Advice on next computer

The Apple Silicon chipset will perform better than the Intel-based iMac you currently have, for sure. You mentioned you're moving into Medium format photography, and as those files are much larger, 16GB would be the minimum RAM I'd recommend.

HD space is up to you, of course. You can always store your PS files on an external SSD or USB-C drive. Then you're only limited by the size of the drive you elect to go with.

Of course, you'd then want to consider backups. Time Machine would back up your internal drive just fine, but if all your photos are on the external drive, then you'd be on a high wire without a net. (My brother, an advanced amateur photographer, just had his 2TB external drive with 40+ years of photos fail, and he's now going to have to spend $2,000 for a data recovery service to rescue those files. He'll soon be investing in a cloud-based storage service...something like BackBlaze.)

So, as far as HD storage is concerned...for me, there are three options:

• 500GB internal storage, but all photos stored on an external drive.
• 1 or 2TB internal storage, with all files/photos backed up to an external drive with Time Machine.
• 500GB internal storage, with external drive for photos...using a cloud system to backup the photos, and Time Machine for backing up the iMac itself.

You might want to consider holding off until Oct 30th, as Apple will be revealing SOMETHING that afternoon. Rumors are flying about regarding what that SOMETHING will be, but nobody will know for sure until then.

As Yer_Man pointed out, you're not limited to an iMac. You could always go with a Mac Mini or Mac Studio if all in one isn't important. (Or even a MacBook Pro if you want the portability).

Hope this helps.

Budget?

All in one? Then a 24 inch iMac with one of the Apple Silicon chips. The more powerful one your choose the more impact on performance.

Not all in one? If you're budget gets there then an Apple Studio, if not: a Mac mini.

As much memory as you can afford, no matter what you choose. I wouldn't worry too much about space, USC C and SSDs have made that question unimportant.

Don't try compare the Apple Silicon Chips with Intel ones, they just don't compare and work on a different logic.

Before you make a selection wait until Oct. 30th @ 5 PM when Apple is going to have another "Event". Speculation is they may be announcing a new iMac, hopefully 27" or 32" with the M3 chip. We'll just have to wait and see.

Yer_Man is technically very correct in what he's stated.

I was only describing what the options would be for me...it wasn't meant to be a complete list of ALL options.

For me, convenience plays a factor in decisions like this. The more inconvenient a process is, the more like many will feel "not now...later"....and "later" doesn't happen until it's too late.😄😄

Time Machine will backup any Mac formatted external drive that's connected to the Mac as long as it's not been put on the Ignore list. I have 3 external drives backed up with Time Machine:

Thank you, Old Toad. And they're all backed up to the same Time Machine external drive?

MacMikeInOK wrote:

Thank you, Old Toad. And they're all backed up to the same Time Machine external drive?

Yes, the screenshot I posted show all on the same TM drive.

Old Toad...thank you, sir!

Of course, you'd then want to consider backups. Time Machine would back up your internal drive just fine, but if all your photos are on the external drive, then you'd be on a high wire without a net.

Absolutely no reason to be in a high wire, net or no. External disks are perfectly capable of being backed up to other disks. Time Machine will do it. And there are other back up utilities. Everything needs a back up. Always.

He'll soon be investing in a cloud-based storage service...something like BackBlaze

If he's talking about large amounts of data he might be better using two other disks, one of which is stored offsite. The problem with Cloud backups is that restore large dataset can take days, or even longer.