Is the base 27" iMac a good buy?

[nickosbad]

Hiya, It's that time of year when i've got that new tech itch and I a thinking of bing a new Macbook Pro OR upgrading my 21.5" iMac

My usage is fairly light.....Normal web browsing, iTunes email etc but lately I have a new job and this involves using Adobe Captivate, light Photoshop work and in the future some light Adobe Animate/After Effects work (nothing too taxing)

I was all set on a 13" NTB Macbook Pro but after spending a bit of time playing with the 27" and the gorgeous Retina Screen....I am now thinking this may be the way to go

Specs wide, my current machine is a Late 2013 21.5" iMac, 3.1gHz i7 with a 256GB SSD and 8GB Ram

If I was to but the 27" iMac I would go for the base spec (3.4gHz i5 8Gb Ram) but upgrade the drive to the 256GB SSD

Is there anything lost by going for the base spec 27" iMac vs the mid spec one and how would performance compare to my current machine?

 

[294307]

Well if you feel you need to upgrade, the base 27-inch iMac with a 256 GB SSD will suit your needs fine. For your intended use cases, the middle tier model seems unnecessary. Given your choice to build your iMac with an SSD (which is a sensible choice as you'll already be accustomed to the speed of an SSD versus a Fusion Drive), even a dual-core 2.3 GHz iMac would feel quite fast to use even if it doesn't have all the compute power you need.

Not necessarily representative of real-world use, but if you compare synthethic benchmarks between the 3.4 GHz i5-7500 and 3.5 GHz i5-7600, the difference is quite small (a dual-core score of 13,835 versus 14,834 in Geekbench 4). That at least tells us in real-world use, any performance difference is quite marginal. They're both mid-range processors and equally very capable.

 

[Lunder89]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news. I looked up the iMac you have now, and compared it to the iMac you are looking at... And the geekbench 4 (MC) score is according to everymac.com identical. (Or at least so close it will make no real world difference)
Here are my sources:
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac-core-i7-3.1-21-inch-aluminum-late-2013-specs.html
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/...7-inch-aluminum-retina-5k-mid-2017-specs.html

And since you will configure the same amount of ram and SSD, you won't really get a Mac that can do more than the one you have now. At least not until you compare the GPU's. And I have no problem admitting I don't know if that will help in apps like Photoshop and AfterEffects. Because I use neither...

All you really get is a really nice display, and it is nice, I have 5K iMac from 2015 myself. If you can a good resell price on your current iMac, so the new one won't cost as much, it's a no brainer, go ahead.

Going for the mid tier model with an i7 will get you a performance boost, but I don't honestly know if it is worth the extra price. (Guess it will give you 15-20% faster performance).

 

[Fishrrman]

"Is the base 27" iMac a good buy?"

NO.
You want something with an SSD inside.

"If I was to but the 27" iMac I would go for the base spec (3.4gHz i5 8Gb Ram) but upgrade the drive to the 256GB SSD"

YES!

But... can you afford $200 more?
If so, get the "midrange" (3.5ghz) iMac instead.
It has a 7600 CPU (instead of the 7500 CPU of the "entry model") and better graphics.

 

[nickosbad]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news. I looked up the iMac you have now, and compared it to the iMac you are looking at... And the geekbench 4 (MC) score is according to everymac.com identical. (Or at least so close it will make no real world difference)
Here are my sources:
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac-core-i7-3.1-21-inch-aluminum-late-2013-specs.html
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/...7-inch-aluminum-retina-5k-mid-2017-specs.html

And since you will configure the same amount of ram and SSD, you won't really get a Mac that can do more than the one you have now. At least not until you compare the GPU's. And I have no problem admitting I don't know if that will help in apps like Photoshop and AfterEffects. Because I use neither...

All you really get is a really nice display, and it is nice, I have 5K iMac from 2015 myself. If you can a good resell price on your current iMac, so the new one won't cost as much, it's a no brainer, go ahead.

Going for the mid tier model with an i7 will get you a performance boost, but I don't honestly know if it is worth the extra price. (Guess it will give you 15-20% faster performance).

Yeah, when I bought my current machine (it was an insurance replacement) I got a high spec processor and SSD so even now it really flies!

The main driver for upgrading is the screen....after seeing and using a 27” Retina Screen, the 21.5” 1080 screen on mine is the only letdown

I have a 27” QHD screen that I connect to it for when I’m working at home but even that is only the same DPI

 

[johannnn]

You already mention the most important upgrade, the SSD.
Other than that, naaaaaah.
8GB RAM is not much, but RAM is also the only thing you can super easily upgrade yourself in a year or two if it becomes sluggish.
The CPU and GPU in the base model is more than enough (and produces less fan noise than the upgrades).