Just how much iMac do I need?

[carlgo]

The only hard thing I will do on mine is to use Lightroom or Capture One when i come over from Aperture. I do not take a million photos and delete all but the few I like, but they are full-frame RAWS and some large format film scans. I do one at a time, no batch processing to speak of.

Would like to do some illustration, and maybe a simple CAD architectural program sort of thing.

Any videos would be simple, not commercial. I don't game and I watch TV on a TV.

The rest is just the usual surf and email, etc. stuff.

I have a TC for backup.

I am thinking Retina, 512 ss storage, but not sure about i5/i7, graphics choices and memory. There is a few hundred dollars there to save if possible, but if there was a question, I would go for whatever. Thanks

 

[roadkill401]

The base model iMac will more than likely meet your every need. I have the i7 version and i can't say for one moment that I have ever pegged the CPU during Lightroom. So I am pretty confident to say that the i5 3.5gHz is what you want. I would say go with your planned 512ssd and consider getting 16gb ram. I had the unit with 8 initially and found it rather sluggish on Lightroom, but bumped it up to 16 and it worked fine.

 

[carlgo]

The base model iMac will more than likely meet your every need. I have the i7 version and i can't say for one moment that I have ever pegged the CPU during Lightroom. So I am pretty confident to say that the i5 3.5gHz is what you want. I would say go with your planned 512ssd and consider getting 16gb ram. I had the unit with 8 initially and found it rather sluggish on Lightroom, but bumped it up to 16 and it worked fine.

Thanks. I sort of suspected that to be the case. Actually surprised that 16 gb ram is needed.

 

[roadkill401]

Thanks. I sort of suspected that to be the case. Actually surprised that 16 gb ram is needed.

Blame that on Yosemite. The OS is a pig and has major issues with itself under the hood. It was released about 1 year ahead of when it was supposed to, and you just need to think of OS 10.11 as the much needed bug fix.

 

[yjchua95]

The only hard thing I will do on mine is to use Lightroom or Capture One when i come over from Aperture. I do not take a million photos and delete all but the few I like, but they are full-frame RAWS and some large format film scans. I do one at a time, no batch processing to speak of.

Would like to do some illustration, and maybe a simple CAD architectural program sort of thing.

Any videos would be simple, not commercial. I don't game and I watch TV on a TV.

The rest is just the usual surf and email, etc. stuff.

I have a TC for backup.

I am thinking Retina, 512 ss storage, but not sure about i5/i7, graphics choices and memory. There is a few hundred dollars there to save if possible, but if there was a question, I would go for whatever. Thanks

Any quad core iMac with a Fusion Drive will do you fine.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

This

Any quad core iMac with a Fusion Drive will do you fine.

I couldn't agree more, any one of them will do the OP well.