#21

I bought a 2019 iMac from the Apple Store and 32gb of RAM (OWC) from a third party thinking in having 40 gb. The thing is that I had A LOT of crashes of the OS, so I removed the 8 gb modules that came pre-installed. Everything is working perfect now with the 32 gb.

#22

OK, I’ll watch out for that. Thanks.

#23

Just a note but in case it was missed above 4x8GB modules will give better memory performance than 2x16gb and are worth the cost difference.

#24

OK, thanks, I’ve ordered 16x2 anyway and will add these to the existing 8x2.

So the suggestion is that actually another 8x2 might be better in this circumstance? Or 8x4 of the exact same RAM?

The general view I can glean from elsewhere is that the 16x2 to 40 MB upgrade option is typically pretty successful, but then these people are probably just as inexpert as me…

#25

I purchased the 2019 27in model last year to serve as my dedicated DAW computer. I maxed out most specs via Apple and the RAM via Crucial (in order to save money). I absolutely love it! I was a bit concerned about the display size and possibly needing an additional display, but so far the single display has sufficed quite nicely!

That said, I do see that we should expect a new model this year.

#26

As I wrote a few posts earlier, unmatched RAM works (sometimes, some users have issues) but its slower than fully matched RAM. Whether you will notice this is highly workload dependent but if your workload is affected by RAM performance it can be noticeable. As a result, given the small cost differential its far better to match.

#27

I promised to report back on my new iMac as a DAW; several unavoidable issues prevented me doing this promptly, but I can do so now.

My machine is the iMac 27in, 9th Gen 6 core processor, 512 GB SSD, 8GB ram upgraded to 40GB. Previously I had a 13in MacBook Pro from 2014.

This might be the first proper spec machine I’ve had (though I used to build my own audio PCs in the past) but it is astonishingly powerful so far. Running Ableton, with Pro Q3 and a reverb on every track (not loads, but say 20) it gets to maybe 10% usage. This would have broken my previous machine; it feels much more than 10x better. It is hard to see what it could not do for my purposes.

The one real negative - and it’s a serious one - is that when I installed the MOTU drivers, it would not reboot, and just hung. This was pretty scary given the price I’d paid for the iMac. I had to do an OS reinstall to get it up and running. But after that, it was perfect.

Hope this is useful for anyone else considering this option, thanks for everyone’s advice. Time to make some music.

4 Likes
#28

anyone have any thoughts on the new imac 2020 for daw use? aggravating that you can’t add more storage. but otherwise i feel like if i bump it to 32GB it’ll work well for me

#29

Should generally be an outstanding computer. Obviously, buy third party RAM—OWC’s ram kits have never let me down. The external storage problem is a pain. If you can afford it, I recommend OWC’s Thunderbolt 3 SSD options, such as the ThunderBlade—that offers pretty transparent storage. Avoid external spinners: they will drive you batty waiting for them to spin up (as far as I can tell, there’s no way to prevent external hard drives from spinning down, despite the setting in System Preferences). The shortage of ports can also be a pain. I use a Thunderbolt dock, but I can’t say it makes me much happier—it’s another goddamn thing lying around.