Help deciding on new iMac purchase

Hi,
I am looking at getting an iMac for my sister, who is pursuing a degree in graphics. Right now, she is just using Adobe Creative Suite, but wants to learn 3DS Max, Lightwave 3D, etc..
Would the 27" iMac with the ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics (256mb) be sufficient for her?
Thanks in advance for the advice.
Subhash

Hi-
Your sister is lucky to have a brother as generous as you!
THe short answer is that she will be quite happy with the 27" with Radeon 4670(256)
Note that since 3DS Max is a Windows application, she will need to set up Bootcamp to use it at its optimal speed. This means that you will also need to install (at least) Windows XP on it. Windows 7 is also a good option, with Apple releasing the official drivers for it just two days ago. You can choose the 32 bit or 64 bit of Windows. According to chatter on the web, it will work fine on even the 32 bit version.
Also, you might consider bumping up the ram to 8GB or higher, as she will be using a lot of graphics intensive programs. If so, it means she can, instead of running those apps in Bootcamp, she can also run them in Parallels (albeit at slower speed)

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Help deciding on new iMac

Hi, I'm and trying to decide on what new iMac to purchase and thought some of you could help me out. This will be replacing my 20inch G5 iMac at home so whatever I get will be leaps-and-bounds better. I work on a 24 inch 3.06 Core 2 Duo at work. I assume even the bottom of the line of the current iMac setup will be as fast or faster.
So there are two things that are stalling me. Is it worth spending more on the 3.2 processor? Is it that much faster than the 3.06? And would I benefit more from the 512 graphics card?
Also, I've seen the 21.5 and the 27 inch and can not decide. I wish there was a 24inch still. The 27 is too big. But I'm afraid of running out of room on the 21.5 inch.
We will not be watching movies on the new Mac. It will be used for iPhoto, iTunes, email, internet as well as graphic design work using Adobe CS. No serious gaming.
Thanks for any opinions!

vondy wrote:
Thanks for any opinions!
ah, good
go for the biggest, baddest machine your budget allows in order to be sufficiently safe for the next 3-4 year.
max our RAM (DIY - get it from OWC. installing it is a piece of cake).
JGG

Help me decide on new computer purchase

My main goal is to keep using Aperture for as long as possible or until I know more about Apple Photos. I'm still running 10.6.8 so that means I'm stuck with Aperture 3.2.4. I'd like the most current version of Aperture so of course that means a new os.
Should I update to Mavericks on my current computer? Or is there a technical reason I should get a new iMac? What do you think?

Mavericks is no longer available.
However, the current version of Yosemite runs an updated version of Aperture ( version 3.6)
Before embarking on a major OS upgrade, it would be wise, advisable and very prudent if you backup your current system to an external connected and Mac formatted Flash drive OR externally connected USB, Thunderbolt or FireWire 800, Mac formatted hard drive. Then, use either OS X Time Machine app to backup your entire system to the external drive OR purchase, install and use a data cloning app, like CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper, to make an exact and bootable copy (clone) of your entire Mac's internal hard drive. This step is really needed in case something goes wrong with the install of the new OS or you simply do not like the new OS, you have a very easy way/procedure to return your Mac to its former working state.
Then, determine if your Mac meets ALL minimum system install requirements.
To install OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, 10.9 Mavericks (free upgrade, but currently unavailable) or OS X 10.10 Yosemite (currently available free upgrade) you need one of these Macs:
OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion purchased emailed download code here.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/D6377Z/A/os-x-mountain-lion
iMac (Mid-2007 or later)
MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later),
MacBook Pro (15-inch or 17-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
Mac mini (Early 2009 or later)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
Xserve (Early 2009)
Your Mac also needs:
OS X Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard v10.6.8 already installed
2 GB or more of memory (I strongly advise, at least, 4 GBs of RAM or more)
8 GB or more of available space
Next,
If you run any older Mac software from the earlier PowerPC Macs, then none of this software will work with the newer OS X versions (10.7 and onward). OS X Snow Leopard had a magical and invisible PowerPC emulation application, called Rosetta, that worked seamlessly in the background that still allowed older PowerPC coded software to still operate in a Intel CPU Mac.
The use of Rosetta ended with OS X Snow Leopard as the Rosetta application was licensed to Apple, from a software company called Transitive, which got bought out, I believe, by IBM and Appe could no longer secure their rights to continue to use Rosetta in later versions of OS X.
So, you would need to check to see if you have software on your Mac that maybe older than, say, 2006 or older.
Also, check for app compatibilty here.
http://roaringapps.com/
If you have any commercial antivirus installed and/or hard drive cleaning apps installed on your Mac, like MacKeeper, CleanMyMac, TuneUpMyMac, MacCleanse, etc. now would be a good time to completely uninstall this apps by doing a Google search to learn how to properly uninstall these types of apps.
These types of apps will only cause your Mac issues later after the install of the new OS X version and you will have to completely uninstall these types of apps later.
Once you have determined all of this, you should be able to find the latest versions of OS X by clicking on the Mac App Store icon in the OS X Dock and then login to the Mac App Store using your Apple ID and password and if you purchased a download code, input that code.
You can then begin the download and installation process of installing the newer versions of OS X from the Mac App Store.

