Tuesday, November 10

Geek

Taiga

I've been meaning to buy a new Mac for so long that they've changed the naming scheme for OS X releases and the joke no longer works.  (My old Macs are all PowerPC models.  I have a second-gen iMac with the 15" CRT, and an even older PowerMac - a 7600, I think.)

Anyway, ordered the following from the Apple Store today:

27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display
27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display
 
 
A$ 5,519.00
With the following configuration:
• 4.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.2GHz
• 8GB 1867MHz DDR3 SDRAM - two 4GB
• 1TB Flash Storage
• AMD Radeon R9 M395X with 4GB video memory
• Magic Mouse 2
• Magic Keyboard (International English) and User’s Guide (English)
• Accessory Kit












Yeah, it's not exactly cheap.* Australian prices have jumped about 25% this year due to currency fluctuations. On the other hand, it's probably the best software developer workstation available at any cost.

That 8GB RAM isn't going to stay that way; I'm just deciding whether to go to 32GB or splash out on 48GB or 64GB. 64GB of third-party RAM costs less than Apple's 32GB upgrade.

Anyone who has current Mac experience is welcome to chime in with recommendations for additional hardware and software.  I want a USB Blu-Ray drive, some good (but not audiophile) stereo speakers (don't really need surround sound or a subwoofer), and either VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop.

I already have software subscriptions with Microsoft, Adobe, and JetBrains that will transfer straight across to Mac, so I'm covered there.

Apart from the old iMac, probably the last desktop PC I bought - rather than built - was my Sun Ultra 5 from around 1999.  And even with that I replaced the disk drives and added a video card.

Update: Added 32GB of RAM, a Samsung external Blu-Ray writer, and a 5TB LaCie external drive, and I'm still $270 under Apple's 32GB upgrade price.  That could pay for a nice set of AudioEngine speakers.

64GB might be nice, but (a) 32GB is enough, and I already have two computers with 32GB of RAM each, and (b) 64GB costs four times as much as 32GB because you need newer high-density memory.

Update: It's shipped!  ETA Monday...  When I won't be home.  Of course.

* In fact, it's crazy expensive.  You can get a decent computer including a small SSD and an IPS monitor for about A$1200.  But I spend 60+ hours a week sitting** in front of my screen, and it's how I earn a living, so I can kinda sorta justify the expense.

** Speaking of which, I also need a new chair.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:21 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Post contains 439 words, total size 8 kb.

1 That logged-in spammer just hit me again. I "hid" the two comments so you could look at them.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Friday, November 13 2015 12:53 AM (+rSRq)

2 Yeah, forgot I increased the session timeout back to what it used to be, and while he can't log in now, Minx doesn't revalidate existing sessions.  Which I need to fix; it's a potential security issue.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Friday, November 13 2015 09:35 AM (PiXy!)

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Apple pies are delicious. But never mind apple pies. What colour is a green orange?




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