New 27" iMac

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Archive 2009 · New 27" iMac

AbramG
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p.2 #1 · New 27" iMac

The only thing in my case is I don't like having to keep upgrading components. It's not that I'm not able to, I just don't like to lol!

I'm trying to make this swap be an even trade or come out ahead. If I only sell my mac pro, I'll still have to put out a good chunk of change to get a new mac pro.

Oct 21, 2009 at 08:45 PM

irfan
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p.2 #2 · New 27" iMac

mdude85 wrote:
irfan wrote:

see above... the monitors you compare them to are a night and day difference. the quality of this is miles ahead of that cheap stuff. i'll challenge you to find me a full true LED 2600*1440 panel. they dont exist, they all use the LED as a backlight (or sidelight in laptops). OLED isnt even out of the research labs over 11".

The iMac monitor is also not a full LED monitor, it is just a LCD monitor with an LED backlight.

Yes I know, I thought you were suggesting that the ACD was full LED and I was explaining that it wasnt and that no monitors are. Rereading your earlier reply I can see some ambiguity in the end of the statement so I apologize for misinterpreting it.

My main argument was that a $400 27" lower res TN panel from newegg is not in the same league as the panel in the 27" iMac.

Oct 21, 2009 at 08:47 PM

matthewbmedia
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p.2 #3 · New 27" iMac

Ya, I here ya Abram, I've used an imac for a long time and it's a great machine.

This won't matter much since you primarily use Photoshop, but openCL changes the landscape of incremental hardware upgrade benefits -

Having a machine with an upgradeable GPU is going to be a big deal when aperture 3 is out.

Oct 21, 2009 at 09:55 PM

GeekChicPhoto
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p.2 #4 · New 27" iMac

I work at Apple for the Apple Care Tech Support and here's my opinion:

The 27" iMac is probably one of the best deals out there if you don't need all the power in the world. The i5 or i7 processor with even just 4gb of RAM will handle anything a photographer throws at it and with awesome speed, whether it be full rez files in Lightroom, Photoshop CS4, Aperture, Photomatix, etc.

For all the folks pricing the iMac to a comparatively built PC, if all you need is a PC then that's fine. But the one thing that people mention when talking about workflow on with their mac is the ability to boot to either Mac OSX or Windows with Bootcamp or dual boot using VMWare/Parallels. You get to use software from both ends of the spectrum and that serves as a great asset to a lot of people. There was a time where the Macbook pro ran windows faster than any laptop built in its time (not sure if that fact is still true), and anyone who's used Windows on a Mac can attest that it runs great.

You really cannot go wrong with the 27" iMac. A 1TB hard drive should be enough for internal storage, and as photographers, we always backup unused photos to an external hard drive anyway. I was saving up to buy a MacPro because the iMacs didn't have enough internal storage, but now my mind has switched to the iMac.

Oct 22, 2009 at 12:12 AM

GeekChicPhoto
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p.2 #5 · New 27" iMac

matthewbmedia wrote:
Ya, I here ya Abram, I've used an imac for a long time and it's a great machine.

This won't matter much since you primarily use Photoshop, but openCL changes the landscape of incremental hardware upgrade benefits -

Having a machine with an upgradeable GPU is going to be a big deal when aperture 3 is out.

I think the 64-bit enhancements in Snow Leopard will help with future iterations of Aperture. The great thing about Apple software is that they can make and cater it to the capabilities of the OS which causes less strain on older hardware.

Oct 22, 2009 at 12:25 AM

AbramG
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p.2 #6 · New 27" iMac

I used to use Aperture exclusively (i sort of had to, I used to work for Apple as well) But I've switched over to lightroom because I prefer the way it handles its library.

I don't foresee myself switching back to aperture yet again (I've done way too much back and forth) unless Aperture is just mind-blowingly good.

My biggest application usage goes to Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS4, I also dabble a bit in Final Cut Studio, but that's not serious just yet, I'm still learning video editing.

The only game I play on occasion is WoW and that will obviously run fine.

I honestly think I'd be just fine on the new iMac, I'm just debating which hard drive size to get.

Oct 22, 2009 at 02:38 AM

pchaplo
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p.2 #7 · New 27" iMac

...wiping drool off Dell keyboard here...

Oct 22, 2009 at 07:19 PM

anthonyket
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p.2 #8 · New 27" iMac

GeekChicPhoto wrote:
I work at Apple for the Apple Care Tech Support and here's my opinion:

The 27" iMac is probably one of the best deals out there if you don't need all the power in the world. The i5 or i7 processor with even just 4gb of RAM will handle anything a photographer throws at it and with awesome speed, whether it be full rez files in Lightroom, Photoshop CS4, Aperture, Photomatix, etc.

