, for ease of setup, aesthetic appeal, and overall performance and flexibility, the iMac is as hard to ignore as ever.

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