I don't think there is an absence of love, just the realism that with an iMac you pay a lot of money for the design, and have to make some compromises on expansion. If you can afford, and are happy with the limitations, they are nice computers.
As far as I know Apple haven't made an MBP with a full quad core CPU (just dual core with hyperthreading), so performance will be lacking relative any form of modern desktop machine. For LR more cores do make a significant difference. Given that LR can at times feel a bit laggy on my overclocked desktop, I would say get the fastest CPU you can in the MBP. The 2.8 or 2.9Ghz models probably have enough juice to run pretty well.
Ian.Dobinson wrote:
ok lets flip this round a little bit. seeing as there seems to be little love on here for the imac
let me ask the question in a different manor .
what spec of mac (thinking MBP ) runs lightroom 4 well ? . I have been looking around and can see many well priced MBP's on the used market. im also considering a late used MPB and hooking it up to a 27 inch screen like the dell one mentioned above . factoring in the £500 (give or take) that screen will cost me it leaves me a good budget for a used MPB . (added advantage to this route is the portability of the MBP so i can use it when im away )...Show more →
Hi Ian,
I have a 17" mbp (i think 2012 model, not retina) and i upgraded it to 512GB SSD, removed the optical drive and aded another 1TB laptop drive into the optical drive bay using a caddy (can be had for $20), i also upgraded the RAM to 16GB (max it supports)
On this machine i do LR, CS6, and that video editing program that apple has...can't remember the name.
Having been a PC guy since 1983, I made the jump to an iMac 27" at Christmas (new model) with 3tb fusion drive, 16gb memory and top i7 processor. LR works very well on it! BTW: my 3 catalogs are well over 200,000 photos in total.
The only thing else on the desk is a Thunderbolt Drobo stuffed with 5- 3tb 7200 rpm drives. As others have said, there are some limitations due to how apple provides its pc's for sale. I personally weighed them against my needs and took the plunge . Can honestly say I'm very pleased. Barring any failure and what that would mean (as others have already pointed out), I've protected myself via the drobo, a set of separate bare backup drives for all my photos etc... and a backup schedule. For me the one (and more expensive) issue will be the availability in the next 5 years of significantly improved pc's vs. today's and using apple, its a complete re-buy. That said, in the windows world, after five years the majority of the equipment will still have to be re-purchased. One could argue the reuse of certain equipment and in the end one is left with a pieced together system that most likely would not be optimal but that's a decision each person has to come to grips with.
Having been in the pc arena and built from scratch many of them of the years, I've come to the position that if I'm going to buy a new system it will be with the latest technology. Life in the electronics world is continuing to compress so what's new today gets replaced with something quicker than it used to. I no longer subscribe to coming in at "last year's" best deal. JMTC
I am a MAC man and have been for years and have never looked back since.
I have the latest iMac 27" i7 along with a Macbook Pro Retina and love them both!
As far as memory, definitely don't upgrade through Apple if you decide to go iMac, just by aftermarket. I upgraded my latest 27" iMac from 8GB to 32GB for $125.
Ian.Dobinson wrote:
Hi Ian,
I have a 17" mbp (i think 2012 model, not retina) and i upgraded it to 512GB SSD, removed the optical drive and aded another 1TB laptop drive into the optical drive bay using a caddy (can be had for $20), i also upgraded the RAM to 16GB (max it supports)
quote]
328iGuy wrote:
Hi Ian,
I have a 17" mbp (i think 2012 model, not retina) and i upgraded it to 512GB SSD, removed the optical drive and aded another 1TB laptop drive into the optical drive bay using a caddy (can be had for $20), i also upgraded the RAM to 16GB (max it supports)
quote]
Huh I didnt think they made 17" MBP any longer?
hence..2012. actually its a late 2011 model. Any longer will be latter half of 2012 and 2013 etc...and another clue..."not retina"
For space wise, you have the Mac Mini. Again, get the base Ram and purchase outside of Apple. The Mac Mini Dual Core i5 is no slouch and you can upgrade the Ram to 16GB. This could be the best option to get into an Apple for the cheapest price.
As others have brought up the Mac Pro, yes this is a great machine and is customisable to a point. You cannot put in any old video card as it has to be Apple specific. Cards are very expensive. There has been an upgrade to the Mac Pro line but it has been minor. There is talk about a new Pro coming out later this year. Mine is a 2009 and is going really strong. You have to remember that these are really Server quality so the CPU is not the normal i5 or i7. Memory is ECC which is way more expensive than normal.
For Ian, I would go in to a Store and take a look at the Mini. It is a capable machine. I personally use Aperture over lightroom and I find it works very well.
Why do you want a Mac? My wife and I use Macs (mostly), but that's because all of our software is Mac-based, and my 2009 MacPro has been able to grow with me. However, I compare the Dell 27" display hooked up to my MacPro to my wife's 27" iMac (late 2010), and I like it far better. My wife complains that she sees her face in the display as often as she sees the content she's trying to develop.
I adopted the Mac when its contemporary was Win NT 4, but today I don't think there is a meaningful difference between the Windows and MacOS UIs, or their overall stability. Certainly not one to justify a switch, unless you are captivated by the aesthetics (which I concede are very pleasing).
Brit-007 wrote:
You cannot put in any old video card as it has to be Apple specific. Cards are very expensive. l.
Not true, you can use pc based video cards in your mac pros. Support for lots of Nvidia cards is built into the os 10.8.3 added several cards just recently.
CanonGuy4Life wrote:
Would you rather go Apple MBP and 27" external display or Dell XPS 8500 and 30" Ultrasharp Display?
Considering the problems my bro in law is going thru with Dell at the moment it wouldn't be the dell .
Its not that his dell has trashed 2 hard drives in the month that he has had it thats the real issue its the complete lack of ability in customer support to 1: acknowledge there is any problem and 2: to want to sort the problem .
Edit:
By the way a dell screen is still a possibility
In my experience, PC based machines run slower as the years go by. All of the bloat and crapwear that these acquire make them maddening.
If I were to go with a PC for editing, it would be one I would build and keep it off-line. Of course, then emailing my clients albums would not be possible.
Ever since I went iMac, they run as fast as the day I bought them until I replaced them.
PC's get choked with whatever you install on them, just like any computer. If you start with a clean install of Windows (rather than the vendor supplied version), and you don't click "yes" to every plugin install request this problem does not occur.
John - the MBP's *are* shipped with "quad" core chips, but they aren't real quad cores - they are dual cores with hyperthreading. The hyperthreading shows up as two additional cores, but doesn't provide anything like the same performance. I don't think Intel make any full quad core laptop CPU's.
There are true quad core 8 with hyper-threading MBP's the have Intel Core i7-3820QM chips in them.
Some mac users need to make outrageous clams to justify there switching and finding out there wasn't a big difference
and they tossed out an extra couple of thousand for nothing. You'll never get them to admit the truth let them live with there delusions.
I went from a Mac Pro to a new Mac Mini I7 Server and a 27in Thunderbolt display with 16GB ram a 320GB SSD and a 1TB internal drive and could not be happier. I use a 2TB USB 3 external drive for backup and this system runs Photoshop CS6 very fast. My display is calibrated and I get dead on with my Epson 3880.
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