Looking at an iMac, is this a good deal?

[Royksöpp]

Im seriously considering and iMac and I have my sights set on this one:

http://www.apple.com/shop/product/G...uad-core-intel-core-i7-with-retina-5k-display

Processor
4.0GHz quad‑core Intel Core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 4.2GHz)

Memory
16GB (two 8GB) of 1867MHz DDR3 memory; four SO-DIMM slots, user accessible

Storage
512GB Flash Storage1

Graphics
AMD Radeon R9 M395 graphics processor with 2GB of GDDR5 memory

Do you guys think this is a good deal or should I wait for the summer update?

 

[Malus120]

Short answer: Yes the Retina 5K iMac is a good deal.

Long(er) answer: Go try and build yourself an equivalently specced computer with a 5K display. You can't.

Long answer: It really all depends on your use case, and how big of a difference 4K vs 5K makes for you. If you can live with a 4K monitor and a Windows PC or hackintosh cheaper options exist, and whether or not the performance profile is right for you is dependent on what you want to do.

Advice: if you're set on buying the iMac but can wait for the fall refresh (probably around October), by all means do so as it should be fairly substantial upgrade IO wise (Thunderbolt 3, USB 3.1) and GPU wise. That said we're still probably about half a year from an upgrade so that's also a long time to wait if you could be benefiting now.

What exactly are you looking to use the machine for, and what do you have now? If you're upgrading from the 13 rMPP in your signature it will be a big upgrade (albeit at the cost of probability), so it may be well worth it depending on what you do.

 

[Royksöpp]

Short answer: Yes the Retina 5K iMac is a good deal.

Long(er) answer: Go try and build yourself an equivalently specced computer with a 5K display. You can't.

Long answer: It really all depends on your use case, and how big of a difference 4K vs 5K makes for you. If you can live with a 4K monitor and a Windows PC or hackintosh cheaper options exist, and whether or not the performance profile is right for you is dependent on what you want to do.

Advice: if you're set on buying the iMac but can wait for the fall refresh (probably around October), by all means do so as it should be fairly substantial upgrade IO wise (Thunderbolt 3, USB 3.1) and GPU wise. That said we're still probably about half a year from an upgrade so that's also a long time to wait if you could be benefiting now.

What exactly are you looking to use the machine for, and what do you have now? If you're upgrading from the 13 rMPP in your signature it will be a big upgrade (albeit at the cost of probability), so it may be well worth it depending on what you do.

Ill be using it for Graphic Design. Illustrator, Indesign, and Photoshop. I want to start learning coding. I'll also be using it for watching movies. I don't edit video or do anything too hardcore. I plan on keeping my MacBook as well.

 

[Royksöpp]

Should I upgrade the CPU or the GPU? I can't afford both. What would you recommend that won't go over the $2500-$2600 mark?

 

[Strider64]

I'm old school I would go with the CPU upgrade over the GPU and what you are doing isn't too video intensive. I would also increase the ram (though not at the Apple Store) if you can swing it, for it's always nice to have more memory. This is what I would do, but there maybe others who have a valid point in doing it the other way.

 

[Royksöpp]

I'm old school I would go with the CPU upgrade over the GPU and what you are doing isn't too video intensive. I would also increase the ram (though not at the Apple Store) if you can swing it, for it's always nice to have more memory. This is what I would do, but there maybe others who have a valid point in doing it the other way.

This one is right within my budget. Think it will be good? I'll update the ram within the next couple of months.

 

[Serban]

That one doesnt have either the cpu or gpu upgrade
You said you want one of them..so find one with i7 or M395x

 

[Royksöpp]

That one doesnt have either the cpu or gpu upgrade
You said you want one of them..so find one with i7 or M395x

Well I've decided that those upgrades are out of my budget. I'd rather have an SSD.

 

[Serban]

I7 with 256 ssd and later add some external ssd?

 

[Malus120]

Well I've decided that those upgrades are out of my budget. I'd rather have an SSD.

My 2 cents:

Drop back down to the 256GB SSD and use the savings to upgrade either the CPU or GPU (I highly recommend you upgrade the GPU) and get an external SSD.

My reasoning: External IO (particularly Thunderbolt 2, but also USB 3.0) is fast enough these days that you can get an external SSD with way more space for a lot less than Apple charges with no performance penalty (vs installing the same SSD internally). While the Apple SSDs are faster than anything except a top of the line PCIE SSD attached via an external enclosure on Thunderbolt 2, unless your working with uncompressed 4K video or some other ridiculously IO heavy task, most people would be hard pressed to tell the difference between an Apple SSD and a "low end" TLC SATA SSD (because they're both so much faster than any HDD).

Furthermore, while you can always add more storage later either externally or by physically opening your iMac (if you're advernturous) the GPU and to a lesser extent the CPU are set in stone the moment you order that machine until the end of its life. I know I might have held onto my trusty old 2011 iMac a tad longer if I'd had the foresight to spring for the high end GPU upgrade at the time as the CPU was still more than fast enough and once I added an SSD the machine still felt really fast (in 2014). Not having that faster GPU though just killed it.

I recommend the GPU over the CPU for four reasons. First, the difference between the base CPU and the high end CPU is much smaller than the difference between the base and high end GPUs. Second most quad core intel CPU's today are already very fast for the tasks your looking at. Third the trend is for more and more tasks to be pushed off to the GPU these days so investing in a powerful GPU today will, IMO, give your machine a boost down the road. Finally the use of mobile GPUs in the iMacs means that they already have a tendency to be somewhat unbalanced in terms of system resources (CPU vs GPU), mitigating this will help extend the useful life of your machine.

Anyway just some food for thought.

 

[Royksöpp]

My 2 cents:

Drop back down to the 256GB SSD and use the savings to upgrade either the CPU or GPU (I highly recommend you upgrade the GPU) and get an external SSD.

My reasoning: External IO (particularly Thunderbolt 2, but also USB 3.0) is fast enough these days that you can get an external SSD with way more space for a lot less than Apple charges with no performance penalty (vs installing the same SSD internally). While the Apple SSDs are faster than anything except a top of the line PCIE SSD attached via an external enclosure on Thunderbolt 2, unless your working with uncompressed 4K video or some other ridiculously IO heavy task, most people would be hard pressed to tell the difference between an Apple SSD and a "low end" TLC SATA SSD (because they're both so much faster than any HDD).

Furthermore, while you can always add more storage later either externally or by physically opening your iMac (if you're advernturous) the GPU and to a lesser extent the CPU are set in stone the moment you order that machine until the end of its life. I know I might have held onto my trusty old 2011 iMac a tad longer if I'd had the foresight to spring for the high end GPU upgrade at the time as the CPU was still more than fast enough and once I added an SSD the machine still felt really fast (in 2014). Not having that faster GPU though just killed it.

I recommend the GPU over the CPU for four reasons. First, the difference between the base CPU and the high end CPU is much smaller than the difference between the base and high end GPUs. Second most quad core intel CPU's today are already very fast for the tasks your looking at. Third the trend is for more and more tasks to be pushed off to the GPU these days so investing in a powerful GPU today will, IMO, give your machine a boost down the road. Finally the use of mobile GPUs in the iMacs means that they already have a tendency to be somewhat unbalanced in terms of system resources (CPU vs GPU), mitigating this will help extend the useful life of your machine.

Anyway just some food for thought.

That really does give me something to think about. Thanks! I appreciate your input!