Tough decision: well specced 21.5" or barebones 27"

[rjalex]

I have and love my old trusted Late 2009 27" iMac. It was fully specced when I bought it from a friend in 2010 and served me very well until as of today. Screen is great, the upgraded 2TB HDD decent, the 16GB RAM seemingly enough for what I do.

Mostly used for web, python programming and some fairly heavy Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop work and quite good for all of this (yes photography and a calibrated monitor are important to me).

The reasons I'm considering an upgrade to a recent machine is that the Late 2009 is stuck with Sierra and cannot run Docker containers as my Mac Pro (Catalina) can do so have some diverging software levels between my home and laptop which I'd like to avoid.

Ran a simulation of buying the new machine and the 21.5" with 4K screen with the following specs

• 3.2GHz 6-core 8th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.6GHz
• 16GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory
• Radeon Pro 560X with 4GB of GDDR5 memory
• 512GB SSD storage
• Magic Trackpad 2
• Magic Keyboard

for a total of 2.653 Euros in my country. This is about the maximum I can invest in this machine.

The opinion I'm seeking is how much I'll feel constrained after so many years of a 27" screen (but also the fact that I work on a Macbook pro with 15" without a lot of problems).

The new iMac 27" with a comparable cost would be specced as:

3.7GHz 6-Core Processor with Turbo Boost up to 4.6GHz
2TB Storage
Retina 5K Display

• 3.7GHz 6-core 9th-generation Intel Core i5 processor
• Turbo Boost up to 4.6GHz
• 8GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory, configurable up to 64GB
• 2TB Fusion Drive¹
• Radeon Pro 580X with 8GB of GDDR5 memory
• Two Thunderbolt 3 ports
• Retina 5K 5120x2880 P3 display

With only 8GB RAM which I believe might often be a constraint and the less performing new Fusion drive, but the gorgeous video.

So thanks for bearing with the long post and please advise.

Thank you very much.

 

[madeirabhoy]

got to be the 27". the ram you can fix yourself cheaply afterwards, I don't notice having a fusion drive but again down the line you can fix that whereas you cant increase the screen size or the graphics card later on.

 

[Fishrrman]

Get the 27".
You will NEVER regret getting the larger display!

 

[redheeler]

Another vote for the 27". The 8 GB RAM is a non-issue as it's easily upgradable to 16 or 32 GB later on, and unlike with the 21.5" you won't have to pay Apple's markup for it. The Fusion drive is giving me pause, as it's older tech which is slower than an all-SSD drive and is being phased out by Apple. Get the 512 GB SSD if you can afford it. But if not, this too can be fixed via an external SSD at some point in the future.

 

[Zen_Arcade]

27” and upgrade RAM later.

 

[rjalex]

Thank you so much guys! Just a last word of advice from you sensible and intelligent people.
What about the i7 vs i5 esacores between the two configs? What would be the impact on my workloads in your opinion?

And as a related question, the hefty markup of 480 euros for the i8 octocore at 3.6 would bring measurable impacts such as machine longevity in the years to come? (I'm asking this since after all my Late 2009 served me quite well for 10 years )

May the force be with you all.