Building a better PC for graphics work than my old iMac

[alan.rushton1]

Hello everyone! My 2010 iMac has come to the end of its life after many years of use.

I want to replace it with a PC. Although I like certain aspects of a Mac I don't like others (doing some searches I know this is a regularly discussed thing).

I know there are options for me if I wish to keep the Mac OS love in my life and I understand i could dual boot if I really wanted to.

My questions lies more with hardware and I am sure this is a really simple question -

If I want a higher quality graphics output on a 27 inch (ish) monitor for a PC what should I be looking at? Is it as simple as looking for higher than 2560-by-1440 resolution? Do I then just get a mid-range 4k graphics card to drive it?

Sorry for my first post being a question. I'm on many other forums (mostly car and motorcycle related in honesty) and this "Hi can you help me" thing is a bit rubbishy.

Thanks, Alan

 

[Lutfij]

You should be looking at a beefy GPU, a PSU to drive the GPU and the entire system. You should be looking at a GTX1070Ti as the lowest possible investment.

I must ask though, are we looking at a complete build/rebuild to replicate an iMac?

 

[alan.rushton1]

Just a replacement for my Mac. Its old and so difficult to upgrade.

As the majority of my work is photography based I need to keep image quality high. The GTX1070Ti has been something I was looking at before my post but I was concerned it was overkill for my needs.

This would be a complete build. I have built PC's historically and I currently run an old machine that has essentially been confiscated by my son for games use. This is where I noticed the difference in quality but that seems to mainly be around the monitor.

In terms of spec the iMacs I have is not quick or exciting. Core i3 3.2 (dual core) is the current CPU. Its more about the graphics output quality for myself. Some extra speed is always good though

Thanks again

Alan

 

[Sarscarix041]

I feel embarrassed posting this more than once… and I imagine that America is months ahead of us over here in Australia, so it might be misguided to say this, but…

[Sorry; this just got longer and longer; I am not going to edit down again now. I hope the detail is useful.]

! This is all about 28" 4k monitors; I think 27" is a bit small for such, and, oddly enough, 2560x1440 monitors are all much more expensive per pixel.

Summary: buy the AOC U3277PWQU; they're all Innolux panels, but this is the newer generation, and informed shopping is hard work. (Or any other new-gen one.) (If you want something cheaper, get the AOC U2879VF; again, they're all the same Innolux panel.)

We have only very recently gotten new monitor technology on store shelves. I was going to say to search "RB-G" or "GB-R" et al, but I tried it and nothing comes up. I suggest that you have a read of the relevant section of the article here: https://pcmonitors.info/articles/the-evolution-of-led-backlights/ — look for the picture with the three equal spikes. (Simplistically: they have been using a blue LED with a yellow phosphor coating, and now they are using two primary-coloured LEDs with a phosphor coating for the third, and it is much better.) Quantum Dot is wonderful, but the last time I looked, "QLED" meant backlighting (which is just not the same thing) in computer monitors (although if you have a spare $5000 lying around you could buy a QLED TV (or OLED) ).

Monitor manufacturers tend to not give useful information, so it can take a while to establish which monitors are average and which are stand-outs (at this transitional point in history). I have noticed that the AOC U3277PWQU strongly stands out among current offerings (AU$700, with "professional" colour space (range) and accuracy — Tom's Hardware says DCI-P3 definitely; pcmonitors.info is rather more reserved).

! If you do not need 1ms GTG gaming speed, avoid all "gaming" monitors; this will make the whole thing a lot simpler.
! Look for support for larger colour spaces (NTSC, sRGB, Adobe RGB, DCI-P3, Rec. 2020).

By the way: I do not know about 2010, particularly, but I have read that Macintosh screens have been very much current in their display technology over the last five years or so.

p.s. Ignoring the new GB-LED et al. technologies… the 3000:1 displays have better contrast but lower colour accuracy, against the 1000:1 IPS crowd, as a rule. AH-IPS is the best of the latter.