iMac buying help for photo/music/video/dvd ripping

[letsgobuffalo]

Hello everybody
I have been looking at macs for years now and i have always passed and taken the cheaper road with a pc. Well after 3 PCs giving me an average lifespan of 4 years and the most recent one's (last 2 actually) motherboard dying on me, ive decided to finally make the jump to mac.

I was looking at an iMac 27" with 3.4 i7, 2 TB HDD and 1GB video card.

Thru my work discount, the price wasn't bad for my range, but on the high end of it. Longevity and Bang for my Buck are 2 big issues for me and I want my machine to be sustainable and not be out of date in 6 months, obvious I know.

I use my computer mainly for music, web browsing, photos and video. I did video editing back in college in '07 and i want to get back into it if i can find the time. I also do dvd ripping and encoding but I have cut back on that.

Screen size doesnt matter much to me, so Im debating on scaling it down to the 21.5 iMac w/ 2.8 i7 and 512 mb video card. Will i see much performace difference between these 2 processors and video cards?

Any advice would be very helpful. Thanks.

 

[Peteman100]

Hello everybody
I have been looking at macs for years now and i have always passed and taken the cheaper road with a pc. Well after 3 PCs giving me an average lifespan of 4 years and the most recent one's (last 2 actually) motherboard dying on me, ive decided to finally make the jump to mac.

I was looking at an iMac 27" with 3.4 i7, 2 TB HDD and 1GB video card.

Thru my work discount, the price wasn't bad for my range, but on the high end of it. Longevity and Bang for my Buck are 2 big issues for me and I want my machine to be sustainable and not be out of date in 6 months, obvious I know.

I use my computer mainly for music, web browsing, photos and video. I did video editing back in college in '07 and i want to get back into it if i can find the time. I also do dvd ripping and encoding but I have cut back on that.

Screen size doesnt matter much to me, so Im debating on scaling it down to the 21.5 iMac w/ 2.8 i7 and 512 mb video card. Will i see much performace difference between these 2 processors and video cards?

Any advice would be very helpful. Thanks.

You won't see a huge difference in CPU performance, since they're both similarly clocked quad cores. The GPU difference is significant, but that only matters if you game on the computer. If screen size doesn't matter enormously to you, I'd say you should go with a maxed out 21" iMac.

 

[letsgobuffalo]

Thanks Peteman.

I wont do gaming on the mac but doesnt the stronger GPU help speed up video rendering with editing on Final Cut?

 

[pfrma575returns]

From what I've read, GPU and Memory help with rendering. I'm from Buffalo (letsgobuffalo) and I'm in the same boat. Screen size is important to me so I'm looking at the new 2011 27" 3.4. i7 Imac.

I too want to future proof my purchase as I usually run my tech until it dies or is antiquated. What's stopping me from pulling the trigger however is the 27" 2.93 i7 refurb. With the BTS pricing, I'm wondering if the $400 difference is worth the upgrade and future Thunderbolt technology (e.g. USB3).

IMHO, if time allows you to get back into video editing and you do it a lot, you'll want the better GPU.

 

[jmpnop]

Thanks Peteman.

I wont do gaming on the mac but doesnt the stronger GPU help speed up video rendering with editing on Final Cut?

Yes. If you're into video editing, photoshop and such get the maxed 21.5 or go 27.