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mythja · Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 12:50 pm

ok, the time has finally come to leave behind pc and move forward to iMac. but now i have a dilemma. i know it is obviously better to buy the new high end i7 processor and maximum RAM.
but first of all i would have to wait for a month for it because they don't have it right now.
and second the older model Quad-core i5 2.7GHz/Radeon HD 6770M 512MB/SD is like 800$ cheaper. i am doing heavy photoshop editing and sometimes i have lightroom, photoshop and illustrator open at the same time as well as few lighter applications.
so i am wandering is it necessary for me to wait for new i7 and spend that extra 800$ or this i5 model although it is slightly older version will do?
i have no idea how much is this new imac better in performance for what i need it for.

i would appreciate some advice.

thanks

hhltdave5 · Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 1:27 pm

My 27" iMac is about a year and a half old and the only thing I did with it was to add more ram. I don't usually have all those programs open but I know Laurin does things like that. He may be able to chime in. His is about a year old and I know he got some extra do dads put in but exactly what I don't know.

Hopefully some of our more geeky friends will help. I am only slightly geeky so my knowledge is not up to theirs in this area :)

mythja · Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 2:49 pm

lol. you should be happy you're not that geeky. my eyes are falling out lately from staring at the screen.

rinder99 · Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 3:23 pm

current IMAC 27 comes with 4GB of ram.Upgrade to 16, get fastest Graphics card and you will be blown away...Blown away.I had to do this because I got seriously involved in Footage and Finalcut Pro,After Effects and Motion. And why i was so stubborn hanging on to PC, I'll never know. sure wasted a lot of money for way to long on Big Gamer PC's and stupid Windows OS. Hopefully This year Im gonna go for the big Guy. G5 tower with 64 GB's of Memory and 2 30in Cinema displays.About 10K. If I ever need more than that. I'll go to work for James Cameron.LOL

Ever hear anyone say "Sure glad I went back to PC"? Still have my new 17IN studio PC laptop and everytime I open it, I gotta wait for 10 updates to load. Mac Just works and it's intuitive and it remembers things and it Loves Processing software.

Couldn't be happier. Macbook Pro coming soon also.Then I think after all these years Im finally done screwing around with a machine built by 300 companies as compared to one built by one company.Thats my advice.

mythja · Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 5:29 pm

thanks Laurin. i am getting iMac without the doubt and very soon, question is only should i get new version i7 or older version i5. because of the time i need to wait and the price. of course newer i7 has the better graphic card, but i don't do video so i just don't know if i need it.

hhltdave5 · Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 6:16 pm

Do you have an Apple store near you> If so why not go in and fire up the most current one, open up a bunch of programs and see how it handles it. Might give you an idea of if it will be enough.

rinder99 · Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 7:07 pm

I would for sure get I7. it's not about what your doing Now. You just might be doing More later.The new PC's from dell are all I7 now.And for sure the 27, Not the 22.Your gonna love the monitor. Trouble is, Your gonna see stuff you missed before.

pjmorley · Joined: 15 Apr 2005 Posts: 3300

Well to put things into perspective. It's not always about buying the biggest and best, usually most expensive thing that's available.

It's about getting what's appropriate. As an indicator, as I type on a Mcbook Pro 15" 2.4Ghz i5 processor and 8GB RAM.

As a test I have opened a few programs at the same time and these are..

Photoshop CS5 12MP image running pixel bender filters
Adobe Illustrator CS5 messing with filters etc.
Adobe After Effects CS5 rendering a 16 second HD video with several shatter effects
Firefox for Mac to write this

And... Parallels Desktop running Windows 7 all at the same time and just run a program called Wondershare Quiz Creator which generates Flash based quizzes and browsing SS on IE...

I have to be honest and say that at this stage, IE is struggling a little but everything else is running fine and I am switching between them without a hitch.

I think the i5 as long as you get plenty of RAM will run PS, AI and Lightroom without breaking a sweat.

pjmorley · Joined: 15 Apr 2005 Posts: 3300

And the video rendered before I finished typing the last post. This is a laptop so the i5 you mentioned is probably more than enough for your needs. Or you could wait a month to spend an extra $800.

jeffbanke · Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 12:48 am

So, as someone who uses both an iMac, and a Windows 7 based computer as well as several Windows XP computers, I can tell you this, each has its advantages and each disadvantages.

The biggest drawback of an iMac is the problem of inability to add hard drives.
Adobe has from the outset and still to this day recommends having the system software and PS on one drive, a seperate drive for the scratch drive, and yet another for images.

This is not to say that you cannot run programs like PJ on a laptop, simply if you want to spend less time processing and more time shooting then optimizing as

ADOBE has suggested whether you are on a Windows platform or an APPLE platform does not matter.
My iMac is an older iMac, i3 dual core with 16GB of RAM, does not have sufficient inputs, so all drives are external except the system drive, so is not a rocket ship, however is faster than anything else I own except my new Windows 7 computer

FYI, I built my new Windows 7 machine a few months ago for around $1700, it has a quad i7 processor, 16GB of DRAM, 2 x SSD's (one the C drive, the other the scratch), 2x 2 TB hard drives for image storage, the fastest 1GB graphics card I could buy. Naturally it performs much faster than the iMac.

So, my suggestion is get the fastest machine you can as it will last you longer.

mythja · Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 2:59 am

thanks guys. i think i will go for i7 3,4. i wouldn't want to regret later. i will ad RAM myself because they really overcharge it in the store.

for your information, my largest photoshop file had about 1,5GB - 2,0 GB before flattening.
i don't care about few seconds faster or slower, but struggling or freezing or stopping working while saving or working i find very frustrating, not to mention time and work lost.

i think if i waited this long i guess i can take another month.

rinder99 · Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 1:38 pm

Good call. a word about Ram. it takes all of 10 minutes to install more ram Cards in a IMAC and there ar videos on youtube explaining How. just make sure your not on a rug or something that has static. Thats a biggie. When I first bought mine at a authorized Apple dealer I told then to install 16 of Ram. My machine very quickly had crashing problems with Finalcut which is a huge Hog for power. I took the machine back and they ran a bench diagnostic and come to find out they installed some faulty Ram, They ordered new ones from Samsung which were fedexed in and It is perfect and super fast. I did not use apple Ram because they charge $200 for each 4GB module . I got all 16/ 4-4GB cards for $50 each. My tech said these Samsung are just fine and are the same specs as apple. I also got apple care and highly recommend it. Only one problem By trying to save money, If something happens I have to take it to where I bought It and cannot send it to apple because I installed third party Memory and My warrenty became void Unless I reinstall the original Ram cards before I send it in.Which I sent to dave for his machine. But It's been a year and still Hums along. I use 3 3TB EXT hard drives with time Machine and wireless to airport Extreme.

mythja · Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 4:58 am

thanks for great advices Laurin. i am so excited about this. cannot wait for it to arrive. :)

dmvphotos · Joined: 05 Sep 2008 Posts: 2158 Location: Virginia, USA

hhltdave5 · Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 8:32 pm