iMac 5k Retina Display

[suicidalfranco]

First rule when Bottcamping Windows on a Mac:

Download, install, add to startup folder Lubbo's Fan Control or Macs Fan Control. You'll thank me later

[kn1ghtnsh1narmr]

You want to avoid the Xeon for anything bu Proffesinal level Video Post production. As it stand an i7 with quicksync happily beats down a 12 core Xeon at single pass h.264 video encoding.

 

So for a consumer and hobbyist the iMac makes sense for even 4K video.

 

It's main purpose I see is photography though. A single colour accurate 14+MP display where you can happily native edit an image without having to bounce between multiple displays ( which will never have 100% colour uniformity even after calibration), and have everything on a single screen with menus and options available. Add in illustrators, and graphics design, long with other art and it's a lovely machine.

 

Don't forget there is the option to add another 4K  or dual 2560x1440 displays if you want as well through Thunderbolt & Displayport.

For media creation the 5K iMac is a good system, especially since it handily beats the Base Mac Pro with dual FirePro D300s in lots of work bar OpenCL intensive work.

http://barefeats.com/imac5k.html

http://barefeats.com/imac5k4.html

You have your preferences, and it;s clear from your ending lines, but so do others. We have to remember that not everyone has the same needs and wants, and what might suit you does not someone else.

 

As for upgrading and roll out in enterprise it's extremely easy. Buy new Macs, plug in Macs, connect new mac to old via Ethernet or Thunderbolt, click Migrate data and work, wait, and and when done remove old mac and continue working from where you left it on the previous machine.

 

 

any company using custom pcs with redhat are going to be pretty small companies or a really weird exception to the standard. i mainly see the imac being used for graphic design, audio engineering (studios, etc), photography and sometimes video (usually for smaller or individual uses). but there are some benefits to 5k that may matter to some people even with relatively mundane workloads. for instance if you're the kind of person who gets headaches from looking at screens for too long, the higher res and in particular crisper ui and text will make that issue much more bearable. 

I would like to thank valentyn and interslice.   My prejudice for apple hasn't changed.  Thinking apple isn't overpriced artwork that is used by mindless consumers isn't something I can shake, at least now, but you opened the door for me to think about it.  

[Valentyn]

I would like to thank valentyn and interslice.   My prejudice for apple hasn't changed.  Thinking apple isn't overpriced artwork that is used by mindless consumers isn't something I can shake, at least now, but you opened the door for me to think about it.  

 

It really is one of those things were you have to simply sit down and use one for around a month to get a good feel for it.

 

I do hope Linus really gives it a decent shot and an open mind. I know Anand La Shimpi did the same a decade ago, and we could clearly see how it changed him and his site over the years.

[Dredgy]

I think my lack of understand comes if the horsepower is enough than i think for 99% of them 5k isn't necessary.  Maybe its just my perspective, I've only been in the healthcare and gaming tech world.  I know for investing a mult monitor set up would be better and you would want a xeon, with media creation being the same.  My only though is website development?  And if I walked in and I saw your team using iMac I would walk away and find someone using custom pcs with redhat, That may be just me though.  

 

As someone who runs a small office, it would be insanity to use redhat for any production work. Apart from a web server, I don't think we use any Linux PCs at all. The reason being you can't do any work on them easily. Even using text editors such as Gedit (Gtk in general) slows programming down considerably. Don't get me started on Vim. Modal editors can suck a big hairy one.

 

We do use custom Windows PCs for most of our work, but some people working on print or graphic design, audio engineering or video editing tend to find it much easier on OSX and the increase in productivity for them is very much worth the investment for me. They also come in pretty cool for some networking stuff - if you have to run something like an internet cafe or monitor a surveillance network, the experience is so good on the Mac and stability is tops. I would consider using them for servers in the future. Some video editing software on OSX can actually replace various bits of expensive video hardware. Not to mention developing an app for iOS is next to impossible on a Windows Machine (well, insanely unoptimized). As a work platform, they are also cost effective, with my Windows workstation costing nearly twice as much as two Mac Pros (about $20k). If there is anything I've ever heard about Mac's, being overpriced is the only thing that makes no sense to me, especially in a workplace environment where I've seen demonstrated increase in productivity.

 

I personally can't stand OSX and unless something drastic happens, I'll be stick with Windows, but it would be idiotic of me to dismiss that a Mac is functionally worse than Windows or, worse yet, not give a company business simply because of the type of PC they use.

[Tredien]

Wouldn't a nvidia gpu with some cuda processors be better if they were aiming for content creation?

