?: Trying to find the best configuration for iMac

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Hello everyone,

A starving photographer here!

Actually, thank goodness not quite that bad, but I am watching my "computer funds" as it is close to the time Im going to be needing a new iMac.

What Im looking for is that perfect balance of performance vs. investment. I do a lot of heavy lifting in Photoshop with lots of layers, filters and large files (usually TIFF files that are over 1GB) and Im trying to configure something that won't break the bank but will still perform well given my editing needs.

What do you think of this configuration?:

27" iMac, i5 processor (3.4GHz), 32GIG RAM, 256GB SSD and 4GB graphics card

The price would be $2499 which would be at the upper limit for me, but Im thinking it might produce good results.

Thank you for your input.

best to you,

Rick
 

Raz0rEdge

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Agree with Bob, the 27" iMac has user-upgradable memory and it is cheaper to buy the RAM yourself. Is the i5 processor on that machine a quad-core? If so, you should be fine. You'll want to couple that iMac with a much larger external storage (TB-SSD ideally) for all of your media so that you keep the wear & tear on your internal SSD to a minimum.
 
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Agree with Bob, the 27" iMac has user-upgradable memory and it is cheaper to buy the RAM yourself. Is the i5 processor on that machine a quad-core? If so, you should be fine. You'll want to couple that iMac with a much larger external storage (TB-SSD ideally) for all of your media so that you keep the wear & tear on your internal SSD to a minimum.

Thank you for your post! Very informative and helpful! Yes, it is a quad core. Will I be sacrificing much if I go with the i5 vs. the i7? I don't edit video but do have large still shot files. thanks again!
 
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It looks like if I were to upgrade to an i7 4.2 GHz and go with 8 gig RAM that would make the price $2399 + cost of non-apple RAM which might be the way to go.

Thanks!
 
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Like I said, if you do 16GB eat a time, will give you 24GB, then you can decide if the other 8GB is worth the investment?
 

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You might want to look at what B&H Photo has in stock. They currently have their iMacs on sale and have many various configurations you can choose from. Shipping is free with no sales tax for out of state (New York) buyers. They are an authorized Apple reseller.

I would nix the i7 and just go with the i5 but would definitely bump up the flash storage to at least 512 GB. You can add your own memory later on so order only the 8 GB.
 
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RavingMac

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How is the performance of your 2013 Retina MBP?

OWC has fairly reasonable RAM and SSD upgrades (1TB SSD for $500-600). That plus a good external Monitor is another potential route if funds are tight.
I use my 2012 non-Retina MBP with a self-installed 500GB SSD and a 40in Samsung UHD (4K) TV as my photography desktop, though I don’t do Photoshop heavy lifting.
Admittedly, since I don’t make my living from my photography, my needs may not be anywhere near as great as yours.
 

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