Help choosing an iMac

[BlueDog]

Greetings for the New Year!

Well my old imac is giving me signs it's had enough, freezing, sloooowing more and more each day.

I've made the decision to put it into retirement and get me one of them fast ones, but which one?

I can go for one of the latest release models but it's a lot of cash and the bloody thing doesn't even come with a DVD drive so I have to fork out an extra $100 for something that has always come standard. Second option would be a second hand machine, I will save a bundle of cash but am I buying someone else's problems?

Do I really need all of the firepower that comes with a brand new one just to run Photoshop,5 or would a model from around 2012 suffice?

My current imac is around 8 years old here's the specs:

2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo
2.5 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Graphics card :ATY,RadeonX1600, 128MB

^^^What ever that all means I know it stands for slow!

I'm looking at one of the 21.5 inch models, would love a 27 inch but work space won't allow.

Thanks in advance,

Ryan

 

[edd_jedi]

My current 27" iMac is from 2009 but it's a quad core i7 so still leaves most modern laptops for dead. It's not all about the processor clock speed as obviously technology improves, but basically no you do not need the latest iMac to do the things you mention. Mine runs Photoshop CS6, Final Cut etc at a good speed.

You would notice a significant speed boost just by upgrading your RAM (I have 16GB in mine) and installing a solid-state hard disk (SSD) which are 2-3 times faster than an old fashioned HD. When I put one in mine the boot up time went from about 30 seconds down to under 10, it really does make a massive difference. So you could just upgrade what you have and save yourself a grand! You only really need the 'firepower' of a modern high-end computer for HD/4k video editing.

 

[plantman]

i agree get an SSD drive, my load time is down to 3 seconds, makes a huge difference in app performance and seek times too.

 

[shawn_k]

SSDs are one of the best upgrades you can do. We were on a 3 year cycle on our computers at work, but with cutbacks decided to do upgrades rather than new machines last year. I put SSDs into all our Macbook Pros and really that was all that was needed for another year or two out of them.

Last year my father decided to get a new iMac and I highly recommended him paying the extra and getting the fusion drive upgrade which gives you both an SSD and HD, but shows up as one drive. All the boot files and program files basically end up on the fast SSD and then everything else on the HD. The way we balanced it out was buying a refurbished model that had the drive which balanced the price. I typically shy away from refurbished stuff, but Apple still gives the full warranty and many times I've had bonus RAM or other upgrades not mentioned.

Here's the refurbished iMac section if you haven't had a look.

http://store.apple.com/au/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/imac

Unfortunately I don't see any right now with the fusion drive option, but I'm sure some will show up if you aren't in a huge rush.

 

[edd_jedi]

I always buy second hand Macs with Apple Care warranties, I bought this iMac with over 2 years of the warranty remaining when it was 9 months old for about 60% of the new price. Take a look on eBay for people liquidating office equipment.

 

[BlueDog]

Thanks for all the help fellas I really do appreciate the advice.

I've contacted a local Apple dealer who says he can get me a 2012 model with a quad core i7 8gig of Ram, 1TB hard drive with latest OS for around the $1500 mark. Only comes with a 30 warranty though.

I really want to stay away from the slim line model as I run an Wacom Cintiq 21ux for my illustration and I've read a lot of compatibility issues with this model tablet , so much so people had had to return their new Imacs as neither Apple nor Wacom could work out a solution. Also bugs the **** out of me that they dumped the Disk drive on this model, I know I can get an external one but to me that defeats the purpose of buying a Mac for it's clear work space advantage. Hate change for changes sake.

Not sure it's worth changing the hard drive on my current mac as it's making some freaky noises from the fans which has me worried it'll go pop any minute.

Thanks again, Ryan.