IPhoto PhotoStream not updating since new iMac purchase

I purchased a new iMac and transferred old iMac info. PhotoStream has not updated in iPhoto since the transition. Works on iPhones/iPads, but not iPhoto. Tried turning PhotoStream off/on in both iPhoto and Settings. Did not work. Any help?
Cheers,
Scott

Disable Photo Stream in the System/iCloud preference pane
and in iPhoto's Photo Stream preference pane.
Reboot and reenable both respectively. That should jump start Photo Stream.
OT

Faces Tags Gone - After New iMac Purchase

Hello. First time posting here.
This week, I purchased a new iMac (3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) and used the Setup Assistant to transfer data from my old iMac (G5 non-Intel).
All my iPhoto images transferred fine to the new machine. However, none of the Faces tags seemed to have made the transfer. When I click on the Faces view, I see an empty cork board with the "To get started with Faces..." instructions.
Any ideas on how to retrieve the Faces tags from my old machine? (I have the old machine backed up through Time Capsule as well.)
Thank you.

Thanks for your help.
After going back to my old machine, I saw that actually my Faces tags were missing there too. I must have somehow deleted them while trying solve another iPhoto issue I'm having. (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2253634)
So there were no Faces tags to transfer to the new machine.
Restoring from an older backup of my iPhoto Library did the trick. I now have all my old Faces tags back.
Thanks,
Mike

New IMac purchase input

Hello all
Next week I'll be purchasing my new IMac and, would be grateful for your input before doing so ...
I'm looking at :
Imac
24-inch glossy widescreen display
1GB memory
320GB hard drive
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory
I'll order more RAM from Newegg and max out my RAM
For my external HD
LaCie d2 Quadra Hard Drive
eSATA 1.5Gbits, FireWire 800, FireWire 400,
500 GB
Items I'm still shopping for and would be happy for recommendations :
A second monitor, I plan on running dual monitors
An external DVD burner
Thanks for any input and advise

Your iMac configuration will be fine for FCE except that you really should upgrade the RAM at least to 2GB (and you are already planning a memory upgrade, so you'll be good to go).
Regarding the use of 3 video cams, you can certainly do this, and capture all the video in FCE ... but just be aware that FCE does not have the 'multi-cam editing' feature that FCPro has. You can still do it, but you will have to manually line up the clips on separate tracks and then scroll through the video(s) to determine where you want to cut from one cam to another, then do the necessary cuts. (There's actually a bit more to it, but I wanted to give you a general idea of how a multi-cam edit can be done in FCE. Piero's excellent QuarterPIP filter will help a lot.)
Regarding sharing your external HD between your iMac and your wife's Vista PC, yes you can certainly do that. But you will have to format the drive as FAT32 (which is a PC format) ... and FAT32 is not compatible with FCE for video purposes. You could certainly import your photos from a FAT32 drive but it won't work for video with FCE. AND, you should never connect the external HD to both computers at the same time.
I hope this was helpful.

