Upgrade ram or CPU?

[philipma1957]

my take is iMac 2011 or newer from the usa refurb store is a good deal.



http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC813LL/A


this machine is an example .

first off it will run up to 32gb ram

second it can use snow leopard or lion

third it has a good cpu it is a little weak on the graphics card.

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so this next model has it all:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC814LL/A

it can use 32gb ram

it can use snow or lion

it has a good cpu

it has a good graphics card

it has t-bolt
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right now the promise pegasus is costly. due to floods in asia


http://store.apple.com/us/product/H5186VC/A/Thunderbolt?



I grabbed one earlier in the year a 6 drive model for 1320 usd

this unit allows 6 drives setup in any which way but loose.

the trapped hdd in iMac is a thing of the past.

I use three drives as a time machine.

I use one as an osx (intel ssd)

I use one as a super duper clone of the intel



I use the internal as a windows osx.



so i have a double boot machine with backup.


now i am doing this with a mac mini server as I sold my 2009 iMac.

I can't run snow and I am thinking of getting the 2011 older imac.

 

[BasilFawlty]

I recently bought a 27" iMac and opted for the i5 entry level. If I had it to do over again, I'd do the same thing. One of the things I do a lot is Handbrake and the i5 is much faster than my old Macbook is. Yes, it would have been even faster with a hyper-threaded i7, but to get from the entry level i5 to the i7 would be an additional $500 ($1699 for the i5, $2199 for i7). Also, I was able to upgrade my memory by an additional 8GB to 12GB for about $50, so it would have been a waste to pay Apple $200 for just another 4GB! Like I said, I know my computer would have been faster with the i7, but would it have been worth an extra $500? For what I do anyway, the answer was no. I'm quite happy with my i5 27".

 

[Schonert]

Yes the screen is amazone, good point. So what I'm getting from you guys is that for my usage as a student studying digital kommunication i would need the high end 27 i7(or at least i5 3.1) and lots of ram?

Won't the i5 2.7 and ram be more then enough. The high end seems a bit 'overkill'?

 

[Charcoalwerks]

Yes the screen is amazone, good point. So what I'm getting from you guys is that for my usage as a student studying digital kommunication i would need the high end 27 i7(or at least i5 3.1) and lots of ram?

Won't the i5 2.7 and ram be more then enough. The high end seems a bit 'overkill'?

You would be well off with the $1019 refurb.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC309LL/A

This Mac is perfect if not overkill for a dig com student. I'm a professional and it might even be overkill for me!

Plus you would be able to use the money you save for ram and another monitor! Perfect for digital com!
A quad core i5 Mac with 8 or 12 Gb of RAm and dual monitors would make a lot of professionals jealous let alone other students.

 

[Schonert]

Heres the thing, I'm from Denmark, and on holliday in south africa, there's no refurb either down here or in Denmark. So I'll need to pay full price, and I loooooove high res screens so it will be a 27"..

So the low end 27 would be more then enough?

 

[skasol]

Heres the thing, I'm from Denmark, and on holliday in south africa, there's no refurb either down here or in Denmark. So I'll need to pay full price, and I loooooove high res screens so it will be a 27"..

So the low end 27 would be more then enough?

I believe for what I are trying to use either the i5 or i7 with basic ram from apple store would be more than enough and then upgrade ur ram as u see it fit ur needs.

I am too going to wait for the upgrade of Mac pros. I was about to buy top of the line iMac 27 i7, 256+2TB ssd and hd combo but I need more space than that for photography.

Good luck.

 

[Schonert]

Tank you everyone for helping me make this decision. I've been at the apple store, down here in south africa. I found out that the inky way I can get an i7 down here, is to order it from the store(premium dealer store, apple doesn't have an online store down here) and wait between 5-8 weeks.. So the i7 is out of the question...

So now I need to decide rather I want the 2.7 or the 3.1 i5. There's a $360 difference in price and according to Geekbench, the difference in performance is only about 500.. Is it worth the $360, am I missing something and wouldn't putting in $360 of ram do a bigger difference then using $360 to upgrade to i5 3.1 model(I haven't taken the Grafic card in consideration, since from what I understood it not that big a deal for what I'm going to use it for)

Again, I appreciate your time!