Apple Updates iMacs with new Hardware, Doesn’t Include its New Security Chip

Even though Apple is hosting an event next week, the company is announcing updates to its hardware this week. Yesterday, the company announced new iPads and today, they are updating the iMacs.

Starting today, you can buy both the 21.5 and 27in iMacs with 8th gen Intel CPUs with the smaller device offering four and six core options with the larger device letting you jump all the way up to an eight-core option if you don’t mind spending a bit more.

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In addition to the new CPU options, both iMacs now offer Radeon Pro Vega graphics as well. The 21.5in iMac starts at $1299 which gets you an 3.6GHz 8th-generation Intel i3 processor, 8 GB RAM, a 1 TB hard drive, and Radeon Pro 555X graphics whereas the 27in starts at $1799 for a 3GHz 6-core 8th-generation Intel i5 processor, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB Fusion Drive, and a Radeon Pro 570X GPU.

Apple is still offering its Fusion drives for lower-speced iMacs but you can swap it out with up to 2TB SSD if you want to avoid the older-style hardware for a significant premium.

Oddly, Apple is not including its new T2 security chip. This is likely because the company chose to keep the older Fusion drives in the iMacs which are not compatible with the security feature. Seeing as the company made a big deal about its T2 security chips on its laptops, it’s a bit surprising that they aren’t trying to bring that same functionality to its desktops.

With all of the legacy hardware out of the way, Apple is clearing the deck for its event next week so that its new services don’t get overshadowed by the updated hardware.

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Conversation 28 comments

  • yoshi

    Premium Member
    19 March, 2019 - 9:37 am

    <p>And deep in the stockroom of Apple Stores, the Mac Pro sheds a tear.</p>

    • bob_shutts

      19 March, 2019 - 10:07 am

      <blockquote><a href="#413679"><em>In reply to yoshi:</em></a><em> That was updated today also.</em></blockquote><p><br></p>

      • yoshi

        Premium Member
        19 March, 2019 - 10:40 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#413690">In reply to Bob_Shutts:</a></em></blockquote><p>Huh. I'm not seeing that anywhere.</p>

        • provision l-3

          19 March, 2019 - 11:17 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#413697">In reply to yoshi:</a></em></blockquote><p>They just added a new memory and video card option in the build to order options. The base configuration remained the same.</p>

          • lvthunder

            Premium Member
            19 March, 2019 - 12:37 pm

            <blockquote><em><a href="#413714">In reply to provision l-3:</a></em></blockquote><p>Are you talking the Mac Pro or the iMac Pro?</p>

            • provision l-3

              19 March, 2019 - 2:33 pm

              <blockquote><em><a href="#413731">In reply to lvthunder:</a></em></blockquote><p>iMac Pro, I think I misread the original comment in the same way that Bob_Shutts did. </p>

  • wright_is

    Premium Member
    19 March, 2019 - 9:59 am

    <p>Sorry, HDD and Fusion is so 2015. In this price class, I would expect either a large SSD or a 250/500GB SSD + HDD/Fusion drive.</p><p>The RAM is also a little on the meager side, I would be looking at a minimum of 16GB these days. But if it is upgradeable, it is okay.</p><p>Given the included monitors, the prices are high, but borderline acceptable – assuming you don't already have a decent monitor. That was always the problem with iMacs, the hardware usually needs updating long before the screen has reached end of life. But that is something you have to take into account, if you go with an iMac.</p>

    • jimchamplin

      Premium Member
      19 March, 2019 - 12:11 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#413688">In reply to wright_is:</a></em></blockquote><p>Apple is also really bad about using cheap, slow drives. </p><p><br></p><p>“How about a nice, fast quad i7 box? You like that? Yeah? 5400RPM disk you bastard. Yeah. And you have to literally rip the thing apart to change the disk. You want speed? Don’t look here. All we have is the price tag. Also, pitiful integrated graphics on everything but the most stratospherically priced models. This is premium hardware for sure!”</p><p><br></p><p>My late 2012 Mac mini is the last Mac I’ll ever buy new. If I get another, it will be used, and it’s the expansion that’s the entire reason.</p>

  • evox81

    Premium Member
    19 March, 2019 - 10:00 am

    <p>Starting at 8GB of RAM, even on the $2300 model? What year is it? </p>

  • warren

    19 March, 2019 - 10:26 am

    <p>The T2 chip is little more than a proprietary, non-standard Trusted Platform Module chip. TPMs have always made more sense in laptops than in desktops, just because of the comparative ease of theft.</p><p><br></p><p>The notion that it has something to do with the type of drive in the machine is at best a cop-out. Microsoft had BitLocker working on HDD's almost 15 years ago. No reason Apple can't offer similar facilities, other than laziness (and small marketshare for desktop Macs, I guess — less than 10 million a year worldwide.)</p>

    • jdjan

      Premium Member
      19 March, 2019 - 10:42 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#413693">In reply to warren:</a></em></blockquote><blockquote><em>Apple has had filevault for years. If I'm not mistaken it was offered free with the core OS before bitlocker on Windows 7. </em></blockquote><p><br></p>