[ShadowCaptain]

Wouldn't a nvidia gpu with some cuda processors be better if they were aiming for content creation?

 

Not really,Open CL is more widespread, cuda is ONLY used by nvidia.. 

 

Open CL is used by Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Apple, etc so it can work across a wider range of hardware, its still very good

[MrBrownSound]

Linus, while you're at it, download istat menu from http://bjango.com/

 

so you can see how hot the gpu/cpu get while in use. It allows you manually change their speeds, and what not.

 

Also seriously, is there no way short of altering the mobo, to get this to be the external display to an existing PC? I think that's the question a lot of us want to know.

 

 

Also while your at it, see how you like it ssh'ing from the default terminal to other linux or mac machines, I think it's pretty handy. I take notes through terminal in class to maximize battery life. Not that you can't do that from windows console.

 

Let us know what you think about the pretty neat screen spaces usability, and different gestures on the mac, using that touch mouse thing.  

 

Also let us know about what you think about the interface and general usability from a pc master race sorta perspective, not as a regular user. But, I don't know, maybe see how somebody like your wife thinks about it.

[ShadowCaptain]

I wonder why target display mode is not supported... a limitation with thunderbolt perhaps?

 

Or a forced one by apple... TDM is one of my favourite iMac features

[okänd]

Please don't be afraid of the terminal.

Add Homebrew to it and you basically have a Linux equivalent that the corporate world also provides reasonable support for. The best of both worlds.

 

Apple really nailed it with their trackpads, you should try using the computer with one for a while.

[EdgyVenison]

(moving this to the next page, lol)

[Kingofpants]

So your gonna sell it afterwards?

[Victorious Secret]

I wonder why target display mode is not supported... a limitation with thunderbolt perhaps?

Or a forced one by apple... TDM is one of my favourite iMac features

Thunderbolt 1.2 limitation. Them making their own controller to make it a SST display means no TDM till 1.3 rolls around with the proper bandwidth to support a SST 5K display on its own.

It's a shame, but I see why. We won't have TDM iMacs till the 5K Cinema Display gets loosed.

[ShadowCaptain]

Thunderbolt 1.2 limitation. Them making their own controller to make it a SST display means no TDM till 1.3 rolls around with the proper bandwidth to support a SST 5K display on its own.

It's a shame, but I see why. We won't have TDM iMacs till the 5K Cinema Display gets loosed.

 

Ah I see, I figured it might have been something to do with that

 

Shame, but I am sure future products should fix this as you say

[EdgyVenison]

As a Mac heathen OSX user for 2 years, there are some apps which makes me don't want to go back to Windows, because there are no similar apps ( or equivalently good version ) of it in Windows.

Here is a list of the best apps that are nice to have, with links to their website and a quick summary:

Moom - "Move and zoom windows".

A better way to organize windows instead of dragging window corners around.

Alternatives: Divvy, Cinch, BetterTouchTool.

Alfred - "An award-winning productivity application for Mac OS X".

Gives you a magic bar that can do tasks for you. Definitely must install.

TotalSpaces - "The ultimate grid spaces manager for your Mac".

A quite powerful spaces (or more commmonly called desktop) manager in OSX.

TotalFinder - "Brings colored labels back to your Finder and more!".

An overall upgrade to the built-in OSX Finder app.

mpv - "A free, open source, and cross-platform media player".

Screw MPlayerX ( it's not bad, but IMO mpv is definitely better ), this is the best media player on OSX; you might have to compile it yourself though.

There are precompiled binaries here, or you can use Homebrew to help you on compiling it.

Homebrew - "The missing package manager for OS X".

Read post #59; don't be afraid of terminals, Linus

Alternatives: Fink, MacPorts.

Entropy - "Powerful Archiver For Mac OS X".

The most bloated fully featured archiver app in OSX.

Little Snitch - "Little Snitch protects your privacy!"

Probably the best firewall software on OSX. Useful for blocking connections and using illegal app copies.

Karabiner - "A powerful and stable keyboard customizer for OS X".

Unbelievably powerful keyboard customizer. Remap every key you want.

iStat Menus - "An advanced Mac system monitor for your menubar".

Shows various system statuses on your menubar.

Bartender - "Organize your menu bar apps".

It took me a while to find this app; it's awesome once you have stuffs cluttering your menu bar.

1Password - "Simple, Convenient Security".

The most expensive An excellent password manager app. Great UI, awesome browser integration.

There are free alternatives available on the internet.

SteerMouse or SmoothMouse

Allows you to disable the annoying mouse acceleration that is hard to disable manually on OSX.

