iMac Replacement

[gldngal]

I was using a 2015 5K for graphic work in a print environment about a year and a half ago still. Was a solid computer, it was maxed out when I bought it brand new. I did opt for the flash drive when I bought it which extended its life significantly. I still have the computer at home but really don't do much with it as I have an M1 Max and a 5K 27" screen at work.

The one thing you have suffered with needlessly is the RAM. The 27" iMacs have user upgradeable RAM. It is a little slot by the power port in the back of the computer. Super easy to add ram, takes less than 5 minutes, no screws. If it had a flash drive I would say up the RAM and keep it going, unless you can't live without being on the latest version of Mac OS.

Upgrading to an M series Mac is a big jump in performance on the CPU side alone, add that you will have a computer with a flash/SSD drive you will be amazed at how quickly boot ups are and how quickly things load. I have been spoiled with it since the 5K was originally released and can't understand how anyone has been using regular hard drives since that time.

You could get a refurbed Mac Studio:

Refurbished Mac Studio Apple M1 Max Chip with 10‑Core CPU and 24‑Core GPU - Apple

Save up to 15% on a refurbished Mac. Tested and certified by Apple including a 1-year warranty. Free delivery and returns.

www.apple.com

and a Samsung Viewfinity 27" 5K screen

https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-Thunderbolt-DisplayPort-Slimfit-Camera-LS27C900PANXZA/dp/B0CB71BY87/ref=sr_1_2?crid=10LMGXDI252J5&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.cjeauvQ24giRhi4btrw45VbNYBTi3cL3ikHxcnA61mRKnBTmwFEugKrnfFjqegaJxg_UFLCqZ71xoE3NlbKaIny79fyMNiDlS75lQtR182UuqBkCyjNUvtskoMxPlVLwiXiN23-qbfhRpd0G_5XDuojocJtTfcvgenNuoYDM5mRc6ofis4kPl0tx7TUBO2MJxMXJTNEzIduHK_NGxajunznRZHsQibPgA3rhEdRX5PU.yc4lYUDFa1llsih8PMaHEqR66Ls4YjCFfX1ryBk2rJw&dib_tag=se&keywords=samsung+viewfinity+s9&qid=1708456031&sprefix=samsung+viewfini%2Caps%2C105&sr=8-2&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.2b70bf2b-6730-4ccf-ab97-eb60747b8daf

If you have money left over you could up the hard drive to 1TB. With that setup though externals are cheap.


Or you could go with a MacBook Pro and the Samsung screen, get portability as well as a nice big screen for working at the office/home.

Refurbished 14-inch MacBook Pro Apple M2 Pro Chip with 10‑Core CPU and 16‑Core GPU - Space Gray

Save up to 15% on a refurbished Mac. Tested and certified by Apple including a 1-year warranty. Free delivery and returns.

www.apple.com

I use an M1 Max and plug into my Viewfinity screen at work. It is a great setup and I get a powerful portable computer at the same time.

I'm happy with what I have now, just not the slowness of the spinning beachball. Thanks. I'll look into the RAM.

 

[gldngal]

I’ve just come from a 2014 iMac and replaced it with a Mac Studio and studio display which I love BUT there is something about the iMac that I miss.

If could do it again I would buy a specced up m3 iMac. Yeah the screen is smaller but you’ll get use to it after a day or so.

Thanks! This is very helpful.

 

[gldngal]

What is the thing you miss about the iMac? Something unrelated to pure function?




I mean OP spent 9 years with this computer and does graphic design. Considering his budget,!8 suspect he’s looking for his next 9 year computer.

Yes, I am. 😉

 

[gldngal]

I have late 2014 iMac 27. After going from Catalina to Big Sur it got a little glitchy. I replaced the 16GB ram with 32 GB ram. Made a huge difference. Only cost about $30 on amazon and even a clutz like me could install the new ram. I holding off to get an M3 Mac Studio and Studio Display, which I hope happens by June 2024. Another option might be a used later year iMac 27 from ebay or amazon. If you don't already have at least 16GB ram, I have my two former 8GB cards from the 2014 iMac, which you are welcome to for free.

That's very kind. Thank you.

