iMac time - help needed

neil_g said:
I spec'd up an i7 with 12gb for 740 odd I think it was the other day on here if that's any use to you?
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Go Sandy Bridge now if you're self-building. Just about to do this and putting together mobo/16G/90G OCZ SSD/heatsink/i7-2600k (which appears faster than any "older" i7 - even the triple channel ones - and very easy to overclock) is coming in around £750. You'd need a case/power supply/optical drive (already have these) but you could go 8G memory and get those instead. If you wanted hard drive rather than SSD, that's going to lower the cost too..

That lot will be a fair bit more powerful than the top end iMac (with i7 in).

The iMac comes with a monitor, so it depends if your current monitor is any good. It would probably cost £600-£700 to get a 27" iMac equivalent monitor.
 
Cheers guys - I do have a good 24" monitor - but NO IDEA at all of how to build anything or even what spec is good to do so (complete computer numpty here)

There's a company been recommended to me that builds em so I've emailed them for help

DD
 
TBH, if you have a decent monitor, I'd go PC (the PC/Mac debate basically boils down to the software just presenting things differently - they are the same underlying hardware so...) as things are cheaper to upgrade incrementally with a PC. If you want some advice on what they are suggesting/configs/whether prices are right etc, either post in here somewhere or drop me a PM.
 
arad85 said:
TBH, if you have a decent monitor, I'd go PC (the PC/Mac debate basically boils down to the software just presenting things differently - they are the same underlying hardware so...) as things are cheaper to upgrade incrementally with a PC. If you want some advice on what they are suggesting/configs/whether prices are right etc, either post in here somewhere or drop me a PM.
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I kind of agree but somewhat disagree too.
PCs are definitely much easier to upgrade and have less compatibility guidelines. However cost wise similar costs can be achieved, 2nd hand vs 2nd hand of course, buying new presents a big difference in price. For example, just got a new apple graphics card for 90 pounds online, the PC version sells for 80 used. Apple sell this same card for 300 instore where as the PC one may only be 120. Memory/Hard Drives on Apple can be upgraded for same as PC prices. Software wise I love using Aperture on the Mac and love the way things can be synced on and off too. I still think these are two areas the PC lacks in.
 
arad85 said:
Go Sandy Bridge now if you're self-building. Just about to do this and putting together mobo/16G/90G OCZ SSD/heatsink/i7-2600k (which appears faster than any "older" i7 - even the triple channel ones - and very easy to overclock) is coming in around £750. You'd need a case/power supply/optical drive (already have these) but you could go 8G memory and get those instead. If you wanted hard drive rather than SSD, that's going to lower the cost too..

That lot will be a fair bit more powerful than the top end iMac (with i7 in).

The iMac comes with a monitor, so it depends if your current monitor is any good. It would probably cost £600-£700 to get a 27" iMac equivalent monitor.
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wasnt for me, was for psifox in another thread..

spec was this for 747 ex delivery..

me said:
Intel Core i7 950 Bloomfield 45nm, 3.06 GHz, QPI 4.8GT/s, 8MB Cache, 23x Ratio, 130W, Retail
1TB Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ, OEM
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit, Operating System, Single, - OEM
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±R, 12x DVD±R, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, SATA, Black, OEM
Coolermaster Elite 334 Black Midi Tower Case w/o PSU
1GB Asus HD5570, PCI-E 2.1 (x16), 1600MHz GDDR3, 650MHz GPU, 400 Cores, D-Sub/DVI-I/HDMI
Gigabyte GA-X58-USB3, Intel X58, S1366, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR3 1066/1333/2200, SATA 3Gb/s RAID, ATX
500W Silverstone ST50F-P, Strider Silent, 100% modular, 80 Plus Bronze PSU
12GB (3x4GB) Corsair XMS3, DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333) Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.5V

all scan prices = £622.64 ex VAT and ex carriage.. obviously you could get that down a bit more by dropping to 6gb and getting a different graphics card, i think my 4550 cost less and has twin DVI for example
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to the OP, its really quite easy to build.. plenty of guides around on the internet :)
 
DD

I have my "old" 24" monitor set up as a second monitor with my iMac.

