I will be buying a new Mac soon. Starting to set up a studio at home in which I will retouch, do personal photography, and print. I am a somewhat retired professional retoucher, so I am familiar with powerful, state of the art Macs over the years, bought with other people's dimes. I may or may not make some income from this studio, so, I have go be prudent and assume I won't, therefore, I have to be careful with my cash outflow. I believe the stock market will be flat to downish for some years, and I really don't want to work hard at this point in my life. I am sure I will be spending a little over 2200 for a self calibrating Eizo monitor, that's a given, no less. The computer, though, is a conundrum. I have a hard time living with the thought of a Mini, although the most powerful available is quite a potent little package, and a good value. But, the adaptability to the future is severely limited. A potent Imac is a nice computer, but I'm forced to buy the 27 inch, which I don't want on my desk, since it will just get in the way, next to the Eizo. Nice monitor, but, kind of useless for serious printing. I have a cheap monitor to use as a second, for tools and palettes in Photoshop. So that leaves me with the Macpro. My question is, what does the collective feel are minimum requirements for a solid configuration? Four or six core? How much memory? Graphics? What are you working with, if you have one? Any issues?
I will using this Mac only for Photoshop, Lightroom, and printing on either a Canon or Epson. I have a 2011 Imac for the usual music/ internet junk. I hope to keep this computer for at least five years, maybe a little more - I believe that the rapid advancement of PCs we have witnessed over the last twenty years or so is rapidly slowing down, so obsolescence should be less of a problem these days. I hope.
Thanks.