roguewave Posted August 30, 2011 Share #1 Posted August 30, 2011 Advertisement (gone after registration) I'm thinking of putting together an Apple setup (not using any notebooks) to work on my images. I'd like any suggestions regarding the hardware IMac, tower, drives, memory... thanks. Ben Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted August 30, 2011 Posted August 30, 2011 Hi roguewave, Take a look here Best Apple hardware for processing images. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
msk2193 Posted August 30, 2011 Share #2 Posted August 30, 2011 The iMacs of late are amazing machines. I would recommend saving some space on oyur desk and getting a 27" iMac then buy some RAM to fill it up to 16GB. You will breeze through your editing work. Do get a couple of external back-up drives and use some software to make sure you always have a copy saved on each of thedrives! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted August 30, 2011 Share #3 Posted August 30, 2011 Ben, I am very happy with a MacPro Quad 3.2 GHz, 12Gb memory and a 2x 1Gb and 2x 2 Gb Raid disk array, coupled with two Eizo GC 19" screens. If I have found any limitation, it is the monitor size, but there is an expense limitation and I decided to go for quality over sheer size. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dickgrafixstop Posted August 30, 2011 Share #4 Posted August 30, 2011 Any apple will do - just fill out your budget. Memory is more important than the processor, you'll never have enough disk space, and concentrate on the software. Photoshop/Lightroom is a hard combination to beat to do what you want. Add a quality printer and you're in business - but like with lenses, you'll always want another something. Good luck. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OwinThomas Posted August 30, 2011 Share #5 Posted August 30, 2011 Agree with the previous posters, any of the Apple products will be adequate. Personally a 5 year old 24" iMac is handling my needs currently. If i was to choose now it would be a 15" or 17" i7 MacBook Pro plus a 30" Thunderbolt Cinema Display, when they're in stock. Whatever you get give it a bit of RAM, minimum 4GB. One caveat, don't buy the extra memory from Apple, they rip you off on it. Buy from somewhere like Crucial at a third of the cost and just as good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adan Posted August 31, 2011 Share #6 Posted August 31, 2011 I have an iMac 27" - it does OK, but the next time I get a desk computer I'll save up for a Mac Pro tower. The reason is that basically the iMac architecture is just a "vertical laptop" with a big screen, jam-packed like a sardine tin, which means: > very hot operation - there are times I can't touch the aluminum outside casing in spots (iMac 27"). Internal temps hit 170°F sometimes. Heat is not good for silicon and other computing hardware - in the old days my little old Mac Plus ran hot (and I burned out a power supply), but I then got a "Fanny Mac" fan that replaced the hot air with fresh about once a minute. > slot-load DVD/CD drives - I've had three of these (two iMacs, one Macbook Pro) and every one became inoperable within 9 months, and the most recent one scratches disks to the point of unreadability. I've bought a USB tray-load external DVD drive rather than have the internal drive repaired, because it is a fundamentally weak design for intensive use. The compact iMacs and Mac Minis are probably fine if you use them 2-3 hours per day. I'm running 15 hours a day some days, full tilt (lots of continuous CPU and graphics card use) with hefty programs like PS, InDesign, and Final Cut. Note that the iMac processor itself (only a single dual-core Intel 3.06 Ghz) has handled the load fine - it is the surrounding environment that is the weak link. So for me, next time, a big tower case with lots of breathing room for the motherboard and drives, tray-load DVD rom, and space for multiple 2-terabyte drives internally (as well as external drives). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
roguewave Posted August 31, 2011 Author Share #7 Posted August 31, 2011 Advertisement (gone after registration) Thanks all for your input. Andy, I couldn't agree more. As I phase out of Windows XP, which has probably been the most stable workhorse operating system I have ever used, particularly for database design & research, I think I need the big fans & cooling of a tower. I took out my 2 year old Mini Mac, that I use to control large secondary storage drives (over 2TB), I was amazed how much faster LR & PS run even on that little brick. I do watch closely how long I leave it on, as it doesn't manage the heat very well. I'd love to see some input on various configurations for the Pro Tower. Being cost conscious, I want to manage multiple images on my 30" screen & get fast IO. Pros & Cons of memory vs speed would be helpful. My Drobo has been a godsend with 5 x 2TB drives & I only use it for backups & storage.I'm ready to buy a second Drobo when the 3TB drives get cheaper & more reliable. I've been making multiple back ups on WD 2TB drives as well, which go to various depositories. Thanks all for the help & please keep me in mind if you have ideas. Ben Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