Help buying a new iMac

Hello,
As the subject points out I'm looking to buy a new iMac but even after over a month of debating what iMac to buy I'm still puzzled. This machine will be a gaming machine, spec:
iMac 27-inch
2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
1TB Serial ATA Drive
VS
iMac 27-inch
2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x2GB
1TB Serial ATA Drive
VS
iMac 27-inch
2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
256GB Solid State Drive
VS
iMac 27-inch
2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x2GB
256GB Solid State Drive
The SSD adds a lot more to the final price and I don't know if it is worth it... Me and my wife play World of Warcraft (aka WoW) so the i7 is a must and the I know for a fact that WoW is RAM hungry as well, hence why I'm thinking 8GB of RAM(I know I can upgrade later ... ). But still the SSD...? I have upgraded my MacBook Pro 5.5 (mid 2009) to a crucial SSD and I am very pleased with it, but will it make the same difference on the iMac? The i7, 8GB RAM, SSD is affordable but ... the price makes me think twice.
I am really stuck, I want to order it but don't quite know what to do...

As you know a SSD is great for startup and opening Apps and files beyond that that there isn't major advantage. Where you benefit from a SSD is by installing the OS, Apps and critical files onto the SSD and use the internal HD only for storage. If you are in the habit of turning off your computer nightly (Apple recommends you leave it on 24/7 in the manual) then the SSD would be nice. Also if you are in the habit of opening files and apps very frequently then again the SSD would be a nice asset. IMHO though SSD's are nice but a luxury and not necessary due to their costs. My opinion mirrors my financial status, however once they are considered more mainstream and less expensive I will probably jump in myself.
So my recommendations would be to get option #2:
iMac 27-inch
2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x2GB
1TB Serial ATA Drive
however DO NOT purchase the RAM from Apple. RAM is user upgradeable and won't affect your warranty. It takes 5 minutes to do. SImply purchase RAM from a reputable source like Crucial or OWC.
Roger

HELP! brand new iMac froze during firewire transfer and won't start!!!

During my setup for my brand new iMac I follwed the directions and connected my iBook via firewire to transfer my files. I noticed after a while that my iMac was frozen on "45 minutes remaining" and the blue line wasn't wavering a bit, and after over half an hour it hadn't moved. I powered off the iBook, and still nothing happened to the iMac screen--it remained frozen. I went to the guidebook and nothing seemed to work, so I powered off and on again, only to get a flashing question mark. All this and I just bought the darn thing tonight!
Help! Anyone know what happened and more importantly how to fix it?
Thanks.
Lindsay

it sounds like the iBook went to sleep during the transfer or at least it's hard drive spun down.
what you need to know is hope that simply booting from your install DVD will let you repair the iMac's hard drive. You could also try booting holding down the Command S keys on startup and when you get to the Single User Mode command line prompt follow the directions there for running fsck to repair your hard drive.
Do you have a FW hard drive? Can you copy files from iBook to FW and then from there to iMac?
And, it is always nice to have a FW emergency/backup hard drive. The iMac needs a different partition scheme to be bootable from FW than the iBook does, but you can create the proper partition type etc from a Tiger Installer and put OS X on FireWire, then see if you can backup and repair your iMac's hard drive.
MicroMat's TechTool Pro 4.5.1 is now shipping and is compatible, Universal Binary and bootable. Always good to have some 3rd party utility handy.
If you are just starting out, you probably don't have much if anything installed yet, so you may want to just erase your iMac drive and restore to what it was. That would be the easiest if Disk Utility won't repair it.
Instead of powering off the iBook, I would have tried to force quit whatever was running, like Migration Assistant.

From tiger to leopard.. plz help me.. new imac tomorrow

so for 3 years i always used my ibook with tiger.. tomorrow my new imac will be delivered... i need any help u can give or links to previous topics regarding how to transfer everything such as settings.. emails... music.. calendar..everything..especially now that i there will be two operating systems (different) involved. thanks

Migration Assis. *****.
I've seen alot of issues when people use it. Back up all you'r info (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301239) you can also try (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583) Firewire, But that doesn't save any preferences, Try the Migration Assis. But a backup is always best just in case.

