Upgrading 2011 iMac: I've done all my photoshop work using a 2019 MacBook pro 16". I think I made up my mind to upgrade the my old 21" iMac with a new SSD 1TB drive and upgrading my...

Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas

I've done all my photoshop work using a 2019 MacBook pro 16". I think I made up my mind to upgrade the my old 21" iMac with a new SSD 1TB drive and upgrading my 8GB ram to 32GB. I watched a YouTube video showing the speed increase. Looks like the old hard drive it the thing that is holding it back. I use Photoshop CC extensively, don't do any video. I'm posting here to see if any of you think I'm doing the wrong thing. The upgrade will cost about $310.
What do you say?

ORpilot Loc: Prineville, Or

Looks good to me. I use a 2009 mac book pro,,, It is my travel, general viewing platform , can you say slow....but faster than my 2014 Lenovo Win 10 . I have a newer 2019 Mac book pro 15inch 16GB ram 250GB ssd flash running Mojave. It's nice. I also have my main Mac 27inch late 2015 1T hybred drive 16GB ram, running Catalina. The 27'' Mac I do the serious PP work . I don't use photoshop much , I mostly use Apple Photos and if needed then I use ON-1. I think for $310 it definitely would be worth it.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

I’d say to go for it. I’m also having a ram problem with my 27” and am also considering the upgrade.

PCB_smv

Is bought a new 21 in IMac at Christmas and very glad I did. What I notice the most is than certain products run so much faster. Ex: Topaz Denoise was very slow on the old one and runs very fast now. When it was so slow I hardly used it, now it is a part of workflow.

tkraatz

You will definitely see a performance improvement. I'm still running a late 2009 27" iMac that I upgraded to 20 GB RAM and a 500 GB SSD. The smaller (cheaper) SSSD works fine for me as I keep all my files on a Synology NAS device that I can access from anywhere with any computer. OWC's tutorials are excellent.

As much as I would love to trade up to the latest model with it's 5K true-tone display, the old computer just keeps on running. My only warning is that at some point, and you may already be there, is that you might not be able to maintain the same version of the macOS operating system on both machines. Although unsupported by Apple, I am running macOS Mojave ver 10.14 using Collin's (dosdude1.com) macOS patcher. He does have a newer patcher out for Catalina but I haven't gotten around to try that one yet.

Cameralark Loc: Torrington, CT

You mention the iMac 21" but do not comment on it's specs.
The machine comes in several varieties like Heinz.
Processor speed, graphics card etc
I have a MacBook Pro that definitely needs upgrading as some of the Topaz programs are painfully slow.
I'm trying to determine what the best options would be that do not break the bank.

Stan Gould Loc: La Crosse, Wisconsin

tkraatz wrote:

Although unsupported by Apple, I am running macOS Mojave ver 10.14 using Collin's (dosdude1.com) macOS patcher.

Great info. It is amazing what one can learn at UHH.
I was unaware of the macOS patcher until now. I have a 2008 MacBook thought to be unusable. Maybe not with macOS patcher.
I also have a 2012 MacBook Pro that is still supported, but not for long (maybe one or two more years.)
Glad to know that macOS patcher exists.
Many thanks😎

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

I upgraded last year to a Mac 27" and its great. I also went to B&H a got two 8 mb to up grade it. It took about 5 minus to do it. Just open the for in black and put them in the slots, close the door and start the machine. I would put a soft cloth 0on the table to protect the screen when you lay it down to open. PS give the computer 5 min or so after un plugging

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

Jim-Pops wrote:

I've done all my photoshop work using a 2019 MacBook pro 16". I think I made up my mind to upgrade the my old 21" iMac with a new SSD 1TB drive and upgrading my 8GB ram to 32GB. I watched a YouTube video showing the speed increase. Looks like the old hard drive it the thing that is holding it back. I use Photoshop CC extensively, don't do any video. I'm posting here to see if any of you think I'm doing the wrong thing. The upgrade will cost about $310.
What do you say?

Upgrade.

Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas

I have decided to upgrade. I ordered parts and will do the upgrade. I clock my startup time before and after so others can decide if it is worth it. I also will time the opening of photoshop. Stay tuned.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

For the price, I think it's worth the expense.
--Bob

Jim-Pops wrote:

I've done all my photoshop work using a 2019 MacBook pro 16". I think I made up my mind to upgrade the my old 21" iMac with a new SSD 1TB drive and upgrading my 8GB ram to 32GB. I watched a YouTube video showing the speed increase. Looks like the old hard drive it the thing that is holding it back. I use Photoshop CC extensively, don't do any video. I'm posting here to see if any of you think I'm doing the wrong thing. The upgrade will cost about $310.
What do you say?

spacehopper

tkraatz wrote:

You will definitely see a performance improvement.... (show quote)

I agree with the above. I'm interested in your comment about a patcher for the macOS. I've stopped with High Sierra because it's the last OS I know of that will still allow me to work with the non-subscription Adobe software, or so I understand. Does the patcher take care of that problem?

I have a late 2014 iMac 27"screen, 4K Retina, 32 Gb mem,3 Tb Hybrid HD running High Sierra. My software still works with this OS (Adobe Production Pro CS6, Lightroom 6.1) and I'm resisting the migration to CC for these because I feel I've got enough invested in the software as is. However, that means that I can't edit my Sony RAW files in LR or PS because the version of Camera Raw in them does not work with .ARW files. Have to have the subscription versions to get the camera raw software that works with the Sony raw.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

If you don't want the latest version ( I'm not using it) Costco and other companies are selling the 2019 version (which I have) at a reduced price.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

You can convert your camera RAW files to .dng files and that will work with your version of Ps. However, I'd keep the original RAW files, as not all of the data contained in the header portion is transferred at the conversion.
--Bob

spacehopper wrote:

I agree with the above. I'm interested in your com... (show quote)

Ednsb Loc: Santa Barbara

while your path will give you a more snappy computer it will not make it process images faster than what you would get from new equipment. Your MBP is way faster than that iMac. Also that computer can at best run High Sierra which with the next macOS release will be grandfathered ( put on the shelf with no new development or bug fixes). Also, it does not have ML graphics so a number of software packages will not work.

I'm running on a mid-2011 27 inch iMac. It worked great but I am in process of replacing it. 9 years is great.

The fastest 2011 21 inch iMac scored 720/2345 (single core/multicore) on Geekbench - I don’t know which 16 inch MBP you have but the slowest one has scores of 1075/6619.