After switching to RAW and moving my photos from iLife to Aperture photo editing on my Mac Mini became almost impossible, it could take a minute just to move from one photo to another. I quickly realised that I would need a new computer; from reading reviews I decided that the Core2Duo processor of the then bottom end iMac was not really good enough for Aperture so a wait was called for. I began studying http://www.macrumors.com/, especially their Buyer’s Guide page, with fervour. After a couple of months a refreshed iMac range, especially before the summer “Back to School” promotion, looked increasingly likely. Several Apple events came and went without an iMac refresh. Then, in July, it happened: 21.5″ iMacs with an option for a Core i5 processor and dedicated graphics board announced. An order was placed the next day.
So, I now have a lovely iMac sat on my desk. With a 3.6 gHz processor and 8 gb of RAM, Aperture runs like a dream and I expect to be using this computer for many years to come. More on set up later.
The Mini will be set up in the other room where my wife will use it for her occasional email and web browsing. Migrating her from Windows to Mac will have some challenges but as she already uses Gmail & Firefox it should not be too hard.