Shutterstock Photographer Forum :: View topic

twoellis · Joined: 03 Aug 2006 Posts: 1085

Get the best you can afford. In my experience, Macs hold their value nicely. When you want to upgrade, your used model can easily be sold for decent money to recoup the cost of your latest model. Darn! I just realized I should be upgrading shortly...it's been 2-3 years!

mythja · Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 2:15 am

ok, i bought it. iMac 3.4Ghz i7, 4gb ram - i am upgrading to 16 gb as soon as the shop has it, AMD Radeon HD 6970M.

i must say i expected much faster machine. it is somehow struggling with photoshop files over 400mb. my old pc that was really rubbish with 4gb ram was even faster in some processes although i experienced crashes. i am running on Lion and i read that some users experienced slower performance than they had with Snow Leopard. is there some way or software i can optimize the system for faster performance.

of course some processes are much faster and stable than pc but the main reason for buying was because of the photoshop.
i truly hope it will be faster with 16gb of ram.

kenk · Joined: 30 Jun 2005 Posts: 2946

kev303 · Joined: 10 Apr 2008 Posts: 3 Location: Shrewsbury, UK.

I couldn't see this already mentioned in this thread so sorry if it already has been...

Have you got an Apple refurbished section on your Apple website in your country? In the UK it is bottom left of the 'Store' page.

I was able to get last years (a year ago) 27 inch i7 iMac with the 'extra special' processor and larger harddrive for £1100 saving about £600 - £700.

I then upgraded its RAM with Samsung memory.

rinder99 · Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 11:19 am

Samsung Memory is what I used. apple charges to much.

martyhaas · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 148

jeffbanke · Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 12:51 pm

A few more things for the OP:
You will certainly notice a difference in the performance with 16GB of DRAM (I also installed Samsung memory).

As I pointed out before it is essential for maximizing throughput to have a hard drive assigned as the Scratch drive for PS, and that it is not the drive which PS and Lion are on.
It is also advised to have images on a third drive, which is the problem with the iMAC's as it is not really possible to do this internally and take advantage of the faster SATA 3 bus, so one has to use external drives using the slower USB 3 (in my case USB 2) bus. However, since the image is loaded into RAm, once it is there, this does not slow the processing down any until the SAVE part of the process.

It is not necessary to get the largest iMAC, I use a 21 inch iMAC with an additional Samsung monitor attached giving me 42 inches of screen to work with. I just don't like having things stacked on top of each other, so for example have my system set up with BRIDGE on the Samsung, and Photoshop on the MAC screen, (I also use a Tablet and Pen), in this way I can just move back and forth with the greatest speed, and without having to open an close or find where a window is to bring it to the top, etc.

My process is all about maximizing throughput while working on the computer so that I can spend more time shooting.

rinder99 · Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 2:15 pm

Good advice.

martyhaas · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 148

rinder99 · Posted: Tue May 29, 2012 9:02 pm

Theres a cable apple sells. also Now they offer 2TB HD.

jeffbanke · Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 12:05 am

martyhaas · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 148

Thanks for the answers about the 2nd monitor.

jeffbanke · Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 11:22 am

This is what you get on the two screens using them the way I do, Bridge on the left and ACR on the right. As you can see, it makes the job of selecting material to tweak, and the simultaneous adjustment of parameters very quick and easy to see, without having to close windows or move or shrink them.
I do my keywording in Bridge, so you can see that I can get to the keyword library quickly, again without moving, opening, closing anything. I can add copyright data from Bridge by applying a template, and again without having to open anything, etc.

martyhaas · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 148

At the office I have two 24" monitors and love it. I did at home for awhile but finally decided I needed the desk space more than I did the second monitor. Of course, the 2nd monitor was a fat CRT.