Whats the apple Imac 2012 like.

[escallonia]

I have been using Windows for many years now, The Imac takes my Fancy looking at the spec and reviews are very good has any one got one the 2012 is the one I have been looking at. regards John.

[Ian]

Re: Whats the apple Imac 2012 like.

I have been researching computing for photography technology for a forthcoming series about upgrading your PC. If you are intending to use Photoshop CS6 and/or Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, some significant benefits can be gained by speccing the right graphics hardware because Adobe is steadily widening support for GPU acceleration, for example in its Mercury Engine. This primarily refers to selected nVidia GPUs that feature multiple CUDA stream processors. There are lots of compatible cards available, although I don't believe any current iMacs support compatible GPUs.

Memory is also a performance factor - try to get 16GB. I'm an SSD convert too.

A computer and its specification is a very personal choice and it is not for me to say you should not buy a Mac, but I still think you would have a larger choice of more powerful solutions for less money if you stuck with Windows. Windows 7 is an excellent OS and supports touch screens if that interests you, and Windows 8 is coming.

Ian

[escallonia]

Re: Whats the apple Imac 2012 like.

Hi Ian
One of the reasons I like Imac is all one unit I know that the memory is 4gb thats what I have now with vister. I don't have cs5 or cs6 will it operate with LR 4 my computer is a mesh and it's been very good unfortunately mesh as you probably know went into liquidation. what do you recommend Ian, thanks for your reply regards John.

[Ian]

[escallonia]

Re: Whats the apple Imac 2012 like.

my computer Ian.
Purchased September 2008 Mesh AMD phenom (th)
9550 Quad-core processor 2.21 GHZ
Memory (ram) 4.00 GB
system type 32bit operating system.
Graphics card nvidia Geforce 8400GS ram 256MB
Hard disk size: 500GB.

I have not had any problems "Well not serious" ones.
The Acer is certainly cheaper and the specs look very good, you have now put me in a difficult position, you have given me something to decide on thanks for your good advice Ian regards John.

[Ian]

Re: Whats the apple Imac 2012 like.

Your Mesh is still a very good spec. It's more powerful than my desktop PC, which has been fine up to now. But Photoshop CS6, Premiere Pro CS5 and Lightroom 4 have begun to make my setup creak at the seams (4GB RAM, dual core AMD Athlon 5600+, ATI Radeon X1550 256MB). My plan is to do a series of upgrades and document the improvement in performance:

1. SSD upgrade (which should boost the OS and application execution speed)
2. Graphics card upgrade (to an nVidia card that Adobe's Mercury Engine can accelerate)
3. Memory upgrade (4GB -> 16GB)
4. Processor upgrade (Not sure how effective this will be as I don't think my motherboard is compatible with the latest AMD FX CPUs that my software can exploit particularly effectively - but will be looking at a quad core CPU, probably 3 or 3.2GHz.

The Acer's Core i5-2400 CPU is about 2.5x more powerful than your current Phenom, so you will surely feel that improvement. Most new Windows 7 installations are 64-bit, so you get full use of the 4GB RAM and you could fit 8GB, which will help Lightroom. The GT-520 graphics card is also twice as fast as your existing one, although the iMac's Radeon is around 3x faster again.

Also found a cheaper, but if anything, better deal on a different Acer model via Amazon.

This has a 23 inch screen, the same CPU, and a better graphics card (which is compatible with Adobe's GPU support). I don't think the screen is touch-enabled though.

Ian

[escallonia]

[Ian]

Re: Whats the apple Imac 2012 like.

The one on Amazon

[escallonia]

Re: Whats the apple Imac 2012 like.

I will have a browse Ian. I am in no hurry this one is working fine the reason I am changing is at the moment I am taking up space in the dinning room we use it for a bedroom when we have company and just bought a bed lounger my wife has put her desk top in the spare bedroom up stairs, we eat in the conservatory so getting a all in one computer will make so much more room I hope you understand my dribble. John.

[Patrick]

Re: Whats the apple Imac 2012 like.

Ian is not a Mac fan because they are more expensive, but they are beautifully made, and the screens a joy to use. I have used one for over 2 years now, and own a MaBook Pro, iPad and iPhone
At first they take a little getting used to but soon you realise how much better the OS system is over Windows. I still have a Windows 7 Partition which I shall be removing any-time now from the MacBook I have removed it from the iMac. So have the opportunity to directly compare, Mac wins every time. With the new Mountain Lion coming out at about the same time as Windows 8 it should be interesting as its rumoured Mountain Lion will be free.
What I would say to you is a new range of iMacs are due, its been over a year since the last upgrade and about a year is the cycle, the upgrades usually come with no price increase, its also worth looking at the re-furbished site bottom left on the home page of Apple Store saving about 15%, still with full warranty, Applecare can still be purchased..

