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24" iMac ... will it work alright

I

iHermes

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 26, 2007
13
0
whats up guys ... i have always been a pc guy ... grew up with pc ... had pc for years ... now i'm just in the transition to move on forward with an mac ... i was planning on getting the 17" macbook pro but after years of doing design work on my wife's 15" laptop, i couldn't justifiy the 2" +$1000 for a mbp vs a imac on a beautiful 24" display ... there's plenty of work room on the monitor for almost all apps and viewing area ... fell in love with it and it's alot cheaper also ... i think it's also alot cheaper if you're comparing specs with one another ... the mbp is just portable ... that's it ...

anyways, before i order or buy it, i was wondering if this has plenty of room and run nicely with what i do ... i'm a graphic designer/web designer so i will be running illustrator/photoshop/indesign(cs3), dreamweaver/flash, plus doing some photo manipulation and photo edition ....

here's the spec:
24" display ... love it ...
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
320GB Serial ATA Drive

holla back yo!
 
iHermes said:
whats up guys ... i have always been a pc guy ... grew up with pc ... had pc for years ... now i'm just in the transition to move on forward with an mac ... i was planning on getting the 17" macbook pro but after years of doing design work on my wife's 15" laptop, i couldn't justifiy the 2" +$1000 for a mbp vs a imac on a beautiful 24" display ... there's plenty of work room on the monitor for almost all apps and viewing area ... fell in love with it and it's alot cheaper also ... i think it's also alot cheaper if you're comparing specs with one another ... the mbp is just portable ... that's it ...

anyways, before i order or buy it, i was wondering if this has plenty of room and run nicely with what i do ... i'm a graphic designer/web designer so i will be running illustrator/photoshop/indesign(cs3), dreamweaver/flash, plus doing some photo manipulation and photo edition ....

here's the spec:
24" display ... love it ...
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
320GB Serial ATA Drive

holla back yo!
Click to expand...


This will be perfect for what you need. I run MASTER CS3 on a 20 IMAC and am doin ok, with a slower processor(2.0). 24" is totally perfect though you willl have plenty of room which is more the merrier, and it will run those apps fine...good luck.
 
Personally if its not urgent I would consider waiting for leopard (not necessary but its extra expense if you want it in about a month :))

I would also go for 1GB Apple ram and buy some after market ram (assuming not doing this), I would also consider 4GB as I find the more ram the merrier with photoshop
 
No offence, but you're not a proper graphic designer if you're still on a PC!

Join the rest of the industry and buy your Mac.
 
AlexisV said:
No offence, but you're not a proper graphic designer if you're still on a PC!
Click to expand...

That has got to be one of the most idiotic comments ever made in relation to design and technically a mac is a pc (pc stands for personal computer, which a mac is, not a non os-x operating system) :rolleyes:

You can do the exact same thing on a windows pc as an os-x mac, most hardware is cross platform as are file types. Most major software is available in mac and windows variants. Many people use both macs and windows pc's in harmony without any issues.
 
I had a long answer typed out to that, but I just went back and deleted it.

I figured there was no point wasting my time trying to explain the design industry to someone who is under the delusion that he can waltz into a proper design job with no Mac experience, citing "yeah, well it doesn't matter that I have no Mac experience because a computer's just a computer."

The term PC has also moved on from its 1970's dictionary definition my friend.
 
Firstly, welcome iHermes!
Secondly, you've done your homework pretty well, and your choice is sound - the 24" iMac will excell your expectations for your design work. I'm upgrading to the 24" soon rather than move to a SR 15" MBP for similar reasons (although I will get a new Macbook whenever they come out).

The 24" will do you proud, but like LeviG says, if you're not in a rush, wait a month and get your iMac with Leopard.

AlexisV said:
No offence, but you're not a proper graphic designer if you're still on a PC!

Join the rest of the industry and buy your Mac.
Click to expand...

Not exactly a helpful comment Alexis. If you can't keep your assistance civil, please don't reply.
 
thanks for all the replies. really appreciate all of them, except for maybe one and you know which one.

my intention was to wait for leopard so hopefully they don't delay this launch meaning i could have a new and first mac in a few days or before the end of oct.

also, did anybody read up on the article that the cs3's weren't tested yet on the new os and it might not work out ... but they are working on a solution or something? i wonder how tough this is for adobe and mac ...
 
Hi Piarco

I'm sorry that you misinterpreted my tongue-in-cheek response as 'uncivil'. Moderator style tickings off are not appreciated however.

also, did anybody read up on the article that the cs3's weren't tested yet on the new os and it might not work out ... but they are working on a solution or something? i wonder how tough this is for adobe and mac ...
Click to expand...

By referring to CS3, do you mean the transition from the old Power PC Macs to the newer Intel ones? CS2 was not Intel native, so runs slowly on Intel Macs. CS3 is fully optimised for Intel machines running Tiger and Leopard.

I hope you will be good enough to appreciate this bit of information more.
 
AlexisV said:
I figured there was no point wasting my time trying to explain the design industry to someone who is under the delusion that he can waltz into a proper design job with no Mac experience, citing "yeah, well it doesn't matter that I have no Mac experience because a computer's just a computer."
Click to expand...

That's not what you said though is it, you're trying to change what you put down.

I said that you could do the exact same thing on a mac as a windows pc when using the same programs.

