iMac 24"

[PhilDPho]

I was at the apple store today, while my fiancee bought a Macbook, and I noticed the 24" iMac's

How well would the 24" iMac 2.8 GHZ with 2gb ram run Capture NX2 and Photoshop CS3 in comparison to my PC

Windows Vista
AMD Athlon64 3700+
2.5gb Ram

Would the iMac run the software just as fast as my PC? If so, then I may end up accidentally buying one as my 22" monitor has just died anyway.

 

[SWDan]

I'm using a 2.4Ghz with ram maxxed out, and it runs fine. So I would think the 2.8 with the max ram would even be better.

 

[do0dfromcali]

I am using a 2.4 ghz with 1GB memory and running Adobe Lightroom with CS3, it does fairly well.

I am about to order more memory and max it out. It should be even better after that.

BTW, You'll love the 24in iMac. The difference over my 15in Macbook Pro was outstanding. Running pictures through in Lightroom was way better.

 

[Clix Pix]

Probably any Mac would run any of your software faster and more smoothly -- no hassles -- than a machine with Windows Vista. Why? Because there is no need to bog the machine down with firewall software, virus protection software, ad-aware software, etc., etc..... With a Mac, you can just boot it up and get right to work.

 

[gadgetguy11]

Probably any Mac would run any of your software faster and more smoothly -- no hassles -- than a machine with Windows Vista. Why? Because there is no need to bog the machine down with firewall software, virus protection software, ad-aware software, etc., etc..... With a Mac, you can just boot it up and get right to work.

Well said! Have a Mac Pro & iMac 24" here and everything you stated is accurate.

 

[Clix Pix]

Three years ago I brought home my first Mac. I was more than thrilled with the fact that I could turn on the machine and immediately get right to whatever it was I wanted to do: check email, do some web-surfing, start post-processing images, etc. I noticed that while with my old PC and 2 GB RAM I had to periodically stop and reboot during a typical post-processing session, that was not necessary with my Mac. The Mac utilizes RAM much more efficiently and effectively.

You couldn't pay me to go back to Windows now.....

 

[ShaunK]

You couldn't pay me to go back to Windows now.....

I'll give you $50,000 right now to go back to Windows... :biggrin: :370: Just kidding! I love my Mac, too!

To the OP, I have the 24", 2.8, 500GB HD and it runs CS with other programs just fine. I have only used a trial copy of NX, so can't help you there. I am only running 2GB of RAM right now, BTW.

 

[ChrisA]

I was at the apple store today, while my fiancee bought a Macbook, and I noticed the 24" iMac's

How well would the 24" iMac 2.8 GHZ with 2gb ram run Capture NX2 and Photoshop CS3 in comparison to my PC

Windows Vista
AMD Athlon64 3700+
2.5gb Ram

Would the iMac run the software just as fast as my PC? If so, then I may end up accidentally buying one as my 22" monitor has just died anyway.

The iMac has TWO cores each of them is roughly as fast as your PC. It will run CS3 very well. I have the 2.16Ghz iMac with 2GB RAM inside and it does OK with "Nikon sized" image files but slows down when I try to Photoshop 100MP files from scanned medium format film. But a new iMac would have 4GB of RAM inside. The only thing with the newer iMacs is the glossy screen, make sure you like it.

 

[Clix Pix]

I'll give you $50,000 right now to go back to Windows... :biggrin: :370:

Maybe for $50 million I might allow another Windows machine back in the house, but no guarantee that I'd ever use the thing! :biggrin:

For me it's Mac and OS X all the way.....

 

[ShaunK]

Maybe for $50 million I might allow another Windows machine back in the house, but no guarantee that I'd ever use the thing! :biggrin:

For me it's Mac and OS X all the way.....

I was just commenting in the General Forum in my post about Skype that many people complain about the higher cost of Macs... but I'm finding out that it's for a reason... to work Skype, my mom had to go out and buy $100+ for microphone/webcam, while I have both built into my Mac... and that's just for starters. You're right, I am loving Macs, but I still have to use Windows out of necessity for other things! :wink:

 

[PhilDPho]

I said a month ago, that I would never go down the mac route due to cost.

