The Imac dilemma

[John Nantz]

Josh - I'm in the same boat as you. Well, almost. I'm running an '06 Mac Pro, '08 MacBook Pro, and a MacBook White 1.83GHz. The MacBook White is for just web surfing, emails, and some *.txt, word, excel stuff. The other two are for editing video and there are a couple Passport drives for backups. Since I'm not doing anything for money there is no way to depreciate anything as a business expense. And besides, I learned a long time ago that getting hand-me-downs or buying used is an option. My last new computer was a 286-6 turbo'd to -12 with a 13-inch CRT monitor for $2,800 (US).

Ditto camera gear, practically nothing is new - video tripod is the only new thing I can think of.

Originally Posted by Josh Bass

Could I get the latest and greatest fully specced out right this second? Yes. Should I, instead of getting a Mid-2011 that might be nearly as good? That's what I'm trying to decide.

My instinct is to get best processor, Max out RAM, max out graphics card, etc. So what if right now nothing I have takes advantage of all that stuff? That doesn't mean it won't in a year or two.

I'm shamefully unfamiliar with the whole RAID thing, period. I'm still old school. . .main HD for programs/project files (in FCP, etc.), external firewire HD for media, storage, backup. So not sure what advantages are of RAID vs. SSD vs plain ol' spinny spinny drive.

Like you, I'd have no problem buying the newest latest-and-greatest, but given my circumstances, I'm willing to hang tight as I'm still on a learning curve and anything faster or fancier won't help me one iota. I'm still trying to burn my first Blu-ray disk and I'm having mucho problems deciding which way to proceed.

Anyway, with regard to your comments above:
Processor: I'd consider the price/performance curve and other factors. It's been said, and I haven't checked it out, that the video card is a bottle neck, and if so, then this is a good place to put the money.

Memory: It's more or less general opinion that one should get the least amount of memory possible then buy aftermarket memory.

[Josh Bass]

I do some paid editing work and my own short films.


Still unsure of exactly how much faster etc. 2012 fully specced out its compared to last years model.

I think it comes down to that a new Imac with everything would be about $3000, necessitating later the thunderbolt breakout box to accommodate my fw400 and 800 drives/devices, and the pain in the butt of the external DVD drive,

vs

$2000 (I'm guessing, haven't found one yet) fully specced out 2011 which has I think one fw800 port and does have its own disc drive.

Don't know if this fusion thing makes the new Imacs significantly more speedy than last year's.

Sometimes my 08 is just fine, other times I see it chugging when I'm dealing with Apple Motion playback, or rendering, or playback/rendering in a few other programs that apparently tax my current system quite a bit. I guess if the 2012s would make a huge improvement in THOSE areas vs the 2011s, that might be the dealbreaker.

friend pointed me to a site called everymac that allows you to check out specs on literally every Mac model ever, but I don't see on there some sort of speed/power comparison between the two newest Imac lines.

[David W. Jones]

Think I remember initial reports the i7 to be up to 25% faster.

And Thunderbolt is 12 times faster than FireWire 800.

[Josh Bass]

Good to know about the i7.

Re: Thunderbolt: that may be, but fact is I still have all USB, FW400 and FW800 drives (not to mention my Apogee duet audio interface which is FW400). Not going to scrap them 'cause something else is faster. Perhaps the NEXT external drive/device I'd buy would be TB, but the older stuff is staying around 'til it spontaneously combusts.

[David W. Jones]

I have a bunch of other drives as well. Rather than buying a slower computer to match my slower older hard drives, I bought new faster Thunderbolt hard drives for editing to match the speed of a fast new computer, and I will then use my other slower drives for backup.

[Josh Bass]

. . .and this cost of this new investment climbs ever higher.

[David W. Jones]

Seem to remember the cost of my first hard drive was $800 for 40 meg zero footprint drive that fit under my Mac Plus.

I have started looking at computers like I do cameras now. Disposable with a very limited lifespan of no more than 3 years for business. If this was a hobby I would still be using an old machine.

