Latest 2015 21.5 i7 vs 27in i5 for daw?

[bjornvik]

I know this is not an audio specific forum, but I'd go for it anyway.

Hit a bit of a conundrum. I'm in the market for an iMac and my budget basically allows either a 21.5in iMac with i7 and 16GB of RAM or the 27in with i5 and 8GB of RAM (RAM is irrelevant for this one as it can be upgraded whenever).

I haven't owned an Mac in a while so, this is a bit tricky + not really a computer guy per se, so I don't really have too much clue as to the architecture of each, just the basics. That and most tests are mostly run for graphics/gaming.

Most use for the iMac would be running a DAW (Bitwig, Ableton, Cubase) with quite a lot of plugins + outboard gear.
+ regular daily tasks
No emphasis on gaming
No photo work
Possibly some video editing
Don't particularly care about the bigger screen (it's absolutely fantastic, though)

For gaming and daily tasks this would be a no brainer, 27 all the way and the i5 would be enough, however the whole audio thing throws in a wrench.


What are your insights?

 

[jgo78]

not too sure about the i7 vs i5 for you but be aware of the harddrive on the 21", you will need to upgrade that for sure as they come with 5400rpm drives which are horribly slow, you will want an SSD or at least a 2TB fusion.

 

[bjornvik]

Of course, you have to be a moron to use a HDD on these things in the first place.

 

[Sirmausalot]

I know this is not an audio specific forum, but I'd go for it anyway.

Hit a bit of a conundrum. I'm in the market for an iMac and my budget basically allows either a 21.5in iMac with i7 and 16GB of RAM or the 27in with i5 and 8GB of RAM (RAM is irrelevant for this one as it can be upgraded whenever).

I haven't owned an Mac in a while so, this is a bit tricky + not really a computer guy per se, so I don't really have too much clue as to the architecture of each, just the basics. That and most tests are mostly run for graphics/gaming.

Most use for the iMac would be running a DAW (Bitwig, Ableton, Cubase) with quite a lot of plugins + outboard gear.
+ regular daily tasks
No emphasis on gaming
No photo work
Possibly some video editing
Don't particularly care about the bigger screen (it's absolutely fantastic, though)

For gaming and daily tasks this would be a no brainer, 27 all the way and the i5 would be enough, however the whole audio thing throws in a wrench.


What are your insights?

Go for the 27" simply because you can do more on the huge screen. As someone pointed out, the minimum hard drive needed though is the 2TB fusion for decent performance. The i7 would be nice, but if it's beyond your budget, it's beyond your budget.

 

[bjornvik]

Thank you for your input.

I don't know about do more part, but it is certainly incredibly nice to look at.