 

[gldngal]

I mean, it’s not really silly. If you have a spinning hard drive on its last legs, then doing an update is a lot of sustained read/write/seek activity, which could plausibly be the end of that drive. That’s why I’m suggesting you do nothing else before you back up your drive, so if it does crash you haven’t lost your data. Once you’ve successfully backed up, you have any number of options, from getting an external
Ssd, to opening the machine and putting an internal ssd in, to buying any new machine, to get you back up and running.

Thanks. I do SuperDuper back ups every night.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

If you'd like to keep what you have going a while longer, as others have mentioned, just add RAM (2 8gb DIMMs would probably be a big help), and get an external SSD from which to boot and run.

Since you already use SuperDuper, setting up the external SSD is ... well... it's "child's play" on a Mac.

For RAM, I've had good results here:

Apple iMac Intel Core i5 Quad-Core 3.2GHz 27" MK462LL/A (Retina 5K, Late 2015) Memory Upgrades

Shop

www.datamemorysystems.com

(looks like 2x8gb is on sale)

For an external SSD, I'd recommend the new Samsung t9:

http://tinyurl.com/bdeskzep

(shortened amazon link)
1tb size should be "all you need" -- you never told us what size your current drive is, it's a fusion drive, right?

So an outlay of about $160 or so should get you fixed up and good for at least another year or two (or perhaps even longer).

 

[YoitsTmac]

OP, since you stated you’re looking for your next computer. It feels silly to put $100-$200 into a $400 computer when you could just put that money on a new one. Even the time investment alone. You’re delaying the inevitable. If you’re not trying to blow the budget, a Mac Mini M2 Pro with 32GB of RAM is a great option. External storage is easy for desktops if you need more.

But I still stand on getting the M2 entry Mac Studio and that monitor I linked. It’s less than one year old and will get you that next nine years 🙂. The monitor will go until it dies, it doesn’t become lesser with time. Modern screens are great.

 

[wonderings]

OP, since you stated you’re looking for your next computer. It feels silly to put $100-$200 into a $400 computer when you could just put that money on a new one. Even the time investment alone. You’re delaying the inevitable. If you’re not trying to blow the budget, a Mac Mini M2 Pro with 32GB of RAM is a great option. External storage is easy for desktops if you need more.

But I still stand on getting the M2 entry Mac Studio and that monitor I linked. It’s less than one year old and will get you that next nine years 🙂. The monitor will go until it dies, it doesn’t become lesser with time. Modern screens are great.

I do agree, if you have the budget upgrading is a better option.

Going to 16 gigs of ram is not what I would do if I had to stick to that solution. I would max it out to 32 gigs. 16 gigs is sort of on the low end these days, or at least at the base level.

I gave 2 options that would have him with a Mac Studio, or MacBook Pro with a pro level chip + a 27" 5K screen. That is going to really change the way you work with the speed. A mix of speed from the flash drives has everything open lightening quick, to just the full on CPU power of the pro chips in the M series.

So option 1 is adding more RAM for some improvement, but not earth shattering improvement.

Option 2 is stick to your budget and get a HUGE bump in performance as well as keeping a 5K screen as that is hard to move away from when you have been using one for so long.

 

[CraigJDuffy]

WARNING WARNING
DO NOT buy ANY m-series Mac with only 8gb of RAM.
You will soon regret it if you do.
Especially if you want a replacement to last 5-7 years.
Consider reading this as having been duly warned!

So fed up of this scaremongering.

I’m 3 and a half years into a base model M1 Mac Mini with a 265GB SSD and 8GB and have 0 complaints. For general office tasks it is completely fine.

 

[ignatius345]

WARNING WARNING
DO NOT buy ANY m-series Mac with only 8gb of RAM.

Calm down. An 8GB Mac can be used for quite a lot, including graphic design. Source: me. I've done it.
Heavy InDesign and Illustrator work. Not an issue -- unless you're pearl-clutching over Activity Monitor stats.

 

[ignatius345]

I gotta say, all these comments suggesting the OP buy a Mac Studio or whatever are just massive overkill for her stated use case of graphic design plus some email and assorted office software. Seems like people are out here spec'ing their fantasy machines instead of looking at the user's actual needs.

