George II Loc: Fayetteville, Georgia

My old PC, I mean OLD needs to be put out to pasture or a stud farm. I want a iMac Mini but the problem is you can only get one with 8gb of memory. I have read on this forum that 16gb would be better for photo editing etc. From the Apple people what are your thoughts? TIA,
Best Regards,
the "G"

Fly_Boy Loc: South East Michigan

If you go to Apple's website you will see that you can configure most models of the Mac Mini for up to 16 gigabytes of RAM. I have a 27 inch iMac that I got with only 8 gigs. I use Aperture and PS Elements with no problems at all. One thing nice about the 27 inch iMac is that you can upgrade the RAM - just pop off a door in the back and add or change the RAM cards.

George II Loc: Fayetteville, Georgia

Thanx, I will suss that out..

bleary Loc: MA

Not sure if you are looking for an iMAC (monitor included) or a Mac Mini - just the computer. I do all my photo editing (photoshop) on a macbook pro with 8gb. You should have no problem with that much memory but you can get more. A couple of suggestions. If you want to save some money, look for a refurb on the apple site. You can get a nice computer for less there. Also, you might check out ebay. Unlike most PC's, macs usually last a long time so buying a used one, or even a new computer, on ebay is actually a reasonable option. A used machine is usually upgraded and has software already on it. Just make sure you check out the new prices on the apple site first - sometimes professional ebay sellers - as opposed to that one guy selling his machine - want more than if you bought it new! Another thing to consider - new macs usually do not have an optical drive. Apple thinks you are going to do everything on the internet or through USB ports, so if you have a lot of CD's or DVD's, you will need to get an external DVD drive. That's not expensive but you might be shocked to find you have no place to insert your DVD in the computer. Give some thought to what you really need because if you buy a mac you can expect to have it a LONG time. I have an old mac tower in my basement I use for a file server that's been around for over 10 years and still works fine. I don't know how old you are, but eye doctors say a lot of older people (like me) prefer a laptop because we can look down at the screen through the bottom half of our bifocals! Just a few things to consider.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

My mac mini has 16 g ram and the fusion drive. It is lightning fast, and accommodates LR with catalog of about 75,000 photos, Photoshop, many plugins and other programs all simultaneously. All my photos are on an external thunderbolt drive which is just as fast as being on the mini's hard drive. Got it straight from Apple set up this way. Had it a little over a year with no problems thus far.

George II Loc: Fayetteville, Georgia

Thank you for the information, I now have a old from about 2006 I stuffed all the memory it could handle. Installed Mountain Lion as that is all it can handle. It work great and does all I need. Yes Bifocals as well as YouTube and Google are my friends. But such is life which is ok as long as I still get to see my birthdays..

Thanks again
the "G"

George II Loc: Fayetteville, Georgia

I'm thinking in retrospect, that 8gb might be enough, 16 gb would be great and there would be no need for anything else. Oh yea a kid to show me how to make the transition from PC to Mac.

Thanks for the help, Regards,
The "G"

George II Loc: Fayetteville, Georgia

Thanks for the advice, I was not sure if 8gb or 16 would best work for me. From a cost perspective I could probably get bay with 8gb. This week I'll go to Micro Center and pester my friendly Apple sales rep. Again, thank you and

Best Regards,
the "G"

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

It is not that easy to upgrade ram on a current edition mini. I used to pop off the backs on my iMacs and switch ram modules in about 2 minutes, would think twice or three times about that now. Ram requirements depend on what software you want to run. Heavy duty photo processing - suggest 16. Light duty processing such as iPhoto - 8 is probably fine. My macbook is s.l.o.w with lightroom and photoshop running on 8.

Hopefully transition won't be that hard. I used both macs and pcs for years but would never pay for a pc with my own money. But it is different, when you're used to just one system to switch to another. Right about kids, a 6 year old will get you started but if you need to do more complex tasks look around for a 10 year old.

George II Loc: Fayetteville, Georgia

I'm sure, thank you very much.