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another what to do

A

AL2TEACH

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 17, 2007
1,353
610
North Las Vegas, NV.
I will be getting the 27 iMac in a few days but I need a little help. The most taxing thing I will be doing is some video encoding and video conferencing, the rest would fit into the norm stuff and no gaming. With an eye toward any upgrade stuff Apple might have in mind. My choices are:
3.4 GHz i5
1 TB Fusion
GTX 780m 4GB
or
3.2 GHz i5
1 TB Fusion
GT 755m 1GB

1. is this fusion thing only really good for a few seconds of speed. if not what other good does it have over a regular 1 TB hard drive?
2. is the only plus with the GTX 780m for gaming?
3. this 2008, 24 inch model is going strong since I got it but I want this 27 to last even longer despite any upgrades to come.
thanks. :eek:
 
I personally think the Fusion drive is a must upgrade. It will make either machine feel more snappy. There is always the 775 in between the two GPU options you mentioned. It might be a nice middle option. Otherwise, I think you'll be well served by either one with the higher specs machine perhaps being more capable/relevant/useful later.
 
  • Always get the Fusion drive (never the vanilla SATA HDD).
  • 8GB of RAM is plenty for most. Get more if you do a lot of memory hungry tasks - development, large PSDs, large photos (16MP+), etc.
  • i5 is fine for nearly everyone. Most applications won't make use of the extra threads in the i7.
  • The 775M/780M are great cards, but most people won't notice any difference unless they're gaming or doing lots of GPU-heavy tasks (video editing, CUDA processing, etc). If you will do any gaming though, get at least the 775M. If you're just a web browser + iPhoto user + documents + watching movies, get the entry level 27" and spend the savings on something else.
 
Last edited:
since I have a couple of days before the card gets here and then a week or so before I decide, it's no rush but option one is looking better if just for longevity.
well so far, lol. thanks. :D
 
AL2TEACH said:
...
1. is this fusion thing only really good for a few seconds of speed. if not what other good does it have over a regular 1 TB hard drive?
2. is the only plus with the GTX 780m for gaming?
3. this 2008, 24 inch model is going strong since I got it but I want this 27 to last even longer despite any upgrades to come.
thanks. :eek:
Click to expand...
1) It may be a few seconds at a time, but it all adds up and is worthwhile. As an additional bonus, the size of the Fusion Drive is the size of the SSD and HD combined, so it's a tad more space than just a HD.
2) As mention also for some video work. Depending on how much you are doing, it could be a great time savings. As a compromise, you could go for the the 775M.
3)Video encoding is one of the things that an i7 will noticeably help with, so this is something to think about. Again it all depends on how much you are talking about.
 
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