And I never said that you could just waltz into a design job without mac experience, I would say thats useful too. However considering that a mac is fairly simple to get to grips with and most graphic programs which are available on a mac are also on windows you can easily get to grips with the mac versions coming from a windows background.

As to the definition for pc moving on, maybe you should look in a dictionary more often.

Oh and for the record I'm in the industry and use mainly a windows machine - the reason is that my main program (3ds max) is not available on os-x and I assure you I can do everything on windows that I could do on mac os-x.
I'll more likely get a new laptop soon which is most likely going to be a macbook/macbook pro and the only reason I'll be picking one of those over a windows machine is simple - bootcamp/vmware/parallels so I can run the odd windows only program, final cut express (better value than similar windows programs) & keynote as I think its better than powerpoint. But that doesn't mean I need os-x to do graphic design.
 
You're a 3D designer then?

Conversely you couldn't get a job with a 3D modelling company if you could only use OS X, since 3ds is Windows only!

And I never said that you could just waltz into a design job without mac experience,I would say thats useful too. However considering that a mac is fairly simple to get to grips with and most graphic programs which are available on a mac are also on windows you can easily get to grips with the mac versions coming from a windows background.
Click to expand...

I'm talking from a commercial perspective. You know and I know that you could produce the same work eventually on both platforms. But it's not about using the programs in isolation - you need to know about Photoshop AND OS X, as you need to know about 3ds AND Windows.

If 3ds came out for OS X you still would have trouble finding employment if you couldn't use Windows. It's the industry standard for your field, as OS X is the industry standard for 2D print design.

Which is why I was, probably rather clumsily I admit, pointing out to our original poster that if he's serious about graphic design he needs to get a Mac because the rest of us use them.
 
AlexisV said:
You're a 3D designer then?
Click to expand...

Primarily but also do other areas of graphics/design as required, plus you often need to do a bit of tweaking with photoshop for final images etc.

I have to say I'm assuming the op wasn't really a part of a business due to him saying that he's been using the wifes computer for design but from a larger commercial perspective its useful to be able to use more than one format of computer :)
 
Actually it's quite likely there will be issues. There always are... ranging from small to large. I would recommending going with Tiger if you want to know all this software is going to run correctly from the get-go and your business relies on it. Let Leopard mature for a while.
 
Consider only 3GB of RAM

I recently moved from a PC to a 24" imac and I immediately purchased 4GB of RAM. What I have found is that it is very hard to actually use all 4GB. In fact I usually have 2GB free. You might consider buying with 1 GB and then getting a single aftermarket 2GB module and trying that for a while. Could save yourself some $ and you can always add a second 2GB module later.

It is clear to me that osx manages memory far more effectively than windows so your windows experience re: sizing ram is not directly applicable. In fact the improved memory management was one of the more noticeable differences for me as I moved from the PC to the mac. According to benchmarks my mac isnt much faster than my windows box but in everyday use it is way faster. On the windows box, almost every time I click the mouse on a different window I need to wait 15 seconds or so because the app has been swapped out to disk (in spite of having 2GB of ram). In comparison, when I click a window on the mac the app typically is still in memory and is immediately responsive.


LeviG said:
Personally if its not urgent I would consider waiting for leopard (not necessary but its extra expense if you want it in about a month :))

I would also go for 1GB Apple ram and buy some after market ram (assuming not doing this), I would also consider 4GB as I find the more ram the merrier with photoshop
Click to expand...
 
mcbane999 said:
On the windows box, almost every time I click the mouse on a different window I need to wait 15 seconds or so because the app has been swapped out to disk (in spite of having 2GB of ram). In comparison, when I click a window on the mac the app typically is still in memory and is immediately responsive.
Click to expand...

Then I have to say your windows computer is either very old spec wise or is poorly set up or both. Even with only 2GB of ram windows shouldn't be paging that often, mind you I have tweaked my windows setup slightly :D

I still stand by more ram the better for photoshop as larger file sizes like the room to play on both formats.
 
Wow. This is a pretty rough thread, and seriously hijacked.

I just upgraded to a maxed-out 24" iMac from an oldie goldie G4, and simultaneously upgraded to the CS3 Design Premium package. Wowzers, man, the screen is SO tasty!! I understand the logic of waiting to upgrade RAM, but I decided to go ahead and get everything on this machine maxed out, including the Terabyte Hard Drive, and a full 4 GB of matched RAM. See, the Intel processors benefit from equal amounts of identical RAM in both slots. So, either go for 2GB (1GB in each slot) or the full 4GB (2GB in each slot). If you go for 4GB, you won't ever need to upgrade the RAM.

Therefore, my advise would be to wait and save until you can drop the cash for a 24" iMac with at least a 750GB Hard Drive, and 4GB of RAM (two 2GB sticks) from the same manufacturer. And one of the Adobe CS3 packages.
 
Hi ihermes,

i bought a 24" imac (white) refurb, jacked up the ram to 3 GBs (the max for this model) and it handles things quite well. I'm using aperture for my photos and it does fantastic. doesn't chug at all. i'm just loving it.

What i love about the imac, aside from the massive screen, is the fact that it's all-in-one. just awesome. the deskspace for laying out materials and notes for reviews etc... is fantastic.

wait for leopard and the clickety click click click that buy button :)

Cheers,
keebler
 
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