Apple Mac - should i buy?

NeilA1975

NeilA1975

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I have a opportunity to purchase an imac, 2013 model, with an i5 Intel 3.2, Geforce GTX 775 1GB GPU and 8gb ram. Its a 27 inch version.
I believe you can upgrade the ram simply on these by opening the small door on the rear and adding modules.

Do you think I can easily operate D800 RAW files in LR 6and Photoshop CC on this machine spec?

I'm currently using an Acer V3-572PG laptop hooked up to a Dell U2713HM monitor running 2560 x 1440. Laptop specs is an Intel i5 4210U CPU, 16GB RAM and a Geforce 840m 2GB GPU which quite happily run these raw files and programs.

Appreciate your feedback.

Many thanks
Neil
 
It will handle those files easily. And yes, ram upgrade is similarly child's play. Crucial.com will advise on what you can and cannot upgrade to.
 
I suppose it depends how much it's up for as to whether it's worth it but yes that spec should be fine but a ram increase never does any harm and is cheaply and easily done. Does it have an SSD? I believe this can no longer be retrofitted but you can boot from an external drive so maybe not a show stopper.

I just upgraded from my old 2010 21.5" imac recently. After a fair bit of research, I decided to buy an i7 mid 2011 model. It's the last generation with the thicker case which meant I could open it up and stuff an SSD and huge IDE drive in there. Boosted it to 32bg ram as well. It cost less than £900 to do this and is a really nice, quick machine now though I must admit the newer model's casing does look sleeker and I guess the newer screens may be higher res too? You pays your money....
 
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gad-westy said:
I suppose it depends how much it's up for as to whether it's worth it but yes that spec should be fine but a ram increase never does any harm and is cheaply and easily done. Does it have an SSD? I believe this can no longer be retrofitted but you can boot from an external drive so maybe not a show stopper.

I just upgraded from my old 2010 21.5" imac recently. After a fair bit of research, I decided to buy an i7 mid 2011 model. It's the last generation with the thicker case which meant I could open it up and stuff an SSD and huge IDE drive in there. Boosted it to 32bg ram as well. It cost less than £900 to do this and is a really nice, quick machine now though I must admit the newer model's casing does look sleeker and I guess the newer screens may be higher res too? You pays your money....
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The downside with the new casings (I have one) is that you have to use an external CD drive. The plus side (with mine, anyway) is that it has a hybrid SSD/SATA drive.
 
I went Mac 6 years ago after 30 years of pc's never looked back. Upgrade of ram was easy crucial is thieves to go for that. Good luck
 
gad-westy said:
I suppose it depends how much it's up for as to whether it's worth it but yes that spec should be fine but a ram increase never does any harm and is cheaply and easily done. Does it have an SSD? I believe this can no longer be retrofitted but you can boot from an external drive so maybe not a show stopper.

I just upgraded from my old 2010 21.5" imac recently. After a fair bit of research, I decided to buy an i7 mid 2011 model. It's the last generation with the thicker case which meant I could open it up and stuff an SSD and huge IDE drive in there. Boosted it to 32bg ram as well. It cost less than £900 to do this and is a really nice, quick machine now though I must admit the newer model's casing does look sleeker and I guess the newer screens may be higher res too? You pays your money....
Click to expand...

Well I just pulled the trigger, £800 inc delivery, refurbished unit. Its a slim line version too. Not overly bothered regarding the SSD, but will certainly upgrade the ram which presumably has 4 slots but using 2 x 4gb? if so can I add another 2 x 8GB making it 24gb in total?
 
NeilA1975 said:
Well I just pulled the trigger, £800 inc delivery, refurbished unit. Its a slim line version too. Not overly bothered regarding the SSD, but will certainly upgrade the ram which presumably has 4 slots but using 2 x 4gb? if so can I add another 2 x 8GB making it 24gb in total?
Click to expand...

Nice work. Is it your first Mac?
 
