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What BTO are you buying?

captjon said:
...at the moment.

My ideal:

27" - i7 - 8GB RAM - 680MX - 256GB SSD (hopefully that will be an option)
Click to expand...

Dont get your hopes up. Yes i7 has bigger cache but mostly, you are better off getting SSD for that quick swapping pricewise.
Hyperthreading has been around for 10 years and it still has mostly niche uses. Unless youre transcoding lots of video daily and the longer renders cost you money, I dont see a reason shelling out extra for i7. Get Fusiondrice instead, that is something that will be evident in day to day use, with i7, those extra "cores" will be idle for most of the time.
It is a marketing thing to get more money out of you, yes you get more power but unless you are very specific kind of user you wont be using it. Same goes for Xeon processors.
I5 is perfectly fine for HD video editing and gaming, if you are someone who earns money with the system, those extra 20 minutes ripping your DVD might be beneficial. Many video pro's invest rather in storage because most of the time, you leave rendering for night, then it doesnt matter.

PS I realize there are more uses for i7 than for video production, its just sth Im familiar with and decided to share my perspective. I feel like lots of you just want to boast with i7 iMac.
 
comatory said:
Dont get your hopes up. Yes i7 has bigger cache but mostly, you are better off getting SSD for that quick swapping pricewise.
Hyperthreading has been around for 10 years and it still has mostly niche uses. Unless youre transcoding lots of video daily and the longer renders cost you money, I dont see a reason shelling out extra for i7. Get Fusiondrice instead, that is something that will be evident in day to day use, with i7, those extra "cores" will be idle for most of the time.
It is a marketing thing to get more money out of you, yes you get more power but unless you are very specific kind of user you wont be using it. Same goes for Xeon processors.
I5 is perfectly fine for HD video editing and gaming, if you are someone who earns money with the system, those extra 20 minutes ripping your DVD might be beneficial. Many video pro's invest rather in storage because most of the time, you leave rendering for night, then it doesnt matter.

PS I realize there are more uses for i7 than for video production, its just sth Im familiar with and decided to share my perspective. I feel like lots of you just want to boast with i7 iMac.
Click to expand...

^^


If time is money in your field (and you're good at your job), you won't be looking at an iMac anyway. If you want an i7 over an, get it. If the perceived value is worth it to you, its worth it. Just know that it doesn't actually help anything :)
 
27-inch iMac
3.2GHz i5
8GB memory
768GB flash storage (will opt out for 1TB fusion drive if too expensive)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX
Magic Mouse
USB SuperDrive
AppleCare

Max budget: $3,000

Question: Is this configuration good enough to run games via Boot Camp at MAX settings? (i.e. The Sims 3, SimCity 2013, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3)
 
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well I was set on getting an i7 mostly because in 2008 I got the cheapest 24" I could and regret it now, so I wanted to go high end this time... after reading this thread and going back and reading others, I'm thinking maybe i7 won't be worth it to me. I use photoshop daily, and aperture and illustrator sparingly, but really nothing else that's hard on the processor. I'm guessing for me it would really be a waste of money.

So, I'll be looking at:

27" 3.2ghz i5
32GB OWC ram
3TB fusion
680MX

wired keyboard (I'd get wireless if it had a number pad)
keeping my magic trackpad and logitech performance MX mouse

thunderbolt display (fingers crossed for a silent update that matches the style of the new imac)
 
27-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology; 2560x1440 resolution with support for millions of colours.
3.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz).
32 GB) of 1600MHz DDR3 memory.
1TB (7200-rpm) hard drive.
3TB Fusion Drive or 768GB of flash storage (the cheapest option).
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX with 2GB of GDDR5 memory.

I wonder what all this will cost me ... anyone has a clue ? Must be around 3.500 bucks ...
 
mchoffa said:
well I was set on getting an i7 mostly because in 2008 I got the cheapest 24" I could and regret it now, so I wanted to go high end this time... after reading this thread and going back and reading others, I'm thinking maybe i7 won't be worth it to me. I use photoshop daily, and aperture and illustrator sparingly, but really nothing else that's hard on the processor. I'm guessing for me it would really be a waste of money.
Click to expand...

I don't know about that. Software makers always tweak or upgrade their software to take advantage of latest hardware advances. Software upgrades/changes yearly if not more often. What happens if you decide to do video 9 - 36 months from now? If you are planning on keeping your iMac at 3 years through AppleCare picking i7 keeps you in the game. And, at it is the one of the least expensive upgrades. Now the 768 SSD price is going to be shocking .......
 
27"

3.4 GHz i7
32GB aftermarket RAM
GTX 680MX
1TB Fusion Drive

I'll be doing intense 3D rendering.
 
captjon said:
...at the moment.

My ideal:

27" - i7 - 8GB RAM - 680MX - 256GB SSD (hopefully that will be an option)
Click to expand...

