# Imac 2017 buying question



## Mr. Ha (Nov 25, 2017)

Hello,
My 2011 MacBook Pro (500Gb SSD and 16GB RAM) has started lagging (a lot of fan noise and it's slower) so sadly it's time to get a new computer... 

I currently also own a MacBook Air (8GBs of ram and 1.6ghz) which I haven't used for composing yet. Is is possible to compose with Logic and a light Kontakte template (spitfire stereo mixes mainly)? I'm asking this as I'm concisering the iMac and using the MBA when I'm not at home could be a good option, if it's powerful enough.

So the main question; I've been looking at the iMac 4K 21.5 inch computers and am not really sure which one is the most optimal (I have limited resources but would like to buy something that can last many years). I would get a 512GB ssd and 8Gbs or ram (which I would upgrade myself to save money).

How much does the performance differ between these models: 3.0 ghz i5, 3.8 ghz i5 and 3.6 ghz i7?

I use Logic Pro and load my whole template (individual tracks for each articulation) through Kontakt. I basically only use spitfire symphonic libraries.

Any answers to these questions would be really helpful!


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## j_kranz (Nov 25, 2017)

I believe only the 27-inch has a user accessible memory slot compartment, the 21-inch has to be configured memory-wise when you buy it. Also, only the middle and high-end 27-inch can go up to 64gb ram.


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## gsilbers (Nov 26, 2017)

Mr. Ha said:


> Hello,
> My 2011 MacBook Pro (500Gb SSD and 16GB RAM) has started lagging (a lot of fan noise and it's slower) so sadly it's time to get a new computer...
> 
> I currently also own a MacBook Air (8GBs of ram and 1.6ghz) which I haven't used for composing yet. Is is possible to compose with Logic and a light Kontakte template (spitfire stereo mixes mainly)? I'm asking this as I'm concisering the iMac and using the MBA when I'm not at home could be a good option, if it's powerful enough.
> ...



i would say the i7 for the iMac. 

also, u might wanna try an external ssd and also do a fresh install of mac os if u want to extend your current MacBook pro. 

the iMacs seems very cool. seems apple will launch a new Mac Pro early next year. although its still a rumor. tm cook has said several times they are looking to do more on the pro side. but that could probably mean that they will remove all usb and lighting ports and replaced for a iphonex dongle which then will communicate with peripherals for the low price of $1k


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## Mr. Ha (Nov 26, 2017)

j_kranz said:


> I believe only the 27-inch has a user accessible memory slot compartment, the 21-inch has to be configured memory-wise when you buy it. Also, only the middle and high-end 27-inch can go up to 64gb ram.


Oh that's a shame... I don't really need the 27 inch display. How big a difference is it to have 32 or 64GBs or ram, performance-wise?
And how important is the processor? does i5 vs i7 make a big difference?


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## Mr. Ha (Nov 26, 2017)

gsilbers said:


> i would say the i7 for the iMac.
> 
> also, u might wanna try an external ssd and also do a fresh install of mac os if u want to extend your current MacBook pro.
> 
> the iMacs seems very cool. seems apple will launch a new Mac Pro early next year. although its still a rumor. tm cook has said several times they are looking to do more on the pro side. but that could probably mean that they will remove all usb and lighting ports and replaced for a iphonex dongle which then will communicate with peripherals for the low price of $1k



So i7 vs i5 is really a big difference?
I already reset my MacBook Pro about a year ago when it was acting up and it has been just okay to work with but the fans have been on constantly so I think there's not that much to do now as the computer has started making a clipping whirring sound whenever it's turned on. I don't even dare use it right now.

Yes, I saw the iMac Pro announcement and it looks really impressive. Sadly I don't have the money to buy something like that so I think I'll try to get a good a deal as possible on one of the 2017 iMacs


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## gsilbers (Nov 26, 2017)

Mr. Ha said:


> So i7 vs i5 is really a big difference?
> I already reset my MacBook Pro about a year ago when it was acting up and it has been just okay to work with but the fans have been on constantly so I think there's not that much to do now as the computer has started making a clipping whirring sound whenever it's turned on. I don't even dare use it right now.
> 
> Yes, I saw the iMac Pro announcement and it looks really impressive. Sadly I don't have the money to buy something like that so I think I'll try to get a good a deal as possible on one of the 2017 iMacs



the i5 vs i7 battle is well discussed in the pc side. maybe you can get some more info on that side to give you more info about the mac. I remember doing it and decided to go with i7. mainly because i was building a 128gb ram pc with a few gen older chips 9240k which at the time where very discounted based on benchmarks etx. and thats on the slave side. 
at the same time, there are some alternatives to this discussion. i remember whine cellar posts where he has a laptop and uses 2-3 slave pcs. 
with the iMac i think you are limited to the amount of ram. but it will be a powerhouse as a daw. 
so thats another alternative where you could get a i5 iMac and an older model i5/i7 to be a slave machine. 

anyways, i7 vs i5 = i saw the bench marks and saw what other people where using and cross referenced it and gave me a somewhat picture of what should i get. maybe as a main daw i7 is better and i5 is good for slave. 
also, those can be easily overclocked with the onboard software so thats yet, another realm of info to look into.