      • warren

        19 March, 2019 - 10:56 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#413698">In reply to jdjan:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Incorrect.</p><p><br></p><p>Bitlocker was introduced with Windows Vista, and TPM hardware was supported from the outset. Fritz-chip? Palladium? Penny Arcade's cartoon about "M$"? any of this ring a bell? Laptops with a TPM were around as early as 2006.</p><p><br></p><p>FileVault before Mac OS X Lion (in 2011) only encrypted the user's home directory. FileVault 2 does full-disk encryption but it isn't assisted by hardware. Apple has never shipped a TPM with their laptops, and the T2 chip is not compatible with the TPM spec. It's one of the many reasons why you should not use a MacBook to run Windows in a secure corporate environment.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

    • bob_shutts

      19 March, 2019 - 11:41 am

      <blockquote><a href="#413693"><em>In reply to warren:</em></a><em> IMO it's a good thing that the new desktop line doesn't use the T2 chip. This will guarantee that future OS releases will function without it for the foreseeable future. Which in turn means hackintoshes can continue to be built for a long time.</em></blockquote><p><br></p>

      • jimchamplin

        Premium Member
        19 March, 2019 - 7:54 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#413720">In reply to Bob_Shutts:</a></em></blockquote><p>It's been an open secret for years that Apple gives almost no shits about Hackintoshing. The only thing they've ever done to make it difficult was a hard-coded block in the kernel so it crashes on Intel Atom CPUs for no other reason than spite.</p><p><br></p><p>Jobs hated netbooks, and people were running Mac OS on netbooks.</p>

    • warren

      19 March, 2019 - 9:34 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#413693">In reply to warren:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Lol, downvotes. People are too chickenshit to read Wikipedia, I guess. I'm not saying anything that isn't well-documented.</p><p><br></p>

      • MikeGalos

        19 March, 2019 - 10:07 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#413883">In reply to warren:</a></em></blockquote><p>It isn't that it wasn't well documented. You made the grievous sin of admitting there were things Apple didn't "invent". That's guaranteed downvotes. More if Apple implied they "invented" it in a keynote. Even more if Apple "inventing" it was implied in an ad.</p>

        • dontbe evil

          20 March, 2019 - 2:15 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#413886">In reply to MikeGalos:</a></em></blockquote><p>guys have an upvote from me, butthurt apple fans are already on the downvote fight</p>

  • jdjan

    Premium Member
    19 March, 2019 - 10:47 am

    <p>Apples inconsistency is puzzling but, given the issues with repairability that accompany the T2, I am glad they are leaving it out of the desktops. Also desktops don't have TouchID. Then again I doubt that improving repairability was on Apples list of reasons for this.</p>

  • bob_shutts

    19 March, 2019 - 11:36 am

    <p>Why oh why does Apple continue to include a 5400 rpm spinning disc as an option? Someone ought to make Tim Cook use a PC with a 5400 disc for a week. His hair would turn even whiter.</p>

    • steenmachine

      19 March, 2019 - 12:27 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#413718">In reply to Bob_Shutts:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Agree. And their pure SSD prices are just high. </p><p><br></p><p>But pretty sure the 27" have 7200rpm spinning fusion drives. 33% faster and the &gt;1TB have 128GB SSD. </p>

      • wright_is

        Premium Member
        20 March, 2019 - 1:41 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#413727">In reply to SteenMachine:</a></em></blockquote><p>Even so, spinning runst is just not a suitable medium for an OS these days. I have 3 SSDs in my PC and a 2TB spinning rust. The SSDs are OS, private files and VMs, the spinning rust gets rsynced with the private files and VMs and from there synced to Carbonite.</p><p>For long term storage of seldomly used files, spinning rust is fine. For a film or music collection, which is only streamed, it is fine. For an OS or regularly used data, it is too slow.</p>

    • dontbe evil

      20 March, 2019 - 2:14 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#413718">In reply to Bob_Shutts:</a></em></blockquote><p>easy, to increase their profits, they don't care about their user. and they don't have to as long they're keeping blindly buying their devices</p>

      • Greg Green

        20 March, 2019 - 7:54 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#413925">In reply to dontbe_evil:</a></em></blockquote><p>Like MS. Regular customers are testers, testing for important business customers. Ordinary consumer is only there to be used.</p>

  • Chris Payne

    19 March, 2019 - 12:54 pm

    <p>"Starting today, you can buy both the 21.5 and 27in iMacs with 8th gen Intel CPUs with the smaller device offering four and six core options with the larger device letting you jump all the way up to an eight-core option if you don’t mind spending a bit more."</p><p><br></p><p>This is one of the most horribly written sentences I've ever read. Ever heard of a comma?</p>

    • spullum

      Premium Member
      19 March, 2019 - 2:35 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#413740">In reply to unkinected:</a></em></blockquote><p>This is one of the &lt;most horribly written&gt; [rudest] &lt;sentences&gt; [comments] I've ever read &lt;on this site&gt;. Ever heard of &lt;a comma&gt; [politeness]? How about "you catch more flies with honey?"&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Are you trying to be a troll? Or just pedantic?&nbsp;</p>

  • CRoebuck

    Premium Member
    19 March, 2019 - 5:45 pm

    <p>There's pages of issues over on MacRumours with users reporting Kernel panics on T2 equipped devices, perhaps the omission here is related?</p>

  • arnav2012

    19 March, 2019 - 10:23 pm

    <p>hi, thanks for sharing of this information. it will be very helpful</p><p> satish kumar</p>

  • dontbe evil

    20 March, 2019 - 2:13 am

    <p>How much does it throttle?</p><p><br></p><p>new security chip will included in the next best ima evaaaa, adding only 299$ to the total price</p>

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