TBD or 2009 iMac as Screen?

[DaDalle]

Hi folks!

I've to make a hard decision: I'll by a new Macbook Air (2012) and currently have a 27" iMac from 2009 with 3,06 GHz dual core. Now I was wondering if I'll still need my iMac.
Since the Macbook air has a SSD and the processor is hyper-threaded, I guess it'll be much faster than my old iMac. So obviously if i'm at home i'll still want to make advantage of my iMac screen, so I would use it in target display mode for my MBA.
Wouldn't it be a nice idea to sell my iMac and get a TBP instead. The benefits would be that I could access the USB-Ports and Ethernet as well. Which I couldn't do on my iMac.
So what do you think?
Should I keep my iMac? Or invest into a TBP? Is the MBA even faster than the iMac (benchmark tells so)

Thanks for answers

 

[convergent]

I'd get the TBD. Reasons:

- No need to sync two computers which will be a continual challenge
- MBA is going to be much faster than the iMac, unless you had an SSD in the iMac
- Ports... particularly the gigabit Ethernet port which you don't get any other way.

 

[Lennyvalentin]

Are you sure target display mode works with a computer as old as a 09 iMac? Even if yes, the iMac as a display is going to draw quite a bit more power than a pure display (all of the computer's hardware is going to be running while powered on, in addition to the LCD panel and its backlight).

And yes, a current MBA using a Core i5 or i7 CPU is going to be significantly faster than a Core2 Duo from a couple years ago. Graphics speed might not be as good, depending on what is stuffed into that iMac, but for regular, non-gaming tasks it won't matter. It'll be fast enough, even for a high-resolution 27" display.

 

[DaDalle]

Thanks for the replies!

- No need to sync two computers

I didn't think of this point, but yeah this would be really great

And yes, the late-2009 iMac was the first one which supported Target Display Mode. (I've done this before)

I'm not sure if I should sell my Mac right now, or if I should wait until I have my 2012 MBA, i'm a little afraid of the price drop once the 2012 iMac is out. I think i'll just wait.