Best iMac for music production and recording?

[Arry]

Hi there, first post here!

I'm about to buy a new iMac ''27 and I'm wondering about the best configuration for my needs.
In a nutshell, I will use the new computer for music recording (Logic Pro) mostly and a little bit of video editing. I'm a guitarist and I work on small projects, such as recording guitar for online tutorials. The largest projects would be something like recording/editing my 4-piece band. I'm pretty old-school and don't use a lot of plugins, but still, I need the new iMac to be capable of working smoothly without any hesitation or lagging.

As far as video editing is concerned, I mainly produce 1080p high definition videos that I upload on Youtube or similar projects (no 3D, no gaming...).

Having said that, I can afford buying the high end, maxed out, 4.2ghz i7 iMac but do I really need all that power?
I'm not really an expert here, so I would appreciate your insight. I know RAM is user-upgradeable (so I will get the 8gb and upgrade it later), and I'm considering getting a ssd drive. But what about the processor?
Would the i5 be enough for my needs or should I opt for the high end i7? Thanks!

 

[Polymorphic]

FWIW, I hang out in a few music production communities, and I've read complaints about heat and fan noise from i7 iMacs. Supposedly the i5 iMacs are less likely to exhibit this problem.

 

[Persian-apple]

Hi there, first post here!

I'm about to buy a new iMac ''27 and I'm wondering about the best configuration for my needs.
In a nutshell, I will use the new computer for music recording (Logic Pro) mostly and a little bit of video editing. I'm a guitarist and I work on small projects, such as recording guitar for online tutorials. The largest projects would be something like recording/editing my 4-piece band. I'm pretty old-school and don't use a lot of plugins, but still, I need the new iMac to be capable of working smoothly without any hesitation or lagging.

As far as video editing is concerned, I mainly produce 1080p high definition videos that I upload on Youtube or similar projects (no 3D, no gaming...).

Having said that, I can afford buying the high end, maxed out, 4.2ghz i7 iMac but do I really need all that power?
I'm not really an expert here, so I would appreciate your insight. I know RAM is user-upgradeable (so I will get the 8gb and upgrade it later), and I'm considering getting a ssd drive. But what about the processor?
Would the i5 be enough for my needs or should I opt for the high end i7? Thanks!

Im an owner of the 2017 27inch 5k imac and My specs are i7 4.2ghz radeon pro 580 16gb ram 3tb fusion
1.dont go with fusion Cause there is some wierd scroll lag (its probably retina related but im not sure maybe its the way fusion jandles stuff)
Get the 512 or 1tb ssd
2.no problems With i7 althiugh the i5 would do it for what you do and I dont see why there should be a problem with paying only 100dollars And Get i7 instead of i5 i would say definityl go with i7
3.If you want a future proof machine Get the radeon pro 580 cause it will be worth it specially if you play demandinng games

So if you want a machine for the next 3 years the i5 radeon pro 575 and a 512 ssd should do it

If you want something for more than 6-7years and You work flow might get More demanding and You dont want Your imac to be outdated So fast Then Go with i7 1tb ssd radeon pro 580 and Get the 16gb ram or get the 8gb and Buy 3rd party ram that would be much cheaper but If you want the 16 maybe you can Go ahead and purchase the 16 cause i dont think you will save too much

Its your decision but if i were you i would go with the high end config as i have And my main work is logic x And Some gaming on bootcamp and normal stuff like reading bible Surfing the web watching videos etc
God bless and Good luck bro

 

[macdoofus]

Hi there, first post here!

see post #50 or any post by propower on the subject
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/imac-27-i5-3-8ghz-or-i7-4-2ghz.2091815/

 

[Arry]

Im an owner of the 2017 27inch 5k imac and My specs are i7 4.2ghz radeon pro 580 16gb ram 3tb fusion
1.dont go with fusion Cause there is some wierd scroll lag (its probably retina related but im not sure maybe its the way fusion jandles stuff)
Get the 512 or 1tb ssd
2.no problems With i7 althiugh the i5 would do it for what you do and I dont see why there should be a problem with paying only 100dollars And Get i7 instead of i5 i would say definityl go with i7
3.If you want a future proof machine Get the radeon pro 580 cause it will be worth it specially if you play demandinng games

So if you want a machine for the next 3 years the i5 radeon pro 575 and a 512 ssd should do it

