Upgrade RAM or Processor?

First question: what kind of machine are you replacing?

If I were in your shoes I'd spend on the extra RAM. Processors are awfully capable at this point; I doubt you'd even notice a difference between the base and upgraded machine for the stuff you're doing. On the other hand, more RAM will help down the road as the OS and apps get larger.

 

I'm upgrading from an early 2006 iMac.

 

Upgraded RAM as far as possible around 2008, but maximum addressable was only 3 Gb. Made a difference, but now clearly needing more.

Compared to that 8Gb will seem loads, so staying with that for now, but intend to add more in the future if necessary.

Processor I'm unsure about, probably i5 as I feel SSD/Fusion better value than the processor upgrade.

 

For what you've described, no doubts about it: spend the money on SSD first! You'll the see the biggest speed bump there. 8 gigs of RAM is more than enough. CPU is not at all an issue.

 

Just remember that on the 21.5 you can't upgrade the RAM yourself (unless you want to dismantle your iMac)

 

I'd take more RAM over a faster CPU, but dakwar's suggestion on a 1TB Fusion Drive might be the best use of the $200 as that will probably be a bigger overall performance boost than a 2.9GHz CPU or 16GB of RAM.

 

On the 21.5" iMacs, my BTO upgrade priorities would be Fusion Drive first, RAM second, CPU third.

On the 27" iMacs, it would be Fusion Drive first, graphics card second, CPU third, and RAM last.

You can't upgrade the RAM on the 21.5" iMacs without taking it apart, so RAM upgrades should be a higher priority.

On the 27" iMacs, you can upgrade the RAM easily -- you don't even need tools -- so your best bet is to stick with the standard 8 GB and buy more RAM from Crucial or another third-party vendor. Much cheaper than Apple's RAM upgrade costs.

 

Based on your usage, a fusion drive. I would be VERY surprised if you would ever hit the 8GB RAM ceiling, so no need for that either. Processor upgrade is a waste of money in your case also.

 

I would like to add my voice in support of Fusion drive. You probably won't need more than 8Gb.

 

Do the CPU, then just upgrade the RAM later on yourself. If it comes down to something you can only upgrade at time of order vs something you can upgrade anytime, pick the one you can only upgrade when you order.

 

I upgraded from a 2006 iMac to a new Mini just a few months ago so I feel your pain I had actually replaced the drive in the old iMac with an SSD though, and that made a HUGE difference in day to day performance and actually made it pretty usable for a bit longer.

I've got a Fusion drive in the Mini and agree with the others that it's a great upgrade, for your usage I think it's a good way to go.

 

But in the 21.5" iMac both the ram and CPU can only be upgraded at the time of purchase.

Most people don't need as much CPU power as they think they do and one would be.hard pressed to see the difference in the upgrade. For the op's use cases I would suggest upgrading the ram

 

I would definitely go with the FD if your budget is constrained, then RAM if you can afford it.

 

If you don't mind opening the iMac up you can upgrade the RAM yourself, not sure if Apple Store can/will do this for you but it's worth asking.

 

RAM, all the way. I have a Core2Duo with 4GB of RAM. The processor is till holding up okay, even with Photoshop CS5/6. It's the RAM I wish I had more of.

Tl:dr: RAM