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How soon before next iMac refresh?

Thats what I usually do too. Open up all the needed apps at startup and leaving them in the background. Guess I'm better of spending some money on getting 16 gigs of RAM instead.

I'm getting the iMac next wednesday - can't wait! 😀
 
T-bag said:
Thats what I usually do too. Open up all the needed apps at startup and leaving them in the background. Guess I'm better of spending some money on getting 16 gigs of RAM instead.

I'm getting the iMac next wednesday - can't wait! 😀
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Excuse my newbness, so you are saying having more RAM will help when alot of programs are open?

i.e. Whats most important for using Photoshop? RAM, SSD or processor?
 
Well I'm not a techno guru either, but yes, more ram means less writing/reading to the harddrive (correct me if I'm wrong) because more data is allowed to be stored in the fast temporary memory (ram). Opening programs and such will benefit from SSD, but once it's loaded it also depends on the ram if you many running apps in the background. The speed of the ram is also a factor.

Working with video/photo with a lot of files back and forth would benefit from a SSD. Many people have a so called "scratchdisk" (os and system on a different disk than the files you're working on). A SSD would manage both processes easily (I think), but the storage is obviously quite limited.

All this means that having a small SSD with the OS and essential apps, only reduces boot-up time and the time required to launch programs. At least this is my understanding.

If all this is true then SSD wont truly shine before you get 500GB+. They aren't cheap.
 
Staindsoul said:
i.e. Whats most important for using Photoshop? RAM, SSD or processor?
Click to expand...

They are all important. Photoshop loves RAM so the more you got, the faster it will. Using SSD as a scratch disk will speed it up a lot as well. However, some tasks are CPU intensive so you cannot forget the CPU.

In most cases, it's a combination of things. You need to have a balanced setup
 
Thanks for the help. I am deploying in 2 months so I know I will be kicking myself if I buy an iMac now and only to have it way outdated by the time I get back.

Hopefully by Spring '12 iMacs have SSD's standard in them (and SSD prices have come way down)
 
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