iMac, Macbook Pro or Air

[rogertb]

Hi chaps, a little advice please, I have an old iMac, pretty high-end but I don't work in graphics any more so don't need loads of power or storage. The iMacs video card is failing and it will have to go some time but what to replace it with, portability isn't a big deal as I have an iPad for travel though the fact that I can move it room to room makes a laptop attractive. So I guess I'm looking at some advice about the best option from, maybe, ebay. Macbook Pro, Air or iMac. Screen size isn't a biggie either, I just need to make a few adjustments on photographs with photoshop and I have some external storage drives also I guess they don't all have dvd drives (I have some software that's on DVD).

 

[Expos of 1969]

Hi chaps, a little advice please, I have an old iMac, pretty high-end but I don't work in graphics any more so don't need loads of power or storage. The iMacs video card is failing and it will have to go some time but what to replace it with, portability isn't a big deal as I have an iPad for travel though the fact that I can move it room to room makes a laptop attractive. So I guess I'm looking at some advice about the best option from, maybe, ebay. Macbook Pro, Air or iMac. Screen size isn't a biggie either, I just need to make a few adjustments on photographs with photoshop and I have some external storage drives also I guess they don't all have dvd drives (I have some software that's on DVD).

I have found my Macbook Pro 13" to be great. It is a 2013 model still going strong. I will replace it one day with the same size Macbook Pro or Air if/once the keyboard issues are resolved. Not inexpensive to buy but if the quality gets back to what it once was it is a good multi year investment.

 

[James_C]

I would discount the Mac Book Pro as it probably more than you need. That leaves you with MacBook Air 13" or iMac. The Air now has a retina screen and with the latest updates makes it the default Portable Mac for most users. You can take it to any room you want and compared to the iMac for the same price you could add an External Monitor for photo editing. I always like to edit on a Large Screen (I have the first gen 27" Retina iMac 5K and it is still a fast and capable photo editing computer). If you go for an iMac spend the extra to get a proper SSD, rather than the stock Fusion Drive. The Fusion Drive has two points of failure (small SSD and the spinning hard disk) and does not fully match the performance of a proper SSD. If you want to keep the budget down you could look at a used iMac just make sure it is 5K and has a proper SSD.

 

[rogertb]

I would discount the Mac Book Pro as it probably more than you need. That leaves you with MacBook Air 13" or iMac. The Air now has a retina screen and with the latest updates makes it the default Portable Mac for most users. You can take it to any room you want and compared to the iMac for the same price you could add an External Monitor for photo editing. I always like to edit on a Large Screen (I have the first gen 27" Retina iMac 5K and it is still a fast and capable photo editing computer). If you go for an iMac spend the extra to get a proper SSD, rather than the stock Fusion Drive. The Fusion Drive has two points of failure (small SSD and the spinning hard disk) and does not fully match the performance of a proper SSD. If you want to keep the budget down you could look at a used iMac just make sure it is 5K and has a proper SSD.

[doublepost=1568092279][/doublepost]Thanks Northern Man but I tend to agree with James ... there seem to be lots of iMacs out there at reasonable prices, I'll keep looking.