Should I buy the "24-inch: 2.66GHz IMac" or the "24-inch: 2.93GHz IMac"

[clickey-grl]

Hi, I'm new here

I'm a Graphic Design student (associate degree) and I'm almost finishing my degree.

I want to buy an IMac but I don't know which one will be best for me.

I don't want to buy the cheapest 20" inch IMac (that's the one we use and it's really slow when we do heavy work on photoshop) and I don't want to buy the most expensice one of the all 4 (the 24-inch: 3.06GHz $2,199.00 one).

So, I'm between the 24-inch: 2.66GHz IMac ($1,499.00) and the 24-inch: 2.93GHz IMac ($1799.00).

I went to best buy and I saw that they have the 2.66GHz for 1,300 something, but I can't remember if they have the 2.93GHz's price lowered too.

I'm going to use photoshop, dreamweaver, illlustrator, maybe indesign and flash. (I want to concentrate more on web designing, web programming, photo editing and doing vector art or logos.

I like the the 2.66GHz better, but will it still work for me for few years to come? (like 4 more or less years?).
I don't want it to be slow when they release photoshop cs5 or cs6

Thanks in advance!

 

[kajitox]

I'm pretty sure the consensus around here is that that small boost in processor speed isn't really going to be easily visible by the user...

What I would do is buy the lower end (2.66 or whatever) and use the saved cash to upgrade the RAM and the hard drive before you even get it. That's something you'll see the difference with.

 

[Hellhammer]

I would go for 2.93GHz because of its GPU, much more future proving

 

[clickey-grl]

Is there really a difference between speed or something like that between those two?

I'm a little more convinced of getting the 2.66 because of the price...and this will be my first mac computer...is there anything else I need to know?

 

[windywoo]

The higher priced 24" includes a better graphics card, which may be of benefit if any of your design programs ever get OpenCL accelerated versions. OpenCL uses the graphics card's extra power to speed up processes, but it will be a while before developers produce programs to take advantage.

If you want to save some money go for the cheaper one, but if you want to take a chance that your applications will get a (big) boost in the future then get the one with the extra graphics card.