Buying advice: Mac desktop for professional illustrator

[jwillustration]

Hi there,

I wondered if anyone had any advice on which iMac would suit my needs best? My current 27-inch, Mid 2010 is really showing it's age now and could really do with being replaced. Essentially I need something that will cope with large Photoshop files all day long and occasionally Illustrator/InDesign. Preferably something that would last good long while without needing an upgrade too.

I'm currently thinking the 27" 3.0GHz 6-Core Retina 5K Display will do the job, but wondered if the extra money to upgrade the processor was worth it. Either way i'd upgrade to SSD and add more memory too.

Having not bought a new machine for decade i'm kind of clueless as to what would be sufficient for my needs!
Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[zhenya]

I think that will do fine. I have the 2019 6-core i5 with 64GB of RAM and though my work centers more on InDesign, Illustrator, and web than Photoshop, it has not yet lagged under my heaviest workflows. Buy the ram separately and save some money.

 

[jwillustration]

Thanks Zhenya! Any recommends on the best place to buy the RAM?

 

[zhenya]

I like to buy direct from crucial.com. It may be slightly more expensive, but it is guaranteed to work, and still a fraction of the price Apple charges.

 

[hobowankenobi]

Be sure to only get SSD internally. Faster CPU will help extend the Mac's useful life, but if the budget is tight, prioritize:

#1 Only SSD internal (no Fusion Drive)
#2 All the CPU you can afford
#3 Fast (preferably SSD) external storage

I would pick a smaller internal SSD (probably 500GB) and put aside some $ for external storage as needed.

I would say for most users 16GB of RAM is adeqate, and 32GB is very good. 64 seems like overkill...if I had to pick, I would put $ towards the thing you can't upgrade (SSD and CPU) before maxing out RAM that you CAN upgrade later if needed. If you bought a 16GB kit, I believe you could use the 8 GB OEM + 16GB = 24GB. Down the road you can replace the 8GB OEM with 16GB or more.