[gm4life]

So after now getting more than knee deep in equipment in the last nearly 1 year from the QS-1 and MX-1 to my new crop Pentax kit.

I have decided my fleet of three laptops... Two of which running Win 7 for specific software and the other a one year old Win 10 HP Elitebook Folio G1 with an Intel Core M7, 8gb of ram and a 256 SSD with touch 4K screen being my “light weight” rig. It runs Office and Lightroom well but I got thinking about 4K display and realized they are spendy...

Having realized that I said maybe it is time for a desktop. In looking at high end displays it led me to seriously considering an iMac. They have absolutely gorgeous displays don’t take up too much room and have plenty of grunt under the hood.

I really don’t want to push past 1,500 or 2K but realize you get what you pay for. A 4K HP AIO cost nearly as much as an iMac so it got me wondering... Does it make sense for a life long PC man to go Mac?

I have already went to iPhone/iPad from Android and haven’t looked back. I am deeply invested in Windows but the 500 bucks worth of software I will need to buy really won’t break the bank. I would have to buy most of it anyways for another Windows PC. Although IT savvy I don’t know Mac well and have always resisted the urge to switch.

So iMac owners...

Do I go with a mid 2017 4K 21.5 inch or 5K 27 inch? I have sort of narrowed my options down to a few iMacs (if I go PC again I have that one figured out).

1. Go with a 21.5 inch iMac with 8gb of ram, 4K screen, 2gb graphics card, 1TB 5,400 standard hard drive (makes me nervous) and the 3GHZ Quad Core i5. Retail 1,299 - not too spendy but the HD makes me nervous.

2. Go with the same config as number 1 with a 1TB Fusion Drive which I would be more comfortable with but it is now 1,379 and I still only have a 21.5 inch screen.

3. Load up the model mentioned in 1 & 2 with 16gb of ram (as ram isn’t easily added in the 21.5 inch model, which is stupid!) This swells the price to 1,599. Still not a very big screen and we are close to 27 inch model territory...

4. Say forget the budget and run with a 27 inch base 5K model, with a 1TB Fusion Drive, 3.4GHZ i5 and 8gb of ram and order one more stick of 8 for 16. Board maxes at 32... 1,699 for this one not counting the ram.

5. Spend the extra 70 bucks to get the one in option 4 but get the 3.5GHZ i5 to be able to do 64gb of ram max and start at 16 with the extra user installed stick like on 4.

I don’t like the price on the 27 incher but like the ram being easily upgraded. By the time I spent decent money for the small screen 21.5 I might as well go big or go home right?

I welcome thoughts and suggestions for my photo editing beast. Am waiting till Black Friday for the deals as well!

Thanks!

[MarkJerling]

Does it make sense for a life long PC man to go Mac?

In a word - No!

[gm4life]

In a word - No!

I was afraid of that! I have been happy with my HP gear but with the prices so close it makes me think I should try a Mac.

[KiloHotelphoto]

I've got a 27" iMac with the 5k resolution and it is worth it. I wasn't sure if I would be able to tell the difference between the 4K and 5k but once I saw the two next to each other in the store it obvious.

It is expensive but well worth it, if you can afford it do it but don't go in debt to get it.

edit
Just went to look at what I've got on mine. 3.2 i5 processor with 16gig memory 2.12TB fusion drive and a 4TB external that I keep all my pics on. I use Lightroom and it handles the files of the K1 and Canon 5ds-r pretty fast.

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Last edited by KiloHotelphoto; 10-22-2017 at 06:45 PM. Reason: update info

[gm4life]

I've got a 27" iMac with the 5k resolution and it is worth it. I wasn't sure if I would be able to tell the difference between the 4K and 5k but once I saw the two next to each other in the store it obvious.

It is expensive but well worth it, if you can afford it do it but don't go in debt to get it.

edit
Just went to look at what I've got on mine. 3.2 i5 processor with 16gig memory 2.12TB fusion drive and a 4TB external that I keep all my pics on. I use Lightroom and it handles the files of the K1 and Canon 5ds-r pretty fast.

No, don't worry I pay cash for my toys. If it isn’t in the checking account or savings I don’t buy it! Same way I bought into my kit with CASH.

Thanks I am thinking I am going iMac or not bothering at all. Will wait for a special around the holidays to pull the trigger.

[KiloHotelphoto]

Apple never does black friday deals so don't bother waiting if that's the way you are going to go.

[gm4life]

Apple never does black friday deals so don't bother waiting if that's the way you are going to go.

I am hoping another retailer does. But I would pull the trigger eventually before the holidays likely. Thanks for the advice!