I work all day long doing design work on a Mac Mini M1. Illustrator, InDesign, some Photoshop -- plus tons of ancillary software running (email, calendars, browser windows, Slack, etc etc). No beach balls, no slowness, nothing. On this work machine, there's 16 GB of RAM which seems to be absolutely plenty. For the OP's use case, a Mini or an M3 (or even M1) iMac would totally suffice.

 

[YoitsTmac]

I gotta say, all these comments suggesting the OP buy a Mac Studio or whatever are just massive overkill for her stated use case of graphic design plus some email and assorted office software. Seems like people are out here spec'ing their fantasy machines instead of looking at the user's actual needs.

I work all day long doing design work on a Mac Mini M1. Illustrator, InDesign, some Photoshop -- plus tons of ancillary software running (email, calendars, browser windows, Slack, etc etc). No beach balls, no slowness, nothing. On this work machine, there's 16 GB of RAM which seems to be absolutely plenty. For the OP's use case, a Mini or an M3 (or even M1) iMac would totally suffice.

I had a 16GB Mac Mini for photo, video and graphic design at work. Some of my slow downs were so painful, that I upgraded my desk to a Mac Studio. YMMV.

 

[ignatius345]

I had a 16GB Mac Mini for photo, video and graphic design at work. Some of my slow downs were so painful, that I upgraded my desk to a Mac Studio. YMMV.

The OP is using a ten year-old iMac and is generally happy with it. Literally any M-series Mac is going to be massively faster than that thing. She also says nothing about video editing, which is a much more demanding use case.

 

[profcutter]

The OP is using a ten year-old iMac and is generally happy with it. Literally any M-series Mac is going to be massively faster than that thing. She also says nothing about video editing, which is a much more demanding use case.

Yes agreed. I just think if she’s used to a 27 inch display, the 24 inch could be a bit of a let down. That’s why I think just a mini perhaps mini pro and a monitor would be a great replacement. I think the question of whether or not to buy a new machine is entirely up to her. The iMac, with a new ssd and ram could be completely satisfactory for some time, and cheaper than a mini and a display. Will she need to upgrade at some point? Sure. But right now Intel imacs are still supported.

EDIT: oops, I take that back. The 2015 is no longer supported. That would nudge me in the direction of a new machine, just for security updates, etc. So depending on how much you want to spend, either M1 mini with 16 gb RAM or mini pro with 16 GB. The screen is the big cost, if you want the equivalent experience to the 27 inch iMac, it’s the three usual options: LG 5k, Apple studio display, or the Samsung 5k.

 

[picpicmac]

You’re delaying the inevitable.

True. But each person must decide how and when to spend the money to buy a new system.

There are good reasons to delay for any person.

I am likely to buy a Mac, Real Soon Now. But part of me knows that if I could wait 24 months that the Macs in late-2026 will likely be a decent jump in price/performance (both because of 2nm process and the move to OLED and next generations of wireless.)

Spending $200 to extend the usefulness of a compute for, say, 24 months is spending but a 25 cents per day for a computer.

 

[YoitsTmac]

True. But each person must decide how and when to spend the money to buy a new system.

There are good reasons to delay for any person.

I am likely to buy a Mac, Real Soon Now. But part of me knows that if I could wait 24 months that the Macs in mid-2026 will likely be a decent jump in price/performance (both because of 2nm process and the move to OLED and next generations of wireless.)

Spending $200 to extend the usefulness of a compute for, say, 24 months is spending but a 25 cents per day for a computer.

Well OP said they’re looking for a computer to replace their iMac of 9 years, and has responded they want something to last them 9 years. They’ve gotten their utility out of it. To many, that’s a healthy lifespan. I don’t imagine OP will get a better value for their money by waiting 24 months.

I also would never delay a computer purchase by 2 years, but I make money with my computer.

 

[profcutter]

Well OP said they’re looking for a computer to replace their iMac of 9 years, and has responded they want something to last them 9 years. They’ve gotten their utility out of it. To many, that’s a healthy lifespan. I don’t imagine OP will get a better value for their money by waiting 24 months.

I also would never delay a computer purchase by 2 years, but I make money with my computer.

