I have a friend who is about to make the move to Mac. He wanted some recommendations as to the 21.5 iMac. He does not have the space for the 27 inch. Since his primary use will be word processing for work and web surfing. I suggested the 2.7GHz Quad Intel Core i5 processor with Pages as a complete package. As for memory, I told him to stay with the 4GB and if he needed more he could save by adding it on through the secondary market. Are there any other suggestions as to what else he should add on and/or install?
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21.5 inch iMac
- Thread starter Newbe
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I don't think people knows how fast the new Sandy Bridge i5s are.
If you look at 2006 and 2009 models of the iMac the 2009 models was maybe 30% faster than the 2006 models. (24" 2006 was 2.0Ghz and 2009 2.66GHz, both C2D)
The new Sandy Bridge iMacs are almost 3 times as fast as the 2009 ones.
The only issue with the 2.5GHZ i5 is that it seems you can't upgrade the HD on AppleStore, and as far as I know iMacs now doesn't play nice with 3rd party HDs anymore. If he has the money, get the 2.7GHz and bump HD to 2TB.
If you look at 2006 and 2009 models of the iMac the 2009 models was maybe 30% faster than the 2006 models. (24" 2006 was 2.0Ghz and 2009 2.66GHz, both C2D)
The new Sandy Bridge iMacs are almost 3 times as fast as the 2009 ones.
The only issue with the 2.5GHZ i5 is that it seems you can't upgrade the HD on AppleStore, and as far as I know iMacs now doesn't play nice with 3rd party HDs anymore. If he has the money, get the 2.7GHz and bump HD to 2TB.
If the money is there the better iMac is certainly nice (personally I went with the high end 21.5 with upgraded CPU and third party RAM) but for simple word processing, as everyone has basically already said, the standard 21.5 would be more than enough to get the job done.
21.5 inch iMac
Thank you all for your thoughtful comments. My friend took each comment of your comments into consideration and then he decided (just in case his needs should change) to purchase the higher end 21.5: 2.7GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5. He'll add third party RAM. I had recommended the 2,7GHz because as far as I know the 2.5GHz cannot be upgraded. At any rate the bottom line is that he picked it up yesterday and I think he will be very satisfied with it.
Thanks again.
Thank you all for your thoughtful comments. My friend took each comment of your comments into consideration and then he decided (just in case his needs should change) to purchase the higher end 21.5: 2.7GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5. He'll add third party RAM. I had recommended the 2,7GHz because as far as I know the 2.5GHz cannot be upgraded. At any rate the bottom line is that he picked it up yesterday and I think he will be very satisfied with it.
Thanks again.