If you want something for more than 6-7years and You work flow might get More demanding and You dont want Your imac to be outdated So fast Then Go with i7 1tb ssd radeon pro 580 and Get the 16gb ram or get the 8gb and Buy 3rd party ram that would be much cheaper but If you want the 16 maybe you can Go ahead and purchase the 16 cause i dont think you will save too much

Its your decision but if i were you i would go with the high end config as i have And my main work is logic x And Some gaming on bootcamp and normal stuff like reading bible Surfing the web watching videos etc
God bless and Good luck bro

Thanks Persian-apple. I actually want to buy a machine that will last, and that's why I was thinking about going with the higher end config. Have you experienced any trouble with heat and fan noise? I've read quite a few posts where people in the music biz were complaining about that.
[doublepost=1513797944][/doublepost]

see post #50 or any post by propower on the subject
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/imac-27-i5-3-8ghz-or-i7-4-2ghz.2091815/

Thanks for the reference, that was spot on!

 

[1050792]

I'd go for an i7 and SSD. The i7 will give you double the threads which will be great for performance especially to get the lowest latency possible with the best possible performance without the I/O and Cores suffering. For 1080P any graphics card on the new iMacs will do. I use a M395X which is worse than the entry graphics card right now on the new macs and never had any issues with 4K video editing.

 

[Fishrrman]

I'd suggest the mid-range model (3.5ghz w/7600 CPU).
Also -- an SSD. 512gb should do and is reasonably priced.
If you need more "project storage", hook up an external USB3 SSD (like the Samsung t5).

This should do fine for audio, and probably quite adequate for 1080p video as well.
4k video -- now, that's a different story altogether.

 

[Booch21]

I've been using a 2010 27" i7 iMac in my studio. Mainly for VO work with Adobe Audition. It's still running well. Yes, it gives off heat and the external drives make a little noise but I still get a solid -50 dB noise floor or lower in my booth. It does make it so I can close the furnace vent to the room in the winter.

 

[Persian-apple]

Thanks Persian-apple. I actually want to buy a machine that will last, and that's why I was thinking about going with the higher end config. Have you experienced any trouble with heat and fan noise? I've read quite a few posts where people in the music biz were complaining about that.
[doublepost=1513797944][/doublepost]

Thanks for the reference, that was spot on!

Your welcome bro,man im not too sensitive to fan noise i definitly do hear Fan noise while playig call of duty WWII almost maxed out 1440p or assassins creed origins on high Settings but it didnt Bother me
And while Running logic x? Nope i dont remmeber hearing the fan a songle time
And for the thermals i didnt check the temps but if Never Seemed to get Hot (i dont remember a single time touching the imac and Feelin like This thing is as hot as my rMBP it seemed to run much cooler)
Plus,i dont see no throttling and The CPU usage bar barely Goes Beyond 20-30 percent even while usinng konplete kontrol and maschine plug ins And Even if heavy projects it handles them Pretty well but I wouldnt recomment the i5 since my old 2014rmbp (i guess) Beats the i5 in this maschine and I am having some wierd Scroll lag in logic which is probably caused By retina display and Even my rmbp which runs logic perfectly fine Gets a bit laggy when fully zooming into multiple audio tracks and Trying to scroll at full speed

And Speed wise the fusion did Great for me Up to now It did feel kinda slow Going from my rmbp to this But now It kinda feels the same speed and loads projects even faster than my rmbp so the 3tb fusion is a good choice ONLY if you really need 3tb internal Space i needed 1tb for windows and didnt want to have an external for my steam games on bootcamp and I wanted 2tb for os x so I can Safely install All my music apps and Even save Multiple versions of projects through the years...

Again My situation Rarely happens for most people the 1Tb ssd should do it and the 16gb ram will be fine And you can bump it up to 64 if you want to but i dont hink logic can bemefit from more than 24-32gb unless youre deeling with like 100+tracks
And Its the first time in my optinion that Apple made a computer that is reasonably priced this thing is worth It and i didnt get the numeroc keyboard younhave to get it the normal keybboard is wierd although i dont care but its just wierd and dont get the magic mouse using the track pad (1st gen) And its way better than magic mouse

To put it in a nut shell: this machine has nothing that ill have to complain about
God bless Bro and Contact me if you need anyhelp