Delaying is usually the best option, in my opinion. If your current setup suits you, why blow money on tech that will be behind by the time you need to upgrade? I have a 2020 iPad Pro. The 2021 was an m1, a real upgrade, but quite expensive. The 2022 was an m2. If I had upgraded to those, I would have spent hundreds of dollars, when the one that’s really tempting is the oled models allegedly coming out this year.
Apple would have made lots of money on me if I upgraded every year, but I just don’t have that kind of money.
An m1 mini is plenty for the kind of work the OP wants to do. Why upgrade every year? If they want a machine that’s going to be state of the art as long as possible, there are advantages to waiting so that they still have a supported machine as long as possible. The problem is sometimes machines don’t wait to break down based on apple’s upgrade cycle. So in the OP’s case, while waiting for a refresh of a mini seems ideal, it may just be time to pop for an m2 pro mini. Or if they’re so inclined, a m3 pro MacBook Pro, I think that’s the cheapest way to get an m3 pro. It would have the best longevity being the newest chip.

 

[YoitsTmac]

Delaying is usually the best option, in my opinion. If your current setup suits you, why blow money on tech that will be behind by the time you need to upgrade? I have a 2020 iPad Pro. The 2021 was an m1, a real upgrade, but quite expensive. The 2022 was an m2. If I had upgraded to those, I would have spent hundreds of dollars, when the one that’s really tempting is the oled models allegedly coming out this year.
Apple would have made lots of money on me if I upgraded every year, but I just don’t have that kind of money.
An m1 mini is plenty for the kind of work the OP wants to do. Why upgrade every year?

I mean you’re comparing you delaying the upgrade upgrading your one year old iPad to me suggesting someone with a 9 year or so old computer (fully depreciated, consider a good computer lifetime by many) purchase the computer they can use for the next 9 years. We’re not even in the same hemisphere.

 

[wonderings]

Calm down. An 8GB Mac can be used for quite a lot, including graphic design. Source: me. I've done it.
Heavy InDesign and Illustrator work. Not an issue -- unless you're pearl-clutching over Activity Monitor stats.

Yes and no, it depends on the type of graphic work you are doing. If you work in graphics and handle mailings that involve variable data you can easily chew through 8 gigs of RAM in no time doing a large export from Indesign. Many things you will be fine with, but I would opt for a little more future proofing. This is the bad part of where Apple has gone with their hardware, you basically have no upgrade options to extend the life of your machine, not the most green approach from a company that touts how green they are.

Get what you need now because there are no upgrade options down the road outside of an external hard drive for storage. I made that mistake with my last MacBook Pro Intel, was under powered because I just could not face paying Apples ridiculous prices for RAM and Hard drive space. For me now I work so much better on a Mac then on Windows I sadly pay the crazy high prices for the RAM and storage space I need.

 

[profcutter]

I mean you’re comparing you delaying the upgrade upgrading your one year old iPad to me suggesting someone with a 9 year or so old computer (fully depreciated, consider a good computer lifetime by many) purchase the computer they can use for the next 9 years. We’re not even in the same hemisphere.

I’m not at all sure in which hemisphere you reside I’m also not sure why it’s relevant.

My point, in short, was “if it works, don’t fix it.” The OP has pointed out that it no longer works, and the lack of Apple support for that model also suggests it doesn’t work. So fix it. Here’s a couple of models that would be useful.

 

[ignatius345]

Yes and no, it depends on the type of graphic work you are doing. If you work in graphics and handle mailings that involve variable data you can easily chew through 8 gigs of RAM in no time doing a large export from Indesign.

I have worked with some very large InDesign and Illustrator documents, even on my M1 Air which had 8GB of RAM. It got the job done and nothing felt like it was crawling ever. (Compared, for instance, with my 2014 iMac 5K which got brutally laggy at the end, even with 24 GB of RAM installed)

I'm sure if I looked at Activity Monitor there was gobs of virtual memory being used, but that's pretty irrelevant as far as I'm concerned. So yeah, I'm sure it was "chewing through" all the RAM it had available but the performance was absolutely fine. I'm sure some operations would have benefitted from 16 GB, sure, but frankly I was shocked at what I was able to get away with on that base model Air.

The only time I managed to really make it stall out was when I had my work and personal user accounts both logged in and switched between them with a very complex Illustrator document open. That got the ol' beachball spinning, for sure, but it was probably kind of a torture test.