Help Needed re: New iMac SSD and Apps

I have a new MTO 27" iMac with the SSD option and I want to maximize the performance of my Apps and OS by having them resident on the SSD and not much else. I don't know what folders and files other than the .app files I need to move from my old PPC to achieve this. Please help as I am already a little confused about the content of the SSD vs the HDD. After moderate reading, I'm thinking I just want the OS (Lion) and my Apps on the SSD but I am using the Target Drive process vs Migration assistant. I already have moved my "out of the box" User home folder and its "Hidden" Library to my HDD on the new imac, but have NOT moved any of my old PPC Apps or other folders to the new iMac yet.
Should I put my User/Library/Applications Support Folder on my SSD if I mainly want my OS and Apps on the SSD? AND Can I just move/copy the folder to the new iMac using the Target Drive process from my old PPC?
I'm open to other ideas about what files s/b on SSD

I've seen a few Discussion Threads regarding these new iMac setups with the two internal drives (SSD + HDD). Some folks are advocating for keeping all Apps/OS files on the SSD exactly as you mention. Then they come up with a scheme for keeping their whole home folder on the HDD and it's seamlessly done so that the Mac doesn't complain that your home folder isn't in the default location.
http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/SetupOther.html
This has some tips on how to keep your home folder on the larger HDD instead of on the SSD.

Need help installing on new iMac

I am just in the process of getting ready to upgrade my G5 to Leopard, and then back up the drive to a firewire drive. I am also getting a new iMac, which will come with Leopard, Parallels, and Windows, pre-installed. I do not want to have to start putting my software on the new computer disc by disc. How do I transfer what I have on the firewire drive to the new computer? If I copy the drive over, will I lose what is pre-installed on the iMac? I can't copy the G5 drive to the firewire to begin with, and I can't copy it over from there to the iMac using SuperDuper, since I understand it does not work with Leopard, so what do I use? Can someone give this moron step by step instructions? I have had a number of computers over the years, but never copied over a drive - Inever had as much on a computer as I have put on it over the last few years, and I don't want to spend weeks transferring. Thanks for any advice! Leslie

Hi Leslie Weinberg;
If I understand you correctly you want to move your applications from a G5 to new iMac. This is know way to cause performance problems on the new iMac. The reason for this is that applications installed on the G5 are set up for PowerPC and the new iMac has an Intel processor.
The recommended way to do this is to install the application on the new iMac and then you can move the data and settings over afterwards.
Allan

New IMac purchase - need an opinion

I am looking to switch over the mac from pc. i have narrowed it down to the 20" Imac. Different processor and ATI drive, hard drive capacity. Not sure which to buy.
I do not do games. Do internet, word processor, desktop publishing, etc.
any users thoughts.
thanx

I agree. In terms of your computer usage, you sound a lot like me. We do a lot of reading and writing on the computer. You should spend a considerable amount of time on a new iMac at the store to determine whether or not your eyes can tolerate the glossy screen. It really is made with movie-viewers in mind. If not, then act now and search the internet for a white iMac 20" or 24" model before they're all gone. It has basically the same speed and memory specifications as the new aluminum model, plus a far superior screen in terms of color balance, viewing angle, and overall comfort-level.

Deciding on new Imac or not.

Hey everybody! I currently own a 2.4GHZ older imac with an ATI 2600 pro in it and 3gb of ram, the 20inch version.
I have an oppertunity to get a new Imac 24inch 8800GS, 4gb ram, 500gb hard driver, and 3.06ghz for about 1600 cdn.
So my question to you is, should I go for it or wait a while? I'm fine with my imac right now, but I'd like to install windows on it and play a few games as well. So what does everyone think about that?

That sounds like a model from the first aluminum iMac line-up. You can upgrade the RAM to 4GB with one 2GB module to replace the existing 1GB module, if 3GB is not enough. That should improve performance a bit. The upcoming Snow Leopard (in a few weeks) will probably make the same Intel 64-bit hardware run better, because it is an upgrade the is focused on optimization in various ways.
You can install Windows on it. Whether the graphics hardware can handle "a few games" depends on the system requirements for those games. If the current system running Windows under Boot Camp meets the requirements, and the iMac is otherwise fine for what you do under Mac OS X, I would keep it and use it as long as possible. I'm sure there will be other good deals in the future.