Works great with Lightroom. I have the grid view on the Mac and Loupe selected on the secondary. Makes selection a lot quicker.

Plus you can swap them around when using the develop module, put the grid up on the second monitor .

You'll need a an adapter to connect the output from the Mac to the second monitor, but they are only about £25 from Apple

You can calibrate both of them independently, without any problem
 
Chappers said:
DD

I have my "old" 24" monitor set up as a second monitor with my iMac.

Works great with Lightroom. I have the grid view on the Mac and Loupe selected on the secondary. Makes selection a lot quicker.

Plus you can swap them around when using the develop module, put the grid up on the second monitor .

You'll need a an adapter to connect the output from the Mac to the second monitor, but they are only about £25 from Apple

You can calibrate both of them independently, without any problem
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Worth bearing in mind too. Cheers :thumbs:

DD
 
Another point about a second monitor, If you have it calibrated and it's a good match the the iMac you can have a reference image on the second machine. This helps if you need a consistent colour match across a range of images.
 
Chappers said:
Another point about a second monitor, If you have it calibrated and it's a good match the the iMac you can have a reference image on the second machine. This helps if you need a consistent colour match across a range of images.
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I get the distinct feeling you like your iMac :)

The 'We build you a pc' boys haven't replied to my enquiry in 4 days - which I think is **** poor of them, and I 'fell over' nearly £500 unexpectedly - so the iMac is now front runner :)

Thanks for all your help chaps :thumbs:

It'll still be a couple of weeks or so before I take the plunge but I'll aim to report back once its landed and I've had a play

DD
 
neil_g said:
who out of interest?

hell, slip me some cash and i'll build one for you lol
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Are you VAT reg and able to offer a warranty ??? :)

And these were recommended to me, looked good too as they are close enough to drop in (which I offered to do) http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/ seems they are too busy to contact anyone who emails them :shrug:

DD
 
DiddyDave said:
Are you VAT reg and able to offer a warranty ??? :)

And these were recommended to me, looked good too as they are close enough to drop in (which I offered to do) http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/ seems they are too busy to contact anyone who emails them :shrug:

DD
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to be honest ive never heard of them. but then i build my own so ive never really looked too hard.

have you tried calling them? even warehouse express take days to reply to email on occasion.

VAT - no but was thinking about it lol

warrenty - well i am on here a lot... :lol:
 
neil_g said:
to be honest ive never heard of them. but then i build my own so ive never really looked too hard.

have you tried calling them? even warehouse express take days to reply to email on occasion.

VAT - no but was thinking about it lol

warrenty - well i am on here a lot... :lol:
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If you give a form of contact to potential clients you MUST be able to respond to it within a reasonable timescale or deservedly lose their business. If you look at their average call delays - and they strangely host this too :shrug:

Average delay to answer a Sales Enquiry (i.e. = MONEY/INCOME) is almost 3 minutes FFS :eek: Ridiculous - they don't deserve my money :D

DD
 
I've been struggling by on a MacBook Pro with 4GB RAM for the past year, works fine for Lightroom and PS but gets a bit bogged down if things like safari are open as well, or if I'm doing anything extensive with adjustment brushes. I just took delivery of an i3 27 inch iMac this week with 8GB RAM and between LR and PS, it absolutely flies. My editing time has literally been cut in half it's that quick.

Have you thought about leasing? I lease mine, 3 year agreement but every 18 months I can renew the agreement for another 3 years, get a new, up to date machine and keep the current machine with which I can do as I please. I know that Hugh (boyfalldown) uses the same firm.
 
Dman said:
I've been struggling by on a MacBook Pro with 4GB RAM for the past year, works fine for Lightroom and PS but gets a bit bogged down if things like safari are open as well, or if I'm doing anything extensive with adjustment brushes. I just took delivery of an i3 27 inch iMac this week with 8GB RAM and between LR and PS, it absolutely flies. My editing time has literally been cut in half it's that quick.

