2020 27-inch iMac review: A classic Mac for the end of an era

With Apple Silicon around the corner, is this Intel-based Mac refresh a good buy?

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[salamanderjuice]

It’s interesting they still stuck with 4 USB A ports and 2 TB3. The Mac Mini has the flip of that.

 

[salamanderjuice]

How is it that the 2018 Mac mini smokes the 2018 iMac Pro in every benchmark but crypto? Is the graphic mislabeled?

It doesn't. That's just single core performance. The i7 in the Mac Mini boosts higher than the iMac Pro giving it better single core performance.

The iMac Pro beats it in like every other benchmark, multi-core, GPU, etc.

 

[salamanderjuice]

I really disagree with this review. The iMac has recently been a bit of a sucker product. You get laptop internals and a built-in screen, with non of the portability, minimal upgradability and repairability, at a very high price. Apple steadfastly refuses to make a practical, reasonablly priced desktop, so Mac fans are forced to buy this extremely compromised product instead.

It sucks.

Ok, what does a practical desktop look like, and what is it priced at?

(I dislike seeing posts like this auto-downvoted)

Like this with a "macOS inside" sticker on the box? ;-)

...

And I hate the sheepish downvoting frenzy on certain types of posts as well. Luckily some are quoting the hidden post, so i see it anyway. Ars needs to offer a setting to see all posts regardless of downvoting... sorry sir, I would like to have my own censorship, if at all, thank you very much...

The forums have all the posts and none of the voting, so you may find yourself happier there for posts.

My problem with most of the replacement part lists people produce is that they are for completely different components to the Apple machine. When I try that exercise (and include a comparable monitor, OS, keyboard and mouse), I tend to come up with something not so different from the iMac price.

Yes, there's a financial benefit in buying parts and building your own PC, but it's not as big as some claim and it requires users to spend a lot more time researching and getting the thing together. My time isn't critical, but it's not worthless either.

It really really hinges on how much you value that 5K monitor because that's really the only thing hard to get a comparable version of for a good price.

Apple's Magic keyboard and mouse are $180. You can easily get a very comparable mouse and keyboard set for half that, including full mechanical options from smaller brands.

$750 dollars can get you a desktop with a 6 core 3.6GHz Ryzen 5, 16GB RAM, 500GB NVme SSD, and a Radeon 5600XT. Considerably better than what's in the base $1800 iMac. Add couple hundred for a good mouse and keyboard and if you can "settle" for a 4K or 1440p display for $400 you can have a faster system for $1350. Even if you NEED a full retail license of Windows Pro (from MS for $200) for whatever reason it's still $250 cheaper than the iMac. You can easily get a more powerful system for less money it just typically takes a bit of compromise. If you really don't care about screen quality and mouse keyboard feel you can easily take off $400 from the price I listed.

 

[salamanderjuice]

$750 dollars can get you a desktop with a 6 core 3.6GHz Ryzen 5, 16GB RAM, 500GB NVme SSD, and a Radeon 5600XT. Considerably better than what's in the base $1800 iMac. Add couple hundred for a good mouse and keyboard and if you can "settle" for a 4K or 1440p display for $400 you can have a faster system for $1350. Even if you NEED a full retail license of Windows Pro (from MS for $200) for whatever reason it's still $250 cheaper than the iMac.

But it would need to run Windows. Cannot win.

You could run Linux in it too. If you’re married to MacOS then you have to pay Apple’s prices.

 

[salamanderjuice]

As to form factor options, Apple is severely limited in the sub-$6k range when it comes to desktops. You can get a Mini with only RAM as an upgrade option, or an iMac with only RAM as an upgrade option. And the Mac Pro requires a PCIe card for M.2 SSD upgrades, you can't upgrade its base SSD without taking it in.

Worse than that — the RAM in the Mini isn't officially a user-serviceable part since the 2018 refresh, and although it's standard socketed stuff it's a bit of a trek to get to it.

EDIT: the full iFixit guide to upgrading RAM in a 2018 Mac Mini.

It’s better than the 2014 where it was soldered.

