I bought the 21.5 inch Mac, should I return it and get the 27inch?

I would take Babowas’s advice and return that 21 inch iMac, if you purchased the base model.

All of the base model 21 inch screen iMacs all come with a very slow 5400 RPM. spinning hard drive that will slow productivity down and come only with 8 GBs of RAM which will NOT be enough RAM for any type of graphics use.

Read/writes to a 5400 RPM are a whopping 33% (1/3) slower than a "conventional” desktop standard 7200 RPM spinning hard drive.

No 21 inch screen iMacs come with 7200 RPM hard drives or Fusion-based drives, any longer!

The base 8 GBs of RAM is usually just enough for the Mac OS alone and NOT enough for working the computer resource intensive graphic design and image editing apps.

New versions of macOS now need up to 8 GBs of RAM as a base, minimum RAM requirement now!

Return that 21 inch iMac and pay a little extra an get the mid-tiered 21 inch screen iMac with 16 GBs of installed RAM and, at least, a 256 or 512 GB SSD for maximum speed.

Maybe you can get your parents to help you pay the faster model, SSD and RAM if you are short on cash.

The new model iMac you have now will not cut it for graphics work.

You have 14 days to return this iMac model for one that will better meet your college needs now and will be powerful enough to meet your early professional needs later in the future.

I apologise, you are right. I checked via the detailed specs at EveryMac.

I misread the specs in the Apple Store. When I scrolled down I thought the right hand columns were referring to the 27" iMac above when they were all for the iMac 21.5":

It is however more productive to get an SSD or Fusion Drive as your boot up drive and they are both available for the 21.5" model.

Both SSD and Fusion Drives do more to boost speed on your Mac than spindle speed. I rarely do anything now with 3.5" drives, I have over 40 2.5" drives, including my current boot up, and my 3.5" drives are purely legacy in a couple of backup arrays.

Certainly not my major consideration for purchase decisions. The Graphics card and the larger display are more important, plus access to the RAM (now gone in the iMac Pro). Again the O.P. is just a student and should get Good Enough rather than the Absolute Best that will add relatively little except a huge hole in their savings.

Apple has jacked the price of their higher end models up way too high. Keep within your means. When you are earning get what maximises your productivity.

Peter

It is good enough for a student particularly as it has retina, and I think your parents are setting a wrong example if they are pushing you to go into a debt you can't afford. I hope you did not buy full price from Apple.

By the time you graduate and are earning money there will be newer models and you can get a full on high end Mac and either sell this one or use it as a very useful second computer.

I run several. It can be annoying and slow you down if you are trying to do work on a Mac that is also doing something else in the background, even if you have ample RAM and Hard drive space.

Peter

Is this your model:

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac-core-i5-3.0-21-inch-aluminum- retina-4k-mid-2017-specs.html

If you bought the base model, it has a slow 5400 rpm hard drive - it is 33% slower than a stock 7200 rpm drive in a 27" iMac. Personally, I would not consider using that for graphics editing/rendering. On the other hand, if you chose a model with an SSD, you'd be fine with it.

FYI, remember that you have 14 days to return the Mac if you purchased it from Apple.

I agree with Peter's advice.

Sure, the 27" or non-base model 21" will be faster, but are you using it to make money, like a professional studio?

If not you can be patient, and when it comes to photo editing, a couple of milliseconds extra for an edit is hardly worth worrying about.... I managed it on an iMac SE for many years 😁

Enjoy your iMac.... there will ALWAYS be something better - I just bought a top end iMac in September and now the iMac Pro is here which knocks mine into a cocked hat. But I love the one I have! And saved a few grand too!

Agree with your post 100%.

I decided not to upgrade to the all SSD option (I have it in my old 2011 MacBook Air and it's snappy... but tiny!) because I think we're being ripped off on the price. Stupid money for the upgrade.

The fusion drive is a really good compromise.... I get great start up times (about 10 seconds) and the 7,200 disc chunters away in the background doing its stuff with no noticeable lag.

The OP is happy with what s/he has, and rightly so. A great computer, will last for ages and perfectly able to perform the tasks needed, even if slightly slower than the top end gear.

FWIW, return the iMac and just get a 4K monitor for your MacBook Pro

(which is what I would have done in the first place).

Spend the difference on camera gear! It's a better investment!

All the iMacs have the same drives

Thanks for clarifying that later. Fortunately, the OP has a 7200 rpm drive, so all is well.

My experience with a 5400 rpm drive is that it is slow as molasses in everything (read/write) it does. I returned one Mini and sold another MBP because I didn't have the time to wait for a simple short edit/render.

I also am absolutely opposed to fusion drives - it took me the better part of two days to get it back to factory specs before returning it to Apple as a DOA (due to other reasons). The only thing that finally worked was the bootable clone I had made fresh out of the box. A fusion drive - to me - is a smoke screen: so what if it boots up fast, but does everything else excruciatingly slow (if it has a 5400 drive which most 21.5" iMacs and MBPs do). I'm interested in the actual read/write speeds while I am working with it. And, it is more than a pain to try to partition, re-partition, or restore to factory.

baboowa

All the iMacs have the same drives, unless you get a Fusion or SSD and All can be configured to the better drives.

None are 7200 because I think Apple uses 2.5" drives to fit inside the squeezie weezie cases.

Peter

PeterBreis0807 wrote:

A good 4k monitor costs almost as much as the 21" iMac, may as well get the iMac.

Peter

Excellent 4K monitors can be had for $600-700. Another $1000

(additional a 27" iMac would cost) could get a high quality lens

or a couple very good lenses, which would be money well spent.

BTW, the LG Apple 4K display is $699, though the OP couldn't use it.

So, excellent 4K displays aren't the cost of a new iMac, or even close.

All the 27 inch screen iMac have 7200 RPM hard drives.

No they do not. Have a look at the specs.

Peter

A good 4k monitor costs almost as much as the 21" iMac, may as well get the iMac.

Peter

Mine has a 7,200 rpm disc.