Is "Thunderbolt" worth the trade-off?

[mistakensilence]

I will be using this iMac for light to medium Photoshop and Flash projects as well as medium to heavy Logic multi-track recording. I'm looking at a the two below and need some opinions. I know from benchmark results that the top one will perform better, but I am curious what everyone's thought is about the Thunderbolt trade-off. Any feedback is appreciated...thanks!!

Refurbished iMac 27-inch 2.93GHz Intel Quad-Core i7 processor
27-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display
4GB memory
1TB hard drive
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
ATI Radeon HD 5750 graphics with 1GB memory
Built-in iSight camera
$1569.00

--OR--

2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 with 6MB on-chip shared L3 cache
27-inch (viewable) LED-backlit glossy widescreen
4GB Memory
1TB Hard Drive
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
AMD Radeon HD 6770M with 512MB
Built-in iSight HD Camera
Two Thunderbolt Ports
$1597.00 (After Business Discount)

 

[johnfkitchen]

It depends what you see as the value in Thunderbolt.

I'm not trying to be smart here, but how about you let us know how you see the potential advantages in Thunderbolt.

Many of us see value in in future-proofing our iMacs, but that may not fit with you.

More info please!

 

[jrasero23]

Trade off?

I don't know if there is a trade off. You get a port that is going to allow for ultra fast transfers and work with mini display ports. If your asking whether or not you should get a 2010 iMac that doesn't have a MDP compared to the new 2011 iMac that does, then my answer is get the 2011 with it. The MDP isn't a deal breaker but rather the new processors.

 

[philipma1957]

the guess is t-bolt will allow a super fast external boot drive. far faster then any internal and can be quickly replaced in a crash. run the machine with the internal as a backup and attach one two or three externals.

forget that it is a macbook pro the photos below show working lacie raid0 units. these would allow instant recovery from a hdd crash ( well 1 min or so). this is a big t-bolt feature it make the internal drive not important. of course the t-bolt units are not around and no one knows how well they work.

if the pictures below work in your mind and you can see a good setup then go t-bolt. the cpus for last year model's and this years models are not that important. having killer fast boot drive with a full osx at quick speed means a lot to me. i am saving for this and i will not buy any mac for myself until t-bolt is confirmed to work in raid0 as a booting /osx

 

[TSE]

Will the new 27 inch iMac allow you to use an XBOX or PS3 on it?

 

[Zelnaga]

Considering theres NO thunderbolt products out for the general consumers yet. Id hold fire.

 

[Psilocybin]

Will the new 27 inch iMac allow you to use an XBOX or PS3 on it?

No


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