 

[salamanderjuice]

Of the listed items, only the GPU is a soldered, non-standard part. The CPU is an LGA1200 i7-10700, the RAM is standard laptop DDR4, and the SSD is a standard 2280 M.2 NVMe drive.

As to form factor options, Apple is severely limited in the sub-$6k range when it comes to desktops. You can get a Mini with only RAM as an upgrade option, or an iMac with only RAM as an upgrade option. And the Mac Pro requires a PCIe card for M.2 SSD upgrades, you can't upgrade its base SSD without taking it in.

Appreciate the answers. I think you have a good point with all this data added. I just wanted to make sure that conceptually, the arguments made sense. Comparing like to like allows that.

Even if Apple doesn’t have a CHEAP desktop is not, to me, good reason to compare cheaper PCs to an iMac. It’s relevant for other reasons, but I think the strongest argument you have is the difficulty in changing the Mac Pro.

I think it is. While some people care about the iMac AIO form factor others just want a desktop. The Mac Pro is $6k. That is far way outside the price range for most consumers even considering a desktop.

 

[salamanderjuice]

I think it is. While some people care about the iMac AIO form factor others just want a desktop

If they “just want a desktop”, why are they buying an AIO? It’d be easier to buy a different Mac and add a monitor.

The Mac Pro is $6k. That is far way outside the price range for most consumers even considering a desktop.

Then, as noted elsewhere, it’s fair to say that Apple doesn’t sell a traditional desktop, not to treat anything in the same price range as a desktop PC as a PC. I can buy a better desktop for the cost of a SurfaceBook than I’d get by buying the SurfaceBook (which I did!). But you can’t really compare the two as the same, just because they’re the closest thing they sell.

Microsoft doesn’t sell a desktop PC. No matter how many devices they sell that would be in the same price range, none of their devices can be classified that way. They sell convertibles, laptops, high-end laptops, and AIOs catering to “creatives”. You can compare the HP AIO to the iMac. Or to the Surface Studio. But not desktop to AIO.

Maybe they want user upgradable memory or the 128GB memory limit or the better GPU or 8 cores or 10 cores. There is a lot of reasons to choose the iMac over the Mac mini which for most people are the only realistic desktops Apple makes.

If you want a desktop it’s perfectly valid to look at AIOs especially if you’re considering macOS at all.

 

[salamanderjuice]

Maybe they want user upgradable memory or the 128GB memory limit or the better GPU or 8 cores or 10 cores. There is a lot of reasons to choose the iMac over the Mac mini which for most people are the only realistic desktops Apple makes.

If you want a desktop it’s perfectly valid to look at AIOs especially if you’re considering macOS at all.

That they want something more powerful than a Mac Mini is fine. That doesn’t mean that anything more powerful than a Mac Mini is a desktop PC equivalent. You could, in theory, weld a PC case to the back of a monitor and get a device equivalent to an iMac. But...it’s not really the same, right?

The reason you can’t compare them isn’t just purpose, it’s fundamental physics. The thermal constraints of an AIO hobble it compared to something that can a) have huge fans; b) be set away from the heat of the monitor itself; and c) have a lot more room for in-case airflow.

They’re different classes of products. If you want want “something that goes on a desk”, then yes, the iMac is a good device to consider (I’m getting one, FWIW). But in terms of “this product is more powerful” or “this product is more upgradable”, they simply aren’t the same type of products.

This isn’t about Apple vs. Windows. Microsoft does not sell a traditional desktop. None of their products should be treated like one for comparing price or repairability. They can be compared to an iMac, though. And they can both be compared to the HP AIO mentioned earlier. But none of those are traditional desktop PCs.

They have different form, different function, and obviously different thermal considerations.

They are an extremely similar range of products. If people never cross-shopped AIOs and desktops the iMac would have never taken off. Some people value the space savings, or integrated monitor of the AIO, others the upgradability and power of a traditional desktop.

I think it's fair to compare them especially since Apple's desktop options are so limited. If you want a desktop with MacOS and a non-Intel GPU that's your only option for less than $5000.