Will the basic iMac suffice for image processing?

[onesh0t]

Hi,
Just about to buy my first iMac for work purposes and I need some help in verifying that the basic iMac will be sufficient for my needs. I'm on a bit of a budget.

What do I need it for?
Mostly digital imaging, processing of high resolution RAW files, anywhere between 15 and 50mpix.

Software I will be using:
Photoshop Extended CS5 + Nik Software plugins + various other non-essentials
Lightroom CS5
Bridge CS5
Photomatix
PTGUI
(maybe) Aperture.

I'm not worried about hard drive space because of the firewire and thunderbolt connectivity. It should be easy enough to connect another scratch disk or simply back up files to an external drive.

I intend on expanding the RAM with Crucial memory to 8gb.



Playing about with the basic iMac in the Apple Store seemed smooth enough, however I didn't have access to really high resolution files and composite PSDs to make the machine work. Otherwise I would've tested it myself.

 

[Hellhammer]

AFAIK PS is limited to four threads so the base iMac is more than fine. An SSD will yield greater improvements than anything else.

 

[onesh0t]

AFAIK PS is limited to four threads so the base iMac is more than fine. An SSD will yield greater improvements than anything else.

Awesome. An SSD is another £400, so I think I'll leave it for now. After looking into it, it seems like that basic iMac is the best value product in the whole Apple store.

 

[Hellhammer]

Awesome. An SSD is another £400, so I think I'll leave it for now. After looking into it, it seems like that basic iMac is the best value product in the whole Apple store.

SSD can be added later on too, for cheaper price. Requires a bit work but it's plausible.

 

[onesh0t]

Out of curiosity, do you have any credible tutorials at hand, on how to retrofit the SSD? I understand it takes a little bit more work than changing RAM.

EDIT: Oh, and would you go with Crucial on the SSD too?

 

[laserbeam273]

Out of curiosity, do you have any credible tutorials at hand, on how to retrofit the SSD? I understand it takes a little bit more work than changing RAM.

EDIT: Oh, and would you go with Crucial on the SSD too?

I think ifixit would have something on it. It's a lot more work than replacing RAM, and a lot more could go wrong (particularly getting dust in between glass and LED display).

 

[talmy]

(maybe) Aperture.

If you do get Aperture, it will benefit from the i7's hyperthreading. And who's to know about Adobe CS6?