Is 2020 iMac the answer? Advice needed

[KevHudThom]

Our family mostly uses MacBook laptops. But for home photos and videos, and a few other centralized things like family contacts, we use an iMac 27-in that we purchased back in February 2014: IMAC27"/3.5QC/2X4GB/3TB-FD/GTX780M. This computer has always been a lemon and crashes all the time. Now there is only 338 GB remaining on the 3 TB Fusion drive. More than 1 TB of this is due to importing about 60 hours of home videos into Photos.

We’d like to buy a new computer, but we are struggling with questions like:

• Do we get a new iMac 27-in? Or is there some better solution where the big Photos library is on a central system and accessed by laptops? Or should we use an iMac and put Photos library on an external SSD?
• Should we pay up for 8 TB SSD storage? Pretty expensive.
• If working with these videos is a key use, how much does extra processing speed and memory matter? What level would be best cost/benefit?
• Do we wait for new Apple-chip iMac to come out next year?
• We like to organize and view all photos and videos together in Photos app, but was it dumb to import the videos into Photos?

 

[pldelisle]

Do we get a new iMac 27-in? Or is there some better solution where the big Photos library is on a central system and accessed by laptops? Or should we use an iMac and put Photos library on an external SSD?

I would definitively put the Photos library on an external hard drive. Not SSD, but a plain mechanical HDD

Should we pay up for 8 TB SSD storage? Pretty expensive.

No.

If working with these videos is a key use, how much does extra processing speed and memory matter? What level would be best cost/benefit?

I’d place the videos on the internal SSD for working on them, and export the final video onto external HDD. The 2020 iMac would definitively be a great speed bump for what you are doing assuming you get minimum 16 GB of aftermarket RAM.

Do we wait for new Apple-chip iMac to come out next year?

If you can then yes.This will be a major new thing in the computing history. If you can wait, wait.

We like to organize and view all photos and videos together in Photos app, but was it dumb to import the videos into Photos?

Not at all. Photos is exactly the right thing to do that.

Next step would be a NAS server.It’s a small 2-HDD enclosure from which you can access over network.This is the ultimate “centralized” solution to store files.Since it has 2 HDDs, it has hardware failover in case a HDD fails. You can also setup time machine backup on it, and backup the NAS to an external USB drive.

 

[James_C]

This computer has always been a lemon and crashes all the time.

A 2014 iMac is a reasonable machine - I have a late late 2014 5k iMac and it still a workhorse. Did you add any memory to the original 8 GB ? If it continues to crash I would make sure all your files and data are backed up and wipe the hard disk and reinstall the operating system.

Do we get a new iMac 27-in? Or is there some better solution where the big Photos library is on a central system and accessed by laptops? Or should we use an iMac and put Photos library on an external SSD?

The weak point is the Fusion Drive for a large Photo's library - I have a external SSD connected to my iMac and I have a 500 GB photo Library. Photos runs very smooth. I would suggest an external SSD would be a much better place for your Library. The 2020 27" iMacs are great machines and you see a significant improvement in responsiveness compared to your current system, However I think the External SSD would be good to try first. At the worst you could use the external SSD with a new iMac, which would be a lot cheaper than buying an iMac with more than 1TB of internal storage.

Should we pay up for 8 TB SSD storage? Pretty expensive.

I would aim for a iMac with 1TB of SSD ( maybe 2TB) and buy an external SSD for the extra storage space you need.

If working with these videos is a key use, how much does extra processing speed and memory matter? What level would be best cost/benefit?

If you only have 8GB in your current Mac, you will see a noticeable improvement in performance if you add 16GB to take you to 24GB in total. IF you are buying a new iMac only get 8GB from Apple and save some money in buying an additional 16GB from OWC or Crucial. In your use case you will unlikely to see much benefit for adding more than memory beyond 24GB. If you are thinking about a new iMac I would look at the i7 8 core iMac.

Do we wait for new Apple-chip iMac to come out next year?

I think the 2020 27" iMacs are one of the best that Apple has released- It is a proven and established design. I would not imagine a Apple Silicon 27" iMac until Sept 2021, and there may be teething issues with a new design. However they are likely to have a slightly different form factor and of course at some stage ( 5 Years ?) Apple will drop support for Intel CPU's in new iterations of Mac OS.

We like to organize and view all photos and videos together in Photos app, but was it dumb to import the videos into Photos?

Not really, although it sounds like your library is very large and would benefit from being on an SSD.

 

[casperes1996]

If it's mostly used as a centralisation of media that will be used on other devices I would advice a Mac mini

If your family also expects to work a lot on the device, an iMac is probably a good option, yes. If you have a huge photo library I would not advice busting the bank for that much storage. I would get it externally and place the Photos library on the external disk, and only use the internal for heavy SSD performance requiring data.

As for what extra upgrades matter for working with video, look up Max Yuryev and Max Tech on YouTube - lots of videos on the topic. - Depends on the codec and all sorts. But if you get 32GB of RAM (not from Apple, install yourself, it's easy), any of the base models will probably do you fine honestly. Depends how much you require from the device. And how much you're willing to spend.

