Configuring an iMac 27 inch Retina

[pflower]

I am going to replace an ailing 2009 iMac with a new Retina 27 inch.  I pretty much do everything in Lightroom and only occasionally use Photoshop - and then pretty lightly.  However I do have some pretty big files - 200+MB scans and large tiffs from a Hasselblad H3D-39.  I may play about with video, but very much as an amateur hobby.  I have Final Cut Studio and my very limited understanding of video is that I could convert video from my A7ii (and probable purchase later of an A7rII) to Apple Pro Res and edit with that  - or just get FCPX.  However this is a minor consideration.

Does anyone have any experience or advice to offer about the options for kitting it out.  In particular:

1. I assume the upgrade to the 4.00GHZ i7 at £200 is worthwhile.
2.  I will load with memory later from a 3rd party
3.  The main problem is the decision over storage.  The 3TB Fusion Drive looks attractive - bigger storage is always better.  But most of my photos are on external Hard Drives which can be driven by USB 3.0.  These are all 4TB drives.  Would I be better  off with the 512GB SSD for the OS and Applications (plus LR catalogs) with photos held externally?
4.  Is there any real advantage to the upgrade of the video card from the standard 2GB version to the 4GB version for LR and, possibly, light video usage later?

Anyone care to chip in with what they have bought and found out?

Thanks

[Ken Bennett]

I thought this article by Ctein was helpful.

My 2009 iMac is for personal work, and all the photos are on the onboard 2TB drive. So I have the same questions about the Fusion drive vs the SSD - Ctein suggests getting the SSD for boot and apps and keeping the files on externals, which sounds like what you need. But I may try the Fusion drive when I upgrade later this fall.

[BobShaw]

My experience on last years iMac 27" was to get the 512G SSD. Only way to fly. Boots up in a few seconds.
I also got an i7 and 3.5G but can't quantify the improvement with that.
You can vary the RAM purchased so I got 2 x 4GB ram which gave two spare slots to add 2 x 8GB more. No point in pulling out good RAM if you don't have to. Third party RAM is cheaper but if you have to remove RAM you have already paid for then it is not so cheap.

Everything else is external.
Actually I have my data on a Mac Mini server so all machines can access it and it backups up with Time Machine over night.

[Ellis Vener]

Before you buy, make sure you check Apple's refurb store , and check it regularly. http://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/imac/27

through Apple's Refurb store  I was able to buy a 4.0Ghz 27" iMac with  512GB Flash/SSD storage, the higher end graphics processor,  and 16GB RAM installed for a little less than $2800 USD . I added another 16GB RAM from mackerels.com (OWC) and also added an OWC  Thunderbolt 2  Dock

[jduncan]

I am going to replace an ailing 2009 iMac with a new Retina 27 inch.  I pretty much do everything in Lightroom and only occasionally use Photoshop - and then pretty lightly.  However I do have some pretty big files - 200+MB scans and large tiffs from a Hasselblad H3D-39.  I may play about with video, but very much as an amateur hobby.  I have Final Cut Studio and my very limited understanding of video is that I could convert video from my A7ii (and probable purchase later of an A7rII) to Apple Pro Res and edit with that  - or just get FCPX.  However this is a minor consideration.

Does anyone have any experience or advice to offer about the options for kitting it out.  In particular:

1. I assume the upgrade to the 4.00GHZ i7 at £200 is worthwhile.
2.  I will load with memory later from a 3rd party
3.  The main problem is the decision over storage.  The 3TB Fusion Drive looks attractive - bigger storage is always better.  But most of my photos are on external Hard Drives which can be driven by USB 3.0.  These are all 4TB drives.  Would I be better  off with the 512GB SSD for the OS and Applications (plus LR catalogs) with photos held externally?
4.  Is there any real advantage to the upgrade of the video card from the standard 2GB version to the 4GB version for LR and, possibly, light video usage later?

Anyone care to chip in with what they have bought and found out?

Thanks

Not that I believe they are good machines, Apple seems to concern with wall street  madness (a mature company grows  36% in difficult times year over year, and above guidance and the stock drops!!!). My point is this machines don't have  USB-C nor thunderbolt 3 or DDR4. What they do have is a wide gamut display. An option will be getting the  late  2014 model and save some money.

Best regards

[mdelrossi]

For what its worth,
I ended up with a 27 iMac 5k 4ghz processor and 295 graphics card. as far as the storage was concerned, was torn 512 ssd or 3tb Fusion.
Well I ended up with the 3TB fusion and split the fusion drive into 128 sad and 3TB hard drive.
I boot off the SSD and store my Lightroom catalog on it. I keep my photos on a separate thunderbolt drive and backed up several places. I use the 3TB for downloads, music business files etc.
It works great. On the new iMac's they just announced they dropped the 128 ssd for 24 GB ssd in the 1TB fusion, Bad move in my opinion.
I'd love to get a 1TB SSD blade and use that for my boot drive but then I'd have to open it up and void the apple care, so...
good luck
mdr

[Ken Bennett]

Well I ended up with the 3TB fusion and split the fusion drive into 128 sad and 3TB hard drive.

Huh, that's interesting. All my OS and apps and LR catalog won't take anywhere near 128GB, and I would love to have my photos on the internal 3TB drive while backing up to externals. Did you split the drive with Disk Utility? Anything to watch out for when doing so?

[mdelrossi]

Goggle "split fusion drive". it is simple, but a little nerve-racking . Make sure you have a clone of your drive before you do it. You will have to reinstall the os as it will completely wipe both the SSD and The HD.