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    iMac Purchase

    On the verge of purchasing an iMac and been doing a little bit of research , went to the local Apple shop where i got a surprisingly honest assistant (turned out he was part time and was a graphics designer in his proper job) after asking him a few questions he basically said buy the lower spec - i5 , 1TB drive , 8GB Ram - model as the i5 is adequate for photography ( i7 would be better for videos / 3D work ) , there wasn't that much difference in the speed between the fusion and non-fusion drive (he did demonstrate with two adjacent computers and it was only seconds , not like you could go and make a cup of tea.....) and it would be better to buy a ram upgrade from the likes of cruical (told you he was honest ! not on commission apparently ) .

    I've also trawled the web and the results were mixed , buy the i7 if you've got the money , the i5 is adequate , get a fusion drive but not the 1TB as it only has 24gb of SSD , now i'm not loaded but i think an extra £450 for the i7 and 2TB Fusion is a lot of money on top of the £1900 starting price , so i'll probably go for the i5 , 1TB (i store my photos on NAS and external drives anyway ) and the standard 8gb RAM (which i'll upgrade myself for a couple of hundred quid) .

    Your thoughts would be appreciated
    Thanks in advance !

    Edit - forgot to say it's the 27" 5K model......
    Canon Eos 5D Mark IV + EF 16-35 L MkII + Tamron 24-70 DI VC USD G2 + Sigma 150-600 DG OS HSM S
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/60783975@N03/

    #2
    Re: iMac Purchase

    I think you've take the right approach there. I would check you can add the RAM yourself before committing but iI have an i5 MBP with 8GB of RAM and RAM's the limiting factor - so much so that when I run LR now I have to close practically everything else to avoid the SBOD
    EOS 7D mk II, Sigma 150-660C, Canon 17-85 EF-S, Tamron 10-24 and a wife who shares my obsession.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: iMac Purchase

      Hi Andy ,
      Yes you can upgrade the RAM on the 27" (but not on the 21.5") up to 32GB apparently .
      Also thinking of buying from John Lewis as you get a 2 year guarantee as standard there .
      Canon Eos 5D Mark IV + EF 16-35 L MkII + Tamron 24-70 DI VC USD G2 + Sigma 150-600 DG OS HSM S
      http://www.flickr.com/photos/60783975@N03/

      Comment


        #4
        Re: iMac Purchase

        Sounds good to me. JL will price match I guess so no different from Apple.
        EOS 7D mk II, Sigma 150-660C, Canon 17-85 EF-S, Tamron 10-24 and a wife who shares my obsession.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: iMac Purchase

          Apple floor staff are not on commission. They will frequently offer to downsell quite genuinely. Currys/PCW were offering 10% cashback and Apple will match this if it's still running. Additionally, Apple offers 10% discount for some qualifying buyers - students etc.

          Take a look at Apple's refurbished online store - you will often find immaculate equipment at 15% off. My last MacBook was a refurb with 25% discount.

          Your spec logic is good although personally I would look 2-3 years forward and probably stretch to the i7.

          Comment


            #6
            Re: iMac Purchase

            I can speak from a very recent experience. 2 years ago I made the jump from PC to iMac and bought the i5 21.5 with 8gb ram and 1TB HD. This served me well until recent months when it slowed right down when having LR and PS open at the same time. It would take a good 3 mins to load LR even though my pics on are an external usb3 hard drive.
            After much searching I found a local company who could upgrade the memory to the max at 16gb and I had the HD swapped to 1TB solid state drive. The difference is amazing. It's now reads and writes 5 times faster and LR boots within 3 seconds!!!!
            I can have everything open and still it performs so fast. Now this upgrade wasn't cheap but for me the investment was well worth it and has given me a machine that will last for another 3 years at least
            Alan.

            7D2, 24-105 L / 70-200 F2.8 ii L / 50 F1.8 prime / Sigma 10-20 F4-F5.6

            Website www.alanreeve.co.uk

            Please take a look https://www.flickr.com/photos/82149274@N07/sets & https://www.facebook.com/reevephotography

            Comment


              #7
              Re: iMac Purchase

              You should never underestimate the impact of going from spinning rust to an SSD. As much as adding RAM can improve a system, I think an SSD can improve it as much if not more.
              EOS 7D mk II, Sigma 150-660C, Canon 17-85 EF-S, Tamron 10-24 and a wife who shares my obsession.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: iMac Purchase

                Originally posted by AndyMulhearn View Post
                You should never underestimate the impact of going from spinning rust to an SSD. As much as adding RAM can improve a system, I think an SSD can improve it as much if not more.
                Totally agree Andy
                Alan.