So far .. I'm afraid it's not an option. To have SSD on 2012 iMac, either you go with 1TB or 3TB Fusion Drive with 128GB SSD built in, or going all out with 768GB pure SSD for pure speedy performance, if you can afford extra $1000 for it, of course :eek:
 
I'm downgrading from a Mac Pro so I'm MAXING out my 27" (3.4 quad, 32gb of ram, 2gb MX, 512gb SSD [assuming that's an option]), and I'll probably pickup an external thunderbolt raid storage solution with dual redundancy to run all my projects off of.

Super pumped with the Blue AMEX ready :)

In all honesty tho, I'm slightly concerned about heat with SSDs, MX card and maxed CPU. I do tons of rendering and could easy see this thing getting too hot to touch :/
 
I'll be waiting for a tear down or a set of instructions to see how easy it is to upgrade the iMac.

If it's too difficult to upgrade myself due to the decrease in size of the components and accessibility, I'll go for my preferred spec.

Currently looking at:

27" iMac 3.4Ghz i7 Quad Core
32GB RAM
Fusion Drive with 3TB (although 1TB is fine. I have a 9TB Raid 5 external enclosure)
Nvidia 675

Apple care is a must. I bought the last one to cover me for the yellow tinting screen.
 
perabear said:
Question: Is this configuration good enough to run games via Boot Camp at MAX settings? (i.e. The Sims 3, SimCity 2013, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3)
Click to expand...

Sims3 and Rollercoaster tycoon are old games so shouldn't be a problem to max em out. And I think the upcoming simcity shouldn't be a problem either

I wonder more about games such as Batman Arkham city, Skyrim, Assassins Creed
 
perabear said:
27-inch iMac

Question: Is this configuration good enough to run games via Boot Camp at MAX settings? (i.e. The Sims 3, SimCity 2013, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3)
Click to expand...

I can max out Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 at 1440x900 on my 2008 MacBook Pro. I don't think that you'll have a problem with it on any 2012 iMac.
 
I'm buying:

27"
i7 3.4ghz
32gb of ram
768 flash storage
680 MX

and an external thunderbolt HDD to compensate for the storage. I wish I could have doubled the flash storage to 1.5 tb, that would be nice.

Very eager to place the order now, hope it will be early december.
 
iMcLovin said:
I'm buying:

27"
i7 3.4ghz
32gb of ram
768 flash storage
680 MX

and an external thunderbolt HDD to compensate for the storage. I wish I could have doubled the flash storage to 1.5 tb, that would be nice.

Very eager to place the order now, hope it will be early december.
Click to expand...

1.5 SSD ? Are you planning to sell a lung to get money enough to buy that piece of storage ?
 
davidgnomo said:
1.5 SSD ? Are you planning to sell a lung to get money enough to buy that piece of storage ?
Click to expand...

:D well it would be twice the price of the 768, the flash storage is built up of multiple chips so I guess it wouldn't be like one 1.5 tb ssd. So yeah I would pay twice what they charge for the 768 flash :)
 
iMcLovin said:
:D well it would be twice the price of the 768, the flash storage is built up of multiple chips so I guess it wouldn't be like one 1.5 tb ssd. So yeah I would pay twice what they charge for the 768 flash :)
Click to expand...

Dude iMcLovin is droppin some ka$h money...

Im still debating whether to go for the 768 ssd because its gonna costtttttt
 
Still sitting on the fence but probably high end 21" with 1TB Fusion drive and maybe 16GB RAM. I'll have to see the pricing to be sure. Hopefully I can afford this as I don't want to spend more than £1800. I will also be adding apple care, super drive and MS office. Hopefully will fit my budget.
 
Pie Chips Salad said:
Dude iMcLovin is droppin some ka$h money...

Im still debating whether to go for the 768 ssd because its gonna costtttttt
Click to expand...

it's gonna cost $1.000, same as on the macbook pro, I'm pretty sure, nothing more at least. So if I could pay 2.000 for 1.5 tb of flash/ssd I would definately do it. Im gonna keep this machine for a couple of years at least. but I see the mac book pro 512gb of flash is half the price than of the 768, so I guess 1.5tb would become seriously expensive :D
 
iMcLovin said:
it's gonna cost $1.000, same as on the macbook pro, I'm pretty sure, nothing more at least. So if I could pay 2.000 for 1.5 tb of flash/ssd I would definately do it. Im gonna keep this machine for a couple of years at least. but I see the mac book pro 512gb of flash is half the price than of the 768, so I guess 1.5tb would become seriously expensive :D
Click to expand...

Well I hope your right but I have to disagree with you. The rmp 1000 dollar is an upgrade price from an existing 256 ssd. You will be buying upgrading from a regular 7200 1tb Hd. If you look at the upgrade cost for a non retina mac pro to only 512 mb ssd its $900!!
 
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