Who here is getting the i5 model?

[rick987611]

So I ended up returning my base model and ordered it with the 512ssd and m295x. I kept it at the i5. I'm hardly seeing anyone that didn't bump up to the i7 on here though.

Now I'm starting to feel pressure to bump that up too. Thing is I'm not sure I'll utilize it. The two most intensive tasks I do is programming and some light Lightroom. I'd like to get into a bit of video editing, but not much. I'll dual boot to windows for a bit of gaming.

What do you guys do with your computers that make you feel the need for the i7?

I'd like to say I'll keep this machine 5-6 years, but I'm pretty compulsive so I know that would never happen. That's why I don't future proof much. Hell I don't really need this thing, the display is just stunning, and I'm a hiDPI addict.

 

[DerekS]

My initial order was for the i5, then I remembered you get hyper threading with the i7. Canceled and reordered.

 

[Cool Pup]

I got the base i5 model sans the stock drive (upgraded to 3 TB, storage is my primary concern). I don't really need the i7 model and it would have made it a tad out of my price range. It'll do nicely for what I need it to.

This computer will surely last 5-6 years with even the i5. I'm running a pretty arcane 2011 iMac and there's really no issues at all with what I do. It's a little slow on the boot up but it's generally pretty good at what it does.

Thing is I'm not sure I'll utilize it.

No need to upgrade it if that's your perspective.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

What do you guys do with your computers that make you feel the need for the i7?

Most folks upgrade because what's another $225-$250 when you're spending this much money? As for me, I'm ordering the i7 because I do full-time photo and video work. I mostly edit 1080p, but I'm pretty sure 4K will be entering my workflow soon. The i7 will help tremendously with encoding in FCPX.

Bryan

 

[rick987611]

Most folks upgrade because what's another $225-$250 when you're spending this much money? As for me, I'm ordering the i7 because I do full-time photo and video work. I mostly edit 1080p, but I'm pretty sure 4K will be entering my workflow soon. The i7 will help tremendously with encoding in FCPX.

Bryan

Yea, those just another $250 items start to add up

 

[tillsbury]

We're all nerds on here, though. Maxed everything.

 

[yjchua95]

So I ended up returning my base model and ordered it with the 512ssd and m295x. I kept it at the i5. I'm hardly seeing anyone that didn't bump up to the i7 on here though.

Now I'm starting to feel pressure to bump that up too. Thing is I'm not sure I'll utilize it. The two most intensive tasks I do is programming and some light Lightroom. I'd like to get into a bit of video editing, but not much. I'll dual boot to windows for a bit of gaming.

What do you guys do with your computers that make you feel the need for the i7?

I'd like to say I'll keep this machine 5-6 years, but I'm pretty compulsive so I know that would never happen. That's why I don't future proof much. Hell I don't really need this thing, the display is just stunning, and I'm a hiDPI addict.

I went for the i7 because of hyper threading. Editing and rendering videos take up a huge chunk of CPU and GPU power (also went for the 4GB M295X).

I also bought my own 32GB of RAM (ordered with 8GB and immediately put 32GB in it as soon as I opened up the box). I also ordered it with a 512GB SSD.

 

[AnalyzeThis]

I think you did the right thing by upgrading CPU and GPU and SSD. Although, I would choose 3TB Fusion instead. This is expensive machine, $500 is not an issue to get almost 2x performance. Dell sells monitor only for 2.5K. Think about it.

 

[Djay1]

i5 here. No video editing or rendering; strictly still photography. I did go with SSD and M295X.

I'm coming from a late 2009 27" so I will likely be happy especially after seeing the 5K model at the Apple Store yesterday.

 

[lcseds]

I went with the I7 and video upgrade. Minor video editing and photos for now. Handbrake will use all available cores and I use that so that will be a benefit. But it's not just today, in 2-3 years 4k video will be available on all kinds of cameras and I will be playing with that a lot. i7 is super fast for me now, acceptable in 4 years. I went the economy route a few years back getting an i3. Boy did I regret that.

 

[imaginaryfriend]

i went with the i5. i understand the rationale of just spending 200 more if you're going for a machine that is 2500. but, my employer was only willing to cover 2000 with the rest coming out of pocket. 200 dollars then became significant.

i will be using my computer mainly for programming - compiling, testing programs. nothing super intense as anything requiring heavy lifting is done by tapping into an off-site supercomputing center.

i did go with the standard SSD and 295X though, and spent a lot of time debating i7 vs 295X. ultimately went with other people's rationale that 5K is a lot of pixels and wanted the GUI to run smoothly for the life of the machine.

not sure if it's the right decision, and when i read these forums it does become a bit disheartening considering the majority say "i7 AND 295X" or bust.

my hope is that the i5 will be "fast" for my purposes considering i'm not going to be dealing with too many video rendering/image processing.

will be here wednesday. i might step away from these forums since the longer you read them, the more you regret your purchase and get sucked in. from my perspective - i think the i5 will be an amazing machine. will the i7 be significantly noticeable improvement day-to-day? that, i'm not sure of - but welcome anyone's thoughts who have real experience on machines with similar processor differences in speed/architecture.

 

[petvas]

I also went with the i5. I don't use my computers for very cpu intensive stuff, so there is no point in getting the i7 for me. I got 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD though.

 

[5iMacs]

i5 here too.

For the small percentage of time that I am doing intensive batch processing like video conversion or machine learning research I'll live without the 20% (absolute best case maximum) speedup.

The rest of the time I'm using less than half the CPU capacity of this machine, plus I have a couple of headless boxes to offload the stuff that takes hours to grind through.

 

[hyune83]

i5 here to when ordering. I don't think i7 is needed for general use.