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## D Halgren (Nov 26, 2017)

Doesn't i7 mean more threads through hyperthreading, virtual threads?


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## Mr. Ha (Nov 27, 2017)

gsilbers said:


> the i5 vs i7 battle is well discussed in the pc side. maybe you can get some more info on that side to give you more info about the mac. I remember doing it and decided to go with i7. mainly because i was building a 128gb ram pc with a few gen older chips 9240k which at the time where very discounted based on benchmarks etx. and thats on the slave side.
> at the same time, there are some alternatives to this discussion. i remember whine cellar posts where he has a laptop and uses 2-3 slave pcs.
> with the iMac i think you are limited to the amount of ram. but it will be a powerhouse as a daw.
> so thats another alternative where you could get a i5 iMac and an older model i5/i7 to be a slave machine.
> ...


The i7 seems like a better investment for the future than the i5. I did hear that the i7 has louder fans than the i5 though but I come from a really loud broken MacBook Pro 2011 so maybe that won't matter lol

I would prefer not to have a slave machine at the moment so maybe the i7 4.0 ghz with a 512Gb ssd is a good idea. Then I'd upgrade the ram myself, hopefully to 64. I'm thinking if I could bring the cost down with a 256GB internal sss but in the long run that might cause problems.

It's too bad you can't upgrade the ram in the 21.5 inch version because that would be a bit cheaper and I don't really need the display, even though I won't mind it if i get the 27 inch...


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## synthnut1 (Nov 27, 2017)

You can read the threads here about the iMac.....I was interested in purchasing the faster/better i7 model,but was talked out of it because of the heat and loud fans issues....There is a quad core i5 that does not perform as well as the i7 but does run cooler....I decided to build a faster PC that will be quieter than the iMac ....I'm still on the fence with the Thunderbolt issue so have done nothing yet.....Jim


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## mauriziodececco (Dec 11, 2017)

I am afraid it is a bit late for the original poster, but before throwing away a 2011 Mac Book Pro, i suggest you to make a few checks to verify if the machine do not have some problem. An SSD machine with 16Gb of Ram may be slower than the newest one, but should not be often under thermal stress and should still be quite snappy.

I have no idea of your computer side competences, so may be you tried did everything already.

1) Make sure your Mac OS X is up to date; i had a friend in the same situation, and the problem was some spyware installed nobody know how; later versions of the OS automatically clean the machine of this kind of malware. Take with a grain of salt of the discussions about new versions slowing down old Macs; i have a 2011 Mac Book Air, a 2011 Mac Mini, a 2009 Mac Pro, a 2014 iMac and a 2015 MacBook (the whole family computer park), they all run with the latest version available for them, and they were never as fast; i recently booted my Mac Pro on Leon (i think), and the slowing down were sensible.

2) Check what your machine is doing while the fun is high and the Mac slow; use Activity Manager, and check for anything that use either too much memory or too much CPU that you do not recognize. If this give strange results, lookup the culprit on google to know what it is.

3) Clean the fun; this need to open the machine, and use a dry compressed air bottle; if you never did that, the Mac may overheat because there is too much dust on the fun to work well; i had this problem with the Mac Book Air and the Mini, for example.

Maurizio


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## Jeremy Spencer (Dec 11, 2017)

mauriziodececco said:


> 3) Clean the fun;



Won't that take the fun out of it?


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## mauriziodececco (Dec 11, 2017)

Wolfie2112 said:


> Won't that take the fun out of it?



Probably .
And never write forum messages with your spell checker switched off 

Maurizio


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## Sovereign (Dec 12, 2017)

You might want to take a look at the inside of the macbook pro, the fans/heatsink might need cleaning. They collect dust as you know.