Have you thought about leasing? I lease mine, 3 year agreement but every 18 months I can renew the agreement for another 3 years, get a new, up to date machine and keep the current machine with which I can do as I please. I know that Hugh (boyfalldown) uses the same firm.
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Hi Dave - yep considered leasing too (thanks to Hugh). Their contract is now 24 monthly renewal as of Jan 2011 and I didn't really like the idea of the final one costing much more than necessary; so while it seems ok on cashflow its not for me

I even enquired in our local Apple shop recently only to be told that Apple ram is too expensive and to buy additional ram from Crucial !!! Mine's looking like being an i5 with 12gb of ram, so good to know yours is already fine as is :thumbs:

Cheers

DD
 
More votes here for refurb store and seeing how you get on with the base amount of RAM.

If you are going for the 27" you can specify a 2nd hard drive, letting you have applications and image files on separate disks, which should speed things up even more (especially if you go SSD).
 
Okies - buying time from refurb store - these two SAME price

WHICH TO GET ???

All spec I can see is the same except...

a) is i7 processor with ATI Radeon HD 4850 with 512MB of GDDR3 memory
b) is i5 processor with ATI Radeon HD 5750 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory

WHICH ???

:shrug::shrug::shrug::shrug::shrug:

DD
 
DD

My 12 month old Imac i5 has the 4850 Radeon. No problem with either Lightroom or Photoshop. I'd opt for a memory upgrade to 8 Gb as the rule of thumb seems to be 2Gb per core.

Check Apple memory price against Crucial.

John C
 
Chappers said:
DD

My 12 month old Imac i5 has the 4850 Radeon. No problem with either Lightroom or Photoshop. I'd opt for a memory upgrade to 8 Gb as the rule of thumb seems to be 2Gb per core.

Check Apple memory price against Crucial.

John C
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Cheers John

Just waiting for confirmation email :)

The guys in my local Apple store told me to buy more ram from Crucial - how's that for odd but helpful service :lol:

Their suggestion was 2x 4gb sticks to make it up to 12gb overall - but he did suggest trying it with just 4 first and spending if it seemed too slow - proper helpful advice in a shop - how weird is that :D

DD
 
Not too dissimilar from the advice I got from the Apple store when I bought mine, plus the guy there also mentioned Crucial. I went for 2 x 2Gb sticks as they were a much cheaper option and I couldn't see the advantages of 12Gb. My MacBook Pro only has 4Gb and that handles 1Dslll files reasonably quickly.

As they say in the Lightroom 5 Rules... Enjoy:)
 
Chappers said:
Not too dissimilar from the advice I got from the Apple store when I bought mine, plus the guy there also mentioned Crucial. I went for 2 x 2Gb sticks as they were a much cheaper option and I couldn't see the advantages of 12Gb. My MacBook Pro only has 4Gb and that handles 1Dslll files reasonably quickly.

As they say in the Lightroom 5 Rules... Enjoy:)
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Still awaiting my confirmation email :(

But Lightroom will be my first purchase for it :thumbs:

DD
 
I use an Imac 21" 3.06 for everything you're using and to be honest its a perfectly decent machine. I have been a mac user for over 12 years and have gotten used to the high prices lol!

If you're planning on doing colour critical work on your imac, I will warn you the screen tends to be bit of a pain to calibrate properly. There's some good guides out there however.

The stock calibration on mine was actually pretty good. I work in a small indie photo processing lab and printed some stuff straight out of photoshop on our wet lab and the colours were almost spot on.

Maybe I just got lucky with my screen who knows?:D

Oh and one other thing your mac will likely come with the Magic Mouse. I don't quite know what Apple were thinking when they designed this mouse but if you dont want a broken wrist after a few hours in photoshop, use your old one or invest in a nice logitech one. Put the Apple mouse with your other ornaments since that's all its good for to be honest.

Enjoy your new mac!:thumbs:
 
salmoally said:
I use an Imac 21" 3.06 for everything you're using and to be honest its a perfectly decent machine. I have been a mac user for over 12 years and have gotten used to the high prices lol!

If you're planning on doing colour critical work on your imac, I will warn you the screen tends to be bit of a pain to calibrate properly. There's some good guides out there however.

