OS 10.8.5

[Brian]

Meh. Save up for a $1799 iMac. 

[Ange]

Hi Brian, Thought I would reply back to this thread so it may jog your memory on my problem ( which is still a problem...!!).

I need to upgrade my current machine- specks above and here - and I also need to have access to a back up computer which this computer will become even though I don't really have anywhere to store this one!

Imac is  21.5-inch, Late 2012, (1920 x 1080)

Processor  2.9 GHz Intel Core i5, 

Memory  8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Graphics  NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 512 MB

Software  OS X 10.8.5 (12F2560)

Storage 1 TB- (which I have 250GB free)
SATA Disk

Memory 8GB ( 4gb x 2) Your Mac contains 2 memory slots, each of which accepts
a 1600 MHz DDR3 memory module. All memory slots are currently in use.

 

 

This is what I am looking at for just over $3k and I am just wondering why on earth has the prices of Apple increased so dramatically over time? May I ask what is your thoughts on the specs and costing please compared to what I have and the issues I have with running IOS 10.8.5

• 3.8GHz quad-core 7th-generation Intel Core i5 processor (Turbo Boost up to 4.2GHz)
• 8GB of 2400MHz DDR4 ( which I will take to my local computer store and increase the RAm to 16GB
• 2TB Fusion Drive
• Radeon Pro 580 with 8GB of video memory
• 27‑inch iMac with Retina 5K display

[Brian]

22 hours ago, Ange said:

I am just wondering why on earth has the prices of Apple increased so dramatically over time?

Because it's Apple. They want you to go big or go home. Also, you are upgrading from a 21.5" iMac to a 27" model! That 27" iMac is in a different class.

That said, they have ALWAYS been expensive, ever since the original Apple Macintosh in 1984. The original Mac in 1984 was $2495 when it was first released. Adjusted for inflation, and using US Dollars, today that cost would be around $5845. So in essence, Mac has actually gotten cheaper over the years!

Now are you editing video? If not, you do not need a 8GB video card. All of the specs that you have listed are what I'd buy and that cost is going to end up around $3200 or so. LOL!! If you want to save money, for editing photos the $1799 iMac will work just fine. In fact, Adobe Photoshop isn't programmed to take advantage of what makes a i7 so fast, you are only going to get a small percentage of a performance boost with this fancy iMac over the stock $1799 version. (Say around 5-7%.)

So why would I buy a fancy and expensive iMac?

Answer: 'Cause...

I also purchase my computers with a 7 year time frame, give or take. I'm still using my iMac from 2009 as I type this. Late next year, I will probably purchase a new iMac. So in essence you could get one of the lower-end models, then replace it in 3-4 years, then turn around and buy another Mac again. Either way, you are spending about $3400 over the same period of time. 

Bottom Line: The specs you listed are fine. In case your curious, I just configured my 27" iMac and it sells for $2829, plus tax, shipping and the cost of AppleCare. I'd get extra RAM from Crucial.com and install it myself.

 

 

Why 16GB? Because I'm trying not to throw away RAM. I'm hoping Apple will install two 8GB sticks and leave me with open slots. I also have a tendency to create large Panorama Photos and need that horsepower to crunch that data. So that's why I opted for the faster CPU chip and Video RAM. In reality, I could just configure it with a 1TB drive, I still have 700GB free on my current computer so 3TB is complete overkill. Why not SSD? It's because of the cost and I don't do a lot of hard drive data transferring. Sure it's awesome to brag that your computer boots in 15 seconds, but guess what? In a few weeks, that will become your "Normal." Photoshop opens just fine on my current 2009 iMac, and so does Firefox. I'd rather put the money into a 4GB-8GB External Thunderbolt G-Drive instead of having a SSD drive inside my iMac. But that's just me.

[Ange]

Thanks Brian. I forgot to mention that I am looking at video down the track (Drone) if I can teach myself! 

Do you mean purchase the 21inch base model for $1899 because I can only see an entry point of $2699 for the 27inch? I thought it was best to stay away from the 21inch?

