[awcopus]

My wife's PowerMac just pooped out and she needs a replacement ASAP. We're leaning towards replacing it with either an iMac or a Mac mini. But we're nervous about how these machines will perform using her core stable of applications.

She's a graphic designer, working primarily with QuarkXPress and Photoshop, some InDesign, a little bit of Illustrator, and Font Reserve/Font Book. She may be doing some web design, too, using Dreamweaver and Flash.

It would be reassuring to hear from people who use these apps regularly on their iMacs/Mac minis and can testify about their performance quality. Do you find yourself waiting for the machine to catch up with you when working in documents loaded with graphics and multiple fonts? What are the pluses and minuses of using the iMac/Mac MIni for this kind of work? Does loading up extra RAM make a difference or are they fine with their stock configuration? Do you use an external scratch disk and have any issues with that?

She has a 22inch ACD that she would be able to use with the Mac mini. Not sure what would become of it with the iMac. Can she connect it to an iMac and expand her desktop that way? We have the ADC DVI adapter.

The current Mac Pro offerings are quite expensive for what they are. We simply can't wait for Apple to upgrade that line-up and refuse to pay through the nose for their current outdated offerings.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

[Fleetwood Mac]

Hi awcopus,
I've used my Mac mini for intermediate Photoshop / Dreamweaver tasks with great success. I noticed the lag on occasion, but that can be alleviated mostly by additional RAM. A more than positive experience overall.

Recently I purchased an iMac and am loving it. Its excellent, and definitely worth the price. Going this route will provide more than enough power for you wife to do her job.

Happy shopping,
FM

[Macola]

I have an iMac at work with a dual display setup, and use CS3 apps regularly. It's fine for most work, except perhaps for very large Photoshop files (since you can only install 4 GB of RAM). Definitely avoid the mini, you'll be much happier with the iMac.

[awcopus]

Thank you, Fleetwood Mac and Macola. We went to pick one of these bad boys up and my wife was just turned off by the aesthetics of the machine. So, I think we're waiting for a tower. Appreciate your feedback, nonetheless.

[analogika]

Since the graphics card/chipset is fairly irrelevant to XPress/InDesign/Photoshop performance, it might be worth looking at the mini closely.

Max it out with 3GB of RAM, but other than that, it should be completely sufficient.

It will certainly run circles around the old PowerMac with native versions of the above.

Though, of course, Adobe has announced that full Leopard compatibility won't arrive until a CS3 upgrade sometime early 2008.

If you get a Mac mini from a brick and mortar store now, it will probably still come with Tiger and a Leopard upgrade DVD, so you have the option of running 10.4 until such time as Adobe pulls its head out of its ass and smells the roses.

[fisherKing]

i'm running cs3 apps on my new mini, and all is good (in 10.5.1).
think it's a great investment; get the faster one, dvd burner, 3 gigs ram, and you should be good...

i waited for the new imacs, but the glossy screen did not work (for me).