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Archive 2011 · iMac 2.7, 3.1 or 3.4 for lightroom and Photoshop?

  
 
Andre Goli
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · iMac 2.7, 3.1 or 3.4 for lightroom and Photoshop?


I am finally moving to Mac from PC to take care of my pictures .
I will have a iMac 27 inches for christmas. The budget is not really an issue, but I don't want to spend more if I can spend less ;-)

Two mac sellers told me 2.7 should be enough, may be upgrading the memory from 4 to 8 or 16 in a couple of years...

I do a bit of video, but rarely...

Is the core 5 2.7 version enough, or should I definivetly go to the 3.1 or 3.4 version? I am confused...

Thanks for your answers (I did post this question to some mac forum, but no answer yet)!



Dec 19, 2011 at 09:11 AM
Kittyk
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · iMac 2.7, 3.1 or 3.4 for lightroom and Photoshop?


well you would see biggest difference by going i7
in case of photoshop memory performance is biggest issue and lots of cache helps.
i5 is just high performance desktop, not a workstation chip



Dec 19, 2011 at 10:09 AM
Andre Goli
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · iMac 2.7, 3.1 or 3.4 for lightroom and Photoshop?


Thanks for your answer Kitty...
Ok, so I can understand there will be a gap between i5 and i7, but not relevant from the two core 5 2.7 to 3.1..
Do you think upgrading the imac 2.7 to 16mb will be a huge difference with Photoshop and Lightroom? And if I do it, is the gap with the 17 smaller in term of speed going that way.. I mean, 1,2 second versus 1,5 sec is not an issue for me, at least it is not 1,2s versus 3s....
I just want to be sure that buying the imac 2.7 and poissibly upgrading to 16mg will give me a great value on Photoshop and Lightroom... Now I have a PC and it is getting very long and painful just to pass from a pic to an other...



Dec 19, 2011 at 11:03 AM
Mr Joe
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · iMac 2.7, 3.1 or 3.4 for lightroom and Photoshop?


Buy the minimum RAM from Apple and then upgrade to 16GB from OWC for $99:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iMac/2011/DDR3_21.5_27

The RAM install takes 5 minutes and only requires a screwdriver. Really easy.



Dec 19, 2011 at 02:38 PM
Andre Goli
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · iMac 2.7, 3.1 or 3.4 for lightroom and Photoshop?


thanks joe for your tip....
if you got a imac 27, do you think the 2.7 processor is enough for Lightroom and Photoshop ? what do you have as a mac?



Dec 19, 2011 at 02:45 PM
howardm4
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · iMac 2.7, 3.1 or 3.4 for lightroom and Photoshop?


2.7 will definitely do it but also consider that technology will 'move on' (relentlessly) so if you have the cash, get the mid-range or top. Get 4G of RAM and get another 4 or 8G from Crucial or OWC. It's really all you need


Dec 19, 2011 at 03:46 PM
tomrock
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · iMac 2.7, 3.1 or 3.4 for lightroom and Photoshop?


I have a 27" iMac 2.7 i5 with 12 gigs of ram and it's fine with LR and PS both running.

It really depends on how long you want to keep the machine. I buy cheaper machines and upgrade them more often.

Some people get all the machine they can and keep it as long as they can.



Dec 19, 2011 at 05:56 PM
elkhornsun
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · iMac 2.7, 3.1 or 3.4 for lightroom and Photoshop?


The 3.1 provides the best value. The 3.4 will provide a 10% (0.3/3.1) boost in performance. You can save money by buying computer with minimum of RAM and buying more from a third party and adding it yourself. If you get the iMac with two 4GB of RAM and add two more 4GB modules from a third party you can save a couple hundred dollars.


Dec 19, 2011 at 06:08 PM
Andre Goli
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · iMac 2.7, 3.1 or 3.4 for lightroom and Photoshop?


Thanks all for your advices..... I must admitt that if 2,7 versus 3.4 means in term of speed only 20%... this is not a lot... like 1 second versus 1,2 second.... I can live with that.... So I decided to stick to the 2.7, but to upg the ram to 16 Gb ram since it is only 99$ on OWC right now....
Happy christmas ;-)



Dec 19, 2011 at 06:58 PM
Mr Joe
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · iMac 2.7, 3.1 or 3.4 for lightroom and Photoshop?


I just went through this process and got the iMac 27" with the i7 3.4 and 2GB video card.
I tend to keep desktops for 4+ years so:

"The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price has faded from memory."



Dec 19, 2011 at 07:47 PM
Andre Goli
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · iMac 2.7, 3.1 or 3.4 for lightroom and Photoshop?


just bought the 16mb for 99$, was 400$ a while ago.. couldn't resist ;-)


Dec 19, 2011 at 09:28 PM
Ken_K
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · iMac 2.7, 3.1 or 3.4 for lightroom and Photoshop?


FWIW, I have a 27"iMac with the 3.1 i5 processor and 12gb of memory. If I recall correctly, the 3.1 upgrade also takes your video memory from 500mb to 1 gb. I'm not sure if this also is a big deal. All I can say is that I am extremely please with my system's performance. My most heavy duty app. is Lightroom and it moves smartly.


Dec 20, 2011 at 05:57 PM
stebesplace
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · iMac 2.7, 3.1 or 3.4 for lightroom and Photoshop?


I think RAM is paramount here, and you are good with 16. I have 8 in my Mac Pro and am always running it to the wall here. I need to jump to 12 at the least when I have large documents open in Photoshop and LR + Illustrator open.


Dec 20, 2011 at 08:10 PM
revoke99
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · iMac 2.7, 3.1 or 3.4 for lightroom and Photoshop?


Do you know if you guys can use liquify in photoshop with a full resolution photo with no lag on your imacs? I'm really debating on getting a i7 one..


Dec 20, 2011 at 09:37 PM
Andre Goli
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · iMac 2.7, 3.1 or 3.4 for lightroom and Photoshop?


After reading a lot of litteracy, it looks like the Imac 27 2.7 with sufficient RAM will be good for the next four years for any picture processing softwares like photoshop and lightroom.. The real difference will be for autocad or complex film processing, which won't be my case, at most some basic movie maker softwares..... Moreover, not sure why, but some lab tests give the 2.7 equivalent on most aspects with the 3.1.... The real difference being between the 2.7 and the 3.4, but once more, essentially for complex operations.... So I am now exciting and will keep the money for some backup tower (Drobo) as some people told me about... Thanks for all your answers guys, I really appreciated them..


Dec 20, 2011 at 10:20 PM





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