iMac 21.5" processor

Unless you're planning on doing a lot of heavy video editing, save your money and go with the i5. Under normal computer use, email, web browsing etc... you'll never notice the difference.

 

Yep save your money. If you don't know if you'll need it, you probably don't.

Keep an eye on your page file usage though an use the money you saved for a DIY ram upgrade down the road if you find yourself in need.

 

It'd be a good idea to buy 4GB ($50) or 8GB ($100) RAM from OWC for it instead of from Apple. It's much cheaper.

 

Going to hijack this thread a bit since my question is very similar. Above it was mentioned about the Core i7 being better for video editing, would the i5 be fine for photo editing in Photoshop and Lightroom?

 

Intel i5 is nowhere near slow or sluggish. It's a respectable and fast processor. If you see this banner:



Who's the big and most loved boy? The biggest boy ain't the fastest one, see?

You can see that Intel actually loves i5 more .. it's a mainstream processor, which marketed for consumers and common people. It has the most optimum price performance ration. Intel i7 is excellent, but most of us, even GAMER wouldn't need the power of i7.

So, if you're nowhere near professional or heavy editor, i5 is a great processor. No need to worry

 

Very true. Just buy the minimum amount of RAM from Apple and then for a lot less money, upgrade it yourself from OWC. That's what I did. Instead of paying $1,000 for 16GB from Apple, I spent $234 for 16GB at OWC.

Yes it would fine just as stated above.