C2D or I5

[newbee92]

I have looked at apple for years but never owned, I am now looking to replace a 6 year old pc with Petium 4 2.6 CPU and 512mb ram running xp. I use the PC for photo editing/storing, excel/ word, internet, nothing fancy. I have a Toshiba laptop for portability but want a new PC for the family. looking at the basic 21.5 Imac, but have been told I should try and upgrade from C2D to I5 since I know I will be keeping a long time ... other then slow I do not have issues with my current system and assume the jump would be enough any thoughts?

 

[iBookG4user]

Both will be a huge jump in performance compared to what you have currently. Of the two I'd try to get the I5, but if that is out of reach the C2D will be fine.

 

[alust2013]

If that's all you use it for, the C2D will really be fine, especially if you want the 21.5" version, as you have to go to the 27 for the i5. For that type of usage, I don't think you would see a difference that would be worth the several hundred dollars extra you would spend. Either one would absolutely smoke what you have now, especially with 8x the RAM in your PC, and even the base C2D is a much faster processor than any P4. So if you are looking at the 21, go for that, you will be plenty pleased with the performance.

 

[elpmas]

i5 all the way

 

[newbee92]

follow up

thanks for the feedback I agree I do not think I will be disappointed with performance I would like to move up in processor but cant justify the cost and do not need the larger screen so looks like 21inch will do.just want to make sure it will meet my needs for a long time

on another topic I have been told there are issues using word and excel on a Mac is this true are there issues?

 

[macrumorsMaster]

I have looked at apple for years but never owned, I am now looking to replace a 6 year old pc with Petium 4 2.6 CPU and 512mb ram running xp. I use the PC for photo editing/storing, excel/ word, internet, nothing fancy.

What is the reason you're looking to go to a MAC?

If you've been fine with a Windows PC for so long, why not continue with that and get an i5 PC ? It will run circles around the c2d imac and you'll be using a familiar OS (and Win 7 is a good OS).
With a mac you'll have to get used to a different interface(a few differences).
Plus you'll spend less.

I'm not saying you shouldn't go with a mac, but make a pro's and con's list, also look at the costs. You can get a PC i5 desktop with discrete graphics(which will help with photo editing if you use photoshop) for the same or less than a c2d imac with integrated(slower) graphics.

I believe with Excel you don't get the macros, you'll have to wait for the future version of Excel to get macros.