Larry Powell Loc: Columbus OH

It is upgradeable to 64 Gbs

Larry Powell Loc: Columbus OH

Buy 32 GB from One World Computing for less than $300. Lifetime warrranty macales.com

billmck Loc: Central KY

I was under the impression that you can add memory to a 27” iMac, but you definitely can’t add it to a 21.5” iMac. I learned the hard way earlier this year.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

You can add ram easily to a 27, but the 21 is much more difficult. The 21 has no more access door, so you need to crank the case open by removing the screen, but it can be done if your careful.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

You can not add ram to ALL 27' iMacs. If you do open the case and add ram, you have voided your warranty. Best of luck.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

From what I have seen iMacs back in 2009/2010 had a door on the bottom like the 21” models, after changing to the thin edge models the 27 had an access door on the back, the 21’s needed a screen removal.

What 27’s am I missing?

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

I don't have a list handy. I'm just suggesting that the buyer check that out before getting something that's not upgradeable. Some of the newer systems have the memory soldered to the motherboard. Best of luck.

delkeener Loc: SW Rhode Island, USA

I'd go with the Apple store advice. They are quite knowledgeable and have never steered me wrong.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

I don’t think the iMacs have soldered ram, you sure you are not talking about MacBooks?

I have several 27” iMacs, various years, the newest being a late 2015, the current model is a 2017 - they all have user replaceable ram.

Apple site shows newest 2017 model is user upgradable.

(Download)

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

OWC has a page on their site that tells you how any/every Mac can be upgraded.

https://eshop.macsales.com/upgrades/

rglucroft

I just bought an IMac with 16 mg ram and it’s fine for still photos. You can save a bundle if you purchase a refurbished Mac from Apple

theglove Loc: Mount Sterling Ky.

my new mac desk top came with a 1 tara bite hard drive. I use one drive which has my photos on my hard drive and on the internet. I was running out of space on the one tare bite drive so I bought a 4 tara bite external drive. The cost between a 1 tare bite drive and a 4 tare bite was vary little.

AndyGarcia

Go for 32. You will need it as time goes by. I have 16 on my MacMini struggles with quite big files. My rule is that you can never have too much ram. If you are investing $2-$3K I would not even think about it. Future proof yourself as much as you can. Enjoy your new Mac.

Desert Gecko Loc: desert southwest, USA

I won't read through six pages of replies, but I'll tell you 16GB is more than you need for the Adobe apps alone. HOWEVER, if you run other apps simultaneously, you might use more than 16GB on the third Tuesday of odd-numbered months under a full moon. Yeah. Actually you'd be surprised how much memory innocuous little things like a browser use (a browser with 8-10 open tabs can use a couple GB easy).

Here's the skinny:
1. Minimum four cores, then the clock speed per core the highest you can get/afford. That is the single most important consideration, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. To future-proof, I would go six or eight cores. Although Adobe does not currently use additional cores much except for importing and exporting mostly, who knows what their software engineers will do tomorrow?
2. RAM. Again, 16GB is adequate nearly always. More is for bragging rights and pissing contents. Same for speed of the RAM, within reason (slowest compared to fastest available and you might notice a second or two difference if your MoBo and the rest of your system capable of fully utilizing it).
3. SSD. Even the slowest SSD will run circles around the fastest HDD, and run circles around it again just to taunt you. I've read more than once that an SSD is as important as sufficient RAM, so some call these two on my list a tie. Oh, and it matters very little if you store your working photos on a platter drive. Just have your OS and Adobe apps on an SSD.
4. GPU. This is a distant 4th. If you display on a 32" 4k UHD, you want a card that can keep up. But Ps and Lr make very little use of the GPU, and again, where it matters most is being able to promptly see what you're doing.

I'll recommend an awesome website with benchmarks, articles, and more that will support all I've said, one that builds Windows machines for a variety of applications including Ps and Lr specifically. It's worth a perusal.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/

drajjan

Pat
By all means get the iMac but DON'T buy the RAM from Apple (too expensive) I bought my iMac with 8GB of RAM from Apple but then installed two 16GB of RAM myself that I bought from OWC (Other World Computing). Infinitely easy to install. They show you with video how to do it. Took 4 minutes to do. I now have 40GB at a fraction of the price. Hope this helps. Visit OWC.com
George