xt2 Loc: British Columbia, Canada

I have used Mac for years and years & am currently running an iMac 27", 4Ghz, Intel i7 with 64 Gb RAM. Is it more expensive than a PC, perhaps, is it lightening fast manipulating photos, video, and allowing me to run half a dozen editing programs at once... yes. The Mac environment is intuitive, does not fail, does not have to be rebooted and is fast! Like many things in life, you get what you pay for... Highly recommended.

Cheers!

Toment Loc: FL, IL

I have this computer and it works very well.

G. Crook Loc: Linden, TX

I started with Windows back in the DOS day’s and used that exclusively until I went to work for a state agency that used Apples (2003). I hated them————they were pathetically slow and limited in their capabilities and weird to use———until they upgraded to the iMacs. Wow! What a difference. I gave away my Windows pc and have never looked back. I have a iMac, MacBook Pro, iPad and iPhone. As previously stated, they communicate with one another. I can start something on my iMac, put it down and pick up later on my iPhone with no problem. I am lucky in being retired military I can make all of my purchases at the local BX. I pay the same price but save on the taxes.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

There is no need to worry about the new iMacs. They are fast, cool, and the 27" models come with MUCH better monitors than we had 8 years ago. Stick to SSD storage (with a daily Time Machine backup to a high end conventional hard drive). 16GB is still plenty of RAM, unless you're doing REALLY high end work or using lots of apps at once or running Windows or Linux virtually.

Here's what I would recommend to the OP:

Custom iMac 27" ordered from Apple.com with:

3.1GHz 6-core 8th-generation Intel Core i5 processor; Turbo Boost up to 4.3GHz

8GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory, configured with after-market RAM to 16 or 32 GB

1 or 2TB SSD (no Fusion drive!)

Radeon Pro 575X graphics processor with 4GB of GDDR5 memory

Two Thunderbolt 3 ports

Retina 5K 5120-by-2880 P3 display

This isn't the fastest iMac you can buy, but it should be plenty for most users for the next five years or more. Heck, my Late 2013 iMac 21.5 is still going strong, even with the latest OS and software. I upgraded it myself last December to a 2TB SSD and 16 GB RAM (from a 1TB slow 5400RPM hard drive and 8GB RAM). That was major surgery, and gave me an anxiety attack, but OWC had the parts and the step-by-step video to guide me through it. (Apple says you can't do it. OWC and iFixit.com show you how. But even they suggest you have a pro do it, if you're not used to working on electronics.)

The SSD is really important for speed. My iMac used to take 5 minutes to get from OFF to a USABLE state. Now it takes 45 seconds! A video that used to render in just over 8 minutes now renders in 59 seconds!

I even run Windows 10 in Parallels Desktop for less intensive tasks that require a PC. I've done that virtualization thing for 11 years, and it's been very satisfying. Being able to do everything on one box is GREAT when you need or want both environments.

ggab Loc: ?

I beg to differ. I work with Color professionals that use Mac's. They fail. They choke. They need to be re-booted. This is from personal experience as well as the experience of my colleagues.
Let's not be an old Apple commercial and tell the truth!

kgwaugh

Over the years I have used mostly PC, but did go with a 27" iMac some years ago. When it came time to replace it, I went back to the PC for two reasons: 1) simply cost, and 2) I am my wife's "PC support" and she had been mired in WIN 7 and then making the transition to WIN 10. Part of the reason I switched back to the PC was simply so I could be of greater help to her!

To me, the iMac is a luxury. I simply like the flexibility of a tower PC, where I can add and upgrade far easier than I can with a Mac. For me, both machines do pretty much the same thing.

CaptainBobBrown

My last career (35+ years) was in software development. We tried to maintain compatibility of our products with 3 different Windows OS releases but it was very difficult and the source of many bugs because Microsoft frequently switched underlying libraries of software development tools with no advanced notice to developers. Plenty of marketing blah blah out of Redmond but no useful information.

Microsoft's indifference to product quality was a constant source of frustration and cost of doing business. When I retired I scrapped all my Microsoft development tools, hardware, and products and moved over to Apple products with a sigh of relief at finally not having to deal with constantly having to work around BSOD's, hardware incompatibilities, general flakiness, and buggy products due to the PC world's "open architecture" which allows anyone who meets minimum interface standards to put their hardware/software products on the market.

The initial cost of Apple hardware is due to their business model of limiting who and what can be sold as "Apple" compatible but the result is much lower cost of use over time. Things like the decertification of 32 bit apps coming in the next release have been very rare in the Apple ecosystem but unlike Microsoft Apple has warned its developers well in advance to enable them to adjust (or, like Adobe with Lightroom, not).

Early in the PC era when IBM and Apple were the only manufacturers of microcomputer hardware Apple started out requiring any Apple certified software to meet Apple quality standards. To software developers Apple's standards of quality control can seem extreme but it has resulted in much greater reliability and lower cost of development of Apple certified products in the long run.

I'll never go back to using generic PC's and Microsoft software again. Buy Apple and once you adapt to their interface techniques you'll be a much happier user in the long run. Yes, choice of peripherals is limited but over time Apple has certified many different printers, memory modules, and other devices as Apple qualified so it's not really an issue anymore. I've got a 5 year old 27" iMac which I've upgraded by adding memory, external disk drives, memory card readers, etc. and had very few problems and it runs as well now as it did when I bought it new.

