Should I Get the Best iMac Available?

Question

Is it worth paying £1500 for a top spec iMac? I will be using the computer 6-8hours day using demanding animation software. However it is not for my work that pays? 3.6GHZ and 4GB RAM sounds great but do I really need that kind of hardware? Can someone that know's about this stuff advise me on who would really use a top line iMac i.e. games developer.

Answer 1

If you're a games developer you want to use a PC. The only people who get iMacs are film or TV people, and people in the music industry. If you're not any of those things, go for a PC. You can get better spec than that for much less money if you search around a bit.

http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default.asp...

That one's is so much better it'll knock the iMacs socks off. And if you want to throw away the £1500 anyway, get a water cooling system for it (one that's highly reviewed in places like the Overclock3D forums and the WaterCooling UK forums. Then overclock the system while adding fans. You can get 4GHz out of the processor, and get great Crysis performance out of the PC as a whole.

Answer 2

If your going to be using it for animation and video editing and such, then yes. (if you can afford it) That is the only reason you would ever need to buy a mac. Its really good for what you want to do with it.

Answer 3

I've got one and I run Final Cut Pro, Shake and Motion on it and it's really fast.

Yes, you will need all the power you can get when it comes to 3D animation packages like Maya or Cinema 4D (if that's the kind of animation you're referring to). the top-end iMac will be brilliant for that kind of thing.

However, as far as I know, 3D modelling and animation is more CPU and graphics hungry than video editing so I would consider a Mac Pro if you can shell out an extra few hundred quid and you'd get a machine that you can easily upgrade bit by bit for years to come.

If not, I wouldn't hesitate to get an iMac.