[Josh Bass]

No way! For the money we're talking on these (2011 OR 2012) they need to last a lot longer.

[David W. Jones]

Well with a 2011 you are starting with a computer which is almost 2 years old.

[Josh Bass]

Sigh. . . I guess that's a good point.

BTW, does anyone really need a 3TB main HD? Media storage is supposed to be external, right?

I've been getting by for the most part with 350 GB.

[Josh Bass]

And what is the purpose of the 768GB flash storage option?

[David Knaggs]

Originally Posted by Josh Bass

Re: Thunderbolt: that may be, but fact is I still have all USB, FW400 and FW800 drives (not to mention my Apogee duet audio interface which is FW400). Not going to scrap them 'cause something else is faster. Perhaps the NEXT external drive/device I'd buy would be TB, but the older stuff is staying around 'til it spontaneously combusts.

Hi Josh.

For what it's worth, there's an "Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter" for $29 which can connect to a FW800 drive.
Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter - Apple Store (U.S.)

And this might be able to handle a FW400 drive with an additional "FireWire 800-400 Adapter" for $8.
NewerTech FIR1369AD 9-pin (FW800) to 6-pin (FW400)... in stock at OWC

And, as the iMacs from now on won't have optical drives or burners, you can get a Blu-ray (and DVD) burner for $99 which is powered by the USB port (I ordered one of these yesterday):
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MRSSBDR6X/

As the iMacs (and the connectors at the back) constantly evolve, I find I have to keep a very large drawer filled with connectors and adapters, in case I ever need to use legacy equipment.

[Josh Bass]

It looks like getting one of the new ones is the way to go, unfortunately for my wallet.

There's supposed to be some kind of super thunderbolt breakout box coming?

Guess I can look for a 2012 refurb. . .

[Josh Bass]

Ok. Thought I was resolved to (eventually) getting a spanking new one, but I see now that even the May 2011s have a 3.4 Ghz i7 model. So given that, are the new ones really much faster/better?


Looking at a comparison on Mac Specs, Prices, Answers & Comparison @ EveryMac.com, Est. 1996, I see that the big differences between the maxxed out Mid2011 and new ones (not counting the obvious, missing fw and optical drive) are:

new - i7 3770/mid 2011 - i7 2600
-graphics card - new MGeForce GTX 675MX/ mid 2011- Radeon HD 6970
-max vram - new - 1GB/ mid 2011- 2 GB
RAM type - new pc3 12800 ddr3l/ mid 2011 - pc3 10600 ddr3
min RAM speed - new 1600 mhz/ mid 2011- 1300 mhz

So, hate to keep asking this, but how much do those things matter in the real world?

[Paul Elertson]

Originally Posted by Josh Bass

Ok. Thought I was resolved to (eventually) getting a spanking new one, but I see now that even the May 2011s have a 3.4 Ghz i7 model. So given that, are the new ones really much faster/better?


Looking at a comparison on Mac Specs, Prices, Answers & Comparison @ EveryMac.com, Est. 1996, I see that the big differences between the maxxed out Mid2011 and new ones (not counting the obvious, missing fw and optical drive) are:

new - i7 3770/mid 2011 - i7 2600
-graphics card - new MGeForce GTX 675MX/ mid 2011- Radeon HD 6970
-max vram - new - 1GB/ mid 2011- 2 GB
RAM type - new pc3 12800 ddr3l/ mid 2011 - pc3 10600 ddr3
min RAM speed - new 1600 mhz/ mid 2011- 1300 mhz

really? I'm sorry but you need to read this entire thread more carefully. I ORDERED the mid2011 3.4 GHZ i7 and stated that many pages back. I also linked to an ebay auction with a mid 2011 with a 3.4ghz i7. I also stated the comparison stuff between the 2012/2011 models pages back.

Originally Posted by Josh Bass

So, hate to keep asking this, but how much do those things matter in the real world?

My vote is no, hence the reason I went the 2011 model. Either one would be an amazing upgrade from you current dual core machine.