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## Damarus (Dec 12, 2017)

Remember, what you are talking about is an investment. People seem to forget how fast technology goes out of date. 6 years is impressive for most computers. Anything you get now will be much better than your Macbook. If you can, invest the money and get a great performing machine. Ideal setup would be Large screen, i7 Processor, 16gb+ of RAM, and large SSD. Start there and work your way forward or backward based on your budget.


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## Mr. Ha (Dec 22, 2017)

I managed to fix my computer so that it's performing like it did before the crash happened. It's of course really slow and the hard drive is almost full so I will be investing in a new iMac in the coming months. I am thinking of getting 27 inch (upgradable to 64GBs of RAM which I would buy separately and install myself). As for the processor; it'd be either 3.5GHz i5 or 4.2GHz i7 (300 dollar difference). I would also get either a 512GB SSD or a 1TB SSD (1TB costs 400 dollars more). Which one of these upgrades? Processor or bigger SSD is more important? Is the i7 really a big difference?

I currently load all my samples form a HDD (not SSD) but thought I'd put the 500GB SSD from my Macbook Pro in n enclosure (making it an external hard dive) and put my spitfire orchestral samples on there and then load other samples from the same non SSD external that I am using now.


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## Mr. Ha (May 24, 2018)

My MacBook Pro is acting up again so I am planning on getting the iMac soon. I don’t think I’ll get the top configuration with the i7 as I’d rather save some money. I thought about getting the baseconfiguration of the 27 inch 5k iMac (3.4 ghz i5, 1TB SSD and 8gbs or ram (I’ll upgrade ram myself to 32 or 64GB)). 

Is there a big difference between this computer or the model above it (3.5ghz i5)?

I will load my samples from an external SSD connected via USB3.


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## mauriziodececco (May 24, 2018)

Nobody really knows, but remember that in around 10 days there will be the Apple WWDC 2018 opening keynote.
Last year Apple announced updated Macs. It may happens again and it may be especially interesting for musicans, considering the new Intel processors. Or may be not. YMMV.
Maurizio


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## Mr. Ha (May 24, 2018)

mauriziodececco said:


> Nobody really knows, but remember that in around 10 days there will be the Apple WWDC 2018 opening keynote.
> Last year Apple announced updated Macs. It may happens again and it may be especially interesting for musicans, considering the new Intel processors. Or may be not. YMMV.
> Maurizio


I will probably wait till the Keynote Event, but if they choose to remove the upgradable Ram option (like on the iMac Pro) I won't be able to afford the computer so maybe it would be safer to just get the 2017 version.

I am reluctant to getting the i7 4.2 because I don't really have the budget for it and would rather spend money on RAM and SSD.

I use Logic and Spitfire samples (and some alchemy) for all my projects so I hope the i5 would be good. It's still a more powerful computer than the macbook pro right?


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## Jeremy Spencer (May 24, 2018)

The i5 would be probably be more powerful than your 2011 MacBook Pro, but honestly, I would save up until you can afford the i7 iMac. It's a huge step up in performance.


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## Mr. Ha (May 24, 2018)

It would have to be way more powerful than my MBP lol. The fan noise of the i7 doesn’t seem great tbh...


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## Mr. Ha (May 24, 2018)

Is CPU more important than RAM? i5 with 64GBs of ram or i7 with 16 or 32GBs? The new iMac's could apparently have non upgradable RAM so I'm a bit on the fence about buying before or after the Apple Event because I know that I won't be able to afford RAM through Apple...


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## Musicam (May 25, 2018)

I wait the new 2019 macpro.


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## Mr. Ha (May 26, 2018)

I have decided to order the 3.4 i7 iMac with 1TB SSD and 8Gbs or RAM. I will upgrade the RAM to 40GBs myself!


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## fiestared (May 26, 2018)

Mr. Ha said:


> I have decided to order the 3.4 i7 iMac with 1TB SSD and 8Gbs or RAM. I will upgrade the RAM to 40GBs myself!


40GBs ???


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## Mr. Ha (May 26, 2018)

fiestared said:


> 40GBs ???


Yes I get 8GB (2x4) from Apple and then I get 2x 16GB from Crusial or Kingston!


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## Mr. Ha (Jun 4, 2018)

Apple didn’t release any new iMacs at the WWDC event today so I ordered the 3.4ghz i5 2017 27 Inch! I badly need a new computer for 2 projects that I’m doing in the summer so I don’t think I could wait till October when they might release a new one (I honestly think they’ll release a redesigned iMac in 2019 at WWDC with macOS 10.15 which will apparently be a big deal).

I’m exited about my order, the 3.4 seems like the most computer for the money! Am going to buy a ram upgrade kit before it arrives!

Thanks for all the input!


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