researching the iMac 27" Retina Display . . . . . . . . . your thoughts and insights are welcome

golfcharlie wrote in post #17720501
When I bought it, I was told not to go cheap on the PSU. The CX750M wasn't exactly cheap so I didn't expect any problem. I took a lot of time to decide which CPU, GPU or CPU cooler to get, I didn't think too much when it came to the power supply. Clearly, I should have gone for something higher end like the SeaSonic you mention (which uses fans that only spin under heavy load).
It is also where most of the noise comes from, the fan is very noisy. I will change it eventually.

Boot times take a while mostly because the PC boots, then stops, then boots again. Most people with this motherboard have the same issue, I haven't found out how to correct it. It is not a huge deal but I'd rather have a PC that boots faster. On average it takes 45 seconds to reach the Desktop screen.

I'm still using Lightroom 5, perhaps Lightroom 6 would improve the overall performance as it uses the GPU for some of its tasks.
But now that you mention it, I have all my photos on the spinning hard drive. The SSD is used for the OS, some programs (including Lightroom) and my Adobe Premiere Pro sequence and files.

The plan is to change the power unit and to add another SSD but ultimately, I wonder whether money would be better spent towards buying an iMac down the road.

I'd make sure that the catalog and previews are moved to the SSD, your photos can be on the HDD but I can see from Luckless's post why hosting them on a SSD in the future would be a real advantage. Also a few of the things I do include:

1. Under Catalog Settings -> File handling make sure you pick a Standard Preview Size larger than the width of your screen (e.g., I have a 1920 x 122 display, so I set it to 2048). If you set it to something lower than your longest edge then it can take a long time for the displayed preview to appear "sharp".

2. I set my preview quality to High and discard 1:1's after 30 days:
- If I had a higher resolution monitor I'd pick Medium to reduce any performance hit from generating previews. I'd also pick Medium if I had a lower spec'd PC.
- If I was on a slow machine I'd probably also generate the 1:1's on import and take a bit of a hit on the time it takes to import images, where my current desktop is fast enough so I only generate standard previews on import.

3. Under Preferences -> File Handling I set the Camera RAW cache to a 25GB Max.

4. Camera Raw cache should be on your SSD, but I'd check just to make sure.


I hope some of this helps

golfcharlie wrote in post #17720501
When I bought it, I was told not to go cheap on the PSU. The CX750M wasn't exactly cheap so I didn't expect any problem. I took a lot of time to decide which CPU, GPU or CPU cooler to get, I didn't think too much when it came to the power supply. Clearly, I should have gone for something higher end like the SeaSonic you mention (which uses fans that only spin under heavy load).
It is also where most of the noise comes from, the fan is very noisy. I will change it eventually.

The thing is, "not exactly cheap" doesn't always translate to "good" when it comes to choosing parts, Corsair is known to cheap out in component selection in everything but the AX and HX series. On the other hand, the EVGA Supernova G2 and P2 models aren't very expensive for their power rating, but almost universally acclaimed performance-wise. Seasonic, Superflower and FSP are some of the few companies that make their units 100% in house, and outsource components or entire PSU designs to other companies (like Corsair).

That is very strange. If you were booting off a PCI-E SSD on an X99 machine, I'd have said that's normal, but most PCs boot in under 10 seconds. Well, slow boot isn't the end of things, you should be sleeping or hibernating your PC anyway.

-dave-m- wrote in post #17720811
When you power down the PC do you turn off the power supply or do anything else that would remove all power from the system? Doing so will cause the double boot, it will soft boot to check some hardware, then restart for a normal boot. Update to the newest BIOS if it's not already updated, most people report this will fix most double boots.

If you do not have any onboard RAID enabled 45 seconds to the desktop is well beyond normal. My 4770k and 4790k systems both boot to desktop from cold start in about 15 seconds, my 5700HQ laptop will cold boot in about 10 seconds using an M.2 PCIe SSD.

As a side note Google iMac coil whine, it's not a problem limited to PC's only. A friend of mine returned two iMac's last year because of coil whine, the third was fine. Both of them had coil whine when pushing the GPU.

