PC to iMac ... or not?

Bristolian

Bristolian

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I'm toying with the idea of ditching my PC and laptop for a move to the iMac for no other reason than I like the screens and fancy the change. I don't really use my laptop too much since I bought an iPad so I'm not planing on replacing that.

All of the software that I use (Lightroom, Photoshop, Capture NX-D, Office 365, Acrobat Pro, etc.) is available for iMac at no extra cost to me so it would appear to be a simple matter of selling the Windows based stuff and buying a large lump of fruit :)

I doubt it is that simple though because, in my experience, nothing ever is. My existing home set up is a PC, laptop, NAS and a couple of USB hard drives used for backing up. According to the user manual for the NAS it is MacOS compatible but the other hard drives are all formatted NTFS and will need to be reformatted to ExFAT, I believe.

Is there anything else on the hardware compatibility front that I should be aware of? Am I barking mad to even think this?
 
One think I’d say is iMac’s are not upgradable so you will have to get the hard drive/RAM you will need now and in the future (unless you go for the 27 inch iMac which you can upgrade the RAM yourself.

Regards to hard drives it’s a case of watching your formatting. Once set up everything is fine. If you want back up software then I can recommend Carbon Copy Cloner.

One thing I like about macs is the cross compatibility of apple products. If you have a iPad or iPhone iCloud makes it easy to make stuff available between the different products.

I had a thread about upgrading my 2012 iMac. That may be worth looking at as it goes through quite a bit of Mac v PC debate.
https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/it’s-probably-time-to-update-the-imac-what-now.705520/
 
rob-nikon said:
One think I’d say is iMac’s are not upgradable so you will have to get the hard drive/RAM you will need now and in the future (unless you go for the 27 inch iMac which you can upgrade the RAM yourself.
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I've upgraded both RAM and HD on my 2017 27" iMAC
 
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-Oy- said:
I've upgraded both RAM and HD on my 2017 27" iMAC
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Ok I should have said Apple have made it very difficult to replace them. On by 2012 iMac it means taking off the screen thats held in by strong adhesive tape. It’s not exactly an easy job especially compared to opening up a PC.

Looking at the ifix guide for a 27 inch there are 17 steps just to remove the screen. The warnings of damaging the screen and internal components doesn't make it your standard job many could or would be willing to do especially when your looking at around £1.5-2k for a 2019 iMac.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+27-Inch+Retina+5K+Display+Blade+SSD+Replacement/30537
 
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My thoughts (we have 11 iMacs in the studio, 2 MacBook pros) we wouldn’t order any more for the following reasons,

they are slow with the NAS / network we use
they are very slow in comparison to the PC’s
they are more expensive than the PC’s, with little or no upgrade, the screens are stuck in now so upgrading HDD in the future is painful (we changed all bit one HDDs for SSD)
they are now starting to refuse to play nice with Adobe, we are seeing way more issues than a couple of years back.

On the whole you get way more computing power and upgradability for your cash using PC and they are just as stable.

I just cannot see the benefit of a the iMac anymore, and I have no opinion of either platform other than I need the best tool to do the job for the best price.
 
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Years ago I ditched my PC (I was a gamer at the time) and bought an iMac. I was so impressed I swore I would never buy a PC again. The good news is my 2011 iMac is still going strong. Sure it can’t run the latest version of OSX but its good for now.

with that said though, the lake of upgrades and windows 10 now being an awesome OS I’m considering a high end PC for my next machine.
 
Windows 10 is a massive improvement on previous versions, and the whole PC setup is much cheaper than the Mac. Having said that, I moved to Mac from PC many years ago. I was a senior IT manager for a (very) large organisation and when I retired I vowed never to tinker with computers any more. I couldn’t be happier with my Mac - it simply works. Would I go back to PC? No. But if I was starting from scratch, it would probably be a different story. Your choice.
 
I moved to a Mac 10 years ago and I will never go back. I found the move very simple and easy. As others have said order what memory you require on a 21.5. As they are not upgradable.
 
I have a 2015 Macbook Pro, I need to update my hardware as now I'm dealing with very big image files (over a GB at times) my machine is a bit slow. That said, I wouldn't deviate away from Apple, and the replacement will be a 27" iMac.

Yes they're expensive, but they do everything I want them to do, I love the look of the iMac, I like the screens, and having 2 iPads & 2 iPhones in the house, it just makes sense to keep it all together.
 
I switched to Mac about 13 years ago as I hated Windows Vista. Have had two Macbook Pros since. The last one was a mid range MBP 15", and to get the equivalent mid-range MBP now would cost an > £ 1000 than my last one did in 2013.

I would be the first to say that they are fast, reliable and well built, but their value for money is now less good.
 
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Thanks for all the comments above. If I do make the swap it will have to be an iMac 27 - probably not brand new but certainly no more than a couople of years old.

