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grreyeyezz
join:2002-01-05
Cleveland, OH

grreyeyezz

Member

[Beginner] I checked out a 27" Imac for the first time......

and being a dedicated Windows user I was kind of disappointed. Clicking on apps from the dock and they took a good 5-7 seconds to open. MS Word for mac literally to 20 seconds. Here's the specs: (this is a brand new rig but older version)

27" LED-backlit Display with IPS Technology
Intel Core i5 Quad Core Processor 3.2GHz
Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite
8GB DDR3-1600 RAM
1TB 7,200RPM Hard Drive
NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M

My W7 pro machine with identical 8G RAM will open Word in one second after a reboot, and most other programs open instantaneously.

I was thinking of giving Apple a try but can't see paying $1,400 for this kind of performance. Is this normal? Can the OS be tweaked for better performance? Is 8G ram not enough? Maybe an OS upgrade?

Enlighten me mac geeks please.

rjackal
Premium Member
join:2002-07-09
Plymouth, MI

3 recommendations

rjackal

Premium Member

8GB RAM should be plenty. Was this in an Apple store, or someone you know?
I just wonder what else was running on it.
I suspect the hard drive. An SSD would do wonders for OS boot time and app load time.
I have a 2012 MacBook Pro laptop with i5 CPU, 8GB RAM, with OS and apps installed on an SSD and it performs better than what you described.

tubbynet
reminds me of the danse russe
MVM
join:2008-01-16
Gilbert, AZ

tubbynet

MVM

said by rjackal:

I suspect the hard drive. An SSD would do wonders for OS boot time and app load time.

this.
if you're spinning platters -- you're doing it wrong at this point.
i've got an old hp 6530b c2d system with an ssd -- and a newer hp 8450p with a 3xxx-series i5 and an hdd. the older machine blows the i5 out of the water. why? goes back to disk.

q.
grreyeyezz
join:2002-01-05
Cleveland, OH

grreyeyezz

Member

Re: [Beginner] I checked out a 27" Imac for the first time......

Apple store.
Has to be more than the drive, my windows rig has a platter and it destroys the imac speed wise.

tubbynet
reminds me of the danse russe
MVM
join:2008-01-16
Gilbert, AZ

2 recommendations

tubbynet

MVM

said by grreyeyezz:

Has to be more than the drive, my windows rig has a platter and it destroys the imac speed wise.

having been to many an apple store -- i can't say that i've ever seen word installed on a demo machine.
my bet -- it was doing something in the background to "ready" the system for it (it was possibly a demo version or something?).

q.
mozart11
join:2004-02-02
Mineola, NY

3 recommendations

mozart11 to grreyeyezz

Member

to grreyeyezz
Yosemite in Apple Store? Recently or years ago? Nice try though.

darcilicious
Cyber Librarian
Premium Member
join:2001-01-02
Forest Grove, OR

darcilicious to grreyeyezz

Premium Member

to grreyeyezz
Right, El Capitan is much faster...

sfogliatelle
We Is Whut We Am
Premium Member
join:2002-05-29
Baton Rouge, LA

sfogliatelle to grreyeyezz

Premium Member

to grreyeyezz
Not that I'm disputing your observations, but I find it puzzling that you'd encounter a desktop iMac with a previous OS (Yosemite) installed, at an Apple store, no less.

Presumably this was a recent visit, as in the last 6 months?

tubbynet
reminds me of the danse russe
MVM
join:2008-01-16
Gilbert, AZ

4 recommendations

tubbynet

MVM

said by sfogliatelle:

Presumably this was a recent visit, as in the last 6 months?

or just a trolling attempt...

q.

dennismurphy
Put me on hold? I'll put YOU on hold
Premium Member
join:2002-11-19
Parsippany, NJ

1 recommendation

dennismurphy

Premium Member

said by tubbynet:

said by sfogliatelle:

Presumably this was a recent visit, as in the last 6 months?

or just a trolling attempt...

q.

I'm wondering if this was at either Circuit City or CompUSA. Those guys never took care of their Macs. I mean, seriously, they put the Centrises on display and keep the Quadras boxed up! That's so wrong ...

