In 1977 I purchased my first computer which was an Apple II. It had two floppy drives and a Paper Tiger printer and for the time that was something. I eventually bought a PC computer and have been using Windows right up to my current desktop using Windows 10. Along the way I converted a Dell all-in-one to Ubuntu when the hard drive crashed and had several other makes and brands always running Windows. Most of the time when my system crashed it was almost always Windows doing flaking things and almost always related to the registry. I hate that registry and the problems it caused me. Which brings me to September 2015 when my computer started locking-up and having 100% disk utilization. It eventually started working after 2 weeks of effort then suddenly again the problems came back and now I see my system locking up when I play a video or do anything that places a small load onto the computer. I investigated the issue and read what each person said "worked for them" some of which seemed like nonsense, but I tried. I quickly realized that most of the info was not really of any value and was mostly speculation and in no way could solve the problem I was seeing. Since I do a lot of photography and some video editing I need a machine with a bit more kick to it. I was thinking about buying an Apple 3 years ago but decided to stay with Windows because of the investments I have in Windows applications. This past Monday I decided enough is enough and today I went to the Apple store and spent 4 hours researching what I should buy. I almost never trust anyone at any store to give me the proper advice or think through what I need. I make those decisions on my own based on research. The 5K iMac 27" screen is beautiful and a great deal since a 5K monitor alone would be $2,000 for something equivalent to the iMac. This makes the 5K iMac a great value for the $ spent. For video editing I decided on a 4.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, and for a graphics card an AMD Radeon R9 M395X with 4GB video memory. Nothing beats speed, a faster CPU and software that takes advantage of the GPU make a big difference. Right now I am leaning towards 512GB Flash Storage since it is always faster than a HDD. Since Apple charges quite a bit more for their memory I am planning on buying after market memory, I will probably run 16mb. I have over 800GB of pictures and videos so I will need to keep those on external storage. I still need to research what external drive would be best.
Summary
27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display
- 4.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.2GHz
- 8GB 1867MHz DDR3 SDRAM - two 4GB
- 512GB Flash Storage
- AMD Radeon R9 M395X with 4GB video memory
- Magic Mouse 2
- Magic Keyboard
iMac 27" with 5K Display
I have been buying iPhones since version 3 and have 2 iPads as well, so the switch to iMac seems like the final step in bringing everything together. Now all I have to do is make the purchase and start the work of transferring and building out the machine. Man I hate reloading my computer with all the software and data. However, I started with Apple and no doubt will end with Apple.
Once I get the new machine built out I will be able to start working on my photo editing again. I want to get started editing my photos and video from my two months in India.