I don't dislike W10, in fact I think it's the best version of Windows for quite some time, and I don't need to make this change as my desktop and laptop are well enough specc'd and fulfil all my requirements now and into the forseeable future. It's probably totally irrational but I just feel like the change.
 
Bristolian said:
Thanks for all the comments above. If I do make the swap it will have to be an iMac 27 - probably not brand new but certainly no more than a couople of years old.

I don't dislike W10, in fact I think it's the best version of Windows for quite some time, and I don't need to make this change as my desktop and laptop are well enough specc'd and fulfil all my requirements now and into the forseeable future. It's probably totally irrational but I just feel like the change.
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And why not? Life’s too short.
 
Bristolian said:
but the other hard drives are all formatted NTFS and will need to be reformatted to ExFAT, I believe.
Click to expand...

MacOS can by default read NTFS but not write to it. So if you only wanted to read them in future it wouldn't be an issue. I
 
Bristolian said:
Thanks for all the comments above. If I do make the swap it will have to be an iMac 27 - probably not brand new but certainly no more than a couople of years old.

I don't dislike W10, in fact I think it's the best version of Windows for quite some time, and I don't need to make this change as my desktop and laptop are well enough specc'd and fulfil all my requirements now and into the forseeable future. It's probably totally irrational but I just feel like the change.
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Nothing like a good change...... and movi;g to the iMac is NOTHING like a good change :) but hey it will look nice on your desk :)
 
Studio488commercial said:
My thoughts (we have 11 iMacs in the studio, 2 MacBook pros) we wouldn’t order any more for the following reasons,

they are slow with the NAS / network we use
they are very slow in comparison to the PC’s
they are more expensive than the PC’s, with little or no upgrade, the screens are stuck in now so upgrading HDD in the future is painful (we changed all bit one HDDs for SSD)
they are now starting to refuse to play nice with Adobe, we are seeing way more issues than a couple of years back.

On the whole you get way more computing power and upgradability for your cash using PC and they are just as stable.

I just cannot see the benefit of a the iMac anymore, and I have no opinion of either platform other than I need the best tool to do the job for the best price.
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Well said. I look at the specs and price and think I had a better machine than that 5 years ago and paid less money for it back then lol
 
Bristolian said:
Thanks for all the comments above. If I do make the swap it will have to be an iMac 27 - probably not brand new but certainly no more than a couople of years old.

I don't dislike W10, in fact I think it's the best version of Windows for quite some time, and I don't need to make this change as my desktop and laptop are well enough specc'd and fulfil all my requirements now and into the forseeable future. It's probably totally irrational but I just feel like the change.
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You're right, I really must get round to listing my 27" iMac in the Classifieds :D

Having moved the other way recently you're right: Adobe suite and Microsoft Office just move over nicely (though Excel for Mac is some way behind Excel for PC). You'll want the usual handful of day to day utilities but there are plenty of options on both platforms. I love Alfred (https://www.alfredapp.com/)

I've had more trouble getting Windows machine to read Windows drives than I have sharing them between Mac and PC :). OS X will support NTFS natively (http://osxdaily.com/2013/10/02/enable-ntfs-write-support-mac-os-x/) or you can always use Paragon (https://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/#) if you prefer. Whether you want to do that or not is almost a theological debate.

As for HD noise, I've used the hybrid drive for years and it's quitter than the (very quiet) fan on my new PC. Unless you thrash it hard I find it hard to tell if the iMac is actually on or not.

You will be aware by now that upgrades aren't easy/possible on most Macs and IMO Apple have never really nailed proper USB connectivity - but it's things like drives dropping off when the machine wakes after a week. Nothing disastrous just niggles.
 
Have you not considered a mac mini and a 27" monitor, i have a one as a second computer and it can process my D750 files no problem, it will comfortably run day to day software ie; email, web browsing and so on as well as the latest versions of adobe. A decent used 2012 version can be had for around £250, with 16 gig ram and a SSD in it and for the money it is a no brainer.

Contrary to popular belief, you do not need the latest and greatest computers available for most tasks that we do on this forum (photo editing) most machines are overkill for us but the marketing machines would like us to think we do need them.
 
Got a upgraded 27 inch I.mac , superb machine SSD makes them extremely fast with both lightroom and photoshop , I was showing Steve Dawes how fast the other week and his jaw was hanging open at the speed of both loading and processing . Having started out many years ago on p.c’s and changed about 18 years ago I would never go back .. initially they are more expensive but they last longer ( till they outlive o.s upgrades) anyway and it will also integrate seamlessly with your i.pad and I.phone if you have one .
Another point to note is over the years looking at photos different p.c models and screens all display the photos differently colours /contrast/sharpness etc every I.mac displays photos exactly the same
 
Nikon f1.8 said:
Have you not considered a mac mini and a 27" monitor, i have a one as a second computer and it can process my D750 files no problem, it will comfortably run day to day software ie; email, web browsing and so on as well as the latest versions of adobe. A decent used 2012 version can be had for around £250, with 16 gig ram and a SSD in it and for the money it is a no brainer.