As for Apple Silicon; The first iMac to come with AS will likely just replace the 21.5". It will likely take a year, maybe more, to get to a point where the 27" can be replaced with AS. And when Apple does release it, it will almost certainly be a better computer than the 2020 iMac for most tasks. But, once the Apple Silicon iMac arrives, the second gen Apple Silicon iMac will also be around the corner and will also be a better computer. At some point, when you need a tool, you just get the tool. For me that was now; I can't tell you if you can wait for Apple Silicon. I can tell you it will likely be a better computer for most things, but it will also likely come with some drawbacks the first few years with software maturity and 1st gen product issues. But overall, probably better.

I don't think Photos was a mistake, no. Just plunk the library file on a big external drive and you're good

 

[James_C]

I would definitively put the Photos library on an external hard drive. Not SSD, but a plain mechanical HDD

I had my library on a Thunderbolt 2 external HDD and it was horrible. I switched to SSD and it was much better. HDD is fine for backup drives, but they are too slow these days for anything else compared to SSD.

 

[pldelisle]

I had my library on a Thunderbolt 2 external HDD and it was horrible. I switched to SSD and it was much better. HDD is fine for backup drives, but they are too slow these days for anything else compared to SSD.

Ok I thought it would be okay for just a photo library.

 

[KevHudThom]

Thanks for the great advice!

As for fixing the old machine, while it sounds reasonable, that lemon has been a relationship issue for 6.5 years, and now it needs to go!

Sounds like the consensus is to put the Photos library on an external SSD. Does having the SSD external impede performance much?

The Photos library file is 1.35 TB – is that the only file? In other words, the videos I imported into Photos are in that file, too? Because if so, it sounds like I could use a 2 TB external SSD.

 

[casperes1996]

Sounds like the consensus is to put the Photos library on an external SSD. Does having the SSD external impede performance much?

The Photos library file is 1.35 TB – is that the only file? In other words, the videos I imported into Photos are in that file, too? Because if so, it sounds like I could use a 2 TB external SSD.

By virtue of being external, not necessarily. But different SSDs will have different performance characteristics. Apple uses really fast ones for their internal drives. You can get super fast external drives, but I wouldn’t really say you need the highest performing drives in the world to work with. You can always keep it mostly on a slower (but still fast) external SSD and then if you need to more heavily work with a file, put it on the internal, do the work and store it back to the slower drive, but it’s unlikely to matter that much for most workflows.

Assuming normal importing everything should be in that one file, yes

 

[KevHudThom]

32 GB memory is good enough?

Radeon Pro 5500 XT (basic card) ok?

Any suggestions on a 2 TB SSD? Do I have to worry which connector it uses?

I've been using another hard drive for Time Machine. So do I use a 4 TB HDD for that?

 

[pldelisle]

32 GB memory is good enough?

Yes plenty enough. Use Crucial RAM.

Radeon Pro 5500 XT (basic card) ok?

Sure.

Thunderbolt 3 is best for SSD. Samsung T7 I think is the best. 4TB would be nice for long term.

 

[CheesePuff]

Any suggestions on a 2 TB SSD? Do I have to worry which connector it uses?

As another comment said the Samsung T7 is the best price/performance ratio allowing up to 1040 MB/sec but if you want you can get the more expensive OWC Thunderbolt 3 drive at $299 for the 1 TB which allows for up to 2500 MB/sec:

OWC 1.0 TB Envoy Pro EX Rugged High-Performance Bus-Powered SSD with Thunderbolt 3 (OWCTB3ENVP10)

Rugged Portability in Overdrive Shift your expectations of speed, performance, capacity, and portability with the Envoy Pro EX family of rugged, bus-powered, lightning-fast external SSDs.The OWC Envoy Pro EX portable SSD with Thunderbolt 3 provides ultra-fast, production-level storage for audio, ...

www.amazon.com

[automerge]1598232530[/automerge]

 

[filmgirl]

32 GB memory is good enough?

Radeon Pro 5500 XT (basic card) ok?

Any suggestions on a 2 TB SSD? Do I have to worry which connector it uses?

I've been using another hard drive for Time Machine. So do I use a 4 TB HDD for that?

A TB3 drive will be faster but I honestly don’t think it’s worth the price over the T7 if you’re not doing work where transfer speeds are a massive imperative (like 4K or 8K video writing OFF the external drive), for Photos and especially coming from your old machine, the T7 will be very fast. You can use the T7 with with either the USB-C or regular USB port on a 2020 iMac and get the same speeds.

I would still use a traditional HDD as a Time Machine drive just from a cost perspective. A 4TB SSD is $500 - $600 and you’ll need to buy your own enclosure. That’s cost prohibitive IMHO. If you don’t want to get a second T7 for Time Machine, getting a 4TB G-Drive or My Passport or Seagate or something is a great option.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

My opinion only, but it would be the height of foolishness to pay for 8gb of SSD storage. Unless you have $$$ to toss away, of course.

Perhaps you should consider moving some of the "stored stuff" onto EXTERNAL drives for archival purposes.

How much of it is just sitting on that 3tb fusion drive, never to be accessed again?

BTW, the 3tb fusion drives from that time frame were notable for failure of the HDD portion (3tb platter-based hard drive).

I wouldn't put videos into Photos.
I'd just keep them "free standing" in a folder hierarchy manually created. Give each video a date and name (example: "2020.8.24 family outing").
This makes them easy to identify.

You could then use iMovie to edit them, and Quicktime to view them (or perhaps use the free "IINA" app).