The trouble with iMacs, in my opinion, is that the computer typically becomes obsolete before the display. Whichever wears out first, though, both need to be replaced.
Just slightly over your budget (not counting tax and shipping), but here’s what I’d consider:
Monitor: $569 LG 27" or $609 LG 32"
Computer: $1999 M1 Max Mac Studio
The SSD is a little small, but I store all my working files on external drives, so for me, the storage capacity wouldn’t be an issue. Using only the main Adobe apps, I doubt you’d notice much (if any) difference between this and the more expensive M1 Ultra.
This is my home setup.
I do work from home using dropbox downloads, Indesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, internet, email
and onboard music (not streaming service) with absolutely no lag. A coworker has a similar set up here at work that is running all those adobes plus AutoCAD for Mac. The only time it really complains a tiiny bit is adding Fusion on top of all that.
My Mac Mini has 16 GB of memory and a 500 GB hard drive. I just checked, and I’m only using 120 GB of the available space. However, I have two 2 TB external SSDs hooked up right now, along with a networked backup drive. One of the external drives is mostly used for scratch space. I suppose the speed back and forth between the hard drive isn’t quite as fast as the internal bus, but everything seems fast enough — even with a dozen apps open and running.
I don’t typically work on huge files that need tons of scratch space or processing power, but I’m often working on ~40–50 MB files (when opened) with multiple layers. The only slowdowns I’ve experienced in Photoshop are when I’m carefully masking things by hand using the lasso tool. Eventually, it begins to lag. I’m unsure if that’s a scratch-related memory problem or something else. Glyphs (a typeface/font development) app slows way down when I have 30 or 40 fonts open (which oddly happens quite often), but I doubt many run into that particular problem.
My wife recently bought a top-end 16" M1 MacBook Pro. I have no idea why since she only uses it to watch Netflix and constantly check her 401k. I’ve used the computer a few times and, honestly, I don’t notice all that much difference between it and my cheap little Mac Mini. Maybe if I used it for more than a few hours on some larger projects, I’d notice the difference, but for the usual stuff, it seems about the same.
You need a camera. You could probably find a monitor with one built in.
I did find that you have to connect monitor with HDMI. With the VGA, the screen wavered a bit.
Just B, the large hard drive is partly because Dropbox is such a stupid interface. When you synch to your files there, they take up resident space on your computer hard drive. I have multiple jobs right now that are pushing a couple hundred gigs of space just sitting there. And they have to be resident if I don’t want to wait for them to re-synch on my residential broadband house line. Even at work, synching time can be an issue. Plus there is never a lag with photoshop looking for scratch. That’s a biggie. Designers still haven’t figured out when I say 30ppi, I mean 30ppi, not 300ppi.
Rather than me answering your question, here’s a link to lots of information.
The way your question is worded, though, sort of implies that you might be looking at this as a more or less permanent way of using the hard drives on one machine as storage space on another. If so, that doesn’t strike me as an especially good plan.
External discs are relatively inexpensive and can easily be moved from one machine to the next by simply unplugging them and plugging them into another machine. Rather than lugging a computer between work and home, for years, I simply unplugged my external hard drive at work and brought everything home with me to plug into my home computer. A 4TB external hard drive is only about $100.
Maybe I’m misinterpreting the motive behind your question.
That is my intent. And if it works, I don’t plan on those drives every leaving the home office. Getting too close to retirement, I just want to have a good system at home - UNTIL I can get an external that can hold what I need. And that’s pretty good for a 4TB external drive!
Deeply sorry for your loss, I cannot comprehend how that feels and I hope you’re doing okay and whenever you do make sure you don’t isolate!
3000 bucks I would go for the M1 Max or the M1 Ultra. If you already have existing machines you could easily go to eBay with that and maybe make a few bucks to get closer to the price.
The only reason I say this is because it looks like you take a while to upgrade between different machines and you choose the more powerful one, so if you’re not going to upgrade for another 5 years then right now the M1 Max and the M1 Ultra are Kings.
I have the Max, I would say final cut compared to the M1 Pro or the regular M1 is very similar in timing? I know there’s a lot of benchmarks showing that they’re much more powerful but they’re relatively close in real life.
The iMacs tend to have some problems that Apple doesn’t want to fix and are more expensive.
If you get the M1 Max without the 32 graphics cores you may even be able to get AppleCare.
If you really can’t stand a laptop then the M1 studio is literally made for you. If any more about your requirements I could probably help more.
Insurance didn’t come up to what I thought and I’m trimming my budget, having to redirect my thoughts and wondering if I will really need the M1 Mac Mini. I’m sure it’s fast, probably faster than what I really need. Considering I’m on a 10 year old MacPro, I would think a Mac Mini with the i5 would blow me away and for less money.
Thoughts?
Awesome. I hope it works out well for you. As you said coming from a 10 year old system it should feel like a night and day change. The hard drive will fill up fairly quickly, but an external drive or two should help with that.
Thanks Just-B. It should be a good time! I have 4 TB of hard drive that I can take out of the old MacPro. Or just get a new drive. The old drives are probably plenty old and will need replacing pretty soon anyway.
Thanks for your the knowledge to help narrow things down. I think I’ve got a combination system of yours and PrintDriver.