For all the folks pricing the iMac to a comparatively built PC, if all you need is a PC then that's fine. But the one thing that people mention when talking about workflow on with their mac is the ability to boot to either Mac OSX or Windows with Bootcamp or dual boot using VMWare/Parallels. You get to use software from both ends of the spectrum and that serves as a great asset to a lot of people. There was a time where the Macbook pro ran windows faster than any laptop built in its time (not sure if that fact is still true), and anyone who's used Windows on a Mac can attest that it runs great.

You really cannot go wrong with the 27" iMac. A 1TB hard drive should be enough for internal storage, and as photographers, we always backup unused photos to an external hard drive anyway. I was saving up to buy a MacPro because the iMacs didn't have enough internal storage, but now my mind has switched to the iMac.

The deal breaker for me is storage and not just internal storage, Lloyd Chanbers couldent have said it better:
http://diglloyd.com/diglloyd/2009-10-blog.html#_20091020Apple_iMac

Oct 23, 2009 at 03:24 AM

GeekChicPhoto
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p.2 #9 · New 27" iMac

Point well taken on the internal storage part, but I don't know if RAID or top notch HDD speed is all that important to me right now. Maybe for those who need it but not me. I'm currently using an early 2008 Macbook pro with a 5600rpm HDD and file transfers are fine for me lol, so anything better than this is acceptable.

Oct 23, 2009 at 05:04 AM

lou f
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p.2 #10 · New 27" iMac

i have the 2.93 and stuck a fast 1tb hhd in on the first day and now with the 64 bit it really does fly. i use nx2, not the fastest, but 14bit nef files from my d700 just fly along in less than 1/3 of a sec when browsing. an fw 800 is perfect for filing stuff after i'm finished with it. 2 hhd's would have been nice but in the future i can up grade this with a 512 ssd and 8 gigs and it'll be even faster. fw 800 works just fine in the real world of the heavy use amateur photog. and most pros.

Oct 23, 2009 at 01:19 PM

keisi
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p.2 #11 · New 27" iMac

MX727 wrote:
Booone0 wrote:
Edit: Alright, I just got done looking at that new iMac. That 27" has got me drooling! How much might a windows PC, configured similarly (even home built) with a comparable display cost, with an i5 or i7?

I just built an i7-860, 8GB 1600 DDR3, Radeon 4870 w/1GB and two 1.5TB SATA HDD, Logitech Wave Pro KB and mouse, Anatec case and PS. - $1254. No monitor.

As a home built, you also have to come up with the OS which is about $200 for W7 depending on the flavor and if you qualify for an upgrade.

The iMac with the same components except a 512MB video card and a single 1TB HDD is $2399. Includes Snow Leopard.

Thats fine but for someone who does not have a 30" monitor it is a great deal. I have not yet been able to find one cheaper than $1000.00.

I just built one on Newegg, using the same parts, and the total came to 1796.00, that is with a $200 discount and without the following parts
Keyboard/Mouse
Superdrive
PSU (power)
Speakers
Logic Board
Wireless Radios
and the Operating System.

As such I believe that this is a much better deal than a similar PC.

Oct 23, 2009 at 03:38 PM

mdude85
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p.2 #12 · New 27" iMac

keisi wrote:

Thats fine but for someone who does not have a 30" monitor it is a great deal. I have not yet been able to find one cheaper than $1000.00.

I think that's because there is not a huge market desire for them. Apple is working really hard to convince people that they need a computer with a 27" monitor.

Oct 23, 2009 at 03:42 PM

keisi
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p.2 #13 · New 27" iMac

Oct 23, 2009 at 03:51 PM

MX727
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p.2 #14 · New 27" iMac

keisi wrote:

Thats fine but for someone who does not have a 30" monitor it is a great deal. I have not yet been able to find one cheaper than $1000.00.

I just built one on Newegg, using the same parts, and the total came to 1796.00, that is with a $200 discount and without the following parts
Keyboard/Mouse
Superdrive
PSU (power)
Speakers
Logic Board
Wireless Radios
and the Operating System.

As such I believe that this is a much better deal than a similar PC.

I made no value judgment. Just reported my numbers for Booone0.