 

[YoitsTmac]

I have worked with some very large documents, even on my M1 Air which had 8GB of RAM. It got the job done and nothing felt like it was crawling ever. I'm sure if I looked at Activity Monitor there was gobs of virtual memory being used, but that's pretty irrelevant as far as I'm concerned. So yeah, I'm sure it was "chewing through" all the RAM it had available but the performance was absolutely fine.

See here

I had a 16GB Mac Mini for photo, video and graphic design at work. Some of my slow downs were so painful, that I upgraded my desk to a Mac Studio. YMMV.

Adobe is particularly RAM heavy. I can have Lightroom open and edit a photo in Photoshop and it grinds to a halt. Fairly light work but both programs wanted everything, even for a single image edit. I didn’t need activity monitor to be upset at how long I was waiting for things to happen. As I shared in another thread, I was able to leave my desk, request budget for a new computer, and walk back before my previews would load. My swap was 15GB at the time.

OP budgeted $2,500 for a computer and seems to generally get 9 years of usage out of the computer. So their utility cost averages to $277 a year. Right now some are telling OP to upgrade their existing computer, a computer Apple labeled as obsolete. Upgrading won’t be an option on their next computer as we all know.

$2,500 isn’t a penny pinching budget of someone trying to buy a base M2. Why is it so wrong to buy a computer (Mac Studio) that’s in OPs budget and will undoubtedly meet their needs?

 

[wonderings]

I have worked with some very large InDesign and Illustrator documents, even on my M1 Air which had 8GB of RAM. It got the job done and nothing felt like it was crawling ever. (Compared, for instance, with my 2014 iMac 5K which got brutally laggy at the end, even with 24 GB of RAM installed)

I'm sure if I looked at Activity Monitor there was gobs of virtual memory being used, but that's pretty irrelevant as far as I'm concerned. So yeah, I'm sure it was "chewing through" all the RAM it had available but the performance was absolutely fine. I'm sure some operations would have benefitted from 16 GB, sure, but frankly I was shocked at what I was able to get away with on that base model Air.

The only time I managed to really make it stall out was when I had my work and personal user accounts both logged in and switched between them with a very complex Illustrator document open. That got the ol' beachball spinning, for sure, but it was probably kind of a torture test.

Again, if you are doing some specific work that does end up in hands of people who work with graphics in print like large data merges you can simply just crash because of not enough RAM. I am not denying any M series Mac is good for graphic work, but I am saying there are cases where 8 gigs is not enough, and because you can NEVER upgrade it, now is the time to do it. But I agree, if you are simply doing some design work and the end result is sending off a PDF of your work then you are probably fine for now. If you are involved with more then simply making the design and need to do things like variable data merges that end you up with 20,000 + page PDF's and things like that, you might regret sticking with only 8 gigs of RAM.

 

[ignatius345]

Again, if you are doing some specific work that does end up in hands of people who work with graphics in print like large data merges you can simply just crash because of not enough RAM. I am not denying any M series Mac is good for graphic work, but I am saying there are cases where 8 gigs is not enough, and because you can NEVER upgrade it, now is the time to do it. But I agree, if you are simply doing some design work and the end result is sending off a PDF of your work then you are probably fine for now. If you are involved with more then simply making the design and need to do things like variable data merges that end you up with 20,000 + page PDF's and things like that, you might regret sticking with only 8 gigs of RAM.

Yeah, I'm sure there are uses where 8 GB of RAM is a bottleneck. What you're describing seems like some very extreme stuff, though, and I suspect most designers don't end up with 20K page documents.

Don't get me wrong, if I was spec'ing a Mac today I'd opt for 16 or 24 GB of RAM for future proofing. I just get a little tired of people saying that an 8GB Mac is somehow unusable, which is sort of an insane position that doesn't align with reality.

 

[wonderings]

Yeah, I'm sure there are uses where 8 GB of RAM is a bottleneck. What you're describing seems like some very extreme stuff, though, and I suspect most designers don't end up with 20K page documents.

Don't get me wrong, if I was spec'ing a Mac today I'd opt for 16 or 24 GB of RAM for future proofing. I just get a little tired of people saying that an 8GB Mac is somehow unusable, which is sort of an insane position that doesn't align with reality.

Not all that extreme if you work in print that does mailers. It is a common thing, especially when working for governmental agencies, or large companies that need to send out physical invoices everything month. It is still pretty common, though a lot of shops don't touch it simply because they do not know how.