What iMac/Spec for Adobe Creative Suite 6?

[SD449]

Hi Everyone

I need to find the best iMac for an in-house design machine using mainly Adobe Creative Suite 6

Obviously my initial thought is the new iMac Pro but don't know wether to get the basic or an upgraded model.

Current Machine is a Mac Pro Early 2008, 2x 2.8ghz Quad Core Intel Xeon, 8gb RAM, 320gb Hard Drive, 2x 500gb Hard Drives, 256mb Graphics Card

So anything is going to be better than what we have now, but want something that will last equally long.

What are your thoughts?

 

[casperes1996]

My personal advice is to bump the GPU to the Vega 64. It's the cheapest upgrade you can make ($600 vs $800 for the rest), but equally significant to the rest if you use the GPU. Which you will with Adobe apps.
If you work alright with 8 gigs of RAM going beyond 32 seems a bit meaningless to me honestly.
And with respect to the CPU, going to 10 cores might make sense if you're willing to spend the money, but I wouldn't really go further than that, since the performance/cost ratio decreases as we move up the chain.

Unless you need really fast storage, the 1TB SSD is fine, and for extra storage you can suplement with external drives

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Hi Everyone

I need to find the best iMac for an in-house design machine using mainly Adobe Creative Suite 6

Obviously my initial thought is the new iMac Pro but don't know wether to get the basic or an upgraded model.

Current Machine is a Mac Pro Early 2008, 2x 2.8ghz Quad Core Intel Xeon, 8gb RAM, 320gb Hard Drive, 2x 500gb Hard Drives, 256mb Graphics Card

So anything is going to be better than what we have now, but want something that will last equally long.

What are your thoughts?

Its less likely that an all in one will last 10 years, but if your needs are unlikely to change too much you should get at least 8 out of it, barring the usual caveat of it just dying on you as any electronic device can do at any time for any one of thousands of reasons.

Whether any upgrades will be of use to you will solely depend on what you are using creative suite for of course but by the sounds of it you will be fine with a base model for at least the next 5 years if you have not felt the need to upgrade what you have until now. If you want the longest lasting machine and plan on editing 4K or higher over the next few years then you may want to spring for the upgraded graphics card, other than that you should be all good.

To be honest you may just want to go with a high end 5k imac and buy one every 5 years it'll cost about the same and you'll have newer tech and increased productivity more often.

 

[SD449]

Its less likely that an all in one will last 10 years, but if your needs are unlikely to change too much you should get at least 8 out of it, barring the usual caveat of it just dying on you as any electronic device can do at any time for any one of thousands of reasons.

Whether any upgrades will be of use to you will solely depend on what you are using creative suite for of course but by the sounds of it you will be fine with a base model for at least the next 5 years if you have not felt the need to upgrade what you have until now. If you want the longest lasting machine and plan on editing 4K or higher over the next few years then you may want to spring for the upgraded graphics card, other than that you should be all good.

To be honest you may just want to go with a high end 5k imac and buy one every 5 years it'll cost about the same and you'll have newer tech and increased productivity more often.

The machines is used for a restaurant chain, creating menus, press/billboard advert, email creating and website content and touching up photography. No video editing is done and everything is 2d.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

The machines is used for a restaurant chain, creating menus, press/billboard advert, email creating and website content and touching up photography. No video editing is done and everything is 2d.

Then an imac pro is a complete waste of money. To be perfectly honest a 12 inch MacBook could do that use case for you without breaking sweat but I understand the want for a large and brilliant 5k screen to work on for your uses.

Just get a normal 27 inch imac upgrade the graphics card and go with a 1TB ssd. RAM can be upgraded by yourself for cheap whenever you like as they have a ram access hatch and an extra 2x8gb for 24gb in total will see you through at least the next 10 years I would think. Should be about $2900 for the top graphics a fast i5 and a 1TB ssd.

https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/imac?product=MNED2LL/A&step=config#

 

[SD449]

Then an imac pro is a complete waste of money. To be perfectly honest a 12 inch MacBook could do that use case for you without breaking sweat but I understand the want for a large and brilliant 5k screen to work on for your uses.

Just get a normal 27 inch imac upgrade the graphics card and go with a 1TB ssd. RAM can be upgraded by yourself for cheap whenever you like as they have a ram access hatch and an extra 2x8gb for 24gb in total will see you through at least the next 10 years I would think. Should be about $2900 for the top graphics a fast i5 and a 1TB ssd.

https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/imac?product=MNED2LL/A&step=config#

That is what Apple have recombined on chat.
4.2 Processor (is this no needed?)
16gb RAM (talked me out of the 32gb and do it ourselves)
But said middle graphic card would be sufficient??