                7D2, 24-105 L / 70-200 F2.8 ii L / 50 F1.8 prime / Sigma 10-20 F4-F5.6

                Website www.alanreeve.co.uk

                Please take a look https://www.flickr.com/photos/82149274@N07/sets & https://www.facebook.com/reevephotography

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: iMac Purchase

                  You may also want to browse macrumors website - the expectation is that the iMac range will be refreshed during Q1/Q2 which typically results in improved spec at same price.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: iMac Purchase

                    Mine is a 27" from mid 2011....I too was advised by the Apple Store staff to buy extra RAM from Crucial......on their web site you just put in your model number and it gives you the options. I kept the 2MB in 2 slots and added 2 more 8MB for 20MB....works fine.

                    Also I was told that a Mac slows if you keep too many files on the desktop.....and I think thats right.

                    this is my system report...

                    Model Name: iMac
                    Model Identifier: iMac12,2
                    Processor Name: Intel Core i5
                    Processor Speed: 2.7 GHz
                    Number of Processors: 1
                    Total Number of Cores: 4
                    L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
                    L3 Cache: 6 MB
                    Memory: 20 GB
                    Brian Vickers LRPS

                    brianvickersphotography.com

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: iMac Purchase

                      Originally posted by Enigma View Post
                      You may also want to browse macrumors website - the expectation is that the iMac range will be refreshed during Q1/Q2 which typically results in improved spec at same price.
                      Although possibly with an extended inability to modify your own piece of kit, i.e. to add more RAM...
                      EOS 7D mk II, Sigma 150-660C, Canon 17-85 EF-S, Tamron 10-24 and a wife who shares my obsession.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: iMac Purchase

                        I bought the 27" I7 with 1TB fusion drive, it failed after 12 months and despite attempting to repair it 4 times Apple agreed to replace it with a brand new one under warranty (2 years by law in Spain). I got a new one and took the opportunity to upgrade it to the 2TB fusion drive, this new machine with the larger fusion drive is definitely faster than the old one with 1TB drive. I bought the 8GB version and added an additional 16gb of ram myself for less than £100. If you can run to it my advice would be to go I7 2TB Fusion and 8gb. Also get yourself at least a 2TB USB3 external drive to use for TimeMachine backups.
                        --
                        Colin
                        http://fotos-espana.com
                        http://macameraclub.com
                        http://turnspain.com

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: iMac Purchase

                          Originally posted by AndyMulhearn View Post
                          Although possibly with an extended inability to modify your own piece of kit, i.e. to add more RAM...
                          I believe the last upgrade to the iMacs spec was to reduce the size of the SSE part of the 1 TB fusion drive , it's just the fact that with the basic iMac you can't upgrade the processor that is annoying, you've got to spend more money to give them even more money for a better processor . As for waiting for the newer model the way things are going I can't see you getting a better spec for the same price (thanks to brexit the price has recently gone up , thanks Boris !)
                          Canon Eos 5D Mark IV + EF 16-35 L MkII + Tamron 24-70 DI VC USD G2 + Sigma 150-600 DG OS HSM S
                          http://www.flickr.com/photos/60783975@N03/

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: iMac Purchase

                            Originally posted by Gordon_H View Post
                            I believe the last upgrade to the iMacs spec was to reduce the size of the SSE part of the 1 TB fusion drive , it's just the fact that with the basic iMac you can't upgrade the processor that is annoying, you've got to spend more money to give them even more money for a better processor . As for waiting for the newer model the way things are going I can't see you getting a better spec for the same price (thanks to brexit the price has recently gone up , thanks Boris !)
                            My comment was more related to the fact that Apple kit seems to be getting less and less end-user upgradable as each new version comes out. With Laptops you can understand it, though others manage it, but not being able to upgrade RAM in desktops seems just plain wrong...
                            EOS 7D mk II, Sigma 150-660C, Canon 17-85 EF-S, Tamron 10-24 and a wife who shares my obsession.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: iMac Purchase

                              It seems so Andy !
                              Canon Eos 5D Mark IV + EF 16-35 L MkII + Tamron 24-70 DI VC USD G2 + Sigma 150-600 DG OS HSM S
                              http://www.flickr.com/photos/60783975@N03/

                              Comment

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