Cesco
Electronic Box
Premium Member
join:2009-01-28
Montreal, QC

3 recommendations

Cesco to grreyeyezz

Premium Member

to grreyeyezz
Click for full size
Not sure on the brand new.
From the specs you posted, this could be a late 2013 iMac which retailed for $1799 USD and came with 10.8.

For $1400 running 10.10 it may be a used machine possibly bogged by previous owner's cruft and MS Word.
grreyeyezz
join:2002-01-05
Cleveland, OH

grreyeyezz

Member

My local Microcenter one of the largest mac dealers in NE Ohio. Go Cavs!
»www.microcenter.com/prod ··· Computer
kes601
join:2007-04-14
Virginia Beach, VA

kes601

Member

Which would not be an Apple Store. It's a store that sells Apple products. Not the same thing.

Mike
Mod
join:2000-09-17
Pittsburgh, PA

Mike to grreyeyezz

Mod

to grreyeyezz
quote:
1TB 7,200RPM Hard Drive
Eject eject eject

Apple should not use spinning disks in Macs. They're embarrassing.

Hall
MVM
join:2000-04-28
Germantown, OH

Hall to grreyeyezz

MVM

to grreyeyezz
I have a MacBook Air, 2013, 1.3 ghz i5, 4gb RAM, with SSD. Word 2011 opens in 1-2 seconds.
Hall

1 recommendation

Hall to grreyeyezz

MVM

to grreyeyezz
said by grreyeyezz:

My local Microcenter one of the largest mac dealers in NE Ohio. Go Cavs!

As you've now discovered, when something is wrong with Apple products, it's the user's fault.
Hall

1 recommendation

Hall to kes601

MVM

to kes601
said by kes601:

Which would not be an Apple Store. It's a store that sells Apple products. Not the same thing.

So are you saying that if it was in an Apple Store, it would magically run faster ? MicroCenter is an authorized Apple retailer.

digitalfutur
Sees More Than Shown
Premium Member
join:2000-07-15
GTA

digitalfutur to grreyeyezz

Premium Member

to grreyeyezz
Cost, i.e. value, is the only thing that's keeping me from getting an Apple desktop PC, which looks great and performs very well.

I love my iPhone 6, but I have one because my company pays for it. Good thing Microsoft makes all its core apps available for iOS, as I don't use any native Apple mobile apps, except for Apple Music; because they don't play well with my Windows laptop...also company paid.

darcilicious
Cyber Librarian
Premium Member
join:2001-01-02
Forest Grove, OR

1 recommendation

darcilicious

Premium Member

I "splurged" on a MacBook Air fall before last. That was a mistake -- because now I just went and splurged on a 27" iMac (Retina) and I'm in loooooove

tubbynet
reminds me of the danse russe
MVM
join:2008-01-16
Gilbert, AZ

2 recommendations

tubbynet to Hall

MVM

to Hall
i'll go out on a limb -- yes.
apple stores are not just selling hardware -- they are selling the experience. the devices in the apple store demos arent refurbs, returns, or of questionable origin. they arent loaded with stuff. they are pure apple machines.

the microcenter doesnt care to that same leve. they are selling hardware, and value, not experience, is bringing people in.
the fact that word was even preloaded is suspicious, given thats a paid-for suite of apps. was the device "new"? was it refurb? was it pre-owned and returned? who did what to it? you dont ask these questions at an apple store because they aren't relevant. why? they dont happen.

should a patron have the same expectation of quality when dining at a red lobster, as opposed to a mccormick and schmicks? no. but they sell on different principles -- even though the sell the same food.

say what you want about the 'cult of apple' -- but this is a case where the point is greatly less valid.

q.
kes601
join:2007-04-14
Virginia Beach, VA

1 recommendation

kes601 to Hall

Member

to Hall
Given that the machine was running Yosemite it is obvious it wasn't being updated or having maintenance run on it, so yes, it would have been running faster. Magically, not so much.
Liberty
Premium Member
join:2005-06-12
Arizona

1 recommendation

Liberty to grreyeyezz

Premium Member

to grreyeyezz
fwiw While killing time at Apple store recently, waiting on my turn with Genius, I played with some random laptop nearby.
I was semi surprised to see FileMaker in the dock & opened it.

It took quit a bit longer to open than I am used to.
Before I had a chance to explore what else might have already been running to bog it down my turn came up.

