Apple iMac 27" (2000€ Budget)

Eriksson

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Oct 19, 2012
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My father is looking for a workstation iMac. He mostly works with Adobe inDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat as well as QuarkExpress. And sometimes needs to run Windows 7 in Parallels. So my big question is, what should I be looking for? Graphic card performance shouldn't be that much of a hassle, should it? I mean, sure Photoshop, Illustrator and inDesign probably use graphic processing, but isn't RAM a more important factor int hem running smoothly? And what about CPU core number?

I'm probably looking for a used/refurbished one on ebay. Are used/refurbished ones good or should they be avoided? We live in Croatia so, shipping could be a problem, although, Germans offer nice shipping rates on their ebay.

Many thanks in advance.

P.S. No he does not want a PC. It is his arch enemy, per say.

P.P.S. I think I have maybe posted the same thread in the wrong subforum? (System) Is this the right one?
 
Solution
Graphics card and CPU core count are completely irrelevant to your dad's needs. anything higher than a i3 and any graphics card really, should be enough to blow his mind off. It's just up to you how much you want to spend on doing so. You said it yourself he is a Mac guy, if it has an Apple logo on it then it should suffice. Your overthinking it.
an iMac is NOT a workstation, period. I mean no offense, but if you look at the specs sheet, you'll see that it uses a MOBILE (read laptop grade here) CPU and GPU.

if he must go with apple, get a mac pro. the difference in ability for content creation is not even on the same scale
 

tomate2

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Apr 8, 2010
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someone correct me if im wrong, but if your out looking to buy an imac you only need to choose between a 21.5 and a 27 inch model?
get the 27in model and change the CPU from an i5 to a i7 and RAM from 8 to 16 gb
with that budget just get a new one and the best of everything.....
there is not much choosing or customizing you can do when your shopping for a Mac
its just the (not so) cheap one and the more expensive one
 

Eriksson

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Oct 19, 2012
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Yeah, but the graphic cards vary between 650 to 755, and some Radeons. I'm asking how important is the core number and the graphic card for this set of programs.
 

tomate2

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Apr 8, 2010
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Graphics card and CPU core count are completely irrelevant to your dad's needs. anything higher than a i3 and any graphics card really, should be enough to blow his mind off. It's just up to you how much you want to spend on doing so. You said it yourself he is a Mac guy, if it has an Apple logo on it then it should suffice. Your overthinking it.
 
Solution


honestly, the fact that apple pretends that it's a DESKTOP and doesn't even allow the user to add more memory makes me cry on the inside...