# Need help choosing the right mac for lightroom



## Tinko (Nov 3, 2016)

Hi there

I'm new to this forum. Initially I was posting this question in a mac forum... but the lightroom part seemed to be too specific for most users there. I really hope that someone here can give me a recommendation.

My wife is a photographer and is using an older macbook pro at the moment. I want to get her an iMAC for x-mas but don't really know, which one. She is mostly using lighroom (rarely photoshop). I think she doesn't really like Adobe's Creative Cloud license model. So I assume that the standalone version of Lightroom 6 will be her choice. I will probably buy an update license.

Would the standard model 27" iMac mit Retina 5K Display be sufficient ?

3,2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 Prozessor
8 GB (2x 4 GB) Ram, optional to 32 GB
1 TB Fusion Drive 1
AMD Radeon R9 M390 with 2 GB

Retina 5K P3 Display
I probably boost up the ram to 16GB by what I read here in the forum so far. That can be done by the user, right?

Anything else I should consider?
Thanks Tinko


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## Victoria Bampton (Nov 3, 2016)

Hi Tinko, welcome to the forum!

Have a read of this for an overview of what matters for different areas of Lightroom: Lightroom Performance – What Computer Hardware Do I Need?

I'd definitely bump the RAM, but yes, buy it from Crucial or OWC and put it in yourself. No point paying the Apple Tax.

I'd consider switching the Fusion Drive to an SSD too, even if it's a bit smaller.


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## tspear (Nov 3, 2016)

Depending on how much storage space your wife needs for the images, I would consider keeping the fusion drive for image storage and getting a 250/500GB SSD for just the OS.
Having the images on an SSD is nice, but really is not the best investment in terms of cash. The Fusion drive is a reasonable compromise.


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## Tinko (Nov 3, 2016)

Thanks for the quick reply.
Ok great so I was not too far of with my thoughts.

But I have to ask:


> I would consider keeping the fusion drive for image storage and getting a 250/500GB SSD for just the OS



How does one achieve that. Just ordering the iMAC with the Fusion drive and then later on buying an additional 500 SSD to boot from? Is this SSD then installed by myself internally or kept as external drive connected via USB?

By the way: I think my wife will export most of the pictures once there are done and the customer is fine with the results to our Synology NAS. So she is not keeping them as originals in the Lightroom library but as the final Version in an JPG format in folders on the NAS. Don't really know how other photographers are handling finished jobs but for her its the best solution. It is not reversible or non-destructive but on the good side its freeing up space on the internal hdd and backup is automatically done on the nas. 

Any other equipment I should consider during the order from apple? Like is the Magic Mouse II worth it?

BR Tinko


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## clee01l (Nov 3, 2016)

Tinko said:


> ...mostly using lighroom (rarely photoshop). I think she doesn't really like Adobe's Creative Cloud license model. So I assume that the standalone version of Lightroom 6 will be her choice. I will probably buy an update license.
> 
> Would the standard model 27" iMac mit Retina 5K Display be sufficient ?
> 
> ...


This is the iMac that I recently purchased to replace an older iMac.   My one suggestion would be to boost the RAM to 32GB.  My older iMac had only 16GB and the performance improvement is noticeable. 

I only keep the most recent 3 months of images on my Fusion drive and move the older images off to a Thunderbolt2 EHD.  Accessing these older image files in LR is infrequent and speed of access is no longer an issue.   The other thing that I find useful for LR is a second 27" monitor. Dual monitors are really useful with a heavy load of develop post processing.
 As for buying and then upgrading memory, compare the price difference between an Apple spec'd with 32GB and OWC's prices.  Also check out the OWC video and make sure that you are comfortable upgrading your own memory. OWC Video Installation Guides for memory, hard drives, SSDs, and more... at MacSales.com


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## clee01l (Nov 3, 2016)

Tinko said:


> Any other equipment I should consider during the order from apple? Like is the Magic Mouse II worth it?


