CharleyCross
Member
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2019
- Messages
- 49
- Location
- Talent, OR, USA
- Lightroom Experience
- Advanced
- Lightroom Version
- Classic
- Lightroom Version Number
- LrC v11
- Operating System
- macOS 10.15 Catalina
Greetings. I've been running LrC (even before they added "Classic") on the same iMac 27 for about nine years. This year performance is starting to suck badly, and not just in LrC, so I think it's about time for a new Mac. So here's my question: how much Mac is plenty without unnecessarily blowing the budget? How much RAM? How much CPU? And so on... To some extent, my question is independent of which particular form of Mac, though clearly some offer larger RAM choices and such. My choices seem to be:
- A new iMac. While I've loved my current one until lately, I'm now a bit skeptical of the all-in-one format. The monitor is in perfect shape even if the computer itself is dying, so I now feel I'm in effect abandoning good components since it's all in the same box. BTW, this one has 1TB of disc and 24GB of RAM, just to offer my baseline.
- A Mac Mini. Nice price point. Is it beefy enough to keep LrC zipping along? Are you happy with yours? How's it configured?
- A MacBook Pro 16. Expensive. I can't imagine smaller than 16. Even that'll be a come-down after 27. Obvious advantage to portability, though I usually run with a few external drives, where the photos all live. Again, how beefy do you have yours configured to get good LrC performance?
- The new Mac Studio. Also pricey. I could blow my retirement totally upscaling all the options. But how much would I actually need for LrC, as opposed to having bragging rights, which I truly don't care about.