k-hawinkler Posted August 31, 2011 Share #8 Posted August 31, 2011 Ben, I'll wait until the Mac Pro towers have a Thunderbolt port. The newest MacBook Pro and iMac already have that port. This late in the game I won't get a new Mac without Thunderbolt. I always get lots of memory and an SSD to run the system and work tasks on. I never load up the tower with hard rives. Saves a lot of energy. Lately I have been using external SATA RAIDS. I only switch them on when needed Now it's time for me to transition to Thunderbolt as soon as it's available in a tower. BTW, the new Mac mini already has Thunderbolt. The Mac mini with Lion Server could tie me over until the towers with Thunderbolt show up. Currently I have a 30" Cinema Display attached to my MacBook Pro. Also, as I have a 2 year old 17" MacBook Pro I have up to 10 of 2 or 3 TB hard drives attached via 2 SATA PortMultiplier RAIDs and the SeriTek/2SM2-E card. Good luck with your decision. Best, K-H. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
UliWer Posted August 31, 2011 Share #9 Posted August 31, 2011 Though Thunderbolt seems to be "dernier cri" with Apple, there is almost no hardware you can use it for; you need adapters vor DVI or Diplayports and then loose the advantage of Thunderbolt. It is not guaranteed that other producers will follow Apple with the Thunderbolt-technology; many didn't with Firewire. I am a little bit sceptical about using Apple displays for working on photos and think Eizo or Nec would be the better solution, but others may differ. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted August 31, 2011 Share #10 Posted August 31, 2011 Firewire was more or less stillborn because USB 2.0 came along, with backward compatability for 1.0. I have a strong suspicion something similar may happen to Thunderbolt. Long live the Betamax!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
businessasusual Posted August 31, 2011 Share #11 Posted August 31, 2011 Just bought MacBook Pro 17" and Thunderbolt 27" Display combination - the display is magnificent. Just love how I can plug Laptop into display without need for the power supply that comes with Laptop - which makes mobility sweet. I keep business and photography seperate which aslo works well - ie. business taken care of on MBP 15' and Mac Mini Desktop - and all creativity on my new addition. (with WD backups on all - using SuperDuper). This means 17"MBP flies because it does not have all my business programs on it. (and when I travel - it will be "creativity" I take with me - leaving behind business Macs.) Will be replacing Mac Mini with iMac 27" soon. (Business has VMWare for Windows on it - sends a shiver down my spine every time I hear Windows Startup chime......brrhhhh). Another point - I have had Mac Mini and MBP 15' powered on 24/7 for 6 years and they are still going strong. Someone once told me cold boots wear equipment down so I have just kept mine on - any views on this practice? PS! Have Lightroom 3, Photoshop Elements 8, Corel Draw 4 and Aperture 3 all installed. (together with other great plugins) (Wacoms Bamboo Pen) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
k-hawinkler Posted August 31, 2011 Share #12 Posted August 31, 2011 Isn't Thunderbolt an Intel developed technology? http://www.intel.com/technology/io/thunderbolt/index.htm K-H. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
delander † Posted August 31, 2011 Share #13 Posted August 31, 2011 I run a 2010 27 inch i-mac quad core i5 with 8 gb memory. It does absolutely fine, it does not get hot like Andy's although it is basically on 24/7. I use LR, PS, ID, Capture one MS Office plus other stuff. I came from Windows having got fed up with the tower and the wires. I love the screen. Jeff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
k-hawinkler Posted August 31, 2011 Share #14 Posted August 31, 2011 Just bought MacBook Pro 17" and Thunderbolt 27" Display combination - the display is magnificent. Just love how I can plug Laptop into display without need for the power supply that comes with Laptop - which makes mobility sweet. I keep business and photography seperate which aslo works well - ie. business taken care of on MBP 15' and Mac Mini Desktop - and all creativity on my new addition. (with WD backups on all - using SuperDuper). This means 17"MBP flies because it does not have all my business programs on it. (and when I travel - it will be "creativity" I take with me - leaving behind business Macs.) Will be replacing Mac Mini with iMac 27" soon. (Business has VMWare for Windows on it - sends a shiver down my spine every time I hear Windows Startup chime......brrhhhh). Another point - I have had Mac Mini and MBP 15' powered on 24/7 for 6 years and they are still going strong. Someone once told me cold boots wear equipment down so I have just kept mine on - any views on this practice? PS! Have Lightroom 3, Photoshop Elements 8, Corel Draw 4 and Aperture 3 all installed. (together with other great plugins) (Wacoms Bamboo Pen) Hi Karina, Congratulations on your new fabulous Mac setup. I wish you good luck with it and many years of dependable service. In my experience it's always better to get into a new technology at the ground floor rather than depending on exceedingly obsolete technologies nobody will be around to fix anymore when they break. I guess in this sense computer related technologies are vastly different from some but not all mechanical film cameras. Thunderbolt, a brand new technology developed by Intel and first for sale in Apple products, namely MacBook, Mac mini, and iMac, is still in its infancy and has great promise, e.g. , although Apple Thunderbolt Display and Pegasus RAID Storage with Thunderbolt™ are already available. Internally, the Pegasus RAID is using SATA hard drives, plain and simple. I have a 2009 17" MacBook Pro with an ExpressCard/34 slot and a 2003 dual G5 PPC with 4 SATA RAIDs and a 30" Apple Cinema Display. I need to replace the dual G5 but would like to continue to use my SATA RAIDs and the 30" Display as