TBH you'll notice a much bigger difference in performance upgrading to SSD than you will going from 8GB to 24GB RAM (there will be almost no difference at all unless you handle enormous files).

Enjoy your Mac - at least you didn't pay too much for it.
 
ancient_mariner said:
TBH you'll notice a much bigger difference in performance upgrading to SSD than you will going from 8GB to 24GB RAM (there will be almost no difference at all unless you handle enormous files).

Enjoy your Mac - at least you didn't pay too much for it.
Click to expand...

Cheers - is it easy to install an SSD in the slim line?
 
Hi, do you possibly have a link if there are more of these available..

Thank you
 
NeilA1975 said:
Well I just pulled the trigger, £800 inc delivery, refurbished unit. Its a slim line version too. Not overly bothered regarding the SSD, but will certainly upgrade the ram which presumably has 4 slots but using 2 x 4gb? if so can I add another 2 x 8GB making it 24gb in total?
Click to expand...
And SSD will make much more of a difference than the RAM. Crucial supply both, and 1TB SSD's are cheap these days. Not sure how easy they are to fit on those models, I know some of the older ones had user replaceable hard drives (well Macbook pros did for sure as I have one ;)) but the newer models don't have user replaceable hard drives. That doesn't mean you can't replace them, just means they're not as easy, and you lose warranty. There's plenty of videos on't web showing you how to do it. The difference between SSD and HDD is night and day. To give an example, boot up time with HDD is probably 40-50s, SSD is 5-6s
 
NeilA1975 said:
Cheers - is it easy to install an SSD in the slim line?
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No, I'm afraid the hard drive in these is a non-replaceable (by the user) part.
 
An SSD makes loading times for programs and many day to day tasks very quick but makes very little difference in terms of image editing. RAM does though. Ideally you'd have both but that generation of iMac makes it near impossible to upgrade to an SSD so it's a moot point unless the SSD was external. RAM is cheap and easy though. It's a no brainer.
 
gad-westy said:
An SSD makes loading times for programs and many day to day tasks very quick but makes very little difference in terms of image editing. RAM does though. Ideally you'd have both but that generation of iMac makes it near impossible to upgrade to an SSD so it's a moot point unless the SSD was external. RAM is cheap and easy though. It's a no brainer.
Click to expand...
lightroom prefers faster cpu and disk than ram. although cc LR does use a bit more ram than the previous versions.

ps on the other hand loves ram and cpu.
 
gad-westy said:
An SSD makes loading times for programs and many day to day tasks very quick but makes very little difference in terms of image editing. RAM does though. Ideally you'd have both but that generation of iMac makes it near impossible to upgrade to an SSD so it's a moot point unless the SSD was external. RAM is cheap and easy though. It's a no brainer.
Click to expand...

I could always buy an external SSD drive to boot from.....that'll be a bit later (missus will kill me otherwise), but i'll buy the additional 16gb of ram as soon as the mac arrives.
 
NeilA1975 said:
I could always buy an external SSD drive to boot from.....that'll be a bit later (missus will kill me otherwise), but i'll buy the additional 16gb of ram as soon as the mac arrives.
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I would chuck away the 2x4gb simms and get 4x8gb ones. That way they're all matched.
 
neil_g said:
i wouldnt, you'll restrict the speed down to USB. unless you're feeling flush and get a TB drive (assuming your 2013 27" iMac has TB).

not even sure if you can boot a mac from an external drive.
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No issue with booting from an external drive and an external SSD running through USB3 will be miles quicker than an internal HDD. It's quite a well trodden upgrade path though I don't think its something that needs to be done. More of a possible future upgrade.

Another good mac upgrade resouce is here. Not sure about their pricing but gives you a very good idea of what can and can't be done to any given machine.

http://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/
 
+1 for SSD upgrade. I have an iMac of similar vintage and made the upgrade recently. Not too difficult but potentially you loose the DVD bay
 
not for the faint hearted but you can stick an SSD into your iMac
LINKY

@Neil, you can boot from an external drive
 
Scotty Pro said:
not for the faint hearted but you can stick an SSD into your iMac
LINKY

@Neil, you can boot from an external drive
Click to expand...

