Which I-mac

[serendipidy]

Hi could I have some advice please
I am in the process of buying a 27" i-mac for my work, I work as an Illustrator using a mac Mini , which will now be used as my back up computer.
I am getting such mixed advice from mac retailers when I ring up questioning which model I should go for . I would like to know what you all think......
Basically all I use my mac for is illustrating using CS4 , no other programme will be installed or used on it.
What model would I need , will the 2.7 Ghz model be okay , or will the 3.1 Ghz model suit my needs better. The advice I have been given from the retailers is the 3.1 Ghz would be better speed wise for ' Graphics '......... Are they talking about graphics for gaming , if so this is a waste of time as I never use the mac for gaming . Or are they saying ' graphics' as in design and photoshop.

Many thanks

 

[miles01110]

Any iMac made in the past few years will run CS4 perfectly fine. Just get the cheapest 27" model if that's the screen size you want.

 

[Bear]

Hi, you don't mention which pieces of CS4 you use. That could affect advice as to which processor is best for you and if the different graphics processor in the 2 27" models would affect you noticeably.

The one piece of solid advice I can give you is to get an 8GB (2*4GB) memory kit from a third party to bring your system to 12GB. Apple charges way too much for memory and it's a very easy installation. 4GB won't really be enough.

Also, if you're not running CS4 on Lion, do check on Adobe's support site for any compatibility issues the CS4 applications you use might have with Lion.

 

[serendipidy]

Which I-mac

HI Bear and miles01110
I only use Photoshop in CS4, at the moment I have OSX 10.6.8 on my mac -mini. I have wondered if this could be a problem when if I have to use Lion, at the moment no issues with my 8 year old Epson Expression1680 scanner , wacom Intous4 PTK 440 and my Canon pro 9000 mk 2.
Can you see any issues I could have here with Lion coming already installed, at the back of my mind it might seem a bit daft , could my OSX 10. 6.8 be installed in the new i-mac to overcome this if I have these issues.

Like to know what model i should go for concerning the graphics card

 

[Bear]

Just for Photoshop, the graphics card shouldn't matter.

Adobe's support site lists a few issues with Photoshop on Lion, most of which have fixes or workarounds.

 

[AcesHigh87]

I could run Photoshop CS4 without major issue on my macbook so any iMac will certainly do the job. I'd say head to apple's refurb page and find the cheapest 27" (assuming you really want that screen size) you can find. Pop in extra RAM third party if you want. You'll be fine with anything recent really.

Also, if you're worried about Lion and would rather just have SL. Some of the iMac's on the refurb page are 2010 models that will come installed with SL rather than Lion.

 

[Bear]

I could run Photoshop CS4 without major issue on my macbook so any iMac will certainly do the job. I'd say head to apple's refurb page and find the cheapest 27" (assuming you really want that screen size) you can find. Pop in extra RAM third party if you want. You'll be fine with anything recent...

Without a "major issue" implies issue(s) of some sort. So what not major issue(s) did you have?

For an illustrator, time is money, and a slower computer can take more time for tasks.

I only use Photoshop in CS4...

How large are the images that you are working on in photoshop? And how many layers?

 

[AcesHigh87]

Without a "major issue" implies issue(s) of some sort. So what not major issue(s) did you have?

For an illustrator, time is money, and a slower computer can take more time for tasks.

Admittedly it ran a little slow, especially while loading fonts, but I'm hardly telling the OP to go out and buy a macbook from 2008. Any 2010 or 2011 iMac will have no problem at all running Photoshop. I run CS5 on my iMac and it runs great.

 

[Charcoalwerks]

HI Bear and miles01110
I only use Photoshop in CS4, at the moment I have OSX 10.6.8 on my mac -mini. I have wondered if this could be a problem when if I have to use Lion, at the moment no issues with my 8 year old Epson Expression1680 scanner , wacom Intous4 PTK 440 and my Canon pro 9000 mk 2.
Can you see any issues I could have here with Lion coming already installed, at the back of my mind it might seem a bit daft , could my OSX 10. 6.8 be installed in the new i-mac to overcome this if I have these issues.

Like to know what model i should go for concerning the graphics card

I'm using Ai CS5 on an entry level mid-2011 21.5" iMac with 12gigs of RAM and it is a delight. This is while using Ai, Ps, and Dw with dual monitors simultaneously. This coming from CS4 on a mid 2007 blackBook. HUGE difference!!