Need help with workflow: New iMac with SSD & HDD and Pegasus Promise

Hello everyone! I've decided to upgrade my iMac and ordered an i7 with the SSD and HDD drive configuration as well as the Pegasus Promise 12TB drive. I've been researching as to what's the best way to manage both the SSD and HDD drives and I really haven't seen an end-all answer. Now with the purchase of the Pegasus Promise, I'm more confused as to what's the best approach to take. Here are my thoughts:
1. Use the SSD as the boot and application drive and the HDD for the users folder.
2. Use the SSD as the boot and application drive, the HDD for the users folder, and photos and pics onto the Pegasus.
3. Use the SSD as the boot and application drive, the Pegasus for the users folder, and the HDD for ???
4. Just use the Pegasus drive as the boot drive and use it for everything. (being that it's a RAID drive, then all my files are backed-up already)
Majority of my space-filling files are my iTunes folder, tons of pictures from using Aperture, and iMovie for videos.
Thanks in advance for everyone's input and help!

I'm working on a similar premise. i7, SSD, HDD, Promise raid, etc.
I'm nowhere near as savvy as a lot of the people here, but after a lot of research I decided that focusing on how the Pegasus gets configured is the most important for me. My concerns are for a business in photography, btw.
I can't budget the 12TB unit so I'm trying to make the most of either the R4-8tb or th R6-6tb.
I'm planning to launch the applications from the SSD. I will use the Mac HDD for typical non-photographic files, iTunes (mine's not so big), and standard fair. This is all backed up via Time Machine to a 3TB Western Digital MyBook for the time being.
As for the Pegasus, I believe I've settled on: taking an R6-6tb unit, placing the 6th drive in my firesafe from the moment I get it. Configuring the remaining 5 drives in a level 5 setup. Leaves me 4TB to get started and buys me a few succesful quarters to plan on daisy chaining another unit when memory is needed. This way, I may not have maximum possible drive space, but I've got a replacement drive on the ready should I experience a drive-failure. Then, I'm not sitting on pins and needles while I await a replacement; they'll simply be shipping me a new "spare".
I still need to actually speak to someone @ Promise to make sure this will work, as I stated: I"m learning as I go here. If this is an acceptable Raid setup, you would have 8TB available to you.
Personally, I am far more comfortable running systems in series and building the size as I go (to a point) than putting so much data in a single array.
[Edit] The raid bay is mainly for the Lightroom catalog, and I use standard external drives to store redundant backups off-site (1TB at a time).

Very weird new iMac purchase

Well I got my refurbished 20" iMac today. To my surprise when I turned it on I found that there was no operating system installed. Upon booting the Phoenix program kicked in and started testing the mac. It went through quite a few step and then asked me to put the bar code in front of the camera for the iSight test. I thought maybe things has just changed a bit since my last purchase so I held the bar code from the box up to the iSight to see if it would work. Obviously it did not.
I then called Applecare and got someone who must have been on her first day. I tried to explain everything to her and mentioned that none of the iLife suite was installed. She proceeded to tell me that iLife only comes as trial software on new computers and iTunes was the only iLife program that can be had for free on new computers. She told me that refurbs do not get iLife which was a surprise to me.
I finally gave up and took the whole computer to the Genius Bar at my local store. After debating how it could have happened they went ahead and installed the disk image and got everything up and running. It appears that they never finished the check after refurb and somehow packed it up and sold it that way. Seems like a pretty big thing to miss to me.

Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
So do you have an issue that you need tech help with? This is a user to user tech support forum.
I think that the Apple Care tech was in error. According to the Specs page the entire iLife suite of apps, full version, not a trial, comes on new Macs.
You should have received the Restore Disks that originally came with your Mac model and they would have all the installed software that came with that Mac when it was new. If you did not receive the disks, I would inquire about them. Who did you purchase this Mac from?

Help deciding on new iMac purchase

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