iMac upgrade?

[10splaya]

So

I have iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2009)
3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
NVIDIA GeForce 9400 256 MB
500gb hd about 1/3 full 2/3 empty
12gb Ram--maxxed out

I was wondering how much faster and more efficient are the newer iMacs?

The issue I have is that I need to run parallels with windoz xp so I can run quickbooks for multiple users.
I also use chrome as my browser because it seems that safari is a resource hog.

I usually have about 15-20 tabs open at a time and Im constantly having to quit chrome or quit quickbooks/parallels in order to get my ram back otherwise my system is bogged down after about 5 hours of use.

Once I quit chrome or quickbooks it frees up the ram and then I re-start the process as the day goes on...

I dont use the native mail on osx I use gmail in a browser.

Any suggestions or help would be great!

 

[10splaya]

So

I have iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2009)
3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
NVIDIA GeForce 9400 256 MB
500gb hd about 1/3 full 2/3 empty
12gb Ram--maxxed out

I was wondering how much faster and more efficient are the newer iMacs?

The issue I have is that I need to run parallels with windoz xp so I can run quickbooks for multiple users.
I also use chrome as my browser because it seems that safari is a resource hog.

I usually have about 15-20 tabs open at a time and Im constantly having to quit chrome or quit quickbooks/parallels in order to get my ram back otherwise my system is bogged down after about 5 hours of use.

Once I quit chrome or quickbooks it frees up the ram and then I re-start the process as the day goes on...

I dont use the native mail on osx I use gmail in a browser.

Any suggestions or help would be great!

BUMP

Thanks

 

[vkd]

Just have a look on this list of benchmarked Macs. How high up or down yours features indicates its relative performance.

http://browser.geekbench.com/mac-benchmarks

 

[redfirebird08]

I have the same Late 2009 iMac and recently upgraded to the 2017 version. Strongly recommend SSD for your internal boot drive. My Late 2009 spinning drive had write speed of around 80 megabytes per second and read speeds of around 100 megabytes per second. I'm just grateful it still worked so many years later.

I bought the 2017 version of 21.5 inch iMac with 256 gigabytes of internal SSD storage. Write speed is around 1,440 megabytes per second and read speed is around 2,200 megabytes per second. This is 18-20 times faster than the spinning drive in my 2009 iMac. If you get the internal 512 gigabyte SSD or bigger, the speeds are more like 3,000 megabytes per second. Any of these are a massive upgrade compared to the spinning drive in those 2009 iMacs.

The other thing is the connection ports for external storage. Anyone with a Mac before USB3 and Thunderbolt is missing out. Firewire 800 in the 2009 iMac can only go around 100 megabytes per second. USB 3 ("A" port) can go 625 megabytes per second for the first generation version. There are 4 ports on 2017 iMac at this speed. Those ports can also run USB2 just like the 2009 iMac. There are two Thunderbolt 3 ports in the 2017 iMac, which can run the more advanced version of USB 3 at 1,250 megabytes per second or Thunderbolt 3 speed at 5,000 megabytes per second.

Obviously this is incredible stuff for external storage. I have a 500 gigabyte external SSD hooked up through USB3 and it runs around 400 megabytes per second. That is 4-5 times faster than my 2009 iMac and it's just as fast as the internal SSD on my 2012 Macbook Air, which was produced before the PCI Express SSD revolution. I figure with super fast PCI Express internal SSD along with USB3 and Thunderbolt connection ports, my 2017 iMac is future-proof for a long long time to come.

 

[10splaya]

@redfirebird08 Thanks for the info!!!