New iMac Purchase

[amyjo415]

I currently have a late 2014 iMac 27 inch.  Specs are in the picture.  I am experiencing some issues with it and given I am an accountant, I don't have a time to risk and do a wait and see with it or to even get it in to be fixed (2 day wait and likely have to leave it with them).  So, I am considering upgrading and then will later fix this one and pass it on to my daughter to use.  My original plan had been to upgrade this Fall or next Spring so advancing that plan.  My question is what am I really getting in buying new compared to what I already have?  Faster speed and the larger hard drive alone?  Will it really be noticeably faster?    Is the 3.7 the way to go or will the lower end ones suffice?  If I want to take advantage of military pricing and no tax (buying from AAFES) I am locked into their builds.  Thoughts?  Thanks!

[Brian]

The new 2019 iMac line that has just been released is A LOT faster than the 2018 models. Even though the specs / speeds look to be similar, there are other factors that are under-the-hood, such as more processor cores, faster video graphic processors, and better / faster Chipsets that control data-flow on the motherboard. (CPU to RAM to HD, etc.)

Since you are primarily doing accounting, you don't need a huge-and-expensive iMac. Whatever you do, skip the 21.5" iMac and stick with the 27" model. The tough part is balancing the options on your iMac and your budget. The biggest speed performance boost that you can do when configuring your iMac, is to choose a SSD Hard Drive. Not a Fusion Drive, but a full SSD Drive. Unfortunately, if I select the base $1799 iMac and configure it with a SSD Drive, that adds $700 to the cost. ($2499.) In my humble opinion, Apple really wants you to "Go Big or Go Home."

I configured all three options on Apple's Website. All I did was replace a Fusion HD with a 1TB SSD Drive. The prices ended up being $2499, $2699 and $2799. Here's the kicker, out of all three, the $2799 model was "The Best Bang for your Buck." Why? It had a better / faster CPU chip, and a better graphics card with more video memory...for just $100 more than the $2699 model! I then added the new Apple Bluetooth Keyboard with Numeric Keypad Built in for an extra $30, bringing the total to $2829.

Now, one thing I didn't do is upgrade the RAM at the time of purchase. The reason is Apple's RAM is extremely over-priced for what it is. The RAM I think Apple uses a lot is from Micron, which is the parent company of Crucial.com, if my memory serves me well. So I'd configure the $2299 27" iMac, upgrade to a 1TB SSD Drive and add the numeric keyboard for an extra $30. Then head to Crucial.com and purchase a 16GB Kit to get you to 24GB. That said, if you did upgrade the RAM to 16GB, and then added a 16GB from Crucial, you would have 32GB of RAM. But for financial programs, I'm not thinking you will benefit from 32GB of RAM. The SSD HD makes a HUGE difference.

In fact, my iMac from a powered off state until the sign-on screen takes about 15 seconds, since I have a 1TB SSD. Installing programs is a breeze AND the OS Update that I installed yesterday was very quick. On my 2009 iMac, the update took about 20-25 Minutes to complete, on my 2018 iMac, it was about 3-5 minutes? Somewhere around there? It completed without me paying any real attention.

Side note: In case you are wondering, you can not use the RAM from your 2014 iMac in the new 2019. Even though they look the same and install the same, the chips on the RAM sticks are different. The 2019 iMac needs faster RAM Chips than what was required on the 2014 models.

[amyjo415]

This is perfect.  I ended up having to order yesterday afternoon, before I got this response, but I actually ordered exactly what you recommended, right down to the keyboard.  I went back and forth a lot on upgrading the hard drive or the processor but went with the hard drive.  I would have liked to go with 2TB but just couldn't bring myself to go that far over budget.  I did know about the RAM but I do still have to get RAM from somewhere.  I can't tell form Crucial's website if they have it or not.  When I search I only get SSD drives.  Do you know which I would need from them?  Or, I did find it on OWC.  Is that a good place to buy from as well.    My only other thing will be getting new externals which I am coming up due for soon.  Mine are currently WD Passports.  Are they still ok to go with or is there something better now?

[Brian]

Here, buy this Crucial 32GB upgrade kit from B&H and be happy. You will end up having 40GB of RAM, which is what I did (and have on my iMac).

Externals, I have this G-Drive 12TB Thunderbolt 3 HD. Virtually no lag or bottlenecks, and it's feels like a HD that is installed internally into the computer. G-Drives come Mac Formatted so it's really plug-and-play. Yes, I'm very good at spending other people's money and have expensive tastes. I personally do not cheap out on my hard drives.

[amyjo415]

Thanks.  I just ordered the RAM.  I ordered the HD but went down to 6 TB.  I don't keep a large volume of photos and know I can upgrade that in the future if needed. Thanks again!

[Brian]

The cool part about G-Drives is besides being Mac OS Formatted, they include Thunderbolt Cables, so you will have everything you need.

[amyjo415]

My iMac should be here any day and I have a question.  Currently, I keep much of my photos on the iMac hard drive and back up to the externals.  Now, I will be keeping all pictures on the external.  How is best to move what I have now?  Ideally, I would move them prior to setting up my new iMac.  So, that when I do setup the new one, I could restore my Time Machine backup and transfer all other data, setups, etc over.  How do I do this and still maintain my current catalog/database used with Bridge or Lightroom/Photoshop?  Any suggestions?

[Brian]

If you want to keep things simple for now, just leave them where they are (internal hd) and use Time Machine to back everything up. (Only backup the internal HD, NEVER the externals.) It helps if the operating system is the same on both computers. Also, install all your programs and such that you will be using and update them on the new computer. After you get it all setup, you then use the Migration Assistant to transfer things from your Time Machine Backup. Be sure to de-authorize your old computer for iTunes and Photoshop, etc. before you either sell it or put it in storage.

Instructions:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204350

After you get things transferred, then I would move your images to a EHD. For that, I'd setup your file folder structure first. If you have crap all over the place, now is the time to get organized. Start with main folders, like "Personal" / "Client" / "Business" / "Misc," etc. Then under each folder have a year, then month and date, then project name. Or whatever you choose, just make sure it's easy to figure out without thinking. Then start culling from your data transfer. You do not need those 75 photos of your lunch from 4 years ago.  

 

[amyjo415]

For some reason, it shows my Time Machine backup (from a 1TB hard drive) as being too large to put on the new iMac (also 1TB hard drive).  I show about 80 GB currently available on my old iMac.  I assume moving the pictures to the external now would be best first?  My files are pretty organized as they are now, so I want to keep the same system going forward.

[Brian]

80GB Free?!?!!!!

That's dangerous, your hard drive is in the realm of corrupting itself. I know that 80GB sounds like a lot, but it isn't today. You are thinking of MB in the realm of Gigabytes and Terabytes. Imagine if you had a 1GB HD and only have 80 Megabytes free? That's where you are right now on the scale. This is very-very-very bad. Not only for the potential of data-loss, but your Mac will take a HUGE performance hit once you go above 80% full on ANY drive, internal or external.

You do not want to go more that 75%-80% full on ANY drive, especially the internal one. Clear stuff off, be ruthless...and re-run Time Machine. Try to have closer to 300GB+ free.  You might also want to go into the Time Machine drive and delete the very oldest backups to make room.

Also, make sure that NO externals are hooked up when you run Time Machine. For either the new full backup or when you go to restore things. Actually, you might want to format the TIme Machine drive and then do another full backup. Or use your new, clean EHD to do a fresh Time Machine backup that will be used only for this data transfer.