The stock calibration on mine was actually pretty good. I work in a small indie photo processing lab and printed some stuff straight out of photoshop on our wet lab and the colours were almost spot on.

Maybe I just got lucky with my screen who knows?:D

Oh and one other thing your mac will likely come with the Magic Mouse. I don't quite know what Apple were thinking when they designed this mouse but if you dont want a broken wrist after a few hours in photoshop, use your old one or invest in a nice logitech one. Put the Apple mouse with your other ornaments since that's all its good for to be honest.

Enjoy your new mac!:thumbs:
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:thumbs:

Thankfully, as it's a refurb & I can reclaim the £280 VAT its only (only???) £1190, and tax deductible too. Bloody glad I didn't have to buy it new with my 'own' money as normal people do, it would have effectively doubled its cost :eek:

I've heard others comment their Spyder Pro (which I have) can handle the colour side of things, but if not then its only like the olden days when you got used to the screen/output differences and adjusted accordingly - no big deal either way :)

DD

DD
 
Screen should calibrate fine. Initially it will be waaaay to bright. Go to System Prefs and select displays. There is a brightness slider at the bottom of the pane. Move it about half way and you should get a brightness that doesn't burn your eyeballs out :lol: (Should measure around 120-130 cd/m2)
 
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Chappers said:
Screen should calibrate fine. Initially it will be waaaay to bright. Go to System Prefs and select displays. There is a brightness slider at the bottom of the pane. Move it about half way and you should get a brightness that doesn't burn your eyeballs out :lol: (Should measure around 120-130 cd/m2)
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What no sunglasses??? :D

Serious query...

PCs obviously have to have every virus etc. detector or they melt - what about Macs???

Again, the guy in the shop - a geek if ever there was one - said not to bother on a Mac??? Is that right then :shrug:

DD
 
There are Trojans out there which may effect Macs but as far as I know there are no serious viruses in the wild. However with Macs becoming more popular then it's probably only a matter of time. Coming from a PC background I am concerned about virus and other malware.

I run iAntivirus as a precaution. McAfee also do a Mac version but iAntivirus is cheaper ( Free for non Business use and not expensive for Business use)
 
Chappers said:
There are Trojans out there which may effect Macs but as far as I know there are no serious viruses in the wild. However with Macs becoming more popular then it's probably only a matter of time. Coming from a PC background I am concerned about virus and other malware.

I run iAntivirus as a precaution. McAfee also do a Mac version but iAntivirus is cheaper ( Free for non Business use and not expensive for Business use)
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Don't believe the hype peddled by AV vendors. Similarly, don't run executables from untrusted sources (including opening disk image files). Windows is inherently unsafe. The same cannot so easily be said about *nix based OS's.

I don't usually contribute to threads that turn into flame-wars but am becoming increasingly annoyed about the negative press generated by 'proof of concept' exercises initiated by AV houses coincidentally close to their latest offering. Have been using OSX since 10.1 on three machines. No AV. No stress. No problems.
 
as chappers said, there are few malware threats for OSX at the moment. thats not to say they dont exist.

more so OSX can be used to harbour and spread windows malware.

we dont run AV on our macs YET. we are seriously concidering installing our licenced Sophos package in the not so distant future.
 
Having recently completed Apple training, I can confidently state that there are many reasons why Mac OS X is resistant to virus and malware. Not being as popular as windows isn't really one of them.

Valid point about your Mac being able to harbour and transfer virii though, so if you are communicating with them on a regular basis then you might want to run something.
 
nothing is totally resistant to malicious code.. it just means the code hasnt been written ;)

stands to reason that as more people use OSX malware rootkit writers will start giving it more attention to get at the users details/cash.
 
DiddyDave said:
Still awaiting my confirmation email :(

But Lightroom will be my first purchase for it :thumbs:

DD
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You thought about given aperture a go? Only £44.95 and a great piece of software. I prefer it to lightroom. At the price def worth a try. Remember if you have LR for PC Adobe will change it to mac version for free IIRC
 
Don't forget, if you already own lightroom, adobe will let you shift the license one way from PC to Mac.
 
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