I recommend installing this ASAP before you get used to it.

Textual - "An IRC client created specifically for OS X, designed with simplicity in mind.".

Arguably the best (paid) IRC client on OSX.

Thunderbird

Everyone's best email app forever!

There are lots of email app alternatives. However thunderbird starts to shine once you linked many email accounts into it.

The others seem to be optimized for 1/2 email account(s), unlike Thunderbird, which can still manage dozens of email accounts quite nicely. Cmiiw on this.

Growl - "The Ultimate Notification System for OS X".

Aims to be a replacement of the Notification Center, allows you to modify and control the appearance of notifications.

[maazster]

I suggest you read Anandtech's Article he did a month on Mac from the perspective of a Die Hard PC User. It's extremely informative

http://www.anandtech.com/show/1500

Thank you.

[Heisenbleurgh]

I wonder if Apple hating in the forum will change after Linus inevitably says good things about their products.

[Heisenbleurgh]

Hmm, the initial price looks somewhat understandable with the 5k screen and the form factor, however the upgrade scaling price is pretty ridiculous, +200 dollars for 8 more GB of ram...or +800 for 1TB of Flash Storage, where you can get a 1 TB SSD for 500-700 dollars

For the record it's not a regular SSD, it's a PCIe ssd which are faster. Still very expensive, but it's $300-$100 more for faster speeds.

[Captain_Slow]

Why didn't apple send you guys a sample? Did they fear you were going to rip into and not change the minds of the majority of people already watching this channel? Did they want the money? It's one review unit Apple...if anything it's probably bringing good publicity for mac...

 

Apple doesn't send review units to anyone period. It's just not apart of their business practice.

 

besides, their target customers are ones who watches youtube videos before buying a product.

[bomerr]

Apple went with 5k display because every TV showcase lists 4K as the premium product; so when people walk into an Apple store they'll think Apple is even more high-end.

 

Btw Linus I heard you switched over to a Moto for your daily driver cell phone, you really need to use an iPhone to get the most out of the Mac OS X / iOS cloud features like contacts, iMessage, bookmarks, ICLOUD KEYCHAIN PASSWORD!!!, etc.

 

 

Apple doesn't send review units to anyone period. It's just not apart of their business practice.

 

besides, their target customers are ones who watches youtube videos before buying a product.

Apple sends review units to 'trusted" reviewers. 

[truthfulie]

It's nice to see something different for a change. I am a tech enthusiast who use  both mac and pc for different use and always felt that most tech enthusiast community dismiss the entirety of Apple products without much consideration just because they are Apple products. I don't think I have to worry about Linus being fair in regards to Apple products, but I hope you approach this switch with an open mind and acknowledge that hurdles that come with switching from Windows to OS X aren't necessarily a weakness to mac itself. EdgeVenison's post(#64) has a great list of applications you should check out.

[Sousuke]

I suggest you read Anandtech's Article he did a month on Mac from the perspective of a Die Hard PC User. It's extremely informative

http://www.anandtech.com/show/1500

 

I hope that you realize that the article was written in 2004. Quite a lot has changed since 2004 within both the Windows ecosystem and Mac ecosystem. I mean since then Macs have gone through an entire architecture change from PowerPC to Intel. 

 

So yes some of what that article says is true however 95% of it is way out of date.

[bomerr]

I hope that you realize that the article was written in 2004. Quite a lot has changed since 2004 within both the Windows ecosystem and Mac ecosystem. I mean since then Macs have gone through an entire architecture change from PowerPC to Intel. 

 

So yes some of what that article says is true however 95% of it is way out of date.

i just read it. It's more like 95% of it is still relevant today.

[Captain_Slow]

I wonder why target display mode is not supported... a limitation with thunderbolt perhaps?

 

Or a forced one by apple... TDM is one of my favourite iMac features

 

TDM isnt supported because Thunderbolt 2 supports displayport 1.2a, which doesn't do 5k, only 4k.

 

once displayport 1.3 finalizes we can expect to see a retina iMac get TDM.

[Sousuke]

i just read it. It's more like 95% of it is still relevant today.

Well I use both platforms on a daily basis and I can say that 95% of what is said isn't the case anymore. You can not go 10 Years without significant changes.

 

I mean gaming for example on Mac OS X has made leaps and bounds since then as Steam is now available for OSX and quite a bit of the games are cross platform. I'm not going to go into it too far.

[Captain_Slow]

This review, as expected, brings on more of this Apple vs PC bullshit.

 

where PC people grades every Mac based on gaming performance per dollar,

 

and Mac people denfends it by talking about build quality and aesthetics