Need new desktop...

[Frowns]

Lately, I've been feeling like flipping a coin and letting fate decide, but even that doesn't narrow it down for me.

I need a new desktop system for home. Looking at two main avenues of usage - basic stuff such as email, iCal, iTunes, ms office :and: medium-to-heavy photoshop, aperture and lightroom.

So it's nothing mind boggling. Just can't decide if I'm better served with a 27" iMac or a Mac Mini with 27" Apple LED.

I'm familiar with both BTOs for those models. Just not sure where I should be on the processor, memory, video card and drive.

Any ideas?

[All Taken]

Originally Posted by Frowns

Lately, I've been feeling like flipping a coin and letting fate decide, but even that doesn't narrow it down for me.

I need a new desktop system for home. Looking at two main avenues of usage - basic stuff such as email, iCal, iTunes, ms office :and: medium-to-heavy photoshop, aperture and lightroom.

So it's nothing mind boggling. Just can't decide if I'm better served with a 27" iMac or a Mac Mini with 27" Apple LED.

I'm familiar with both BTOs for those models. Just not sure where I should be on the processor, memory, video card and drive.

Any ideas?

Everything apart from the memory should be 'The best you can afford at the time'

Memory is cheaper elsewhere.

The new iMac is servilely limited in terms of future expandability (Internally). The Mac Mini offers you better bang for buck this time round.

[turtlez]

Keep in mind Adobe products take advantage of the GPU a lot. So the iMac would kill the mini in that category. The mini would be an easy choice if it had a decent GPU. I myself would get the mini if it did.

I am stuck between deciding on the new iMac or a PC. Really don't want to go with the PC but having an external screen and saving money is really tempting.

[blanka]

Originally Posted by turtlez

Keep in mind Adobe products take advantage of the GPU a lot. So the iMac would kill the mini in that category.

That is wishfull thinking. There are SOME filters that run on GPU. The Mini has a GPU too, and those filters are as well accelerated on the Mini, not as much. And for the screen acceleration part (which is also a matter of taste if you like it at all): the power needed for that is already delivered with a REALLY old Nvidia 7300GT. HD4000 runs circles around most cards up to the 24 inch iMacs.
But 90% of those programs is still running off the CPU. And the basic Mid Mini will blow the socks off any non BTO iMac. So just grab the 2.3Ghz Quad Mini, it will be more than fine for your needs. Put in an SSD though (yourself). And if you are serious about Photo's, check a Dell U2713H first before looking at the Apple displays.

Originally Posted by adobe

* Adaptive Wide Angle Filter (compatible video card required)
* Liquify (accelerated by compatible video card with 512 MB of VRAM)
* Oil Paint (compatible video card required)
* Warp and Puppet Warp (accelerated by compatible video card)
* Field Blur, Iris Blur, and Tilt/Shift (accelerated by compatible video
card supporting OpenCL)
* Lighting Effects Gallery (compatible video card required with 512 MB
of VRAM)
* New 3D enhancements (3D features in Photoshop require a compatible video card with 512 MB of VRAM):
o Draggable Shadows
o Ground plane reflections
o Roughness
o On-canvas user interface controls
o Ground plane
o Light widgets on edge of canvas
o IBL (image-based light) controller

WOOHOO that is an ASTONISHING SET OF GPU powered features (NOT)

And remember a GPU is not always delivering the same quality as the CPU. It calculates more loosely. You probably can't tell from the result though.

[turtlez]

Originally Posted by blanka

That is wishfull thinking. There are SOME filters that run on GPU. The Mini has a GPU too, and those filters are as well accelerated on the Mini, not as much. And for the screen acceleration part (which is also a matter of taste if you like it at all): the power needed for that is already delivered with a REALLY old Nvidia 7300GT. HD4000 runs circles around most cards up to the 24 inch iMacs.
But 90% of those programs is still running off the CPU. And the basic Mid Mini will blow the socks off any non BTO iMac. So just grab the 2.3Ghz Quad Mini, it will be more than fine for your needs. Put in an SSD though (yourself). And if you are serious about Photo's, check a Dell U2713H first before looking at the Apple displays.


WOOHOO that is an ASTONISHING SET OF GPU powered features (NOT)

And remember a GPU is not always delivering the same quality as the CPU. It calculates more loosely. You probably can't tell from the result though.

Thanks for that, considering the mini now. Will check out the dell ultrasharp too