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Please help me configure an iMac that would meet my needs.

M

mhiero

macrumors member
Original poster
I am soon going to buy an iMac for lots and lots of Photoshop, a good amount of garageband, lots of music will be stored on it, and some games will be played.


I already own a 20" Dell widescreen monitor and cant decide between the 1gig RAM 17" iMac or the 20" iMac. please give me your input as to which would be better for me (I will use my 20" dell monitor on either iMac)
 
How about this, since you already have a monitor:

Refurbished Mac Pro Quad 2.66GHz Intel Xeon
Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors
1GB (2 x 512MB) memory (667MHz DDR2 fully-buffered DIMM ECC)
250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7200-rpm hard drive
16x SuperDrive (double-layer)
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT graphics with 256MB memory
price: $2,199.00
 
Well, you get 90GB, a tiny bit more speed, and - importantly - a third more screen real estate for ~$300. Plus, your monitor sizes will match. I'd say go for the 20".
 
thanks for the reply! I guess I forgot to say that my price limit was 1500 bucks, aha. but thanks 🙂

jsw said:
Well, you get 90GB, a tiny bit more speed, and - importantly - a third more screen real estate for ~$300. Plus, your monitor sizes will match. I'd say go for the 20".
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my brother was telling me that matching monitor sizes is worth it, is it easier on the eyes or something?
 
mhiero said:
my brother was telling me that matching monitor sizes is worth it, is it easier on the eyes or something?
Click to expand...
Yes - I have the 17" iMac/20" Dell monitor combo, and it's a bit off-putting to have to figure out where exactly the mouse needs to be to slide from the 20" back to the 17".
 
jsw said:
Yes - I have the 17" iMac/20" Dell monitor combo, and it's a bit off-putting to have to figure out where exactly the mouse needs to be to slide from the 20" back to the 17".
Click to expand...
I see, I think ill save up a bit more for the 20" then, since I will have much more storage and screen size. also- isnt the processor a bit faster on the 20?
 
mhiero said:
I see, I think ill save up a bit more for the 20" then, since I will have much more storage and screen size. also- isnt the processor a bit faster on the 20?
Click to expand...

The processor speed is not important that much, RAM is. Get more RAM.
 
mhiero said:
1 GB isnt enough for PS?
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Depends on what you're doing in PS. 1.5GB or 2GB would be better. Assuming you're not doing pro-level stuff.

But... 1GB will work, although it'll be noticeably slower than on the same system with more RAM.

You'll also want to wait for Adobe Photoshop's Universal Binary version (out in a few weeks, if I recall correctly).
 
I'd say go with the refurbed one from apple and then max out the ram after you get it. Or wait and see if it performs well enough with out adding the ram. It's $1299 for the 20".
 
jsw said:
Depends on what you're doing in PS. 1.5GB or 2GB would be better. Assuming you're not doing pro-level stuff.

But... 1GB will work, although it'll be noticeably slower than on the same system with more RAM.

You'll also want to wait for Adobe Photoshop's Universal Binary version (out in a few weeks, if I recall correctly).
Click to expand...
I basically use PS to do some small picture editing (to make funny pics n stuff) and to CG my art that I scan in. so its not pro stuff. If I was doin pro stuff id be rollin / the mac pro 😎
 
I'd say look at getting the 20", you can usually find great deals on refurbs and they have the same warranties as the new full priced ones. I would say with photoshop and garage band you can make due with 1G of RAM but you will be really happy with 2G. A lot of the plugins that you may use in photoshop and in Garage Band can eat up RAM, they can also eat up CPU, especially garage band plug ins. Oh and I would also suggest getting a Western Digital MyBook Pro external Hard drive to store you music and photos on.
 
synth3tik said:
I'd say look at getting the 20", you can usually find great deals on refurbs and they have the same warranties as the new full priced ones. I would say with photoshop and garage band you can make due with 1G of RAM but you will be really happy with 2G. A lot of the plugins that you may use in photoshop and in Garage Band can eat up RAM, they can also eat up CPU, especially garage band plug ins. Oh and I would also suggest getting a Western Digital MyBook Pro external Hard drive to store you music and photos on.
Click to expand...
I can always slap another gig in by myself after I buy it. but the mybook thing is a good idea, I can dedicate the internal HDD for PS, OS X, and GB. and the external for music n stuff
 
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