I don't think you can add a second internal Disk to the 5K iMac.  The 1TB Fusion drive is a combination of a 24GB  SSD and a conventional HDD. The Fusion Technology works great and keeping your most active files on the SSD.  I don't think Tim Spear's suggestion is really necessary.   Keeping free space on the primary drive is very important for LR. So, having a Thunderbolt 2 EHD for additional storage is useful.   I have 5 TB HDDs in use for Additional image storage, TimeMachine Backups etc.  It works well for me.
As for the Magic mouse, I have both this and a track pad. I got bot because I did not know which I would prefer.   As it turns out, the trackpad is more intuitive for me and requires a smaller foot print than what is needed for a mouse that moves.


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## Tinko (Nov 3, 2016)

Thanks. So how does your setup work with the thunderbold EHD and lightroom? Is there a possibility to set this up automatically in lightroom? Like having to places where the images are automatically transferred by lightroom based on the import date? Or is it rather manual work of exporting images or the library to the EHD? If you gave a link with an explanation is also fine. 

The trackpad is an option I did not think about. Since my wife is now working with a macbooc pro the trackpad seems to be the more intuitive choice for her. Thanks for that hint.

Any recommendations for an affordable 27" monitor? I really like the ISP panels from LG. But I'm not a photographer.

Thanks guys. You are helping me a lot here.
Tinko


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## bob chadwick (Nov 3, 2016)

Cletus, are the Thunderbolt EHD's necessary over USB3 drives.  When I bought my USB3 hard drive docking station last year what I read said that the drive speed, not the connection, was the bottleneck.  Bob


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## clee01l (Nov 3, 2016)

Tinko said:


> Thanks. So how does your setup work with the thunderbold EHD and lightroom? Is there a possibility to set this up automatically in lightroom? Like having to places where the images are automatically transferred by lightroom based on the import date? Or is it rather manual work of exporting images or the library to the EHD? If you gave a link with an explanation is also fine.


There is nothing unique about a Thunderbolt EHD except the speed of transfer.  With sufficient buffering the SATA HDD is not a significant choke point.   I import all new image files to my primary disk.  Access to the image files themselves is only needed during development initially and later during export or printing when a fresh merge in needed.  Going to a slower interface (if you can call TB slower), is not critical for exports and printing like it is when making frequent develop adjustments.  For this reason after about three months on the primary drive, I manually move the older folders to the EHD.  I do this in LR and it is a simple drag and drop operation in the folder panel.  [ 





> The trackpad is an option I did not think about. Since my wife is now working with a macbooc pro the trackpad seems to be the more intuitive choice for her. Thanks for that hint.
> 
> Any recommendations for an affordable 27" monitor? I really like the ISP panels from LG. But I'm not a photographer.
> 
> ...


My 27" monitor is a ASUS. It used the same IPS panel as my old iMac with a resolution of 2560X1440 and not 5K.  LG does have a 27" 5K monitor (new this season) but hardly what I would call affordable. 



bob chadwick said:


> Cletus, are the Thunderbolt EHD's necessary over USB3 drives. When I bought my USB3 hard drive docking station last year what I read said that the drive speed, not the connection, was the bottleneck. Bob


  You are right that the SATA drive is slower than the TB2 connection.  The TB2 connection is a good general purpose I/O connection and I even use it to access my camera Cards via a USB3 card reader.    The advantage of TB2 over USB3 is that of speed and the absence of a USB Hub,  I even have a TB2 Connected USB3 Hub for my camera card readers https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KYK1KZK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KYK1KZK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01


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## bob chadwick (Nov 3, 2016)

I've seen those.  A little too pricey for my blood.


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## clee01l (Nov 3, 2016)

bob chadwick said:


> I've seen those.  A little too pricey for my blood.


I forgot to add.  A TB2 (or TB3) EHD may be limited by the throughput of the internal drive today, but I don't see this as always a limitation.


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