Contrary to popular belief, you do not need the latest and greatest computers available for most tasks that we do on this forum (photo editing) most machines are overkill for us but the marketing machines would like us to think we do need them.
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This is kind of true, but theres a difference between getting something done efficiently and spending all day waiting for it, some people need a fast computer and more processing power in order to complete the task quickly. If you are doing very light edits to 10 photos a week then a slow machine is okay. A lot of photographers here take thousands, they need to cull and process, often switching between LR and PS and using layers, multiply the waiting time by thousands of images.
 
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twist said:
This is kind of true, but theres a difference between getting something done efficiently and spending all day waiting for it, some people need a fast computer and more processing power in order to complete the task quickly. If you are doing very light edits to 10 photos a week then a slow machine is okay. A lot of photographers here take thousands, they need to cull and process, often switching between LR and PS and using layers, multiply the waiting time by thousands of images.
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My MBP is 5 years old, 2.8ghz I5, and just 8GB RAM, yet I can load and process the hundreds of files I take each week, including some that are 30 exposures, giving a 1TB TIFF output. Yes it could be faster, but for most on here I would say that the extreme processing power & RAM that people describe is not really justified. All mine really needs is an SSD drive, but I'll wait until I replace it with an iMac.
 
Jelster said:
My MBP is 5 years old, 2.8ghz I5, and just 8GB RAM, yet I can load and process the hundreds of files I take each week, including some that are 30 exposures, giving a 1TB TIFF output. Yes it could be faster, but for most on here I would say that the extreme processing power & RAM that people describe is not really justified. All mine really needs is an SSD drive, but I'll wait until I replace it with an iMac.
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I think looking at the amount of upgrade queries on this part of the forum alone, there are quite a few more than you may think. Some older machines are still fast, doesnt mean because its newer that its always faster anyway, depends on the hardware spec at time of purchase.
 
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Nikon f1.8 said:
Contrary to popular belief, you do not need the latest and greatest computers available for most tasks that we do on this forum (photo editing) most machines are overkill for us but the marketing machines would like us to think we do need them.
Click to expand...

I hear this a lot and yes it’s true. My own 2 core laptop will happily run LR/PS and edit image files. It doesn’t do it particularly fast but it’s doable.

My eight core overclocked desktop pc just rips my D850 files apart as fast as the poorly coded Lightroom will allow. It’s a very different experience to my laptop.
 
Yet more good comments, thank you all. Plenty of food for thought here :)

I have considered the iMac Mini and the difference in price between that and the iMac is very tempting but I prefer the elegance of the iMac so that’s the way I’ll go if I decide on the change.
 
JonathanRyan said:
If it's the look you like, these are pretty nice.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HIDEit-MiniU-Mount-Mini-Under-Silver/dp/B018CHZR14
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Actually that's a neat idea, but when I said elegance I wasn't necessarily thinking about just aestetics but that was part of the consideration. The all-in-one solution is elegant in its execution too. We use PC panels in work but I wouldn't consider one of those for home as they are ugly, industrial looking things.

I think I will head up to our local Apple store at the weekend and get some hands on with the iMac. After that I should know which way I'll go.
 
One thing i forgot to add was I am still using my original iMac.
 
The iMac is well overdue a redesign and it could well be coming this year - see here.

Also if you are buying new and don't qualify for any discount (e.g. educational) and might be travelling through an airport soon, you can save £300 on a high spec iMac by buying from Dixons Duty Free.
 
A little late to the party.

I'm one of those who bought a Mac, and after 5 years was really glad to return to PC, partly for performance, partly because the OS handles workflow management poorly and partly because I hated the feeling of the machine always trying to do what Apple wanted instead of helping me do what I wanted. Reliability wasn't special either, and they don't always 'just work'. I can happily still use a Mac and still take mine travelling, but wouldn't spend my money on one.

If you've got to scratch the mac itch then I reckon a Mini is the best value option to try - assuming it's not too late already.
 
Sorry I haven't come back to this thread recently but a few things have changed in my personal life and thoughts of any major spending is going to be on hold for a while.

I have had the opportunity to borrow an iMac for a few days and came to the conclusion that there's no performance to be gained (over my current PC) by the change but the monitor is far better than my current one, but then that's only a 27" 1920x1080 model, so not the best. I think I will wait and see after the summer holidays.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions, folks :)
 
Steve, it's worth saying that a PC and Mac of the same spec will have very similar performance with photo editing software - there's no inherent advantage or disadvange for either system.
 
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