I am getting ready to buy a new imac. Trying to wait for the new one. I mainly want to use this desktop to edit family movies, blog, pictures, as maintaining family calendar. What upgrades should to add to the iMac? I want a 21" one and really concerned about speed and memory. Thanks!
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Buying new imac..what upgrades?
- Thread starter Mags311
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Not sure you need to add any upgrades honestly if your only using the system to blog, do some basic video editing, or taking/editing pictures....save some money IMO.
Wow!! Thank you all for the quick replies. Yeah...I just want to do basic stuff with just a little more oomph for the videos and pictures. I have no clue about how much a computer can handle..but it is good to know the basic model does a pretty good job at handling all that.
Probably wont be an option on these new thinner designs... Better order what u need when u buy...
you want a minimum of 8gb of ram. If they continue with the current design, with 4 upgradeable slots, you can just easily add on to the base. You do not want to go with a non-upgradeable that has less than 8gb. Will ML run with 4gb? Of course. Will your experience be much better with 8? Yep. 
you want a minimum of 8gb of ram. If they continue with the current design, with 4 upgradeable slots, you can just easily add on to the base. You do not want to go with a non-upgradeable that has less than 8gb. Will ML run with 4gb? Of course. Will your experience be much better with 8? Yep.
Not true. Most people do not use more than 2 gb of ram even with 3 programs open and a slew of web pages.
You don't know what you're talking about and would be surprised if he would ever have page outs with 4gb.
To the original poster. Buy the basic entry level 21.5" iMac and it will do everything you want and you will love it.
My MacBook Pro has only 4GB of ram and I run Photoshop, Cinema 4D, and Illustrator at the same time and get lag lol...but it runs so...
I think you would be fine with the basic model for the stuff you mentioned.
I think you would be fine with the basic model for the stuff you mentioned.
I would go 16gbs of ram probably. If this is for just editing home movies you'll be more than set with the stock video card. And I suspect SSD will be standard on these new iMacs. If not, spring for the SSD and buy a nice external to store the projects after you're done editing them.
You should be very happy with these new machines for what your doing.
I'd suggest at least two external drives. One terabyte USB2(3?) purely for the Time Machine and then a bigger separate archive/project disk. My time machine setup has been lost several times - requiring a complete reformat of the external HDD - so now I just have a dedicated TM disk.
For RAM:I'm using 4GB, 6GB, 8GB and 12GB on different Mountain Lion macs and would suggest a minimum of 8GB for snappy computing. My Mac Pro does have the Apple 512GB SSD and that is very pleasant to use, I hope the new iMac SSD choices are a bit more reasonable than $850 BTO.
Actually, I've run it both ways on my imac. No question there is a difference with the additional ram. I'm thrilled that you are so technologically superior, but I have to question if you've actually run the computers with 2, 4 and 8gb of ram.
4 gb is not good for HD editing
I beg to differ. I bought the iMac 27 and it came with the stock 4 gb of ram. I had beachballs non stop. I do a lot of video editing and 4 gb was just not cutting it. Spent $69 on amazon for two 8 gb sticks took not even 5 mins to install and made my comp a new machine. I have yet to get one beach ball with 20 gb and a 3.4 ghz processor. Go with a i7 for video editing will make your rendering times good and will help with your workflow for editing. You wont be disappointed with the current models. Look at the refurb models on the apple site no need for a shiny box just a shiny machine. Good look
I beg to differ. I bought the iMac 27 and it came with the stock 4 gb of ram. I had beachballs non stop. I do a lot of video editing and 4 gb was just not cutting it. Spent $69 on amazon for two 8 gb sticks took not even 5 mins to install and made my comp a new machine. I have yet to get one beach ball with 20 gb and a 3.4 ghz processor. Go with a i7 for video editing will make your rendering times good and will help with your workflow for editing. You wont be disappointed with the current models. Look at the refurb models on the apple site no need for a shiny box just a shiny machine. Good look
Well, we can't tell you, because we don't know what the upgrades will be!
In general:
Buy your RAM elsewhere. It will be half the price.
Get the fastest processor option you can afford, preferably the i7, if you want your computer to last into the future.
Same goes for hard drive, get the one with the capacity you think you will need a couple years down the road. iMac hard drives are difficult to replace.
In general:
Buy your RAM elsewhere. It will be half the price.
Get the fastest processor option you can afford, preferably the i7, if you want your computer to last into the future.
Same goes for hard drive, get the one with the capacity you think you will need a couple years down the road. iMac hard drives are difficult to replace.
You only need i7 if you run programs that benefit from hyper threading. It's actually pretty easy to look if you need more ram. Open your activity monitor, run your computer for a day and just look at how much ram it uses. I run 3 simultaneous recordings of GarageBand, iTunes, multiple web pages, skyrim (on a PC bootcamp) and I can't even break 3gb.