It's the hub of my Apple ecosystem of iPhone, iPad, iCloud, and iWatch network which automatically shares calendars and documents activated very selectively with simple easy to figure out interfaces. Software upgrades, security fixes, etc. are pretty automatic and rarely result in problems, unlike the Windows world where problems result from bug fixes of bug fixes that no one can understand. Just read UHH comments and questions about their problems on this forum to see what I mean.

Microsoft costs a lot more in total cost of ownership so don't be fooled by lower initial costs of Windows PC hardware You'll pay more in the long run and live a shorter life if blood pressure and strokes are a health consideration.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

If that's happening, the usual culprit is that either the Mac is not configured properly with enough resources, or the software itself has a problem.

Since I gave it enough SSD storage and RAM, I can't remember the last time my Late 2013 iMac froze, or slowed down. It just works. Lightroom, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Microsoft Office 365, Parallels Desktop with Windows 10... simply no issues so far. I wish I could say the same for our local power co-op and Internet provider... They're on my naughty list. When the iMac goes down, the power is out due to a storm. When the Internet is slow, there's usually a glitch in the cable company's ancient lines or amplifiers.

I highly recommend using an SSD startup drive, as it eliminates a major source of heat from the machine. Since I swapped my 5400 RPM drive for an SSD, my iMac barely gets warm. The fans are audible ONLY when rendering video or exporting a large folder of raw files to JPEGs.

Heat is the enemy of computers. It limits processor speeds (via thermal throttling that protects the processor). Rotating platter hard drives generate a lot of heat.

mbaggs Loc: Daphne, AL

Ha! The best comment of them all. 100% agree. Never have bought an anti-virus program. Running a HP Envy i7-8700 WIN10 home, 2 32" monitors, 64gb memory, 4gm graphics card, M.2 256gb C:\ drive for program files, 2tb spinning drive for data files. Power button press to sign on screen is about 10 seconds. Near instantaneous launch/ready-to-use of MS office programs and about the same 10 seconds for Lightroom. Since OS key is now on motherboards for most newer Win pc's it's easy to download latest win version on 32gb thumb drive, wipe new pc, and install Win from thumb drive without any of the manufacturer fluff that comes with a new pc. Makes a world of difference. Windows updates are free and windows defender works great for me. I also have and use MacBook Air, iPad, iPhone, and have iCloud for windows on my win10 pc and all my pictures from iPhone stay synced between all devices. Pictures from my D750 that I want on all devices are an easy select/drag/drop into iCloud upload folder and then instantly appear on all my apple devices. Forgot to mention I also use a win10 laptop running Xactimate when doing insurance adjusting and pictures and other documents stay synced via one drive.

Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

You’ve now started a “religious” war. :-). I just upgraded my 5 year old PC laptop with more memory and a SSD for less than $200, and it’s performance is now great.

If you’re having a G.A.S. attack, and you’re willing to spend north of $1,000 to change systems and perhaps buy new software you use in the PC world that’s not on the Mac, and spend a lot of your personal time coming up to speed with your new environment, then buy a Mac. It’s as simple as that.

By the way, I don’t hear you saying you don’t like using your PC ... only that it’s slow, which is an easy inexpensive fix.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

I agree. Yes, Windows Vista was bad but I've been with a PC since Windows 3.11 to Windows 10. And I've had Mac s lock up on me as well. Yes, probably because I did not know what I was doing.

MichaelL

Thank you everyone for the replies (even the snarky ones - they were funny). I have used PCs for a long time - since 1985 in a corporate setting (we had the second one our $3.5 Billion company bought). At home I am on my 3rd one since 2006. Heavy video editing and recently photo editing 46,000 clicks since 3/2018. I have been infected only once by a virus - the AVG guys were quite upset with that. So I do believe I know what I am doing - as a home user.

I am going to get an estimate on my computer but will probably end up with a Mac. Last time I had similar issues (resulting from an automatic switch from win 7 to win 10 the tech pronounced it doa. He also suggested a Dell over an HP.

THANKS AGAIN. it is appreciated

cytafex Loc: Clarksburg MA

I've used Macs since 1993 with Quadra 950 and now use a Mac Pro 2012 with 12 cores running at 3.46ghz. Back then for image editing there wasn't any choice. My first computer was an Epson III back in 1980's when I opened my first studio, even with Windows no comparison for ease of use with Apple software. As far as which is faster, it depends how the computer is set up. Mac Pro at 7 years old is no slouch but real speed up is using SSD's and Raid 0 because any time are using scratch disks or opening programs or saving large files is where you can actually notice a difference. Boot drive is 2- 500GB SSD's with Sonnet PCI-E card, reads/writes 900mbs. Images saved to 4- 2GB hard drives with Raid 0 configuration read/writes 400mbs with backups on external drives. More important to me isn't how fast my computer is, it's easy of use and having used both systems Macs are much more intuitive in use enabling me to spend more time making images instead messing around with the computer.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

I used many Windows machines. We had a Mac some 15 years ago, but I missed the right button. When Microsoft tried to force me into Win10, I was offended, and now both my desktop and laptop computers are Linux {which work just as well as Windows ever did for me}

dick ranez

Ahhhh, the protestants versus the catholics again! Your old computer can be improved - software cleanup, additional memory, faster ssd drive, yadda yadda yadda. There is however a cost and whether it's worth it to you to "renew" what you have and are familiar with. Going to mac has a learning curve - but so does going to Windows 10. I have used, and continue to use both - and the usual result, a decent print, is there is no difference in image quality. The computer is just a tool and you should use the one that's most comfortable for you.