?: Which iMac would you recommend

[greyhoundrick]

Hello,

Im in the market for a new iMac and would like to keep the price down as much as possible!

I currently use a 2013 MBP 15" Retina which runs pretty well and would like to replace my 21" 2013 iMac with a better one.

Id consider a 21" again, but would probably be happier with a 27"

I would be using the iMac for photo editing. I use Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, Nik Software and some HDR software as well. I don't do any video editing at all.

My files are usually large TIFF files, lots of layers and filters. Many are over 1GB.

Can you tell me which processor, graphics card and amount of RAM you would recommend?

Thanks so much for your input. Im hoping I can get away with a machine thats not too, too expensive.

Best to you all,

Rick

 

[sputnikBA]

For now, if you aren’t sure and can afford to wait for a bit, just keep saving and ask again around WWDC.

No one outside of apple can say 100% when new models are coming, but... it’s suspected that there could be larger than normal changes in the processors this year, and you would get more performance for your money regardless of what level you buy at.

This could free you up to spend on other upgrades + you will also have any additional money that you’ve saved between now and June.

If you have to buy right now though, I’ll let others advise on that, but will say go SSD and don’t look back.

 

[Glmnet1]

+1 to everything sputnikBA said. I'm doing the same thing myself for a similar usage. I'm expecting new iMac in 3-8 months.

If you really want it now and want to keep the price down I recommend you get the base 27" + upgrade to a 256gb or 512 SSD.

If you need more storage than that, buy an external drive.

If you want more RAM you can buy it later from a 3rd party. On the 27" you can do it easily and it will be much cheaper.

 

[EugW]

As others have said, wait.

Then when the new iMacs are out, get:

27" Core i5-8400 or i5-8500 hex-core, one of which will probably be the entry level model
Base model GPU, with 4 GB RAM
256-512 GB SSD + third party external HD storage as needed
24 - 40 GB RAM (I'm hoping you can buy it with 8 GB, and then add 16-32 GB yourself.)

 

[greyhoundrick]

For now, if you aren’t sure and can afford to wait for a bit, just keep saving and ask again around WWDC.

No one outside of apple can say 100% when new models are coming, but... it’s suspected that there could be larger than normal changes in the processors this year, and you would get more performance for your money regardless of what level you buy at.

This could free you up to spend on other upgrades + you will also have any additional money that you’ve saved between now and June.

If you have to buy right now though, I’ll let others advise on that, but will say go SSD and don’t look back.

+1 to everything sputnikBA said. I'm doing the same thing myself for a similar usage. I'm expecting new iMac in 3-8 months.

If you really want it now and want to keep the price down I recommend you get the base 27" + upgrade to a 256gb or 512 SSD.

If you need more storage than that, buy an external drive.

If you want more RAM you can buy it later from a 3rd party. On the 27" you can do it easily and it will be much cheaper.

As others have said, wait.

Then when the new iMacs are out, get:

27" Core i5-8400 or i5-8500 hex-core, one of which will probably be the entry level model
Base model GPU, with 4 GB RAM
256-512 GB SSD + third party external HD storage as needed
24 - 40 GB RAM (I'm hoping you can buy it with 8 GB, and then add 16-32 GB yourself.)

Thank you all so much for the great input! Yes, I think waiting a bit and then looking at the configurations you have mentioned is a great way to go!

thanks again!

rick