Choosing an iMac and Add-Ons Help

[revrun]

So I'm looking to get an iMac, and just have a couple of questions on whether the different add-ons are worth the money. I'm looking to get a 21.5" for the price and because I just don't need such a big screen in my small apartment. Also, I'm going to be primarily using it for gaming with Starcraft II among others, and I'm going to upgrade the RAM to 8 GB or 16 GB on my own. With that being said, here are the questions I have:

1. Should I upgrade to the i7 processor or is there no noticeable difference?

2. Since, I'm going with the cheaper one (21.5"), should I upgrade the harddrive to include an SSD or, for what I'm planning with it, is the 1 TB hardrive sufficient?

3. Or would it be worth it to go up to the 27" iMac?

Thanks!
Nick

 

[RedCroissant]

So I'm looking to get an iMac, and just have a couple of questions on whether the different add-ons are worth the money. I'm looking to get a 21.5" for the price and because I just don't need such a big screen in my small apartment. Also, I'm going to be primarily using it for gaming with Starcraft II among others, and I'm going to upgrade the RAM to 8 GB or 16 GB on my own. With that being said, here are the questions I have:

1. Should I upgrade to the i7 processor or is there no noticeable difference?

2. Since, I'm going with the cheaper one (21.5"), should I upgrade the harddrive to include an SSD or, for what I'm planning with it, is the 1 TB hardrive sufficient?

3. Or would it be worth it to go up to the 27" iMac?

Thanks!
Nick

1. If you're going to go with the 21.5" then I wouldn't worry about upgrading the processor because(from what I've seen) the difference isn't noticeable.
2.The 1TB HDD would also be more than enough, I think. But that also depends on how much media you have or are planning on accumulating.
3. It would only be worth it if you wanted a much larger screen, but you could buy a 27" monitor somewhere for less than $800 and still have an awesome machine with dual screens.

If you want to upgrade the HDD, do it yourself and you'll save lot of money. Paying an extra $300 for another 500GB is crazy when I: bought a 3TB HDD, had it installed by the Geek Squad, and also bought a bare hard drive docking station so that I could easily close my HD without having to reinstall the OS. And I did all that for $270.