Hi folks,
I'm thinking about dropping some coin this fall on a 27 in iMac retina (I wanted to last year, but other expenses came up). I've seen some youtube videos, and noticed on GeekBench too, that previous generation i7 machines solidly beat out current generation i5 models.
This guy compares a Haswell i7 to a Skylake i5 and the Haswell beats it out.
GeekBench also shows that not only does the 2013 i7 beat out current i5 on single core tests, but even the 2012 i7 handles the current model on multi-core tests.
https://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks
Now, I'm not a power user (I think that most people who think they're power users really aren't, but that's another topic altogether). I'm a writer, and an academic, so the primary function of the machine is writing, and watching movies. As well, I'm a musician and hope to start working more in Logic, but I'm also about to start my Phd, so I'll probably be too busy in the next 5 years (during the life cycle of this machine) to do as much recording as I'd like to.
1) That said, I want to spend my money appropriately, so I'm considering buying a refurb previous gen retina iMac with an i7 or a new a new i5 on an education discount. All things being equal (RAM, SSD, etc.), which is the better buy for longevity?
2) Also, heat has been a problem with iMacs, and seems to be the biggest repair factor in these machines, so maybe the i5 is less taxing on the machine in the long term?
3) I'm also starting to think that the best thing to do with Macs is to keep them for the duration of Apple Care and then sell them at the 3 year mark when their resale value is still high. In this case, it would seem prudent for me to go with an i5 BTO w/ SSD.
4) My last question is how much does the i5 3.3 GHz (as opposed to the 3.2 GHz) mitigate the difference between the i5 and the i7. I'm guessing not much as I'm assuming it's the multithreading of the i7 that really makes the difference.
I'm of course going to wait to see what this year's iMac offering looks like before making any purchases (if it comes in Rose Gold, all bets are off, of course *wink*), but I'd like to know what you guys think of this.
Thanks
I'm thinking about dropping some coin this fall on a 27 in iMac retina (I wanted to last year, but other expenses came up). I've seen some youtube videos, and noticed on GeekBench too, that previous generation i7 machines solidly beat out current generation i5 models.
This guy compares a Haswell i7 to a Skylake i5 and the Haswell beats it out.
GeekBench also shows that not only does the 2013 i7 beat out current i5 on single core tests, but even the 2012 i7 handles the current model on multi-core tests.
https://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks
Now, I'm not a power user (I think that most people who think they're power users really aren't, but that's another topic altogether). I'm a writer, and an academic, so the primary function of the machine is writing, and watching movies. As well, I'm a musician and hope to start working more in Logic, but I'm also about to start my Phd, so I'll probably be too busy in the next 5 years (during the life cycle of this machine) to do as much recording as I'd like to.
1) That said, I want to spend my money appropriately, so I'm considering buying a refurb previous gen retina iMac with an i7 or a new a new i5 on an education discount. All things being equal (RAM, SSD, etc.), which is the better buy for longevity?
2) Also, heat has been a problem with iMacs, and seems to be the biggest repair factor in these machines, so maybe the i5 is less taxing on the machine in the long term?
3) I'm also starting to think that the best thing to do with Macs is to keep them for the duration of Apple Care and then sell them at the 3 year mark when their resale value is still high. In this case, it would seem prudent for me to go with an i5 BTO w/ SSD.
4) My last question is how much does the i5 3.3 GHz (as opposed to the 3.2 GHz) mitigate the difference between the i5 and the i7. I'm guessing not much as I'm assuming it's the multithreading of the i7 that really makes the difference.
I'm of course going to wait to see what this year's iMac offering looks like before making any purchases (if it comes in Rose Gold, all bets are off, of course *wink*), but I'd like to know what you guys think of this.
Thanks
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