I think the gorgeous Pro would be lovely but without video editing, VR Design etc it seems over the top and nearly double the price

 

[Samuelsan2001]

That is what Apple have recombined on chat.
4.2 Processor (is this no needed?)
16gb RAM (talked me out of the 32gb and do it ourselves)
But said middle graphic card would be sufficient??

I think the gorgeous Pro would be lovely but without video editing, VR Design etc it seems over the top and nearly double the price

For your usage the i7 is not needed it just won't be used by that use case enough to warrant it.
The middle card is sufficient but graphics are the one thing still getting better over time quickly so future proofing that is the hardest.
DO NOT pay apple for RAM when you are buying the only apple machine you can upgrade yourself, its throwing money away, I doubt you'll need more RAM for a few years anyway 8gb and a fast SSD will be good for a while yet with your usage.

The 1TB SSD is expensive but a good buy but the 512gb with external storage will work great too.

 

[SD449]

Would this be sufficient?

http://www.argos.co.uk/product/7076240

 

[Ph.D.]

Would this be sufficient?

http://www.argos.co.uk/product/7076240

That's the base model with 1TB SSD, right? If so, yes, in my opinion that will be fully adequate for 2-D work including CS-6. I have the same machine but with 512 SSD and use CS-6 as well. I added 16 GB of RAM myself for a total of 24 GB, but even that wasn't really needed.

The mid-range model will have slightly faster graphics, but not so much that you would notice in real-life use. The upgraded CPU options, especially the I7, will run much hotter, which is something I strongly wished to avoid.

Like you, I also came from a 2008 Mac Pro, though one that was significantly upgraded over yours. I've been delighted with the iMac, and I think you would be too.

Edit: Oh, wait, that's with a 1TB hard disk rather than an SSD. I recommend an SSD-only machine. See if you can afford the 512 SSD option. You can add an external drive if/when needed.

 

[SD449]

That's the base model with 1TB SSD, right? If so, yes, in my opinion that will be fully adequate for 2-D work including CS-6. I have the same machine but with 512 SSD and use CS-6 as well. I added 16 GB of RAM myself for a total of 24 GB, but even that wasn't really needed.

The mid-range model will have slightly faster graphics, but not so much that you would notice in real-life use. The upgraded CPU options, especially the I7, will run much hotter, which is something I strongly wished to avoid.

Like you, I also came from a 2008 Mac Pro, though one that was significantly upgraded over yours. I've been delighted with the iMac, and I think you would be too.

Edit: Oh, wait, that's with a 1TB hard disk rather than an SSD. I recommend an SSD-only machine. See if you can afford the 512 SSD option. You can add an external drive if/when needed.

Thank you for your reply. Its the 1TB Fusion Drive, are they any good are what they're meant to do?

I agree an SSD would be perfect but Argos doesn't offer that option and Apple would charge £2019 (516gb SSD) £2379 (1tb SSD) which is £560/£939 more than Argos as they're giving 10% off after the £150 saving from Apple.

So the SSD has to give ALOT of bang for the buck.

Would this machine be up to the job for say next 3-5 years and I assume will still see a big jump from current machine which is also using old fashioned hard drives.

 

[Bertrude]

You might have to be prepared for CS6 to maybe not quite work as it should in some areas...

https://blog.conradchavez.com/2017/09/25/macos-10-13-high-sierra-will-adobe-software-work/

 

[EugW]

I am not a heavy Photoshop user, but in CS6 I got minor interface glitches in High Sierra. If I used Photoshop to make a living, that would drive me nuts.

BTW, typically, multicore isn't a huge improvements for Photoshop over 4-core + HT, particularly if the clock speed is lower. Thus, it might make sense to get an iMac non-Pro and spec it with a 1-2 TB SSD and add 32 GB of third party RAM, particularly because the iMac Pro and iMac have the exact same screen.

Just be aware though that the i7 iMac can be moderately loud under intense usage. I had the i7 and then returned it for an i5, and am much happier. However, like I said, I am not a heavy Photoshop user. Just a light dabbler.

You might have to be prepared for CS6 to maybe not quite work as it should in some areas...

https://blog.conradchavez.com/2017/09/25/macos-10-13-high-sierra-will-adobe-software-work/

Yes, in the comments, one person lists a similar problem to what I had.

I have Cs6 and already having issues. The main problem I encountered immediately is when trying to SAVE AS JPG – it’s creating a PSD file extension. If I delete the extension – the file becomes unreadable to other people. So i have to manually type .jpg every time I save as a jpg. I can only imagine how many more problems I will encounter.