I use FM daily.

bjf123
We Want... A Shrubbery
Premium Member
join:2000-02-11
Hamilton, OH

bjf123

Premium Member

I've got a 27" iMac with these specs. Word 2011 or 2016 takes about 7 seconds to open. The system ran much better until I upgraded to El Capitan and Office 2016. I have to hold down the power button about once a day to force a reboot when everything gets stuck.

Hall
MVM
join:2000-04-28
Germantown, OH

Hall to tubbynet

MVM

to tubbynet
If you had checked the link the OP provided, you would have seen that they offer it with a trial version of MS Office.
Hall

1 recommendation

Hall to kes601

MVM

to kes601
said by kes601:

Given that the machine was running Yosemite it is obvious it wasn't being updated or having maintenance run on it, so yes, it would have been running faster. Magically, not so much.

Could be as simple as they don't put every machine on the internet. No internet, no updates (and no security risk).

Please tell me what maintenance I can run on my 21" iMac that will make it faster. It is running El Capitan already too.
Hall

Hall to Liberty

MVM

to Liberty
said by Liberty:

While killing time at Apple store recently, waiting on my turn with Genius, I played with some random laptop nearby.
I was semi surprised to see FileMaker in the dock & opened it.

I saw a 3rd-party app (can't recall what it was but want to say it was an Adobe app) pre-installed on an iMac at the local Apple store a few weeks ago.

FileMaker is an Apple company so that's not as surprising....
grreyeyezz
join:2002-01-05
Cleveland, OH

1 recommendation

grreyeyezz

Member

I'll sit down with one of the newer ones with a fusion drive, do a fresh restart and start opening apps and folders and compare. Five seconds for a system app to load to the desktop is unacceptable for a $1500 machine, platter or SD.

Also will inquire about those late 2013 models.

Hall
MVM
join:2000-04-28
Germantown, OH

Hall

MVM

I have an older iMac ('09) with a mechanical HDD and a MacBook Air with a SSD. Starting the iMac when powered off probably 1-2 minutes or longer. I really don't know.... I walk away when it's turned on. The MBA takes less than 20 seconds from pushing the power button to having the desktop up and ready to use.

Opening MS Word on the MBA takes less than 2 seconds. Really barely over 1 second.... On the iMac, I tend not to "Quit" Word or Excel. I just close their active windows so technically they're almost always running, just no documents loaded.

The iMac has a 500gb HDD but I use less than 200gb of that. It also has 12gb of RAM but I've seriously considered replacing the HDD with an SSD. Cost is probably the main holdback as I'd be tempted to maintain the same size but figure I could get away with a 256gb SSD. We'll see...

My next iMac will definitely have an SSD, that's for sure !

djrobx
Premium Member
join:2000-05-31
Reno, NV

djrobx to grreyeyezz

Premium Member

to grreyeyezz

Re: [Beginner] I checked out a 27" Imac for the first time......

My W7 pro machine with identical 8G RAM will open Word in one second after a reboot, and most other programs open instantaneously.

In Win7, Microsoft put a huge amount of focus on performance. One of the tricks was prefetch

»windows.microsoft.com/en ··· h-folder

Windows learns which apps you open frequently, and caches them so they're ready to go. This is likely helping Word come up quickly. I don't think Mac has that feature, but with modern SSDs it's a lot less of an issue anyway.

In general I feel Windows 7+ is "faster" (8 even faster still), but on modern machines are fast enough that it's just not that bothersome to me. The overall experience using a Macbook with its touchpad gestures (flipping across virtual desktops with 3 finger swipes is beautiful when you manage several remote desktops and do work in Windows VMs), and iCloud integration with my phone, and not suffering with Microsoft's relentless attempts to push people towards that Metro UI abomination, outweighs minor performance nitpicking.
grreyeyezz
join:2002-01-05
Cleveland, OH

grreyeyezz

Member

said by djrobx:

Windows learns which apps you open frequently, and caches them so they're ready to go. This is likely helping Word come up quickly. I don't think Mac has that feature, but with modern SSDs it's a lot less of an issue anyway.

That feature is implemented in the Mac fusion drive which stores frequently used apps on the flash portion of the drive. The rest of the drive is a spinner. It's not a true SSD nor will it be as fast as a true SSD.

Replacing the drive in a imac with a true SSD is not an option for me as the unit needs to be disassembled.