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What would you rather have?
- Thread starter jharvey71884
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Said the person who has clearly never used an iMac.
The 27 inch is great, the 21 inch is stalled by the bad 5400rpm spinning drive. Guess you use a 27 inch?
If you come from a SSD based RMP, the 21 inch imac will feel sluggish.
The newer RMB you suggest is almost twice as fast:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...inch-aluminum-mid-2011-thunderbolt-specs.html
http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...iris-only-late-2013-retina-display-specs.html
http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...i5-2.4-13-late-2013-retina-display-specs.html
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OP says he has a 2011 21-inch iMac, which still has the 3.5-inch hard drive.
And, that iMac would be a good one to upgrade - last (and only, AFAIK) 21-inch that can be upgraded to 32 GB, and, with the older "fat" case, replacing the hard drive with an SSD is relatively simple.
Thanks guys, think I will keep my set up and just upgrade the ram on the iMac to 24GB or 32GB. Computer finally came in today. Been going back and forth, but I think I'm making right move.
13' rmbp and iMac or 15' rmbp
So here is the scenario. At home, I have a 2011 21.5' iMac with a i5 Quad Core 2.5 and 12 GB of ram. It still has a 5400 HDD, so things seem to be getting laggy.
Tonight I got delivered a 13' Macbook Pro Retina 2013, i5 dual-core 2.4 with 8 GB of ram and a 128 SDD.
I'm thinking of returning the Macbook Pro 13 and selling my iMac for $750 to Simply Mac and getting a 15' 2.0 Quad Core i7 with 8 GB of ram and a 256 SSD.
I would then purchase a nice external monitor for it.
Am I crazy for thinking this? Just starting to get into photography and web designing more, but am LOVING IT. I know they aren't that great and I have a lot more to upload but:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/121343033@N04/
What would you do? Keep the iMac and 13inch or get the 15?
[Mod Note: This post seems similar to the thread-starter but remains due to a thread merge.]
So here is the scenario. At home, I have a 2011 21.5' iMac with a i5 Quad Core 2.5 and 12 GB of ram. It still has a 5400 HDD, so things seem to be getting laggy.
Tonight I got delivered a 13' Macbook Pro Retina 2013, i5 dual-core 2.4 with 8 GB of ram and a 128 SDD.
I'm thinking of returning the Macbook Pro 13 and selling my iMac for $750 to Simply Mac and getting a 15' 2.0 Quad Core i7 with 8 GB of ram and a 256 SSD.
I would then purchase a nice external monitor for it.
Am I crazy for thinking this? Just starting to get into photography and web designing more, but am LOVING IT. I know they aren't that great and I have a lot more to upload but:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/121343033@N04/
What would you do? Keep the iMac and 13inch or get the 15?
[Mod Note: This post seems similar to the thread-starter but remains due to a thread merge.]
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I'd personally go with the 15". I find working with two computers to be a pain in the ass. Your iMac will probably still be your workhorse because of the screen and you'll only use the 13" when your not at your desk. But getting work done on the 13" will be a pain because you won't have everything you need to work on it (oh snap I need to that other file, oh shoot I can't do this because this thing isn't the same version...). Or the other way around, you'll plug your 13" into the iMac and the iMac will just become a screen. - It's possible to make it work but it'll probably be more trouble than it's worth.
Other than if you're doing crazy amounts of editing all three machines should be able to get it done without breaking a sweat.
I have a 15" rMBP but I need the horsepower for non-photo related work (CAD/3D rendering and some video editing). I also spend a lot of time away from my desk and beloved second monitor, so I prefer the larger screen. Depending on your processing needs, I'd consider keeping only the 13" and getting a screen for it as it's similar to your iMac in raw processing power.
Other than if you're doing crazy amounts of editing all three machines should be able to get it done without breaking a sweat.
I have a 15" rMBP but I need the horsepower for non-photo related work (CAD/3D rendering and some video editing). I also spend a lot of time away from my desk and beloved second monitor, so I prefer the larger screen. Depending on your processing needs, I'd consider keeping only the 13" and getting a screen for it as it's similar to your iMac in raw processing power.
The 15" is a large size to be hauling around. 13" MBP Retina is much more portable. Then you connect it to the 27" monitor at home using the Thunderbolt cable.
Even the 521BM SSD is small, so you would need a larger external drive AND doe more external drives for backup.
Thunderbolt makes this easy as there is just ONE cable to connect to both the disk and monitor (OK one more for power if you need to charge the MBP)
For still images you don't need a lot of CPU. RAM and a fast disk helps more.
Looks pretty difficult to do on the 21.5. Was told I have to get fans adjusted and everything with programs. Definitely don't have the confidence to do myself.
I couldn't imagine editing on a 13". Get a decent external (NEC or Eizo are best, or Dell ultra series are a bit cheaper)and the latest Mac mini (top spec) or MacBook Pro 15". Buy some external drives for storage and just use the internal for your latest stuff you are working on.
If you need just a bit of portability, you could go the iPad route with the camera connection kit. I don't use a laptop at all. Just an iMac (connected to NEC Spectraview 241 for photo editing), and an iPad for showing photo's when out and about.
Also your pictures are not that bad. I would put most into the category of family snap, but your off to a decent start. Having some willing models will help. I can't get my 12 year old anywhere near my camera!
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Whatever anyone tells you, it is difficult. Don't even go there!
If you need just a bit of portability, you could go the iPad route with the camera connection kit. I don't use a laptop at all. Just an iMac (connected to NEC Spectraview 241 for photo editing), and an iPad for showing photo's when out and about.
Also your pictures are not that bad. I would put most into the category of family snap, but your off to a decent start. Having some willing models will help. I can't get my 12 year old anywhere near my camera!
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Whatever anyone tells you, it is difficult. Don't even go there!
Places will do it for you:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/turnkey/iMac_2011/UpgradeInstall
It's rated moderately difficult on iFixit:
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+21.5-Inch+EMC+2428+Hard+Drive+Replacement/5954
If I were going to do it, I'd probably also replace the DVD with a second SSD:
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing+iMac+Intel+21.5-Inch+EMC+2428+Dual+Hard+Drive+Kit/6434
Then I'd put the DVD drive in an external USB case.
I could see adjusting the fans if you go to a 7200 RPM drive, but the SSDs shouldn't be as hot as the current drive.
Paul
After looking at ifixit's guide I decided not to install a SSD in my wife's iMac myself. Got the local Apple authorized repair shop to do it for $110. I cloned the drive before the install so I didn't have to pay to have that done. Wife is happy so price was worth it.
No - I bought the drive on-line, cloned it at home, then took the iMac and drive to the shop. Got it back later that day. In some ways it was a downgrade since she went from a 1TB drive to a 512GB but she only uses about 200+GB of the drive. Speed more than made up for the loss of space.