What to buy?

[Easy Lover]

Hi everyone!

Im thinking about buying an Imac for the purpose of mostly illustration and graphic design. Im puzzling between older model and the new released 2012 thinner model

My budget is suitable for 21,5" model, but im thinking is that powerful enough to run Adobe CS6 smoothly?

A good screen is also important to me and i haven´t found out if the new model has better screen than the older ones (other than the 75% less glare, which i find somewhat important also)


Any help or advice will be much appreciated.

 

[glitch44]

Get the 2012 21.5" with at least 8GB of RAM, although the new 21.5" does NOT have user upgradeable RAM, so you may want to max it out at 16GB because you can't upgrade it later.

 

[Razorhog]

Save up a little longer and get a 27".

 

[OlegPasko]

27" is better for designer, but anyway, 21,5 will be working good and smoothly (in my Air with ssd CS6 works really nice).

 

[brucethemoose]

If you can, save up for the older 27" model.


I don't know what everyone else thinks, but that 27" LCD is the single most valuable asset I can think of when editing photos. I mostly use/used 21.5" iMacs with CS4/CS6 away from home. I don't have a 27" iMac, but my home monitor uses the exact same LG LCD panel.

The extra space for windows/tools/folders is awesome in itself, but having 2x the pixels and slightly better color accuracy to see your photos in their full glory is extremely valuable, especially if you're a serious photographer.

The older 21.5" models I work with are still just fine, but working with a 27" is just in another league, no matter what hardware I use underneath.



Whatever you get will be plenty powerful enough for CS6, don't worry about that.

 

[netdog]

Agree that it's worth it to put off the purchase if possible until you have the $$$ for the 27".

 

[Easy Lover]

Thanks everyone for answers.

I think im going for 21,5 new model since i need it badly and cant wait longer to save money, because im working with 13" Macbook

The only question is, is it worth to pay 200€ extra for 2,9G processor rather than 2,7 or should i buy the cheapest version for 1399€?

 

[joe-h2o]

Thanks everyone for answers.

I think im going for 21,5 new model since i need it badly and cant wait longer to save money, because im working with 13" Macbook

The only question is, is it worth to pay 200€ extra for 2,9G processor rather than 2,7 or should i buy the cheapest version for 1399€?

It's not just a CPU bump for the 2.9 - you also go up to the 650M GPU which is better than the 640M in the base model, although if you don't plan to do anything that really taxes the GPU (gaming, some video rendering in CS6 apps, After Effects etc) then it might not be necessary.

 

[Habitual]

It's not just a CPU bump for the 2.9 - you also go up to the 650M GPU which is better than the 640M in the base model, although if you don't plan to do anything that really taxes the GPU (gaming, some video rendering in CS6 apps, After Effects etc) then it might not be necessary.

I'm in the same case, I'm waiting for new 21,5. But dont know which is better:
a)21,5 2,7Ghz 16gb
b)21,5 2,9Ghz 8gb

and another question, which is better 16gb or fussion drive, if you can make only one upgrade (2,9Ghz)

 

[DeafRaiders]

It's not just a CPU bump for the 2.9 - you also go up to the 650M GPU which is better than the 640M in the base model, although if you don't plan to do anything that really taxes the GPU (gaming, some video rendering in CS6 apps, After Effects etc) then it might not be necessary.

So you are saying that the Basic 27" is good enough for After Effects, Premiere Pro CS6? I am looking for one that can handle those and daily usages. I am not looking to spend big money.

 

[MagicThief83]

I'm in the same case, I'm waiting for new 21,5. But dont know which is better:
a)21,5 2,7Ghz 16gb
b)21,5 2,9Ghz 8gb

and another question, which is better 16gb or fussion drive, if you can make only one upgrade (2,9Ghz)

I'm fully maxing out the 21.5" as soon as it becomes available but if I had to choose one, I would definitely choose the 16GB RAM. To be honest, I wouldn't spec bump the CPU, the i5 should be good enough for most tasks. I'd rather upgrade the RAM and HD to the Fusion Drive, because the Fusion Drive will be a noticeable improvement over the default 5400 rpm drive. You get both capacity and SSD performance.