New iMac

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Macs hold their value far better than PC's, imo - and the display on the new iMac's is stunning when you actually see it hands on.

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Guess I missed the value train last time I price checked my SAM 440ep complete machine.  Paid a grand for the mobo/ram and OS 4.1 back in 2008 and earlier this year the best offer I got on it was 200 euros if I was willing to cover shipping to England for the whole machine, including case, PSU, and the 2 SSD's and 1 SATA DVD-RW that are in it.

I resigned myself into simply using it as a doorstop a few years down the road versus taking such a financial beating on what still is a a pretty fun little machine.  Couldn't even find anyone to trade me a decent "legacy" Amiga like an A3000 or A4000 for it :/

I imagine the X1's hold their value far better, but I've seen the SAM boards at basically giveaway prices compared to what people paid for them new.

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Played WoW for about an hour on a new iMac tonight and it was a stunning experience.

Not that WoW is a particularly taxing game, but the machine didn't skip a beat and the display is glorious.

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Apple stays in business not for their superior hardware, which quite frankly on the PC end of things is just commodity hardware that's in any other PC stuffed into a slickly designed case, but for the whole experience.  Owning a Mac is a real smooth ride, the hardware and software combined make for a real nice out of the box experience for people not into Windows, and said people are willing to pay the premium for the experience.

The people I know who buy Mac's buy them because they prefer OSX.  That's not to say one cannot make a Hackintosh, because you can with very little trouble.  These people know that a similarly equipped Windows PC would be much cheaper, but millions of people a year keep buying Mac's.  This being said, the new 5k display on the iMac is really, really impressive when you use it.  I spent more money on my 4k capable gaming PC than I would have versus buying a new 5k iMac.  I'm not a Mac user, so on a personal level the things really don't interest me, but they are just gorgeous display wise.  Said Mac wouldn't run the games I would require it to, so even if it was $1500 cheaper, it still wouldn't be an option for me.  I'd recommend everyone try one of the new iMac's, even if you have no interest in owning one.  They are really, really nice to use, and the display will stun you.

Same goes for iPhone's and iPad's.  The hardware is nothing special, specs wise.  The cheap Android phone I am currently using (Alcatel Idol X+) has a display that rivals the iphone.  My Android tablets were half the price of an ipad, etc.  People but the Apple products for the full experience, and in the case of iOS devices, for the ecosystem and OS itself.  The Android apps ecosystem still pales in comparison to the iOS one, and I say that as a happy, fulltime Android user that owns several Android devices.

I've always found the Apple hate ironic within the Amiga community, really.

People gripe constantly about overpriced Mac's, but have no qualms about shelling out $3000+ for an X1

My SAM, after I ended up building it, with OS, mobo, HD's, case and everything else it needed components wise cost me more new when I bought it in 2008 that an iMac would have.  Friends IRL told me that I was a lunatic for spending that much money on this "godforsaken" platform, but I don't ever regret buying it.

It's fun, and that's all I expect out of a computer.  That to me is the great thing about modern computing - choice.

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You aren't going to build a comparable PC to the new iMac for the money.  No way, no how.  Not to mention there's some special interconnect logic in the new iMac's that let it perform far better than comparable off the shelf hardware.  You'd have a rough time driving even a 4K monitor on a Windows PC with an off the shelf 700 series (700m series comes in the new iMac).  I know this because I have tried, lol - which is why I went with Titan cards.

My 4K monitor alone was $700 list price.  A single 780 Ti is another $500-$600, and you'd want 2 of them on a PC to optimally run *even 4K*.  

PSU to run that?  Couple hundred bucks.  Mobo the same.  CPU, $200-$300 minimally.  A nice case to fit 2 full slot, off the shelf graphics cards in?  $150 at least.

The Dell UltraSharp 27 Ultra HD 5K Monitor lists for $2500 alone...  I'd expect it to be $2000 minimally on a good day once the thing is actually released.

"Look for the Dell UltraSharp 27 Ultra HD 5K Monitor to appear on store shelves during fourth quarter with a sticker price of (brace yourself) $2,500."

Source:  http://www.pcworld.com/article/2602870/dells-27-inch-5k-monitor-packs-almost-twice-the-pixels-of-4k-displays.html

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With what 5k monitor for that price?

Not the Dell.  And a Windows PC would struggle to run 4k on one 290, let alone a 5K display.  I've tried doing it with 4k, hands on.  The results suck, and whatever Apple is doing with the interconnect to drive the 5K monitor, it works well.

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In other words, the $1000 5K monitor you had in mind doesn't exist

If you know of a reasonably priced one, please share - I'd love to have one, but I'm not paying $2500 for the Dell one when it hits the shelves.

I won't be buying an iMac.  I'm a PC guy waiting on components that are backordered for my new build.

The below is my build sheet, which I'd consider fairly decent for driving 4K.  $1300 more expensive than the base 27" iMac, without a monitor, but admittedly far beefier hardware.

http://i58.tinypic.com/33vyucy.jpg

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The upgrade issue is not an IMac only issue.  It's an AIO issue.  Of course you cannot simply open a panel and add a new graphics card, be it on an iMac, Visio All in one, Dell, HP, or any other brand AIO, for the most part.  While they are commodity guts in them, they are still special form factor just to fit in the AIO case.  Some you cannot even upgrade the RAM on, esp. the low priced PC AIO's.  iMac's you can add more RAM, including the new one.  It's standard DDR3L and easily accessible.

There's dozens of other vendors that make all in one or one piece PC's.  While there's some truth to the idea you're buying planned obsolescence, it's the form factor at fault, not an iMac only issue.

No different than a laptop - can't just throw a new gfx card in one of those whenever you like.  Personally, my biggest fear on AIO's has always been a display panel conking out on a person 1 day after warranty expires.

Good teardown on iFixit - https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iMac+Intel+27-Inch+Retina+5K+Display+Teardown/30260

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The iMac is an AIO.  The upgrade potential of an iMac is no worse than any other AIO PC.

If you are comparing an AIO to a full tower, 110% fully upgrade capable piece-built PC, you're really grasping at straws comparisons wise.  Ford vs. Chevy arguments are silly.

Two completely different beasts.  By that logic, the iPad or iPhone, or any other device that cannot be upgraded by the user is a POS.  Yet people still buy them by the millions every single quarter, and market share is growing year over year for all these overpriced products.

AIO's aren't for me, nor you apparently.  That doesn't make them useless to the world as a whole.  We could sit here for eternity and debate whether or not Apple products are overpriced as a whole, and I suspect our opinions would end up on the same page in the end

That doesn't change the fact that the iMac, the new one or one from 10 years ago - suits a lot of peoples needs just fine, and people buy them in spades.  Some people simply have no need to expand their machines past what the factory offers.  I do, some don't, and that's just fine by me.  It also doesn't change the fact that in 2013, Apple sold 16 million Mac's, and I suspect a vast, vast majority were iMac's.  Someone obviously finds them to suit their needs.  I don't happen to be one of them, 5k gorgeous display or not.

The new 5k iMac is actually only $500 more than last rev non 5k machine, and if you can point me at a comparable 27 inch 5k monitor AVAILABLE NOW for $500 I'll eat my hat.  Hell, I'll eat your hat, too.