Thanks to all. Hoggers are great! I opened a forum on this topic in Adobe and still awaiting a first response-in less than three hours on the Hog I got ten responders and the info is good. Need to find if Apple will honor extended warranty if I add memory myself but now leaning to the 4.2Ghz engine and 2 TB drive with 8GB and adding two 16GB dimms that I can get from Microcenter for $400 would give me 40GB for only $254 more than my original configuration total outlay of $3,304 opposed to $3,050. Works for me, thanks again. Pat

I beleive you really want the 4.2GHz I-7 instead of the 3.5GHz I-5. I just don’t think the I-5 will have the horsepower you want for the type of processing you’re doing - that is $300 well spent in my opinion, and the highest priority.

Regarding the memory, I think that if you’re spending that much money, 32GB is the appropriate amount. The 27” has 4 memory slots, and I believe it is user upgradable (some of the forum Mac gurus correct me if I’m wrong). iF you purchase it with 16GB AND it comes with 2 x 8GB DIMMs (instead of 4 x 4GB), then you can save $240 by buying two additional 8GB DIMMs from OWC and upgrading yourself.

Then, I would choose 512GB SSD rather than the larger “fusion” drive, and add a larger Thunderbolt-connected external SATA drive for mass photo storage. This will make a big difference in speed. Use the SSD for the OS, applications and scratch space and the larger external HD for photo storage. None of this will be inexpensive, coming in at 3K plus, but if you want to continue with Macs, then you want to buy a platform that will reward you with good performance for years to come. Shortchanging on CPU, memory or storage will be “penny wise and pound foolish” in my opinion.

Hello all, getting some conflicting info and would like your collective input before I pull the trigger. My 2011 iMac with 8GB of ram is cutting it anymore now that I am creating 50+MB Raw files in LR Classic CC. Doing a 3 exposure HDR is taking 45 minutes. Plan to upgrade a new 27" iMac and it's shaping up to set me back $2-3k. Info from sources I have been listening to advise an iMac with 3.5Ghz clock speed and 32GB of ram but the folks at Apple are telling me that doing still and not video that 16GB should be fine. Spending this much money I do not want to make a mistake and undersize it. It will have a 1TB hard drive but I already have an external Toshiba 1TB that all my photos go on and I use the Apple Time Machine for cloud based backups. Appreciate your take on the ram issue.

Thx Pat

I beleive you really want the 4.2GHz I-7 instead of the 3.5GHz I-5. I just don’t think the I-5 will have the horsepower you want for the type of processing you’re doing - that is $300 well spent in my opinion, and the highest priority.

Regarding the memory, I think that if you’re spending that much money, 32GB is the appropriate amount. The 27” has 4 memory slots, and I believe it is user upgradable (some of the forum Mac gurus correct me if I’m wrong). iF you purchase it with 16GB AND it comes with 2 x 8GB DIMMs (instead of 4 x 4GB), then you can save $240 by buying two additional 8GB DIMMs from OWC and upgrading yourself.

Then, I would choose 512GB SSD rather than the larger “fusion” drive, and add a larger Thunderbolt-connected external SATA drive for mass photo storage. This will make a big difference in speed. Use the SSD for the OS, applications and scratch space and the larger external HD for photo storage. None of this will be inexpensive, coming in at 3K plus, but if you want to continue with Macs, then you want to buy a platform that will reward you with good performance for years to come. Shortchanging on CPU, memory or storage will be “penny wise and pound foolish” in my opinion.