My 4770K system takes 18 seconds just to get to the Windows logo and a total of 40 seconds to get from cold start to desktop. I have two drives in RAID 1 (through Windows) and quite a few devices.

Tom don't keep us in suspense, what did you buy?

photohistorian wrote in post #17728489
Tom don't keep us in suspense, what did you buy?

Well, I am still waiting for the model with the 4.0 i7 processor to become available as a refurb. It'll save me $350 over a non-refurb.

My Apple rep is calling me twice a week to let me know if any refurbs are available. As soon as one becomes available, I'm going to pull the trigger immediately.

If no 4.0 i7 models become available as refurbs I will either just buy a totally new one, or else settle for a 3.5 i5 refurb.

You could try Adorama VIP member (totally free)
They collect sales tax for New Jersey and New York respectively.
If you live outside of there, the tax and shipping are $0

I researched getting a refurbed Air, and found a brand new one to cost about the same total.
They are very helpful if you email or call them as well.

Just a thought.

InfiniteDivide wrote in post #17728550
You could try Adorama VIP member (totally free)
They collect sales tax for New Jersey and New York respectively.
If you live outside of there, the tax and shipping are $0

I researched getting a refurbed Air, and found a brand new one to cost about the same total.
They are very helpful if you email or call them as well.

Just a thought.

Adorama VIP - what a god idea!

I was going to have it shipped to a friend in Montana (no sales tax there), but if Adorama VIP will ship to me with no tax, then that's just as good (except that they probably don't sell refurbs....or do they?)

Anyway, I did join Adorama VIP. . Over 3 hours ago. . And I have still not gotten an email confirming my registration and welcoming me to the program (and yes, I checked my spam/junk folders, and it's not there, either). . That's kinda strange, because any time I have joined ANY such program, I get a welcome email IMMEDIATELY. . So, I am left wondering if I really am a VIP member or not. . A bit confused at this point. . Maybe Helen Oster will explain my VIP status to me.

Go to Adorama website. Log in to MY ACCOUNT on top right.
And then search for 5K Mac

If it says a price and add to cart you're set!
If it says you must be a member to add to cart, register again.

Don't think I got a confirmation, but I do get VIP email with special promos on items each month.
Sometimes it's useful, mostly I don;t need their random sale item.

Here are 59 different options for the i7 4.0Ghz model with different SSD and Ram options

http://www.adorama.com …spx?searchinfo=​5k+mac+4.0

I would get standard 8Gb of ram and buy 32Gb here:

http://eshop.macsales.​com …20Computing/160​0DDR3S32S/
Wow even cheaper than the last time i checked!

I will live vicariously through you.

InfiniteDivide wrote in post #17729439
I will live vicariously through you.

Ok...well, then start living large!

My Apple rep called today to say that a refurb finally became available! He held it for me while I drove home and got online. Then he walked me thru the purchasing process. He's awesome and without him checking for me constantly I never would have gotten exactly what I was looking for as a refurb, because they kept getting snapped up as soon as they became available. His ability to notify me via phone, and then hold the computer for me until I could get home and online, was extremely helpful.

So, I got the one with the 4.0 i7 processor and a 3TB fusion drive (exactly what I wanted). The one available came with 16GB of RAM. That's fine with me. If one with minimum RAM had been available, it woulda been cheaper, and then I could have added my own less expensive aftermarket RAM. However, the 16GB of RAM really didn't cost much extra at all, plus it was the only 4.0 i7 with the 3TB drive.

So, it cost me $2459 plus tax*. It seems to me like I got a lot of machine for the money. That's (very roughly) the cost of a decent camera body, and in my opinion I will get a heck of a lot more use out of a new computer than I would get out of an additional camera body. Computers seem like a super-huge bargain compared to the other photography gear in my kit.

