New 21.5 iMac model 1 or model 2

[mt0trip]

Not certain, which 21.5 imac to get. I am not a gamer, but do want to do photo editing, music, video editiing, DVD creation. Do I need the better graphics card that comes with the 21.5 level 2 or is the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics good enough for what I want to do?

[Hellhammer]

If you're video editing is something with iMovie, 9400M will be fine

[danners]

I was thinking the same thing... i have a macbook with the nivida 9400 and some of the basic editing i find takes a loooong time so i dont know how well it would go with a desktop.

[maclook]

I was thinking the same thing... i have a macbook with the nivida 9400 and some of the basic editing i find takes a loooong time so i dont know how well it would go with a desktop.

what do you use? im wondering how it does with final cut pro or adobe premiere

[The Samurai]

The ATI graphics card would be beneficial for which kind of apps?

[opera57]

Yea model 1 will be fine unless you are doing gaming really. The 9400m is actually quite a capable chip and will be able to manage some casual gaming anyway, and will definitely be able to manage everything you want to do! http://www.scottty.com/imgs/signature_silverapple.jpg

[cloudmac]

I ordered the mod 2 21.5" with the 3.33, 8 Ram and ATI card. I think the model one would handle most of what I do but decided to try and future proof the machine for at least 2-3 years. Never sure what I might be doing with it 2 years from now.

[stonemann]

The ATI graphics card would be beneficial for which kind of apps?
According to the Apple website:

"The ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics processor delivers up to 4x faster performance than the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M — ideal for 3D games and graphics-intensive applications."

Whether the graphics card plus the extra hard drive space justifies an additional £250 is a tough call. That's the only difference as far as I can tell.

[zedsdead]

I recommend the upper model. The graphics card is a nice addition, plus the extra hard drive space will come in handy. It may sound like a lot now, but wait a few years.

[danners]

what do you use? im wondering how it does with final cut pro or adobe premiere

late 08 aluminium macbook

[stonemann]

Am leaning towards the higher end of the two base models myself with the ATI 4670 card. I noticed that for an extra £150 it's possible to either get a faster processor - 3.33GHZ as opposed to 3.06GHZ. Alternatively, for the same money it's possible to double RAM from to 8GB to 16GB.

My question is which is the better investment: a faster processor or double the RAM? I'm particularly interested in how this would affect, say, video editing.

[J&JPolangin]

Am leaning towards the higher end of the two base models myself with the ATI 4670 card. I noticed that for an extra £150 it's possible to either get a faster processor - 3.33GHZ as opposed to 3.06GHZ. Alternatively, for the same money it's possible to double RAM from to 8GB to 16GB.

My question is which is the better investment: a faster processor or double the RAM? I'm particularly interested in how this would affect, say, video editing.

...double the RAM will be a better investment than moving from the 3.06 ---> 3.33 CPU... if they are the same price....

[zedsdead]

...double the RAM will be a better investment than moving from the 3.06 ---> 3.33 CPU... if they are the same price....

I disagree. You can always add the RAM later, but you are stuck with the CPU. Most people will do fine with 4 gigs of RAM right now.

[Fiete5401]

I disagree. You can always add the RAM later, but you are stuck with the CPU. Most people will do fine with 4 gigs of RAM right now.

That's exactly the point why upgrading a processor makes much more sense than upgrading RAM.