New Prepress Computers

[RickS]

I am looking for opinions here. Do you think new iMacs are appropriate for general prepress workstations these days? Or should I still be looking at Mac Pro's?
Thanks for your opinions in advance.
Rick

 

[Visualaid]

not dell and not hp

 

[arkay_desai]

Mac Pro is the best

 

[Joe Duffy]

If you like to be warm and toasted, use iMacs
Really depends upon your work in RAM intensive programs...if you use alot of RAM, go Pro, if not, iMacs are fine.
I have always favored the PRO for a workstation (loaded with lots of RAM and it has way more air flow for cooling) and iMac for preflight and backup type work.

 

[Point918]

I agree with Joe and will add:

If the hard drive or any other component goes MUCH easier for your to replace in the Pro.

iMac = consumer
ProMac = Professional
You know who you are ;-)

Also easier to repurpose the ProMac and it's separate monitor when it's prepress tour of duty is over.

Yes you can expand the iMac with external components. Much cleaner and compact with many of those components inside the ProMac case.

FWIW rumor mill has the ProMac finally getting a long needed major upgrade this year.

 

[Visualaid]

imacs are good enough for a small shop in my experience.
i've only had the opportunity to use a pmac at one job and twas awesome.

 

[Colorblind]

Am I wrong or new iMacs don't event have a disc burner anymore. Not that I use it a lot but it still happens.

 

[Visualaid]

Am I wrong or new iMacs don't event have a disc burner anymore. Not that I use it a lot but it still happens.

I don't know about the newest imacs. why would they take away the disc drive?
Also I like your name. I am really colorblind, i just found out. isn't that ironic, working in the print industry and being colorblind?

 

[gordo]

I don't know about the newest imacs. why would they take away the disc drive?
Also I like your name. I am really colorblind, i just found out. isn't that ironic, working in the print industry and being colorblind?

Apple removed the disc drive because the disc drive is a common point of failure. Also it allows laptops to be thinner and lighter. External disc drives are cheap, and cheap to replace.

Best gordo

 

[Lammy]

iMacs are fine, load them with memory and get the ones that have the most Vram on the video card. Really the only advantage I saw of the Powermac is because they have PCIX slots you can get some pretty fierce video cards to put in them. It may not sound like much, but the speed at which a machine can process the image to display on the screen is a huge factor in how fast the machine performs in general.

 

[ErnieLail]

We use imacs in our shop. i7's with 16GB ram. We are a medium-sized package printer.

Used to use mac pros in the past, but the cost was just too much to justify over an imac or mac mini with the best specs.

 

[Paint]

Agree, we are running to new 27 inch IMac's in production,
and they are awesome work machines, and yes we are a good size shop.
As I need to replace my older Macs I will go with IMac's.
Go with the best processor and load them with ram, you will never look back.

Would stay with a workstation and high end monitor for the person doing your color work though...

 

[RickS]

I am leaning towards the 27 inch iMacs as you say, Paint, with lots of RAM. It is amazing to me how little color work we do anymore. Also the PDF workflows have reduced processor load as is it moving to the servers doing the processing, and the workstations just pushing files around. I questioned our sister company also. They are using Mac Mini's. I am not so sure about that route.

 

[chevalier]

I work exclusively with folding cartons...

A maxed out iMac should last you 4 years unless there is some kind of mind-bending advancement at Adobe (very unlikely). We just replaced our 5 year old MacPro workstations with maxed out MacBook Pro + Thunderbolt displays. We couldn't be happier with the performance and with our multishift operation when something goes haywire in the middle of the night we no longer have to haul ourselves into the plant. Sick? Just work from home and make sure your coworker ships the proofs you release.

 

[Tommyjt]

Unless you are working on very large Photoshop files or editing video, a high-end iMac will do great! Lots of RAM, VRAM and an SSD instead of a hard drive.
At the last shop I worked at we divided prepress into two categories, retouching and assembly. Retouching got MacPro's and assembly got iMacs. Occasionally when we were very busy someone would hop on to one of the iMacs and although they were a little slower, they were basically plenty capable of doing the job.
With the current hi-end 27" iMac it's becoming more difficult to justify the cost of a (now long in the tooth) MacPro.

My 2¢

 

[Al Ferrari]

What's ironic is that you didn't find out before you started working. You didn't find out during your school years?

Al

 

[Stephen Marsh]

What's ironic is that you didn't find out before you started working. You didn't find out during your school years?

Al

When I started my apprenticeship, taking the Ishihara test was mandatory - at least the employer and the apprentice would know where they stood (other basic vocational related tests were also taken).


Stephen Marsh