Im really hoping to keep this new one for a much longer time frame than my current unit which was 4 years. 

 

[Brian]

I would NEVER-EVER tell you to purchase a current 21.5" iMac. Apple has crippled them in terms of performance. Slow HD, slow video card, slower motherboard, and you can not upgrade the RAM yourself since there isn't an access panel like on the 27".

Simply head to Apple.com, then click Mac up at the top. Select iMac, NOT iMac Pro. Click the blue Buy box and select 27" or click this link:

https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/imac/27-inch

This is what you should see when you click the above URL:

 

Look at the column on the left, select the $1799 iMac. Now, this model doesn't have a lot of upgrade options, so if you want a little more customization, choose the $1999 iMac and tweak things. If you really want to go for broke without paying the iMac Pro Price-Point, select the $2299.00 version and tweak things. That's the model that I start with, the $2299 unit and then upgrade things.

[Ange]

Thanks yes that's what I thought you said about a 21inch!

That link to the apple site looks like it's US $$not AU?

And what is your opinion on the Apple care, and extra $250 is it worth the cost?

[Brian]

OH!!! You are in Australia!!

Practically EVERYTHING costs WAY more in Australia.

So, yes, you are going to pay a lot more and a $1799 (US Dollars) iMac is your A$2699.00, which also includes the GST.  Here are the same choices as my screenshot above, only in AU$.

The iMac that I configured that cost US $2829, when I configure it using AU $ it's A$4289, which is a bit expensive for your budget from what you are telling me.

AppleCare is one of the few things that I purchase along with my Apple products. I've used it once on my iMac, for when the internal HD started dying on me and I just recently replaced my iPhone 6S via AppleCare. Since Apple is really the only ones that repair their items, except for Apple Authorized Repair Centers, who still get their parts from Apple, I would say yes...AppleCare is worth getting. Yes, you can purchase AppleCare within the warranty period of your Apple device, at least here in the US, Australia might be different, though I will warn you...if you decide to skip it to save a little money, you will most likely never purchase AppleCare. Then you'll kick yourself if something goes wrong in the 2nd year of ownership. Remember, Apple buys their stuff from other vendors, just like everyone else. RAM, Motherboard Components, Hard Drives, etc., are all purchased from different vendors. 

That said, I normally avoid purchasing the extended warranties from big-box-store retailers, as they are a huge profit maker for the store. The thing with those contracts, is if you purchase them and never use it, the store keeps your money. With Apple, since it's an Apple Product that is being repaired by Apple, it's worth getting AppleCare. Like I've said, I've used AppleCare twice for myself, and about 6-7 times for my oldest's iPad Touch, in which he kept destroying or having it die on him.

Bottom Line: Get AppleCare. It's an insurance policy with no deductible, and gets you longer Apple Phone Support in addition to the hardware stuff.

[Ange]

Haha! Dang it!

In the conversation thread you mentioned above that you like to hang onto your machines for many years. Would it then be a wise idea to "invest" in this new Imac Pro coming out soon and spend the extra $$ so that potentially you would not have to do this again for a long time? I know it's base price is going to be somewhere around the $6K AU.  

 

[Brian]

Mac Pro? It's tempting, but there isn't an Access Panel to upgrade the RAM yourself. So you have to purchase the extra RAM from Apple, which is WAY overpriced. I did a quick search for the cost of a iMac Pro, upgraded, and it's around $5000-$7000+, which coverts to around AU$6500-AU$9000+ after you figure in the Tax.

You aren't editing TV Commercials or producing movies. You are looking into using a Drone and record some video and editing photos. You do not need a iMac Pro. Believe it or not, Photoshop will run slower on a iMac Pro than a tricked out iMac!! It's not programmed to take advantage of the horsepower of a Mac Pro / iMac Pro. I'd rather you have a tricked out 27" iMac (have racing / go-faster stripes painted on the side,) with 64GB of RAM and a RAID 0 Thunderbolt EHD (for your video cache files) and a RAID 1 Thunderbolt EHD for storage of your files. That will cost you around the same price as a iMac Pro.

