Discussion iMac 27: i7 or 780M for graphic design/video editing

[rassulophoto]

Hey guys, I'm about to pull the trigger on the 27" iMac and budget is of concern. I'm going to be using it for graphic design and video editing: mainly photoshop (utilizing the 3D features), after effects, fcp7, and maybe premiere. I'm pretty sold on the 1TB Fusion drive over the pure 256 SSD, but I can't decide between the i7 or 780M. If you could get ONE in my situation, which would it be and why? Thanks!

 

[g-unit1111]

Honestly for Photoshop and Adobe CS5, you're wasting money buying an iMac. I hate to be one of those guys but I'm not anti-Apple (I own a couple of Apple products), but the hardware that's in an iMac is basically glorified laptop hardware - it's made for low power requirements and you will get very frustrated with it very quickly. If you're using this for media production and content you want at least a full desktop i7 - either LGA 1150 or LGA 2011, anything less is inferior. You can get a way better system with Intel X79/X99 if you budget correctly. What is your system budget?

 

[rassulophoto]

I've considered transitioning to PC but I've made up mind on sticking with Mac and getting the 27" iMac. I dislike windows and I'm not tech savvy enough to troubleshoot any problems that happen with a pc if I build it myself. I just need to know which component is more essential for what I'm doing - CPU or GPU? Thanks

 

[g-unit1111]

I've considered transitioning to PC but I've made up mind on sticking with Mac and getting the 27" iMac. I dislike windows and I'm not tech savvy enough to troubleshoot any problems that happen with a pc if I build it myself. I just need to know which component is more essential for what I'm doing - CPU or GPU? Thanks

I still say for the $3K you would be spending on the iMac you could be getting a six core CPU and 32GB of RAM - that is what will be beneficial for what you are doing. Building a PC is very easy - once you get the case hooked into the motherboard and get the motherboard screwed down, everything else hooks into place. But like I said iMacs are glorified laptops and the CPUs and GPUs are very slow and you'll wind up hating it after like a month. This would be a far wiser use of that $3K you would be spending IMO:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4930K 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor ($549.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock X79 Extreme9 ATX LGA2011 Motherboard ($349.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($315.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: ATI FirePro V5800 1GB Video Card ($525.45 @ Adorama)
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($84.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit (OEM) (64-bit) ($96.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $2208.35
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-25 18:20 EDT-0400

$1K less than the proposed iMac and you can get any combination of monitors you want. If you dislike Windows you can run Linux or Hackintosh but I'm not sure how to setup a Hackintosh, I've never done it.