New iMac Questions

[ggibson913]

Hey guys, thinking about replacing my Retina 2012 Macbook Pro with an iMac. I have a couple of questions. The minimum configuration I would get would be the 2 TB Fusion drive one. At heaviest, I do Photo editing and light (we are talking iMovie) video editing.

Would last years 5K iMac be good enough (I have no problem buying through the refurb store. I am not that artsy that I would notice the difference in color gamut).

Also, I have been thinking, the 512 GB configuration would be outside my budget but I am thinking about the 256 GB SSD, I already keep photos on external storage, so I thought that the 256 GB SSD and like a 2 TB USB3.0 Hard drive would be a better way to go. Though it would be convenient to store everything in one place.

Lastly, I work from home one day per week. I have a set up with a rain stand and an external monitor. Currently I have to just switch out laptops, to my work PC. Would I be better off with the 4k 21.5 or just switch things around one day per week? I do love that 27" screen.

 

[MadDane]

To answer one thing at a time. Yes, last years model will be perfectly fine for what you are describing. Whether a 2TB Fusion Drive or pure SSD is the best choice it really comes down to the individual. Personally I would not want the 2TB Fusion Drive because of speed and reliability issues. The new SSD drives are very fast compared to a HDD. They are also less likely to fail as quickly as a HDD. However with the Fusion Drive you can always unfuse if that ever happens and still use the internal 128GB SSD. Anyway, I understand the reasons for getting a Fusion Drive (I have even made my own in my late 2009), but in this day and age I would not want a mechanical HDD in my sealed iMac.

You mention that you need to work on your Windows PC. Have you considered using Remote Desktop for that? Then you can just use the iMac and access the work PC from there.

 

[bent christian]

Hey guys, thinking about replacing my Retina 2012 Macbook Pro with an iMac. I have a couple of questions. The minimum configuration I would get would be the 2 TB Fusion drive one. At heaviest, I do Photo editing and light (we are talking iMovie) video editing.

Would last years 5K iMac be good enough (I have no problem buying through the refurb store. I am not that artsy that I would notice the difference in color gamut).

A quad core processor and a Fusion drive is all you need. You can spend more for an SSD, but it is likely that you would notice very little to no difference in performance between the two for these uses.

 

[ggibson913]

Thanks I was doing some research and noticed that last year's 5K iMac hit the refurb store in January. May wait until then.