Apple Mac - should i buy?

ancient_mariner said:
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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Oh ok.

Been checking out SSDs this afternoon......is if possisble to connect an internal SSD via the USB with the following cable?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sabrent-2-5...TF8&qid=1459958314&sr=8-36&keywords=Ssd+drive
 
yeah
that would work, the SSD draws very little power and the USB port on the iMac can provide power for low powered devices.
 
double post
 
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winchman said:
To be honest all the people I know who have them love them.
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That tends to be a self-fulfilling prophesy, since few buy something they don't think they'll like and will seldom admit it's junk until it is time for an upgrade. Not always true, but often, and the more that's spent, the more they will 'like it'.

Personally I find the Mac a mixture of pleasure and intense dislike. The pleasure comes from stuff like case design, trackpad quality, time machine plus silly things like cute animations. The dislike comes from a failure of the OS to manage workflow, lack of any real user control at the GUI level or the ability to create workarounds when the OS screws up and feeling helpless with the OS making choices for me and the designers not giving a crap about what I want. Still have my Macbook, but much happier with a Dell XPS (and a bunch of Linux computers like the one I'm using now).
 
Neil, by all means go for an external boot drive if you want, but is the standard HDD that much to slow? Also don't worry to much about boting from an external drive. If it's disconected the Mac wll boot from the internal one. Problem is though it wont have the data from the external. However if you go for a portable SSD it'll sit nicely on the foot of the iMac
 
I've switched fully to all Thunderbolt storage now (bar my USB3 Lexar Reader - because its the same speed as the thunderbolt version , and a few old G-RAIDs that I've archived onto via FW800).

Its honestly the best thing I've done. Nearly all of my work is Audio, but not having to wait around while stuff moves between drives etc is a godsend. It also means I can keep a bootable version of my main studio boot drive (a pair of 256gb RAID 0 SSDs), with me and boot it whenever I walk into a Studio without really having to worry about the performance.

Also, being able to daisy chain devices and drives over Thunderbolt, is so very useful.

I'd HIGHLY recommend looking into a external Thunderbolt SSD if you want to go the external root at some point.

All my external drives (too many now) are G-Technology. They are expensive but really worth the cost, I haven't broken one yet, and I cart around 5-6 at any given time :)
 
SimonUK said:
I've switched fully to all Thunderbolt storage now (bar my USB3 Lexar Reader - because its the same speed as the thunderbolt version , and a few old G-RAIDs that I've archived onto via FW800).

Its honestly the best thing I've done. Nearly all of my work is Audio, but not having to wait around while stuff moves between drives etc is a godsend. It also means I can keep a bootable version of my main studio boot drive (a pair of 256gb RAID 0 SSDs), with me and boot it whenever I walk into a Studio without really having to worry about the performance.

Also, being able to daisy chain devices and drives over Thunderbolt, is so very useful.

I'd HIGHLY recommend looking into a external Thunderbolt SSD if you want to go the external root at some point.

All my external drives (too many now) are G-Technology. They are expensive but really worth the cost, I haven't broken one yet, and I cart around 5-6 at any given time :)
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Thanks Simon,

That may be something I can consider in the future, but currently the cost of the UASP device (£15), is significantly cheaper than the TB one, for similar performance.
 
I am looking to be my first ever iMac and will be getting one soon. The 27inch 5k is my primary choice at the moment until i decide for certain.
 
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?
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Just wondering how you are getting on with the mac?
I have been thinking about one as my PC is old and giving trouble.
 
winchman said:
Just wondering how you are getting on with the mac?
I have been thinking about one as my PC is old and giving trouble.
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Hi there,

Getting on brilliantly with after a couple of teething issues, one which was random shutdowns which were to do with Google software update, and the other being display calibration which I've finally sorted. I've also added an SSD external boot and storage drive which is connected via USB and is housed on the rear of the stand via velcro tape - this delivers an incredible speed boost too, so overall very happy. Runs all my editing software and more flawlessly.
 
Thanks , so whats this and why?
"I've also added an SSD external boot and storage drive which is connected via USB"
 
winchman said:
Thanks , so whats this and why?
"I've also added an SSD external boot and storage drive which is connected via USB"
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Basically an additional SSD drive connected via one of the USB ports and configured so that the machine can boot from it.

All described earlier in the thread.
 
winchman said:
Thanks , so whats this and why?
"I've also added an SSD external boot and storage drive which is connected via USB"
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Much quicker boot times and write/read speeds - significantly in fact - handy when processing images especially in TIFF formats which i use a lot, but generally gives the system a lovely speed boost and the overall cost of both the RAM and SSD upgrades came in at around £150 ish.

Inateck UASP enclosure = £15 (Thunderbolt equivalent enclosure is around £100 more for the same speed!)
Samsung Evo 850 250GB SSD drive = £75
16 GB RAM = £55

Before and after.

Screen Shot 2016-04-12 at 13.00.18 by Neil Almond, on Flickr

And heres the enclosure.

DSC04555 by Neil Almond, on Flickr
 
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Thanks for that I am a bit of a techno phobe!
Well I have done the deed bought a IMAC27/3.2QC/8GB/iTB FD/M390 what ever that all is, took no1 Daughter with me as she got a massive discount being a student, initial impressions, well it wasn't cheap but wow! faster easy to use and looks superb, my old PC wasn't a slow machine but this is way better, looks like I am converted, now to play with the photo software
 
I am looking for an iMac soon. Just been checking them out on my iPad to price up the spec I want.
 
John Lewis are the same as ever one else price wise but if you look on line they offer a 3 year warranty, but if you go to the apple shop and have a student with you with an NUS card and some proof of studying at the uni or an acceptance letter you get a very good discount on the mac and massive discount on the 3 year warranty
 
so booting a mac from an external ssd is ok cause I had a cousin who said that when they did it, the macbook actually ran faster than normally
 
Some of the new macs have a fancy drive thingy that does that, I think its part SS part traditional spinny thing
 
winchman said:
Some of the new macs have a fancy drive thingy that does that, I think its part SS part traditional spinny thing
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The SSD/HDD combination is called Fusion Drive. it uses a separate hard drive and flash drive to create a single volume. Files are then shifted to the most appropriate drive automagically.
 
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