I know that Windows computers are cheaper, but with a 5K monitor they're not. Plus, I really can't deal with anti-virus software and the constant updating they require. When I had windows-based computers (PCs), I could never figure out how to get anti-virus software downloaded onto the machine, and would have to pay someone to do it for me. That sucked! Plus with Window-based computers you actually need anti-virus protection because if you surf the internet liberally and don't have it, your computer gets wrecked! Happened to me many times when I used PCs.....once I got a Mac I never used any anti-virus protection, and I never got any viruses (at least none that I know of - the performance of my iMac is still nice and efficient even after 7 1/2 years of constant use).

*I said earlier that I was going to have it shipped to MT to avoid paying sales tax, but after thinking about it, the 12 hour, 650 mile round trip wouldn't be worth it for a savings of only $200...so I just went ahead and paid the sales tax, and will have the computer delivered directly to my address.

Good deal Tom! You ordered a very capable machine!

Congrats and enjoy it.

Thanks for this thread Tom. I have been putting off a new computer for years, and been debating between PC and Mac until I decided that I wanted a 27" monitor. Once I made the decision to get a new monitor, the decision to pay more for the Mac was much easier since the cost of a PC and 27" 4k-5k monitor are much closer.

I am going to be buying a setup very similar to yours, except I might just stay with the i5 instead of the i7. I have also been considering just custom ordering one with a simple 256gb SSD instead of the Fusion, but I still need to learn more about how the fusion system works (is the fusion system a true SSD and a regular hard drive built in, so you get both? Or is the SSD in the fusion not as capable as a real SSD?)

But let us know how you like it!

I don't want to provide misinformation.
So I will try to find the source and post a link tomorrow.


An article I read a month after their Fusion drive debuted states it is two separate drives.
A 128gb SSD and a HDD for a total of about 980Gbs of space.

There are programs in each drive that actively swap files accessed between the two.

To me this sounded like a terrible idea for using the SSD drive. For the average user they would just see very fast speeds and a big SSD to save all their files.

Programs on SSD; and media libraries on the HDD

What I envisioned it as, was an invisible computer program deciding actions; doing thousands of the reads and writes per day when accessing programs and information.

Lastly, there is a way to format both of the drives so that these automated programs don't exist anymore.

However; I believe if you get the 256 model you could still open up the iMac yourself and add in another drive via SATA but it requires disassembly.


Since the iMac is not portable,
I see an advantage to the Fusion drive.
= Cost

Getting the 256 SSD option and buying a 2 or even 4Tb external HHD would give you double the Mac's sizes and more user control over reading and writing.

Two days ago I upgrade my Mac Air (only computer here) to a 3rd party 240Gb
I have been using two my passport drives for a while now. One has videos and music.
The other has my photo library, back up same music and both have other misc. files.
I also upgraded my SD cards to 128Gb
But often I need to take media with me and travel.

Hope that answers some questions and provided reasons for my choices.


(Typos due to a lack of coffee)

Myboostedgst wrote in post #17746677
I am going to be buying a setup very similar to yours, except I might just stay with the i5 instead of the i7. I have also been considering just custom ordering one with a simple 256gb SSD instead of the Fusion, but I still need to learn more about how the fusion system works (is the fusion system a true SSD and a regular hard drive built in, so you get both? Or is the SSD in the fusion not as capable as a real SSD?)

The following video is entitled, "Should I Get a Fusion Drive or SSD in a New iMac?" I think it will answer some of your questions. It's a short video - just 4 minutes - and I think it's really worth watching if you are considering an iMac:
https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=GwjEB83HwoQ

As far as custom ordering is concerned, I recommend going for a refurb. Many/most refurbs are actually brand new computers that were never even sold or used. It'll save you about $300 to $400.

If the exact refurb you want isn't available, then I recommend talking to an Apple rep an having them call you when the exact machine you want becomes available as a refurb. My rep, Avery, did that for me, and after waiting about 3 weeks the iMac with the exact specs I wanted became available. Avery was excellent to work with. His # is 866-254-8313 ext. 50237

Can iMac 27" be used as a "monitor only" ? i.e. Let another machine drive the display using HDMI ?.