Oct 23, 2009 at 08:58 PM

Booone0
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p.2 #15 · New 27" iMac

mdude85 wrote:
keisi wrote:

Thats fine but for someone who does not have a 30" monitor it is a great deal. I have not yet been able to find one cheaper than $1000.00.

I think that's because there is not a huge market desire for them. Apple is working really hard to convince people that they need a computer with a 27" monitor.

I agree that 24" is big for most people, but honestly I would always take a larger size/higher resolution screen (with equal quality) over a smaller screen, for my money. 27" Sounds amazing.

BTW, Thanks for the addup MX727. I should have not been lazy and just built it myself. Looks like it's not horrendously overpriced like Macs often are.

Oct 24, 2009 at 11:28 AM

AndreaPress
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p.2 #16 · New 27" iMac

Hi guys,
I'm another user that have liked the new iMac, like GeekChicPhoto I was saving for a new Mac Pro that probably will be out in the early 2010 and in the meantime I've looked for a decent 24 inch screen for my Macbook Pro.

Now, I'm seriously considering buying the new 27 iMac, on the paper the screen looks like a big deal (I hope to see some good tests about). It should be used like a normal LCD monitor too (from what I've red on iFixit and on the iMac manual) and a standalone monitor like this should cost about 1000 Eur here in Euorpe. The panel code is: LG LM270WQ1
A Mac Pro solution will be much more expensive than the new iMac and, for now, there's no monitor with the same size and resolution to add.

Regarding the internal storage, yes, this is a lack that iMac will always have: just one drive and NO ESATA EXTERNAL PORT, just the almost old FW800.

IMHO Apple have keep off just this port, so you don't have to enjoy your external raid storage!!
Maybe this should be an exclusive only for the Mac Pro users, so bye bye eSata we have to stuck with the FW800.

Oct 24, 2009 at 02:08 PM

justruss
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p.2 #17 · New 27" iMac

Man, I'd love to upgrade my aging c2d 20 inch iMac. Now that I can run os x on a netbook... I'm considering selling my iMac and my macbook and picking up one of these 27 inch monsters.

Oct 24, 2009 at 09:09 PM

balls
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p.2 #18 · New 27" iMac

GeekChicPhoto wrote:
I work at Apple for the Apple Care Tech Support and here's my opinion:

The 27" iMac is probably one of the best deals out there if you don't need all the power in the world. The i5 or i7 processor with even just 4gb of RAM will handle anything a photographer throws at it and with awesome speed, whether it be full rez files in Lightroom, Photoshop CS4, Aperture, Photomatix, etc.

Unfortunately, that was not my experience. 4GB is just too little memory to handle large raw image files. I ran 4GB and the RAW files from my 5D2, and I was constantly having memory issues.

And HDD speed is absolutely crucial to me. In fact, HDD speed is the biggest bottle neck in a computer. It doesn't make sense so spend $TEXAS on CPU, and RAM when the system will waste time waiting to read from disk. And with 4GB of ram, thats not enough space for the computer to cache applications and data to the disk effectively.

My lightroom catalog is ginormous, and reading from it off a slow HDD (especially laptop drives) was a pain. I recently swapped out my Superdrive for a 160GB intel g2 SSD, and the stock 320GB HDD in my MBP and it's been a night and day difference.

I bet for most the 27" IMac hits a sweet spot, but for large raw images, 4GB RAM has proven to be not enough memory.

Oct 24, 2009 at 09:29 PM

chesapeake
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p.2 #19 · New 27" iMac

Oct 24, 2009 at 11:17 PM

balls
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p.2 #20 · New 27" iMac

chesapeake wrote:
So, just add more memory, whats the big deal??

I was responding to GCP's assertion that the 27" iMac with 4GB of ram is more than enough to handle anything a photog can throw at it.

Oct 25, 2009 at 12:13 AM

lordarka
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p.2 #21 · New 27" iMac

AbramG wrote:
The only thing in my case is I don't like having to keep upgrading components. It's not that I'm not able to, I just don't like to lol!

I'm trying to make this swap be an even trade or come out ahead. If I only sell my mac pro, I'll still have to put out a good chunk of change to get a new mac pro.

What are the specs on you MacPro? Why are you hell-bent on selling it? I was using a G5 for pretty serious photo, paint, and 3D work up until 2008, when zBrush and Maya dropped support for the PowerPC platform. If they hadn't, I probably would've flogged a few more years of life out of that system before upgrading to my 8-core Nehalem MacPro. Not to say that the Nehalems aren't wicked fast, but I wonder what is driving your need to upgrade from a MacPro. To my knowledge, there isn't a MacPro iteration out there that doesn't perform well, even by modern standards.

