1st iMac need some help

[ri0ku]

So I return to Uni in October (Video games design) and I am thinking about going after an iMac using my student discount.

The 2 options for me are... the 3.2ghz 21" model or the 27" model....however I was thinking maybe to just go for the 21" model then update the processor to the i5.

What do you guys think? im worried that that because the 27inch is displaying more pixels its going to make graphic intense programs/games run choppy...

And one last question.. how much of a performance increase do you think will be felt the HD 5670 over my current MBP 9600M ?

Thanks for your time.

 

[rkaufmann87]

Once you purchase the machine you cannot upgrade the CPU or GPU, those are decisions you need to make at the time of purchase.

As far as which will best serve you there are tons of threads about this, take a few minutes and sort through some of them I'm sure you will come away with some good ideas.

Regards,

Roger

 

[ri0ku]

Once you purchase the machine you cannot upgrade the CPU or GPU, those are decisions you need to make at the time of purchase.

As far as which will best serve you there are tons of threads about this, take a few minutes and sort through some of them I'm sure you will come away with some good ideas.

Regards,

Roger

Hey thanks for the reply, I'm aware about the not being able to upgrade the CPU etc what.I meant was I'd go for the 21" then select the i5 and buy it that way.

I have searched about the gpu but can't seem to find anything about it's comparison with the 9600m that's why iv asked. Was just wanting others personal opinions etc. If I hardly will gain a significant performance increase over my current mbp (in my sig) then Im not sure an iMac is for me at the moment.

Hopefully the gpu and CPU will give me enough of a performance increase. I know I could easily build my own system that's way faster for the price... But I really will only be using windows for max work, other than that il be spending most of my time in osx ( don't want to do hackintosh )

 

[Thermonuclear]

The graphics improvement for the base 3.06 GHz 21.5 inch to the 3.2 GHz 21.5 inch model (the one I bought) is worth the extra money; you get twice the video RAM and it's accessed at twice the speed.

Jumping from a 3.2 GHz CPU to a 3.6 GHz CPU will get you at most an 11% speed improvement. It could be rather less, as often the 3.2 GHz CPU is stalled waiting for main memory or for a peripheral.

 

[reeceado]

get the 27"
i got the Quad core i5 27" iMac as few days ago with student discount - £1451.13
worth it though its huge and really fast im aslo going to do the same course area in 2 years.
whats it like?
cheers

 

[ri0ku]

get the 27"
i got the Quad core i5 27" iMac as few days ago with student discount - £1451.13
worth it though its huge and really fast im aslo going to do the same course area in 2 years.
whats it like?
cheers

Its great, very fun but its no easy task.. its allot of hard work... but when hard work is fun who cares?

I have learned allot in my 2 years (going onto my 3rd and final year) what you doing now? before I went to uni I did interative (multimedia) design. Best thing to do before going on a game course.

 

[reeceado]

I'm kinda teachin myself c and objective c. I'm doing software development at college in September for 2 years then goin to uni to to software development with games. I thinks it's a Bsc honors

 

[ri0ku]

Ah nice, I do the 3D modelling/texturing/animation/3D Special effects. What Uni you heading too?

 

[reeceado]

kool
maybe manchester or Derby (UK)

 

[ri0ku]

cool, I recommend Middlesbrough (Teesside Uni) best in the UK for video games design. Thats where I go, only reason I chose there is because of the equipment they use and how good there scores have been.

I travel from Newcastle to middlesbrough each day for Uni (takes me 1 hour 30 mins there and then the same back) and costs me £10 a day too... but its worth it thats how good it is.

 

[reeceado]

ahh cool you use macs?

 

[ri0ku]

We have some mac studios which are mainly used for music production and animation. They have the biggest render farms in all of the UK. We mainly use dell machines 2 x xeon CPU's with 2 x GTX ???? Cant remember the Gpu's now with 16gb of ram (in each machine) theres hundreds of machines.

Normally since we do 3D work we work in 3ds Max and Mudbox... so I am tied to using windows because of that (I normally just take my mbp in to uni) but Mudbox is available on mac too and it saved my ass a couple of times last year when the windows version screwed stuff up and refused to render properly...

I am hoping autodesk pull there heads out there asses and release a 3DS Max for OSX.... because they would make a fortune if they did... id be first in line to buy it.

 

[Ocon]

Good to know I just ordered my first mac ( 27" iMac i7 and 8gb of RAM ) for uni with be using bootcamp too for games and windows only programs, I'm starting games design at teessde uni this September. I hope I made the right choice going for the iMac over a MacBook pro but I do have a dell xps laptop to use if I need something portable from time to time.

 

[ri0ku]

Good to know I just ordered my first mac ( 27" iMac i7 and 8gb of RAM ) for uni with be using bootcamp too for games and windows only programs, I'm starting games design at teessde uni this September. I hope I made the right choice going for the iMac over a MacBook pro but I do have a dell xps laptop to use if I need something portable from time to time.

Cool man, if you need any help with anything or need showing around just send me a PM. You will enjoy the course, what programs you using at the moment for 3D (If your already doing some) ?

 

[Ocon]

I know how to use Xsi, Maya and Max at a low level. I having just finished a 2 year course on a graphic deisgn Nation Diploma I also have been working on a mod team for the last 4 years as a level deigner. I used cryengine 2's solid tool to do modelling but thats not the correct uses for the tool and it will be good to learn how to use modelling tools. Some of my past work is on my site www.alexfrood.com

My iMac should coming in the next few days.