iMac for photo processing

[dmarty78]

Anyone using the new 27 inch iMacs, for photographic processing?

Thoughts, comments, calibration problems, etc?

Thinking of making the switch.

[ChristopherCoy]

I just bought the 21.5" in June, and I love Love LOVE it! I'm using a WD MyBook 1TB so LR and PS are a little slower pulling up images, but other than that its awesome! I refuse to store things on my computers hardrive because I dont want it to become cluttered and S_L_O_W like my old PC laptop.

I'll never go back to PC.

[Sonny]

Originally Posted by ChristopherCoy

I refuse to store things on my computers hardrive because I dont want it to become cluttered and S_L_O_W like my old PC laptop.

I'll never go back to PC.

It's called fragmentation and yes it will happen on Macs too. Don't fool yourself.

[Tom]

I only keep what we are currently working on on the computer HD. Everything else is backed up on three other HDs.

[ChristopherCoy]

Originally Posted by Sonny

It's called fragmentation and yes it will happen on Macs too. Don't fool yourself.

Yes, but the less I keep on there, the less I have to defrag.

[Sonny]

Originally Posted by ChristopherCoy

Yes, but the less I keep on there, the less I have to defrag.

The amount has nothing to do with fragging. It's the amount of times you read, write, and access any and every file.

[ChristopherCoy]

Originally Posted by Sonny

The amount has nothing to do with fragging. It's the amount of times you read, write, and access any and every file.

Well I believe if I dont clutter my drive with stuff, then it will run faster. Thats my story, and I'm sticking to it... no matter how diluted it is.

[Tom]

How do I defrag a Mac and how often?

[tukaniray]

To defrag a Mac:
- You go to your Applications Folder
- Then to your Utilities Folder
- Then to Disc utility.
- Then Select your hard drive on the left
- Click the First Aid Tab in the middle
- Click Verify Disk Permissions
- Then Click Repair Disk Permissions.

I do it when I add New Software, Major Software Updates and Or erase a bunch of data.

Back to OP:
I use a MacPro 8-Core and the new iMac 27" i7 computer at the studio I work at. That 27" i7 is SUPER FAST. Looking at benchmarks on line and from others, they are a bit faster than last years model MacPro 8-Core.

They are quick. If you want to save money try out the iMac i5, those are pretty nice too.

Just the i7 also has Hyper Threading in their processors. Really bumps up the speed in Rendering.

-Ray-

[Tom]

Is the i7 2.8GHz worth the $200 upgrade over the i5 2.66GHz? Both are Quad Cores

Pretty much the only programs that are going to be used on this are:
Firefox/Safari/Opera
Lightroom 3
Photoshop CS5
Photomechanic

Would that money be better spent on RAM?

[tukaniray]

Well, the Ram definitely helps, but the processors are where all of the Rendering power is at.

Ram is mainly for running the programs more efficiently and more programs at once.

Since, I am also a video editor and motion graphics editor (After Effects), I needed that extra speed.

For the programs you noted, the i5 version is more than enough.

-Ray-

[texkam]

It's called fragmentation and yes it will happen on Macs too. Don't fool yourself.

....but not on Linux. : )

[texxter]

I bought a new iMac i5 with 8Gb of RAM two weeks ago and I am loving this machine. The display is spectacular and the system is fast. I normally run two or three image processing apps at the same time, back and forth, and the iMac keeps up with all the load fine. I am very happy with it.

[texxter]

One more thing, and sorry to go wikipedic, but a modern Mac OS X system doesnt need to be defrag in most cases. The operating system manages disk space and does defrag behind the scenes. Also the "Repair" utility does not do defragmentation, it repairs the volume's directory used by the operating system to organize the files on the volume. If you insist on defrag'ing a Mac OS volume you need to get a specialized third party utility.

[kmarriner]

Originally Posted by texkam

....but not on Linux. : )

I just feel the need to point out that OSX is UNIX underneath.. Most people don't realize that.
And as such, won't require much maintenance (defrag and the like) other than leaving the computer on to run for a full 24 hours, I'd say atleast twice a month because of the way that unix runs its cleanup scripts, and repair permissions every once in a while.

Grab a HD atleast the same size as your boot disk and run an incremental backup (I like to use cron, but time machine or any of the other third party applications will work fine), that will back everything up right away and then backup whatever is new or changed whenever you have it setup to run.