More Mac Questions- SS drives, Epson Printer Compatibility etc...

[eric black]

Tax refund is coming and I finally can invest in a computer upgrade. I have past posts where I have asked questions related to Macs, iMac's in particular but I want to make sure I have current answers prior to doing the purchase-

My current plan is to get a 27" iMac with i-7 quad processor, stock up on RAM and get photoshop cs5- most of my questions relate to options available and "how to"

My questions are-
1. Is aftermarket RAM easy to install in one of these (I am fairly mechanically adept)?
2. Is there any advantages to a solid state drive in addition to the 2 TB hard drive I am planning on having?
3. Are there any options I should consider to get max speed out of this unit crunching multilayer drum scan files of 4x5 to 8x10 transparencies?
4. Have the issues with hooking these computers to an Epson 9600 printer been resolved- ie the color management issues (or others?)
5. I have another question on Aperture that I will stick in another post- dont want to crowd this one too much.

Thanks for bearing with me as I continue to figure all of this out- its been a long road to get to the point where I finally have the means to do this purchase.
E

[David de Gruyl]

1. Is aftermarket RAM easy to install in one of these (I am fairly mechanically adept)?
2. Is there any advantages to a solid state drive in addition to the 2 TB hard drive I am planning on having?
3. Are there any options I should consider to get max speed out of this unit crunching multilayer drum scan files of 4x5 to 8x10 transparencies?

If you have not looked yet at macperformanceguide.com you should.

The ram should be fairly straightforward (I do not have an iMac, but the ram is accessible). You need a screwdriver. Unlike the unfortunate design of the mini, which is a severe hassle.

I'd certainly recommend an SSD for applications and system disk. Also works great when used for scratch disk in photoshop. If you buy one after-market, get one with good write performance.

Memory is the single biggest speed booster, and that can only be used with photoshop CS5 (CS4 has a limit of 3 GB). Next is the speed of the scratch disk, and you already have the processor covered.

Can I assume that you considered and rejected the mac pro?

[sultanofcognac]

1) a seven-year-old can change RAM - check www.macsales.com
2) solid-state drives are quicker but have a shorter lifespan
3) not really
4) nope
5) the post just before mine suggests downloading a demo - which I think is a very good idea

[David de Gruyl]

2) solid-state drives are quicker but have a shorter lifespan

All hard disks should be assumed to be about to fail. Always. (I'll take my IT hat off now).

[Leigh]

I just had my first hard drive failure in over 30 years of working with PCs.

Fortunately it was one 2TB drive in a dual 2TB array set up as fully-mirrored RAID-1, so I didn't lose any data.

I would strongly recommend a RAID-1 configuration for all your working files. This frees up the main drive for applications and stuff that can be readily replaced.

Mine is a Western Digital MyBook Studio II, which is available in various sizes. It comes pre-formatted for the MAC, with built-in RAID management software.

That drive supports Firewire-800, which is much faster than USB-2. I transferred 231GB of data from the backup to the new drive in about 40 minutes.

- Leigh

[David Aimone]

Basically doing the same on a 2.4GHz 24" iMac, but not using Photoshop. I am using Aperture, Lightroom and a bunch of Nik Software plugins. Works great, easy to install RAM. Not sure about the Epson printer. I'm looking into a 3880 myself. The Epson V700 works well with the computer though.

SS drive is worth it too, as well as extra memory.

[Darin Boville]

Don't buy an iMac now unless you can't wait--updates should be here in a month or two.

--Darin

[gnuyork]

If you have not looked yet at macperformanceguide.com you should.

Memory is the single biggest speed booster, and that can only be used with photoshop CS5 (CS4 has a limit of 3 GB). Next is the speed of the scratch disk, and you already have the processor covered.

Can I assume that you considered and rejected the mac pro?

I would argue that for Photoshop processor speed is the bigger performance booster even over memory. I read up on Lloyd's performance guide as well, and this was interesting... Maybe this doesn't apply to the iMac...

http://macperformanceguide.com/Revie...resSlower.html

[David de Gruyl]

I would argue that for Photoshop processor speed is the bigger performance booster even over memory. I read up on Lloyd's performance guide as well, and this was interesting... Maybe this doesn't apply to the iMac...

http://macperformanceguide.com/Revie...resSlower.html

Depends on where you start measuring. (memory, I mean). Many of my scans will require over 3 GB right off the bat, and adding layers will ... make them take more memory. Swapping to disk is slow.

The trouble is "how much is enough". The difference between 16 and 32 GB of ram is small. The difference between 4 and 16 is huge.

BTW, you can't get more than 6 cores in an iMac, so that link does not seem relevant.

[gnuyork]

You're right. I was reading it in regards to a Mac pro purchase, but that's why I stated that it may not apply to the iMac. So by that logic, more RAM may be what is needed.

I also found it interesting that with the 6 and 12 cores that you need triple channel RAM. According to Lloyd, unless 32 Gigs is actually needed you would take a small performance hit. I originally ordered 32 Gigs of RAM and sent 8 gigs back, no sense in paying more money for a performance hit. So far I have not needed the RAM, but I do use Adobe After Effects that utilizes RAM for previews, so I may need more at some point, but I will try to upgrade in multiples of 3.