[chuck_c]

Go with your option #4 and max out the RAM. This is my current setup. Zero problems. Zero complaints.

[Winder]

They have absolutely gorgeous displays don’t take up too much room and have plenty of grunt under the hood.

LG makes the displays for Apple. Just buy the LG version for your PC and you will be happy.

[monochrome]

Last winter I looked very hard at a 27” iMac. You really need to avoid small Fusion Drives and just use the biggest flash drive you can afford, plus 2xx Tb external drives. It gets up to $3,400 with AppleCare, software and sales tax (local Apple Store) very fast.

I bought a Dell XPS 3910 Tower custom built w/ 3.4 GHz i7, 16Gb, 512Gb flash drive, 2Tb SATA; 2Tb external backup, very nice nVidia GeForce 2Gb graphics card, wireless keyboard / mouse / 3.1 channel speakers, WIN10 64 Pro, MS Office Pro and more connections than I can count. 2x USB 3.0 + 2x USB 2.0 on the front + 4x USB 3.0 on the back (Apple has none on the front - try sticking your SD card in the back of your monitor -you’ll hate it)), multi-card slot reader on the front. Bluetooth, WiFi a/c and a 27” LG 4K monitor for $2,199 shipped, no tax. Blazing fast, my existing software all installed, my printers, scanners and other peripherals all installed, wired network server connected perfectly and the OS is familiar. There was a three evening learning curve to tweak settings and it just runs.

[amoringello]

Go with your option #4 and max out the RAM. This is my current setup. Zero problems. Zero complaints.

First off. No reason to switch TO or FROM a Mac or PC.
Stick with what you're used to.

But, if you do choose Mac.....
FYI,

MacSales.com will allow you to max out a new 2017 iMac's RAM to 64GB.
I did this, but have yet to approach using a full 32GB with both Lightroom and Photoshop in use at the same time, and with some pretty large files and projects.
I would not suggest wasting money on more than 32GB of RAM for PS/LR work.
Maybe more useful if you do large video productions??? But not so much just for PS/LR.
Either way, get the minimum RAM from Apple, and go through MacSales.com for an upgrade. It will save you HUNDREDS of $$$.

I also upgraded to the 1TB SSD. I used to have the 1TB Fusion drive with my last desktop.
I honestly see very little performance difference between the two.
Benchmarks scream Sith an SSD... but real life usage with PS/LR does not show much (i.e. no noticeable) improvement.
I would not suggest overpricing the new box with an SSD. Go with the Fusion, as it is still a *huge* step up from standard spinning drive.

PS and LR are making more use of GPU, but most of their features are still tied to main CPU processor.
I would spend the extra on the faster processor.

I got the 5K display. AMAZING!
But, I have to zoom to 200% for a lot of work, simply because the resolution is just too high to do a lot of work.
Sounds odd, but I would probably choose the 4K if money is a concern.
Although if you did video, the extra work space on the 5K could probably let you work on 4K full res with extra space for tools.
If you do not have plans for video, 5K is probably overkill.

[MarkJerling]

I was afraid of that! I have been happy with my HP gear but with the prices so close it makes me think I should try a Mac.

Next you'll be buying a Ford!

[twilhelm]

Next you'll be buying a Ford!

I resemble that remark!

[johnmflores]

Does you HP laptop support an external display? Buy a nice, wide gamut 4k display and see if that works. If you are still not satisfied, wait for Apple to revise the Mac Mini and hook that up to the 4k display.

[AggieDad]

Well, I think my 27" iMac is superb. It is incredibly fast, has a great display, and does everything well. There is an elegance to both the hardware and the operating system. But I won't get into any Mac vs PC silliness as both systems get the job done. I have been using a Mac for years and am very comfortable with them. If you are changing, then I would strongly urge you to visit an Apple store or a friend with an iMac and play with it for a while. There are differences, and you may decide to stay with a Windows-based system.

Mac or PC, a 27" screen makes an incredible difference. On my main desktop I keep three windows open - mail, calendar and browser, with the browser occupying about 60% of the screen and the other two stacked in the remainder of the space. Another desktop has photo editing while yet another has some other stuff open. The 5k Retina display is fantastic with the exception of one problem - it exposes my lack of photo-taking talents.

If you are all in on buying an iMac, then it is all about configuration. I personally chose to go with a 3TB fusion drive for less money than a 512GB SSD. The fusion drive has 128GB of SSD combined with the mechanical hard drive. It is more than fast enough for me and allows me to keep one copy of my photos on the computer.