What would be my best value for money?

[Peet_B]

Hi everyone,

I'm a graphic design student, and currently rocking a 6-year old MacBook Pro 15". The MBP is just not cutting it anymore, so I have to buy a new one. But, since I'm a student I don't have a fulltime job and that makes purchasing an iMac a little more difficult. My question is what you would recommend, and are upgrades worth the money.

My "dream iMac" is a 27" with an 8-core i7 and a 5700XT. Though, the 5700XT is an €625,- option over the standard 5500XT. Is that worth it? A third party 5700XT plus eGPU case is about the same as the entire upgrade. (though the iMac's 5700XT comes with 16GB of memory instead of 8)

I want to use this machine for more than 6 years, and it will be part of my career when I finish school in about 2 years. So is it worth the investment? Or should I go with the 5500XT instead?

Can you guys give me some advice?

p.s. yes, I do want to do some gaming via Bootcamp, so that also makes my decision even harder...

 

[pldelisle]

A third party 5700XT plus eGPU case is about the same as the entire upgrade.

Don't do that. Just painful, have problems, limited support... not a good idea. It's the last resort solution, trust me.

I have the same laptop as yours (Late-2013, but essentially the same). And I understand your pain. The battery of mine is literally exploding inside of it.

Depending on games, I'd say the minimum viable is the 5700 non-XT. The XT brings faster performance especially in high resolution games or video editing as far as I have seen. For 2D photo and graphics, I don't think you'd benefit from having 16 GB of VRAM, unless you work with very high resolution RAW photos and arts.

I'd rather invest on the internal SSD.

Definitively the 10-core CPU isn't a necessity for you.

That's my opinion.

 

[Fishrrman]

I'd skip the "XT"... too much €€€, not enough value.
But that's just me.

 

[Peet_B]

Definitively the 10-core CPU isn't a necessity for you.

I would have been happy with the i5 to be honest. A shame Apple only has the 5300, and no other options...

As for the VRAM, I’m doing a lot of 3D work, so those extra gigabytes are welcome, plus it’s more future proof.

 

[pldelisle]

I would have been happy with the i5 to be honest. A shame Apple only has the 5300, and no other options...

The 8 core will have some benefits too, no worry, it<s a good investment.

As for the VRAM, I’m doing a lot of 3D work, so those extra gigabytes are welcome, plus it’s more future proof.

With 3D then yes, I'd go with 5700 XT.

 

[pmiles]

You plan on working as an independent contractor? Employers provide their own equipment/software to use. Don't buy a computer for work until you've actually gained stable employment in the field. Graphic design can be brutal to find stable work in... stable as in longer than a 2 year contract job.

Ask yourself this one simple question... had Apple not released a new 2020 iMac recently...would you still be looking to buy a new computer? As in, buying a build that hasn't changed for a few years because your machine really is that old and needs replacing that even an old build is still newer than what you already got. Like refurbished is a tempting tasty buy to you because you're that desperate.

The reason I say this is because Macs are going through a transition... you are going through a transition... in 2 years your life and the Mac platform are going to be entirely different than what they are now.

Computers are not an investment. Unless you have some fancy job paying x number of dollars all lined up, you aren't investing in your work. In 2 years maybe that will be true... but you have no idea what you will actually be doing in 2 years.

Put yourself into a bubble and look at your situation right now this very minute. If you can't spend one more minute using your current setup, forget about what is out there, look at what you have and ask yourself does it suffice? If the answer is no, then consider a new purchase or refurbished purchase. Students are often too quick to spend borrowed money on things they can't afford because someone is offering them a loan without collateral. Not saying this is you, but it is a prevalent issue that haunts many a student as they leave school and find all those loans coming due upon graduation.

You're thinking about your future, which is great, but you have to also think about the possibility that you may never find stable employment doing what you just spent years getting a degree for. A reality that awaits many a student upon graduation. Think about that rainy day just as much as that rainbow... because life isn't a rainbow without some rain.

 

[pldelisle]

Very well said.

 

[Freida]

Really eloquently said. I agree 100%

You plan on working as an independent contractor? Employers provide their own equipment/software to use. Don't buy a computer for work until you've actually gained stable employment in the field. Graphic design can be brutal to find stable work in... stable as in longer than a 2 year contract job.

Ask yourself this one simple question... had Apple not released a new 2020 iMac recently...would you still be looking to buy a new computer? As in, buying a build that hasn't changed for a few years because your machine really is that old and needs replacing that even an old build is still newer than what you already got. Like refurbished is a tempting tasty buy to you because you're that desperate.

The reason I say this is because Macs are going through a transition... you are going through a transition... in 2 years your life and the Mac platform are going to be entirely different than what they are now.

Computers are not an investment. Unless you have some fancy job paying x number of dollars all lined up, you aren't investing in your work. In 2 years maybe that will be true... but you have no idea what you will actually be doing in 2 years.

Put yourself into a bubble and look at your situation right now this very minute. If you can't spend one more minute using your current setup, forget about what is out there, look at what you have and ask yourself does it suffice? If the answer is no, then consider a new purchase or refurbished purchase. Students are often too quick to spend borrowed money on things they can't afford because someone is offering them a loan without collateral. Not saying this is you, but it is a prevalent issue that haunts many a student as they leave school and find all those loans coming due upon graduation.

You're thinking about your future, which is great, but you have to also think about the possibility that you may never find stable employment doing what you just spent years getting a degree for. A reality that awaits many a student upon graduation. Think about that rainy day just as much as that rainbow... because life isn't a rainbow without some rain.

 

[Peet_B]

Ask yourself this one simple question... had Apple not released a new 2020 iMac recently...would you still be looking to buy a new computer? As in, buying a build that hasn't changed for a few years because your machine really is that old and needs replacing that even an old build is still newer than what you already got. Like refurbished is a tempting tasty buy to you because you're that desperate.

Yes, the question is not if I should buy a new Mac, but which one. My MacBook has developed several issues in the last couple of months, like the CPU getting stuck at 0.8GHz, which makes it even impossible to save the files I was working on.

As for the investment, here in the Netherlands lots of employers don’t give you hardware, only software. Sometimes you get a one-time extra for bringing your own devices. And if you get hardware, it's usually a 13" base model MacBook Pro that's about 2-3 years old.

 

[pldelisle]

Okay. Well you seem 100% confident with your buying then. This is only what we wanted to male sure