Can the iMac seriously do video and photo editing, Garageband, etc. really well? Or is a Mac Pro the only way to do them efficiently?
2 years, 3 months ago.
11 comments so far
Definitely; the iMac is an incredibly powerful machine. The only reason I see to go up to a Mac Pro is if you're doing serious 3D work or possibly handling a ton of HD
Well, I may want to do some HD editing, but it won't be my primary task. Thanks for the reply David, it's certainly reassuring. ha.
I'm thinking of moving my desktop over to the Mac once Leopard comes out, but I don't really want to drop the cash on a Mac Pro if the iMac should work fine. I'd like the options for upgrading in the Mac Pro, but I would just put in the biggest hard drive in the iMac for now and upgrade the ram later (provided it'll do what I want it to do).
Depending on how much video you'll be handling, it's actually a better practice to keep your OS and apps on one hard drive, and store/edit your video on another to increase speed and performance. With an iMac this of course means you would need an external hard drive, and you have the advantage of portability there.
That said, if you decide to jump on this practice, you could actually save a few bucks on the iMac's internal hard drive and spend them on a larger external.
I played around with one for about 20 minutes at an Apple sore yesterday. I was amazed at how fast it was. I had a ton of apps open. The scrubbing in iMovie is simply stunning. I didn't even know about the feature until I happened to move my pointer across a clip.
That's true, David... I've heard about that. But in order for the organizational features to work properly in, say, iPhoto and iTunes for photos and music, it is better to keep them on the main hard drive is it not? Music and photos (especially my DSLR photos) can fill up hard drive space pretty quickly...
Mcconnell: yes and no. iTunes offers the ability to specify any location, including an external hard drive or even one connected via something like the AirPort Extreme's wireless AirDisk feature, as the location of your iTunes media (check out the Advanced pane in iTunes' preferences). It isn't hard to set up, and I've kept my library on an external drive for about a year now. If you don't mind a shameless plug, I wrote up a tutorial on this for TUAW.com:
iPhoto offers the same kind of feature, though I admittedly have never played with it: you can specify in iPhoto's preferences for it to leave pictures you add in their original location. This means you could indeed keep pictures in different folders, lying around anywhere on your Mac or on an external hard drive, but I would assume that this means you would have to leave those images where they are for iPhoto to be able to manage and edit them.
I'm planning to put a terabyte Drobo on the iMac for music and video storage (not editing). If I were going to do heavy duty editing I'd get a dedicated Firewire 800 drive for that.
@Metroweekly: I don't own one, but I have yet to see a negative review. It looks like they basically simplified RAID (those redundant hard drive storage/backup systems) and made it dead simple for you to use multiple drives and simply pop them in and out like legos as you see fit. One drive fails? Your data's fine, just toss in a new drive, doesn't matter what size.
11 comments so far
Definitely; the iMac is an incredibly powerful machine. The only reason I see to go up to a Mac Pro is if you're doing serious 3D work or possibly handling a ton of HD
2 years, 3 months ago by davidchartier
Well, I may want to do some HD editing, but it won't be my primary task. Thanks for the reply David, it's certainly reassuring. ha.
I'm thinking of moving my desktop over to the Mac once Leopard comes out, but I don't really want to drop the cash on a Mac Pro if the iMac should work fine. I'd like the options for upgrading in the Mac Pro, but I would just put in the biggest hard drive in the iMac for now and upgrade the ram later (provided it'll do what I want it to do).
2 years, 3 months ago by mcconnell
Depending on how much video you'll be handling, it's actually a better practice to keep your OS and apps on one hard drive, and store/edit your video on another to increase speed and performance. With an iMac this of course means you would need an external hard drive, and you have the advantage of portability there.
That said, if you decide to jump on this practice, you could actually save a few bucks on the iMac's internal hard drive and spend them on a larger external.
2 years, 3 months ago by davidchartier
I played around with one for about 20 minutes at an Apple sore yesterday. I was amazed at how fast it was. I had a ton of apps open. The scrubbing in iMovie is simply stunning. I didn't even know about the feature until I happened to move my pointer across a clip.
2 years, 3 months ago by Goldenatom
That's true, David... I've heard about that. But in order for the organizational features to work properly in, say, iPhoto and iTunes for photos and music, it is better to keep them on the main hard drive is it not? Music and photos (especially my DSLR photos) can fill up hard drive space pretty quickly...
2 years, 3 months ago by mcconnell
Mcconnell: yes and no. iTunes offers the ability to specify any location, including an external hard drive or even one connected via something like the AirPort Extreme's wireless AirDisk feature, as the location of your iTunes media (check out the Advanced pane in iTunes' preferences). It isn't hard to set up, and I've kept my library on an external drive for about a year now. If you don't mind a shameless plug, I wrote up a tutorial on this for TUAW.com:
How to keep your iTunes library on an external hard drive
iPhoto offers the same kind of feature, though I admittedly have never played with it: you can specify in iPhoto's preferences for it to leave pictures you add in their original location. This means you could indeed keep pictures in different folders, lying around anywhere on your Mac or on an external hard drive, but I would assume that this means you would have to leave those images where they are for iPhoto to be able to manage and edit them.
2 years, 3 months ago by davidchartier
I'm planning to put a terabyte Drobo on the iMac for music and video storage (not editing). If I were going to do heavy duty editing I'd get a dedicated Firewire 800 drive for that.
2 years, 3 months ago by ChiefTWiT
david: Thanks for the info... I really appreciate it.
Leo: A Drobo? Interesting... I've read a bit about them, but don't know too much. Expensive little things it seems though. ha.
2 years, 3 months ago by mcconnell
I have been considering a Drobo for the office, as a backup option for all our computers. Is it worth it? Please advise.
2 years, 3 months ago by Metroweekly
Listen to David.
2 years, 3 months ago by bstolba
@Metroweekly: I don't own one, but I have yet to see a negative review. It looks like they basically simplified RAID (those redundant hard drive storage/backup systems) and made it dead simple for you to use multiple drives and simply pop them in and out like legos as you see fit. One drive fails? Your data's fine, just toss in a new drive, doesn't matter what size.
2 years, 3 months ago by davidchartier