Arka C.

Oct 25, 2009 at 02:44 AM

GeekChicPhoto
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p.2 #22 · New 27" iMac

balls wrote:
GeekChicPhoto wrote:
I work at Apple for the Apple Care Tech Support and here's my opinion:

The 27" iMac is probably one of the best deals out there if you don't need all the power in the world. The i5 or i7 processor with even just 4gb of RAM will handle anything a photographer throws at it and with awesome speed, whether it be full rez files in Lightroom, Photoshop CS4, Aperture, Photomatix, etc.

Unfortunately, that was not my experience. 4GB is just too little memory to handle large raw image files. I ran 4GB and the RAW files from my 5D2, and I was constantly having memory issues.

And HDD speed is absolutely crucial to me. In fact, HDD speed is the biggest bottle neck in a computer. It doesn't make sense so spend $TEXAS on CPU, and RAM when the system will waste time waiting to read from disk. And with 4GB of ram, thats not enough space for the computer to cache applications and data to the disk effectively.

My lightroom catalog is ginormous, and reading from it off a slow HDD (especially laptop drives) was a pain. I recently swapped out my Superdrive for a 160GB intel g2 SSD, and the stock 320GB HDD in my MBP and it's been a night and day difference.

I bet for most the 27" IMac hits a sweet spot, but for large raw images, 4GB RAM has proven to be not enough memory.

Point well taken. I have not tried processing files from a 5Dmk2 so I wouldn't know. But like other people have said, you can always upgrade the HDD and RAM to your liking.

Another thing I want to note, why do people have "ginormous" Lightroom catalogs? I'll admit, I used to be one that would just load every single image into a single catalog and organize them according sets/collections/etc. But one of the best things I've ever done to increase my workflow and efficiency is to create a separate catalog for each of my shoots. This cuts down on catalog loading and also increases organization of your files.

Typical Workflow for me when importing:
1) Create a new catalog and name it "month_year_description, i.e. 10_2009_ModelShoot" This automatically creates a new folder with that catalog name.
2) Import photos via "copy" mode into a folder named "RAW" within the main folder that was just created
3) Edit photos and export them into a folder called "Edited" which is also placed in the main folder

Obviously you can tweak this to how ever you like, but once you start getting into the mode of creating new catalogs for each shoot you do, your catalogs will load faster, organization goes up, and you don't have to worry about backing up an ever increasing catalog of images every time you add to it.

Oct 25, 2009 at 08:45 AM

pjbishop
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p.2 #23 · New 27" iMac

GeekChickPhoto, what do you know about how the new iMacs will calibrate color? The specs on the new iMacs are great, but the machines will be worthless if the displays won't calibrate well. (My current machine, an older 20" matte-screen iMac - Intel Core 2 Duo - calibrates just fine with Spyder3, but the reports have not been so good with regard to the glossy displays on the newer iMacs.)

Oct 25, 2009 at 11:22 AM

AdrianRogers
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p.2 #24 · New 27" iMac

Should have gone the whole hog and made a 30" 16:10 iMac with room for two hardrives. Don't like 16:9, though granted its much less of an issue with 2560 x 1440 res, don't like glossy, though that was never going to change, and I absolutely cannot live with a single hardrive and FW800 as my only other option. At very least my photoshop scratchdisk has to be on another hardrive.

Will be interesting to see how they calibrate as mentioned above. You can pry my matt screen from my cold dead fingers before I move to glossy on my workstation. Hate it on my MacBook Pro.

Oct 26, 2009 at 12:39 AM

XsigmaSD
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p.2 #25 · New 27" iMac

AdrianRogers wrote:
Should have gone the whole hog and made a 30" 16:10 iMac with room for two hardrives. Don't like 16:9, though granted its much less of an issue with 2560 x 1440 res, don't like glossy, though that was never going to change, and I absolutely cannot live with a single hardrive and FW800 as my only other option. At very least my photoshop scratchdisk has to be on another hardrive.

Will be interesting to see how they calibrate as mentioned above. You can pry my matt screen from my cold dead fingers before I move to glossy on my workstation. Hate it on my MacBook Pro.

Sounds like you are asking for the same thing I have for a few years, a MacPro Jr. if you will. A smaller desktop machine, just a couple drive bays, swappable graphics card. Something to fit between the full-blown MacPro and iMac/MacMini.

Oct 26, 2009 at 03:31 PM


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