However, it will cost around 1k to replace my dead monitor, and these are very impressive.

I never noticed the iMac's are dual core too. I may invest in a 24" iMac with 4gb ram, and install Linux on my PC and try get it set up as a network drive as I have 500gb of hard disk in it.

Also, I have a GeForce 7300GT PCI-E in my PC, Would this fit in the iMac? Or should i just use the standard card in the iMac?

 

[JohnR]

Your PC card won't work in a mac unless you "flash" it. But I don't know how to do that or what you would do.

There are 2 cards available for the iMac:
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS w/512MB GDDR3
and
ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO w/256MB GDDR3

 

[PhilDPho]

nevermind then, I'll probably stick with the Radeon.

 

[W.Ray]

The graphics cards in the 24" iMacs are faster than your 7300Gt so even if you could why would you want to use a slower card?

 

[PhilDPho]

tbh I was just looking at my 512mb graphics compared to the 256mb one. Although I admit I know that's not the be all and end all of graphics card preformance

I'm just waiting now for the funds so I can head over the the apple shop and pick one up

 

[ChrisA]

I never noticed the iMac's are dual core too. I may invest in a 24" iMac with 4gb ram, and install Linux on my PC and try get it set up as a network drive as I have 500gb of hard disk in it.

You could also simply spend $40 for an empty external haed drive enclosure. Using your old PC sounds like you'll be saving $40 but there are two problems (1) The PC will use about 200 watts of power to run that 10 watt drive, so you will pay that $40 to the utility compan eeral times over and (2) the PC will hve to run a noisy fan to cool all of those 200 watts out of the PC case.

You are better off salvaging the 500GB drive and putting it inside it's own enclose. then it is portable and makes a great backup devicce.

If you need to run Linux the best way is to install VMware's "Fusion or Sun's "Virtual Box" on the Mac and then run Linux inside a virtual machine. It runs quite well like that, very fast. I have both Linux and Solaris running in VMs on my 24" iMac. (Try out Sun's product first. It's free so there is littel to loose if you find you prefer Fusion.)

If you do want to set up a file server using Linux and the PC, it's realy only worth it if you want to run a RAID system with lots of storage, say five large drives. And also you will really want t Gigabyte Ethernet port on the PC or it will run way to slow to be worth the effort. If you are doing this Why Linux? Solaris with ZFS makes for a much better file server. Apple has picked up ZF from Sun and it will be in Snow Leopard. But again, setting up a file server only maes economic sense if you need a multi-terrabyte RAID.

 

[PhilDPho]

I was going to be running OS X, I was referring to installing Linux over Windows, as I find Linux (Specifically Mandriva) networks better with OS X from what I've tried, so was just going to share a drive on there.

However, I may pick up an external Hard Disk enclosure, and then try sell the machine on, should get enough back to cover buying the enclosures.

 

[Tektrnica]

We discussed this Phil get a real, properly built PC

 

[Wrxified]

You can't go wrong with the iMac

Just ordered my third Mac. Can't wait until she gets here next Thursday. I've honestly bought into the whole "total cost of ownership" idea behind the decision to buy an Apple vs. a PC. I'm always on my Powerbook G4 that I bought 4 years ago. Other than couple batteries and a spare cord it's always run like a champ. Same as my Intel Mac Mini. Never had to rebuild the machines, never had a virus, never had a blue screen of death. They run quicker, are easier to use and a 4 year old Mac sells for two or three times what a 4 year old PC with similar specs would sell for.

I added everything I could to my latest order.:biggrin:

3.06GHZ INTEL CORE 2 DUO
4GB 800MHZ DDR2 SDRAM - 2x2GB
NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800 GS W/512MB
1TB SERIAL ATA DRIVE
APPLE MIGHTY MOUSE
WIRED KYBD & USER'S GUIDE
COUNTRY KIT,IMAC 24