questions about imac

[jetjaguar]

I originally was going to buy a mac pro but i have been seriously
thinking about picking up a 27 i7 imac but i have some questions.

1. Im a film student so i need something that will be capable of whatever
projects I will need to edit, etc in school..will the imac be enough ?

2.Gaming is not really huge .. all i would play in Wow Cataclysm whenever it is released along with the kotor mmo..should it be a problem ?

3. External storage options...what are they ?? is there a fw800 port ? to connect external storage to? like a drobo or something ?

4. Since I7 runs ddr3 .. if i ever got 16gb of ram .. will it not run in triple channel mode ?? or does the imac not have that ??

Because i was thinking of just getting the imac and using it until i finish school and then truly need the power of a mac pro and when i have more money available to buy monitors as well

Also as my editing gets better i would like to take on side jobs .. should the imac not have any issues ?

 

[knewsom]

1. Yes.

2. No.

3. FW800. I bought a DROBO. G-RAIDs are also popular, and I hear-tell, fast.

4. Not sure. I suspect that it would still operate in triple-channel mode, though perhaps not the total amount...?


Finally, I don't think you'll be needing more power than this thing has for a WHILE. I'm an Editor, Colorist, and Producer, and I have yet to use even a fraction of the power of my Hackintosh on a side-project. The frequency of side-projects that require a huge amount of data throughput is so incredibly rare... Just about everything is compressed these days, and with ProRes, even the stuff that's not can be without issue. There's always offline editing too, for stuff like RED.

The i7 iMac is what I'm getting for my home computer, and what I'll be doing MY side project work, and professional work on.

 

[lazybum]

The majority of the answers to your question can be found directly on Apple's Website Here.

As for the non tech specs question, as was stated in the other post, you should be fine for a while... The specs on the iMac are pretty insane for a consumer type computer and I'd be shocked if you see a big need for anything better than the iMac.

Apple really has been closing the gap with their "Home" and "Pro" lines and while the "Home" computers are more than enough for the average user and do the majority of things that most "Pro" users want and need as well.

Long story short, a nicely equipped iMac should do the trick for you...

 

[joudbren]

I think Macworld's new review sums it up pretty nicely... (and this is only for the i5 let alone the i7)

"With the new 2.66GHz Core i5 iMac and the 2.8GHz Core i7 iMac, Apple has not only blurred the line between consumer and professional systems, it's darn near erased it. The 2.66GHz Core i5 iMac offers faster performance at most tasks than the 2.66GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro. The Core i5 iMac also has more memory and more storage space than the 2.66GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro, while being $500 less (plus you get a 27-inch screen with the iMac). Unless you absolutely require additional PCI cards, multiple internal hard drives, or a lot of RAM, the Core i5 iMac makes a strong case for the being the go-to system for most Mac professionals."

http://www.macworld.com/article/143970/2009/11/core15_imac.html

Cheers!

James

 

[jetjaguar]

how is the 2tb drive in the imac .. all i see on the forums is people with the 1gb hdd .. any feedback on it

 

[definitive]

in my opinion the i7 imac is a better deal than the i7 (single cpu) mac pro. you'll still have a lot of room to expand the ram if you decide against the 16gigs that they offer now (the price for a 4gig stick is ridiculous at the moment), and you can get a 2tb hard drive + tons of external storage too. as for the ram question - i think it runs in dual channel. it appears that intel is making 4 slot motherboards for the new i5 and i7 cpu's, so they used the same thing in imacs.