Doesn't actually look too bad. I'd assumed the HDD was soldered in or something but doesn't really look any trickier than the old pre 2012 models.
 
neil_g said:
i wouldnt, you'll restrict the speed down to USB. unless you're feeling flush and get a TB drive (assuming your 2013 27" iMac has TB).

not even sure if you can boot a mac from an external drive.
Click to expand...

This guy runs his OS via an external SSD, seems miles quicker than normal.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS77Q136O60


I also believe this machine has Thunderbolt 1 - what does this mean exactly?
 
gad-westy said:
Doesn't actually look too bad. I'd assumed the HDD was soldered in or something but doesn't really look any trickier than the old pre 2012 models.
Click to expand...

Im not really sure at this time this is something i'll want to pursue. The external option looks more attractive and naturally, easier!
 
NeilA1975 said:
Do you think I can easily operate D800 RAW files in LR 6and Photoshop CC on this machine spec?
Click to expand...
•
No sweat, go for it!
NeilA1975 said:
I also believe this machine has Thunderbolt 1 - what does this mean exactly?
Click to expand...
Thunderbolt is an Apple technology for file transfers…
higher volume and speed!
 
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NeilA1975 said:
I also believe this machine has Thunderbolt 1 - what does this mean exactly?
Click to expand...

Thunderbolt is apple's own connection design. A bit like USB in that it isn't just for transfer of data but can be used to connect displays etc as well. It's very fast and robust but devices that use it are horribly expensive and USB 3.0 connection speeds are quick enough to keep up with an SSD and way cheaper. Again, good to know you have the options.
 
gad-westy said:
Thunderbolt is apple's own connection design. A bit like USB in that it isn't just for transfer of data but can be used to connect displays etc as well. It's very fast and robust but devices that use it are horribly expensive and USB 3.0 connection speeds are quick enough to keep up with an SSD and way cheaper. Again, good to know you have the options.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

In that case then, sounds reasonable for an external SSD (in the next couple of months) and an immediate memory upgrade to 24GB.
 
Kodiak Qc said:
Thunderbolt is an Apple technology for file transfers…
higher volume and speed!
Click to expand...

gad-westy said:
Thunderbolt is apple's own connection design.
Click to expand...

technically its intels technology and not limited to apple, they just use it under licence (after helping with development and giving the trademark of the name to Intel, previously Intel called it "Light Peak").

its fast but overly expensive.
 
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NeilA1975 said:
This guy runs his OS via an external SSD, seems miles quicker than normal.
I also believe this machine has Thunderbolt 1 - what does this mean exactly?
Click to expand...
id still be slightly warey about running the OS from an external drive. if that drive gets accidentally disconnected while booted it could cause issues.

TB as i mention is probably the fastest peripheral interconnect available at the moment, it has a large inflated cost because of its fairly niche application.

you may find it is more cost affective to go down the USB3 route, which albeit slightly slower than sata3 should still offer a good speed benefit over a mechanical disk.
 
neil_g said:
you may find it is more cost affective to go down the USB3 route, which albeit slightly slower than sata3 should still offer a good speed benefit over a mechanical disk.
Click to expand...

Hi Neil,

sorry, what do you mean re the USB 3 route? Are you referring to the external drive?
 
NeilA1975 said:
Hi Neil,

sorry, what do you mean re the USB 3 route? Are you referring to the external drive?
Click to expand...

I think he means use a USB3 drive instead of a thunderbolt-connected drive. At least other makers are starting to use TB now, just like mini display port was gradually adopted by more than Apple, so hopefully prices will drop soon (if it isn't mad obsolete by a faster, cheaper USB).
 
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