Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iMac i5 or the i7

I

iwanttobuyamac

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 16, 2015
10
0
Hi! :)

Ive been using my i7 macbook air for my last 3 projects, and it is just not doing the job anymore... Im going to need a pretty powerful mac for my next projects and i have decided to buy an Imac 27".

I am currently looking at 2 separate Imacs and i am wondering which one i should buy, for tough editing-projects.(3d/2d-motion, large-scale interviews/commercials).

1. Imac 27" 3,2 ghz i5-16Gb Ram and a 3Tb fusiondrive.
or
2.Imac 27" 3,4 ghz i7-16Gb Ram and a 1Tb HDD

Can anyone help me?:p:apple:
 
iwanttobuyamac said:
Hi! :)

Ive been using my i7 macbook air for my last 3 projects, and it is just not doing the job anymore... Im going to need a pretty powerful mac for my next projects and i have decided to buy an Imac 27".

I am currently looking at 2 separate Imacs and i am wondering which one i should buy, for tough editing-projects.(3d/2d-motion, large-scale interviews/commercials).

1. Imac 27" 3,2 ghz i5-16Gb Ram and a 3Tb fusiondrive.
or
2.Imac 27" 3,4 ghz i7-16Gb Ram and a 1Tb HDD

Can anyone help me?:p:apple:
Click to expand...

Neither.

Get an i7 with a pure SSD setup.

You'll need the i7 for its hyper threading capabilities, and an SSD for your I/O intensive operations. It's also going to take up a lot of GPU power, so max out the graphics as well.

You're going to have to max out almost everything, even if you can't afford it. Consider a refurb if you can't afford it.

But get nothing less than an i7, pure SSD and maxed out GPU. RAM is self upgradeable.
 
yjchua95 said:
Neither.

Get an i7 with a pure SSD setup.

You'll need the i7 for its hyper threading capabilities, and an SSD for your I/O intensive operations. It's also going to take up a lot of GPU power, so max out the graphics as well.

You're going to have to max out almost everything, even if you can't afford it. Consider a refurb if you can't afford it.

But get nothing less than an i7, pure SSD and maxed out GPU. RAM is self upgradeable.
Click to expand...

There is probably going to be a lot of traveling and therefore i'm afraid that an imac is going to be a pain in the ass to drag around... How well does the best upgraded MacBook Pro 15"perform compared to the imac you suggested..?
 
iwanttobuyamac said:
There is probably going to be a lot of traveling and therefore i'm afraid that an imac is going to be a pain in the ass to drag around... How well does the best upgraded MacBook Pro 15"perform compared to the imac you suggested..?
Click to expand...

A top-spec MBP is about as fast as a 2013 top-spec iMac 27. The 15" retina screen is beautiful and strikingly better than your MBA. The MBP is expensive but worth it.

Just be clear that your work style actually requires you to do significant editing in the field. If instead you mainly cut some dailies, back up data, etc, your MBA could do that and a 27" retina iMac would be better for heads-down editing back home.

If you get the MBP, get the top-spec one with the discrete GPU. You'll be very happy with it.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't the iMacs quad core desktop processors and the MBP are dual core Mobile processors? The -M processors have a lot less power and more focused on power saving
 
Dartanian77 said:
Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't the iMacs quad core desktop processors and the MBP are dual core Mobile processors? The -M processors have a lot less power and more focused on power saving
Click to expand...

All Apple 15" laptops comes with quadcore processors! ;)
 
iwanttobuyamac said:
There is probably going to be a lot of traveling and therefore i'm afraid that an imac is going to be a pain in the ass to drag around... How well does the best upgraded MacBook Pro 15"perform compared to the imac you suggested..?
Click to expand...
The maxed out 2.8GHz 15" rMBP scores almost identically to the 3.5GHz i7 in the non-retina 27" iMac.

But I doubt you'd need that much power anyway. The stock high end 15" with 750M should do you fine.

I've the late-2013 2.6GHz 15" rMBP, maxed out and it's doing my 4K work well.
 
yjchua95 said:
The maxed out 2.8GHz 15" rMBP scores almost identically to the 3.5GHz i7 in the non-retina 27" iMac.

But I doubt you'd need that much power anyway. The stock high end 15" with 750M should do you fine.

I've the late-2013 2.6GHz 15" rMBP, maxed out and it's doing my 4K work well.
Click to expand...

How well does it handle rendering when you are rendering a 4K project?
 
yjchua95 said:
Not as smooth as my 12-core nMPs with D700s, but it's pretty good. Very impressive with FCP X.

But most of the time I still shoot 2K with my Arri though.
Click to expand...

I mostly work with Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro! Do you know how well it handles 3d projects and heavy visual-effect work?

----------
yjchua95 said:
Not as smooth as my 12-core nMPs with D700s, but it's pretty good. Very impressive with FCP X.

But most of the time I still shoot 2K with my Arri though.
Click to expand...

Also, how is the late-2013 compared to the 2014 model?
 
iwanttobuyamac said:
I mostly work with Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro! Do you know how well it handles 3d projects and heavy visual-effect work?

----------



Also, how is the late-2013 compared to the 2014 model?
Click to expand...

Handles everything I throw at it quite well.

The late-2013 and mid-2014 are identical, besides the 0.2GHz speed bump in the processors which don't make any difference.
 
yjchua95 said:
Handles everything I throw at it quite well.

The late-2013 and mid-2014 are identical, besides the 0.2GHz speed bump in the processors which don't make any difference.
Click to expand...

Thanks mate! I really appreciate your help :) i think i'll go for the late 2013 2.6 GHz maxed out!
 
yjchua95 said:
Off the refurb store?

Make sure it's got the 750M :)
Click to expand...

Yep, i hope they have the one with the 750M at the refurb store, if not i'll have to buy the 2014 one instead..

----------
iwanttobuyamac said:
Yep, i hope they have the one with the 750M at the refurb store, if not i'll have to buy the 2014 one instead..
Click to expand...

I'm trying to avoid buying a completely new one, so i can save a few bucks..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back