there is nothing wrong with them. So, what to do? If a Mac Pro with Thunderbolt were available right now I would get that. However, Thunderbolt has the promise that one is able to buy processing power independent of storage requirements. In the past, one had to get an external SATA compatible Mac if one wanted to add larger amounts of SATA RAIDs or depend on network attached devices with typically lower performance. Not my preference. So, PCI-X, PCI-Express, or ExpressCard/34 slots were needed. That used to rule out iMacs, Mac minis, and even some MacBooks. Thunderbolt changes this situation completely. Now any Thunderbolt equipped Mac can have direct access to a larger number of SATA hard drives either in a Thunderbolt enclosure or through adapters for SATA PortMultiplier RAID enclosures - provided the pretty likely initial bugs are getting worked out in a timely fashion. So, if I got the Mac mini with Lion Server and 2.0 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 with 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB and 750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm + 256GB Solid State Drive that certainly would deliver quite a bit of processing power. In the box is also an HDMI to DVI Adapter, so I assume that would work with my 30" Cinema Display. I prefer non-glossy over glossy anyway. So, all I would need in addition to the Mac mini is an Thunderbolt to external SATA adapter. Sonnet has just announced such a functionality for initial delivery this October. One needs Echo ExpressCard/34 Thunderbolt Adapter [ECHO-E34] and the Tempo SATA Pro ExpressCard/34 [TSATAII-PRO-E34]. They also list a number of other compatible ExpressCard/34 Adapters Sonnet - Echo ExpressCard/34 Thunderbolt Adapter that can be used with the Echo ExpressCard/34 Thunderbolt Adapter. This would buy me some time. It also would allow to replace failing components over time with newer, larger and higher performance SATA hard drives, eventually Thunderbolt enclosures and a Thunderbolt Display. If anybody has come across competing products that would allow for a similar smooth transition I would appreciate feedback. Best, K-H. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adli Posted September 3, 2011 Share #15 Posted September 3, 2011 I would buy a Mac Pro tower and several disks configured in Raid striping for speed. If you buy enough disks, you can also add error correction. Make sure you have a separate boot disk so the raid disks covers only your working files and not the OS. Hm, sounds like my set up Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim sink Posted September 5, 2011 Share #16 Posted September 5, 2011 I needed an "Intel processor". Called Apple directly and explained that I am working everyday with large "DNG/RAW" files and they suggested a new "IMAC" maxed out with memory. I have a "Quad Tower" with Raptor drives but it doesn't have an Intel processor and could not run the new "Lightroom" which came with my M9. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
k-hawinkler Posted September 5, 2011 Share #17 Posted September 5, 2011 I needed an "Intel processor". Called Apple directly and explained that I am working everyday with large "DNG/RAW" files and they suggested a new "IMAC" maxed out with memory.I have a "Quad Tower" with Raptor drives but it doesn't have an Intel processor and could not run the new "Lightroom" which came with my M9. Your "Quad Tower" with Raptor drives will make a great file server. K-H. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
spylaw4 Posted September 6, 2011 Share #18 Posted September 6, 2011 The iMac 27" is fine, but I can imagine Andy's usage stressing it a bit! My main complaint with the iMac is the lack of a matt screen - the glossy just reflects too much. When replacement time comes I may as well go for a 15/17" Macbook Pro with a matt screen and a larger display also with matt screen - but which one - any recommendations? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vdb Posted September 6, 2011 Share #19 Posted September 6, 2011 Ben, I have the IMac 27" intel core 2 duo with plenty of external drives for storage, 8gig RAM and use LR3/CS4/Wacum tablet...zero issues. Wish I could have a matt screen though.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
roguewave Posted September 7, 2011 Author Share #20 Posted September 7, 2011 Thanks for all the great advice. Virgil, my wife has the same machine. She got one of the early 27" 4 years ago & last year months ago it caught fire, cracking the glass & throwing sparks. Needless to say, Apple bent over backwards & gave her a brand new fully tricked out 27" last year with 16GB of memory & all the accessories. She loves it. I have used it from time to time, but I just LOVE my 30" Samsung SynchMaster Plus. Perfect balance & it doesn't have ANY glare. The glare can be a killer on my eyes. I went the unconventional route for now. A brand new Mac Mini with 2.3 GHz Quad core i5 & 8 GB memory. I still can't believe how lighting fast this little brick is. I don't load up on layers so it's almost too fast. Read-write is lightening fast with the SSD. Got my Drobo all reconfigured with 5.7 TB of storage in a great RAID. Now I need to get he rain to stop & get my but out shooting. Looking to the future a Pro Tower is my goal, but the super low cost of entry with this Mini blows me away and provides a great training experience with the new world of Intel Macs. Again, thanks everyone for all of your sage advice. It's one of the real benefits of this great community. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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