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Quad i5 or Quad i7 Imac

M

mattyb240

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 11, 2008
520
0
I have the opportunity to buy an iMac at a reasonable price! I'm not sure whether or not to go for the i5 or i7?

My main program is Lightroom 3 and a tiny bit of CS5. Presently my Raw images are only 10mb, but in the next year or so I hope to upgrade to a Canon 5dmkII which has 21mp images.

Will Lightroom utilise hyper threading? Is it worth spending the extra for "future proofing". Whilst the difference in price is roughly £100 after I have sold some bits, it is still £100!

I currently have a 2.66 i7 MBP and don't need the portability anymore.
 
Designer Dale

Designer Dale

macrumors 68040
Mar 25, 2009
3,950
100
Folding space
Why not just get a good external monitor and keyboard setup? That MBPro outclasses the '08 machine I use for photo editing. It amounts to a big paperweight next to my 23 in. Samsung monitor, but it's cheaper than a new iMac. Every time I think I need to upgrade, I open iStat Pro and look at my processor usage during an operation. I never seem to use more that 65% of my Core2Duo. I do need more ram, though.

My 2k worth.

Dale
 
H

HBOC

macrumors 68020
Oct 14, 2008
2,497
234
SLC
I went with a base i5 QC iMac and it is quick. I upped the RAM to 8GB. I have a 1Ds (file sizes vary up to 14MB), and will probably get a 1Ds2 before next spring. After working on my files, they quickly climb to 100MB each (after running actions, some NiK work, etc) and I have many files open at the same time, as well as my iTunes library (that is all music and 110GB), Aperture 3 running with Office 2011 and Ai CS4. No hiccups!
 
M

mattyb240

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 11, 2008
520
0
Thats good to know! I have a great setup with my MBP with a nice Dell external and keyboard and trackpad. As I don't need portability and always like more poke I figured it was worth it. Plus with my discount and selling my MBP I won't be spending any money.
 
R

Ruahrc

macrumors 65816
Jun 9, 2009
1,345
0
You will get some benefit from the hyperthreading- just up to you as to whether it will be 100GBP worth. I noticed when I use LR with my i7 mini server, when rendering previews it does max out all 8 threads- so at least LR is multithreaded enough to utilize the available cores.

Obviously as it's hyperthreaded virtual cores and not 4 additional physical cores, it's not going to be 2x the speed. I don't know what the efficiency gain is for hyperthreading, anyone know?

Ruahrc
 
mofunk

mofunk

macrumors 68020
Aug 26, 2009
2,421
161
Americas
I'm with Designer Dale on this one... use your money to buy more glass. No need to get an iMac.
 
M

mattyb240

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 11, 2008
520
0
Ruahrc said:
You will get some benefit from the hyperthreading- just up to you as to whether it will be 100GBP worth. I noticed when I use LR with my i7 mini server, when rendering previews it does max out all 8 threads- so at least LR is multithreaded enough to utilize the available cores.

Obviously as it's hyperthreaded virtual cores and not 4 additional physical cores, it's not going to be 2x the speed. I don't know what the efficiency gain is for hyperthreading, anyone know?

Thats good to know as I do render on import, its not my profession so I guess its not critical how fast it renders but I would always like more speed.

Ruahrc
Click to expand...

mofunk said:
I'm with Designer Dale on this one... use your money to buy more glass. No need to get an iMac.
Click to expand...

Even though in theory it would be a straight trade for the quad i5?
 
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