Investing in a brand new $6,000 iMac for design?

Hello everybody,

**Only a little bit of context:** I am a graphic designer who has been utilizing PC and dealing as an in-house designer for 90% of my profession (2013 – current).

Rising up with PC my complete life, selecting it for work was a simple selection.

However I am eager to discover a new job and begin working in additional high-end branding companies – the place they are going to be utilizing iMacs. I might like to search out an iMac that may match or be barely extra highly effective than my PC therefore the large price ticket.

Have not used Macs since uni so I do really feel prefer it’s most likely time to speculate, particularly since I do know studios will need individuals who can work quick on a Mac.

The trusty outdated PC can also be dying (7 years outdated) so the timing is kind of a coincidence.

I can afford to make the acquisition nevertheless it’s nonetheless fairly an funding – **ideas?**



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10 thoughts on “Investing in a brand new $6,000 iMac for design?”

  1. You don’t need to spend $6,000 to do design work. Just get the 27″ $2,000 model, upgrade the memory yourself (there’s a little cover on the back that pops up for access to the RAM slots), and attach an external Thunderbolt drive to make up for Apple’s paltry 512GB SSD.

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  2. You got a screen? For 699 you can get the M1 Mac Mini, which is affordable way to jump in – and the preformance is crazy for such a small, quiet and affordable machine.

    Alternatively you could do what I’m doing (I plan to switch for the exact same reason) and wait for the M1X / M2 Macbook 16″, iMac Pros etc.

    For the love of god, don’t spend over 1-2k on an intel mac this late in the game.

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  3. With Windows 11 out I would closely monitor to see how certain situations are over there, there have been some reports of recording problems on macs with tools like OBS and what not, and I personally have felt some pain in recording video in MacOS, and it gets worse if you are on the Adobe Suite as their latest suite tools cover the M1 I believe a bit better, haven’t checked if Adobe Media Encoder fully supports the M1 and related graphics card capabilities as well. I run with a 1TB ssd as well, external and it has served me well.

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  4. Pretty much any modern Mac will be powerful enough for branding tasks. You don’t need to spend 6k. If you want to get familiar on the Mac platform i would grab an M1 iMac or MBP, they start at less than 2K

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  5. Not only do you not need a $6000 Mac (as others have said if you did want one stick to under $2500), but I don’t think you need one at all.

    If you’re applying to jobs using Macs, they’d be providing the hardware. Or are you meaning to find freelance/contract work?

    You mentioned you already used Macs in school so you should be able to use one. Even if you never had, I’d say just go to an Apple store or a Best Buy with Macs and just play around for an hour.

    People get it too much into their head, or just aren’t very computer savvy. If you can use Windows you can use Macs and vice versa. If anything it’s just those first couple hours that might be slower as you try to adjust settings or get used to certain things. But the file navigation in MacOS is better than Windows so that’ll be just easier.

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  6. Hmm, iMacs are so expensive and it would even be much more expensive to buy an iMac that has the same performance of your pc than actually upgrading your pc. I am not a designer, but I know about computers. And I can tell you that for Graphic Desing you dont often need a lot of power, unless you work very often with 3D rendering. I suggest you to upgrade some pc components, such as processor, Graphics Card, Storage or Ram Memory, only if it is necessary.

    Not a an Apple hater but, being realistic, Apple rarely have products that worth their ridiculous prices.

    If you can tell which programs you use, and your actual PC components. Maybe I can help you to take a better desition. Or give you a little more information so that you can take the best option for you.

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  7. Some companies have a mix of Macs and pc’s, they want you tot do your best job regardless. But do understand, cause at some companies it’s only Macs.. but you’ll get the hang of it. Don’t think they will not hire you because you have a pc at home

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  8. I do work just fine on my MacBook Pro plugged into a large monitor via usb c. 6k to do graphic design work? Uhhh…

    Even if you wanted an iMac specifically, 6k is absurd.

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