Hello All,
I know that there are quite a few very knowledgeable folks on this board and I'd like to tap into a bit of that knowledge for some advice...
When I first got into the digital arena back in 2000 I bought a Mac G4 Cube w/17" CRT display and add-on memory. I won't embrass myself telling you how much I paid for this setup! Suffice it to say that 640MB of additional RAM was $600! Well...I'm sure we all have those stories don't we? Anyway, over the several years that I used this setup I became increasingly frustrated that I couldn't really add on any additional hardware, peripherals, etc. A few years ago, thinking that I'd remedy the "closed architecture" of the Mac Cube, I bought the biggest, bestest Mac G5 tower that I could afford at the time. I bought into this system thinking that I wouldn't have to buy any new hardware for quite awhile. Then, of course, less then a year after I bought this Mac Apple announced that they were moving to the Intel chipset. This, in and of itself, didn't concern me in the least...I was perfectly happy with what I had. But, then, some of my favorite software apps--like Capture One PRO--were released running only on the latest Mac OS release (10.5.6) and Intel-based machines. Dang it!!
Okay, so finally here's my question: If you were buying a new Mac today, what whould you get? My needs are mostly the common apps used for digital imaging: PS CS4, LR2, Capture One PRO, etc. Other than digital imaging, my wife uses my computer for iTunes and I use the occasional Office app such as Word or Excel. I've considered a new MacBook Pro more than once because it would be nice to have a "take along" in the field, but based on what I've heard or seen for myself it doesn't seem that the horsepower is really there. I've looked at the new towers, of course, but have hesitated due to being kinkd of "burnt" with my prior tower. Again, this may be naive on my part, but I didn't really consider having to buy a new system so soon. I know that the typical turn-around on hardware is shorter than my goal line; I try to get 4 - 5 years out of each system that I put hard-earned cash into!
How about the new iMacs? I'm pretty sure Michael runs these in his gallery based on the videos I've seen. Sorry, I know this is a rather large and open-ended inquiry, but I'd certainly appreciate very much any advice any of you would care to share...
Thanks for listening.
Regards,
Alan Huntley