Macs can't be getting it wrong they sold over 5.2 million Macs last trading quarter, and we are not including iPads 15,43 million, iPhones 37.04 million, iPod sales were down 20% at 15.4 million.

As you may gather I am a Mac Fan

Patrick

[Ian]

[Patrick]

Re: Whats the apple Imac 2012 like.

Its not just about price, their screens are better quality than most of the competition and were the competition screens are good quality the price rises closer to a Mac, they are better built than most of the competition, they feel quality. You get the same comparison with cars the spec looks much the same between a cheaper badge to a more expensive one but we accept one is better than the other.
Mac performance is good, the OS system is less bloated and demanding on the computer, more stable and more secure than Windows. I don't subscribe to the commonly held believe they are totally secure, I still run a virus program on mine accepting that one day something will strike, that said there are very very few viruses out there that can attack a Mac at the moment.
The figures say a lot, sales of machines running Windows are falling and sales of Mac are rising constantly. Look into you local Apple Store any day of the week always full of people, and Saturdays its mad in there.
Mac users are growing within the Photo club scene, a couple that I am friendly with are looking to replace their PC, visited a friend of theirs who uses a Mac, saw it in action, fell in love with the iMac, and are now buying one.
I agree its wrong to mock Windows users, much of it is jest in the same way we get between Nikon & Canon users. There are always the people with an extreme attitude though.

Its just the facts, Macs look beautiful, well built, work wonderfully (not perfect as some would say but still better than Windows currently) a good example was when making a 45 min slide show in PicturestoEX in Windows for the club, it crashed three times in the production. I have now found an equivalent program that runs under Mac and it is rock solid.
Talking of software I agree there appears to be more software around for Windows but at the same time all the important programs have Mac versions.
Where they don't PicturetoEX being a good example there is always an equivalent so you needn't think you can't do what you want to do.

Patrick

[escallonia]

Re: Whats the apple Imac 2012 like.

Hello Patrick.
I am not sure which way to go, I am concerned about the hassle that I may have to go through (1) email, can I use the same Email address.(2) Is the download programs I use now difficult to install.(3) Can I use the same Virus protection that I have on my computer.(4) Do I have to purchase any extras. If there is problems that I may have in the change over could you enlighten me. Thanks for your input Patrick very much appreciated. regards John.

[Patrick]

Re: Whats the apple Imac 2012 like.

Hello Patrick.
I am not sure which way to go, I am concerned about the hassle that I may have to go through (1) email, can I use the same Email address.(2) Is the download programs I use now difficult to install.(3) Can I use the same Virus protection that I have on my computer.(4) Do I have to purchase any extras. If there is problems that I may have in the change over could you enlighten me. Thanks for your input Patrick very much appreciated. regards John.

1. Emails no problem so easy its s like a dream just type in your current email address and password in the set up, and the machine does the rest. 2.Not sure what you are talking about download program, my machine downloads everything without separate software but there again so does Windows. 3. It is said you don't need virus software at all, no one I know does and know one I know has suffered an attack. If like me you feel happier with Virus protection this is first rate and free http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products.../download.aspx 4. What extras are you thinking about? the machines are up and running out of the box. Just attach the stand switch on and there you go.
You can select custom extras if you wish, bigger hard drive or even solid state, bigger graphics card 2TB, extra RAM although I would advise against buying from Apple, Crucial do guaranteed memory upgrades for Macs and have an app that you download and it analyses your machine tells you exactly the memory to buy and if you accept it will order it for you. all at a fraction of Apples price, and Apple use Crucial memory along with Samsung. It very easy to fit undo two screws to remove a plate at the bottom of the machine push the memory home replace plate and screws job done.
You will not get USB 3 on current iMacs (that may change with the new to come upgrades) but you do get Fire-wirei also very fast, I have two WD Hard drives with fire-wire. You can daisy chain Fire-wire up to 6 unites without noticeable loss of performance.
The new Machines have the fastest of all Thunderbird also daisy chain-able, hard drives that support Thunderbird are few as yet, and what there is are very expensive but they are all solid state HD which are expensive anyway.

Patrick

[escallonia]

Re: Whats the apple Imac 2012 like.

Thank you Patrick.
There is a lot to think about, I will wait for the new up dates on the Imac that are in the pipe line. I will let you know what I decide on. regards John.