MichaelL

I assumed this had been covered recently, searched and the discussions found were all old. I have been anticipating having to replace my computer (5 years old, booting slower and slower BIOS issues, etc). After doing some editing yesterday on my iPad I was impressed with the speed and ease of Lightroom editing RAW photos. Given this I began thinking about apple imac.

Looks like the buy in is higher but given the expected life and the speed might be worth it.

Wondering what others members who have done this have experienced and their findings and recommendations. Thanks for your help

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

Michael, I am a convert after buying a Mac Book Pro and then my iMac. Never regretted it. Check B& H photo for some great deals.
Memory is very easily upgraded.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1342558-REG/apple_mne92ll_a_27_imac_with_retina.html

fehutch Loc: gulfport, ms

No question the Mac will be quicker and way more expensive. And a 5 year old PC might be showing it’s age. Question is How much is the speed increase worth?

If the old Win box is running a pentium or later processor (or an AMD equivalent), and has 16gb of ram, it might be worth the time to do a little PC housekeeping to see if you can speed things up. Windows 10 home or pro is way better than the previous versions.

Are you running Windows 10? Have you run Defrag? Have you cleaned out temp files?
Finally, you can download CCleaner (free version first). Excellent PC “broom” with intuitive interface to get rid of junk, clean up the registry, etc. to see if you can speed things up.

Once you clean up the old box, you will be able to decide if you want to jump to Mac($$$), get a more recent Windows 10 based system, or stay with the old guy.

tjw47 Loc: Michigan

Update the bios, replace the hard drive with a SSD drive and do a clean install.
Computer will now run faster than when you first bought it.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

For the same $$$, the iMac will be slower than a PC.

If money is no object, either get a maxed-out PC or a slower iMac. If money is really no object shoot for the stars and get a maxed out iMac. I prefer to select my own displays, so I would likely never buy an iMac. Dell, Eizo, HP Dreamcolor and others do offer superior displays for photo editing.

sergio

there is a difference: Mac is always more expensive!

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

I went from a PC to a Mac when I retired, and I have never been happier about a computer. The Mac is more expensive, but if you can afford it (I assume you can if you have an iPad, as they are expensive, too) you will not ever regret going to the Mac. Get the Mac and don’t look back. Also, splurge fo the 27” monitor while you’re at it--you won’t regret that, either.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Michael, a few years back a friend of mine was upgrading his iMac and gave me a great deal on the one he had. It's the 27 inch model and I have used it exclusively for photo work ever since. In my case, the addition of a "built-in" compiler was an added bonus that has allowed me to do some "customization" of some aspects of the software I use for processing photographs. Additionally, the quality is well worth the additional expense.
--Bob

coullone Loc: Paynesville, Victoria, Australia

I just bought a new Mac Mini i5 and use it with my 27" monitor from my old i7 PC. It is faster but more important in MUCH more stable. It will not do random updates, boot much faster and has more software with it. Only thing is it's SSD is only 256GB as opposed to the Windows machine's 512GB SSD but the Mac SSD is faster. Have just purchased a 1 TB USB 3.2 add on disk and that solved that problem. It cost me (including bigger disk) about $300 more than I paid for my i7 2 years ago so I am more than happy.
The i7 was intended to replace a 2006 Mac Pro but never quite did. Still have old Mac Pro as it is too good to throw away and use it as a backup machine (cost me $280 for a 4GB hard disk a couple of years ago as original 250Gb was too small). Cannot understand why Apple consider 256GB is adequate 13 years later!

droszel

I’ve been a Mac user since Apple was doomed. If you decide to go with the iMac, spend the extra money and get the
27 inch model. The 21 inch one doesn’t allow for ram upgrades after purchase; the 27 inch model does

JDG3

For the last 10 years I have had a foot in both the iMac and PC worlds. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. The company I recently retired from used PCs, so most of my working like has been with PC and various Microsoft OS all the way from DOS to the latest WIN 10. Several years ago during the days of the worst Microsoft OS Vista, Win 7 and their weaknesses to viruses, I switched over to an Apple and an iMac and loved it. It took a lot of reeducation to see things the way the Apple OS worked but I did manage and actually still have the iMac.

However, for whatever reason, I never became completely comfortable with the Apple OS. It seems to do things like structure files and directories the way it seems is best rather than what I wanted to do. And during that time Microsoft has improved to the point that WIN 10, in my opinion is as good as Apple's OS. Apple's hardware is very good but also very expensive. So in my opinion it comes down to a price vs performance measurement. I purchased an Asus gamer's PC with and i7 and 16 GB of Ram. It is VERY fast. LR and Photoshop edits are made nearly instantly. HDR and pano merges can take a few seconds to a minute depending on the number of shots but otherwise there are few performance issues. I was able to put this system along with a 27 inch Samsung high def monitor together for less than $900. I think an equivalent Apple system would have been twice that amount or more.

A pc with a fast i5 processor (i7 would be better) with lots of RAM and suitable harddrive will be far cheaper than an equally equipped iMac. And despite what Apple users may want to think, PCs are used in business and industry to a much larger degree thus ensuring a deep pool of development for new software and hardware. It is much like the phone world - android vs Apple phones. If you like a very structured environment where the hardware and the software are tightly integrated and few changes are allowed - go Apple. If you like a less structured system where you have more control (and a little more chaos) then go to android or the PC.

In short - I see few if any actual performance improvements of one over the other. However, the price and costs differences can be significant.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Adding an SSD and memory might speed up your Windows machine. In terms of processing speed, I doubt you will notice a significant difference between a Mac and Windows. In both cases, you can buy a fast, expensive computer, or you can save money and buy something slower. In either case, an Apple will cost more. It's generally easier to get inside a Windows machine to add or change components. I have Dell desktops still working after - let me check - four and seven years. I put SSDs in both of them.

One nice thing about Apple is that you can wipe your drive and install a new operating system very easily. It's free and fast, neither of which applies to Windows.

Some info -

Memory
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-much-ram-does-your-pc-need-probably-less-than-you-think/
http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-much-ram-does-your-pc-need/

Processor
http://gizmodo.com/dont-waste-money-on-intels-top-processor-1791426602
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2404674,00.asp
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/intel-core-i5-vs-i7/
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/intel-core-i9-vs-i7-vs-i5-cpu/
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/intel-core-i5-vs-i7/
http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/core-i5-vs-i7
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/210703-intel-core-i5-vs-core-i7-which-processor-should-you-buy

wds0410 Loc: Nunya

I converted to Mac 5 years ago and love it. One thing that will happen if you join the Apple world is all of your photos will be shared across all of your Apple devices automagically (Mac, Ipad, Iphone). Apple is more expensive --- don't know about slower as Gene51 says I haven't experienced that -- but so much better than Windows in my experience. Updating is a breeze and none of the other Windows weirdness that seems to come with every PC (blue screen of death, endless updates, etc.)

fetzler Loc: North West PA

I worked in an environment where mac and windows pc s were were used. Macs were always a problem as they use conventions unusual to the computer world and sometimes change their weird conventions. For me I would never have a mac in part because I use software that is not available for macs and many unnecessary issues occur when sharing information across platforms. Windows has always been great for backward comparability and the performance and price are better.

NCMtnMan Loc: N. Fork New River, Ashe Co., NC

Old pc versus newer ipad. Gee wonder why one is faster?