Which iMac, retina or non retina?

[steveatesh]

After lots of thinking and reading I'm going to replace my PC with an iMac. My budget will allow me to consider either the 27" non retina but upgraded to i7 chip, 1Tb fusion drive and 16 gig RAM: 3.5GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz
16GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2X8GB
1TB Fusion Drive
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M 2GB GDDR5

For £2109

Or the new 27" retina with upgraded 16gig RAM 3.5GHz Quad-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz
16GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x8GB
1TB Fusion Drive
AMD Radeon R9 M290X 2GB GDDR5

For £2159
I will still need to run some programs that only run on Windows so will need Parallels 10 too. However, there has been a suggestion that Windows in parallels has problems with the retina display on the MacBooks. That would put me off the retina if that was true but I am drawn to the idea of a retina display until I read about that apparent problem.

I'm interested in your views, which spec would you go for and why? The extra power and assured compatibility of the non retina specification, or the new retina screen model? Or is the i7 overkill for my computer needs?

I'll mainly use it for small business (Office, Minitab, some specialist software) and hobby of photography.

[anonymous-user]

The retina will look amazing, and be fantastic for those doing video, or serious design work, but for most of us mere mortals, who use their macs for normal work and a bit of photography, the non-retina 27 inch screen is still a belter.

I've currently got a 4 + year old 27 inch iMac, which i'm just starting to think about replacing. I'm thinking about the retina too, but just not sure I can justify it.

[DAVEVO9]

Will the retina mac be able to run bootcamp?

[Leithen]

You can do RAM upgrades easily (panel on the back) and a lot cheaper than via Apple.

[WinstonWolf]

Inkyfingers said:

The retina will look amazing, and be fantastic for those doing video, or serious design work, but for most of us mere mortals, who use their macs for normal work and a bit of photography, the non-retina 27 inch screen is still a belter.

I've currently got a 4 + year old 27 inch iMac, which i'm just starting to think about replacing. I'm thinking about the retina too, but just not sure I can justify it.

Yosemite, my mid-2009 is flying since the upgrade

[steveatesh]

DAVEVO9 said:

Will the retina mac be able to run bootcamp?

That's a very good question, I had only considered the Parallels thingy. I'll chase that one up.

[steveatesh]

Leithen said:

You can do RAM upgrades easily (panel on the back) and a lot cheaper than via Apple.

Thanks for that, I'll look into that. Crucial I understand?

[steveatesh]

Apple have told me that Bootcamp and Parallels are not affected by the retina screen Windows will work fine apparently.

[leglessAlex]

steveatesh said:

Thanks for that, I'll look into that. Crucial I understand?

I've got Crucial RAM in my iMac an it's fine, they seem to be very reliable.

If I had the money I would go for the 5K screen, even if you don't use it for the likes of video editing it'll just look so nice.

[supersport]

I run parallels on my retina MBP and its fine.

[HenryJM]

That screen is huge, I couldn't get on with it and changed for the smaller one. Took up too much visibility from my desk! But if you do that you have to order it with the most memory, you can't put more in later.

[Digitalize]

I wouldn't even consider non retina now, if you want retina, get it. It will be breathtaking.

[TheRainMaker]

supersport said:

I run parallels on my retina MBP and its fine.

Same here, not had a problem yet.

[steveatesh]

Update to say thanks for everybody's help and advice.

I have ordered the Retina iMac i5 with 8 Gig Ram and Fusion 1Tb drive.

I am ordering the extra 8Gig RAM from Crucial which saved a fair old bit, and an OSX compatible Samsung optical from Amazon, again a fair saving for something that will only be used now and again.

Parallels 10 too, so no doubt I'll be back for more advice when i get it - around two weeks time.

Can't wait now. we never grow up do we!

[gizlaroc]

I think you will find that you will have 2 x 4gb sticks in there.

You may need to order 2 x 8GB sticks or just live with 12gb for now.

[Otispunkmeyer]

As said the 5K display will likely be jaw dropping, but IMO thats the only talking point of the machine. The rest of it is as is. I have a 27 inch iMac, the one before they went super skinny. 2560x1440 is easily more than enough real estate for anyone, even heavy photo editors. Really the 5K display will be good for those wanting to edit 4K video at full size or get real close on their 24/36 MP raw files.

For everything else, I'd just stick with the non-retina (not sure why they bother with that moniker, the standard res is crisp as it is!).

The price as well is mad. £2k for the base. When I got mine I think they were some £500 cheaper!

[Otispunkmeyer]

steveatesh said:

That's a very good question, I had only considered the Parallels thingy. I'll chase that one up.

Probably, but windows deals with Hi-DPI screens a lot worse than Apple. So I have heard.

gizlaroc said:

I think you will find that you will have 2 x 4gb sticks in there.

You may need to order 2 x 8GB sticks or just live with 12gb for now.

He may be ok...depends how many slots he has for memory. On my 2010 iMac there are 4 SO-DIMM slots. So I use 4x4 GB.

If they've chopped down, then yes he'll need 2x8GB. Hopefully he checked before hand! Crucial have a checker so hopefully it worked, I would imagine it comes with 2 slots populated with 2 free. They won't sell just an 8 GB stick in a kit, you need pairs for each channel of memory.

Edited by Otispunkmeyer on Tuesday 21st October 17:11

Edited by Otispunkmeyer on Tuesday 21st October 17:14

[steveatesh]

gizlaroc said:

I think you will find that you will have 2 x 4gb sticks in there.

You may need to order 2 x 8GB sticks or just live with 12gb for now.

It has four user accessible memory slots, comes with 2 x 4gig and I'll order another 2 x4 matched RAM chips from Crucial, making the 16 gig in total, and save just under £100 on the Apple upgrade to a similar amount of RAM.

Or have I missed something?

[steveatesh]

Re retina versus non retina iMac. I thought long and hard about that but ended up with retina based on various reviews about the retina screen and how good it is for photography, plus as the screen is so important when working for a long time it made my mind up. Plus the man maths that when I had specced up the non-retina imac to similar innards there was not a lot in it.

Horses for courses of course, as with everything.