As much as it would be cool to have bragging rights to own a iMac Pro, I'd rather purchase a Nikon D5 or D5s in a few years, maybe a few more fancy / exotic lenses instead of buying a iMac Pro. Heck, I'll get 10-20 years out of fancy lenses for $6000+ than a computer that will last around 7-8 years or so. Even a Super-fast iMac Pro. Components do wear out over time.

Case in point, I have a friend who used to work for Nickelodeon Studios in New York. She has done lots of logos for them, both on TV and for things like the graphics on the packaging for the kid's toys. She complained to me that Nickelodeon will only accept work done on a Mac, as silly as it sounds. She used to bitch that after 4 years, her $500 Windows 7 computer ran circles around her aging Mac Pro. (This was years ago, mind you so my info could be a bit dated.)

Bottom Line: Skip a iMac Pro. Go buy yourself a nice Drone instead. LOL!! Or take a course to invest in yourself / improve your craft. Hell, take a trip instead of buying a iMac Pro to photograph something different.

[Ange]

Yeh thanks my thoughts on the Pro was that it would be too much for me for to spend that amount of $$ considering I am having trouble justifying the $3K on this new upgrade!! 

[Brian]

Here is what I'd purchase if I was in your shoes. Pick the middle one A$ 2999.00 and upgrade the HD to 2TB Fusion. That's it. Keep it simple. You will be surprised on just how much faster a 27" iMac is over a 21.5". Even if it's not the top-of-the-line version will all the extras added.
 

Then upgrade the RAM using a 3rd party source that has a good track-record. I recommend Crucial.com. Purchase a 16GB kit (two 8GB sticks) kit to take it from 8GB to 24GB. You could always add more RAM later and there isn't THAT much of difference in terms of performance between 24GB and 32GB of RAM. I feel that this will be the "Best-Bang-for-your Buck" model. It's a little faster than the stock A$2699 27" iMac and doesn't break the wallet, even though it's more than you want to spend.

[Ange]

Can you explain what this is that you have mentioned? "'d rather you have a tricked out 27" iMac (have racing / go-faster stripes painted on the side,) with 64GB of RAM and a RAID 0 Thunderbolt EHD (for your video cache files) and a RAID 1 Thunderbolt EHD for storage of your files. That will cost you around the same price as a iMac Pro."

[Ange]

Just the thunderbolt stuff I haven't heard of before? 

[Brian]

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1123839-REG

i will explain RAID later today. 

[Brian]

RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks.

"Huh?"

It's two or more hard drives working in unison for a common cause. For the majority of folks, there are three common types:

• RAID Level 0 or RAID0 (RAID Zero): Multiple HDs act as one big Hard Drive. This is the fastest RAID of the bunch. Downside, no redundancy. If one HD fails, the whole RAID0 setup fails. RAID0 is great to be used as a cache drive when editing video, due to the high performance of RAID0. 

 

• RAID Level 1 or RAID1 (RAID One): Drive Mirroring. When a file or any bit of data is written / removed from one HD, it is instantaneously copied / deleted from the other HD. For the majority of folks, they usually go with this option as it's pretty simple to setup. The downside to this setup, if any bit of data is corrupted or deleted on one HD,  that corruption is carried over to the 2nd HD immediately. So if you screwed up and deleted the wrong folder, you are SOL and are looking at extreme data recovery, which is expensive. Good news with RAID1 is if one HD fails, you have the other to retrieve your data from. That's the original intent of RAID1, better redundancy for archival / backup drives.

 

• RAID Level 5 or RAID5 (RAID Five): This is the most common in servers and commercial clients. There are others, like RAID6 and RAID10, but to keep things simple we will stick with RAID5. RAID5 is kinda like the combination of RAID0 and RAID1; which is three or more hard drives act in unison as one big HD. If one drive fails, the other two pick up the slack and keep going. If TWO hard drives fail in a RAID5, the whole RAID fails. As I mentioned above, it's very common for a RAID 5 to be in a commercial-based setting. Companies can't afford downtime if a HD fails and RAID 5, along with a few other methods help minimize that downtime.