Advice for the iMac quad core i5?

[jtrim2]

I've decided to jump on the apple band wagon and purchase an iMac.

I'm planning on ordering the 27-inch quad core i5 but I'm wondering whether it's worth upgrading the processor or increasing the RAM - does anyone use FCS 3 and if so, would it be better to increase the RAM to 8GB+ to run more smoothly.. or does the 4GB RAM basic run fine with FCP 7 and the like?

Thanks in advance.

James

 

[olvrfshr]

?

 

[jtrim2]

The processor. You can always upgrade the ram later.

Cheers buddy, so upgrade to the i7 over boosting to 8 gig ram?

 

[juliancs]

Yea. The new iMac has a small latch under the screen to put more RAM in yourself at a later date. Buy it third party as well, and save a tonne of cash. Crucial memory has been good to me in the past.

 

[jtrim2]

Yea. The new iMac has a small latch under the screen to put more RAM in yourself at a later date. Buy it third party as well, and save a tonne of cash. Crucial memory has been good to me in the past.

Thanks mate, I'll be cracking on with the i7 then!

James

 

[HLdan]

Cheers buddy, so upgrade to the i7 over boosting to 8 gig ram?

Yes, you can't upgrade the processor later, you can upgrade the ram anytime. But honestly, Apple's iMac 2 generations ago was cable of running their current Final Cut Pro software so you'd be just fine with the 3.06 Core2Duo model or the i5. If you really think you need a powerhouse then go for the i7. I do a lot of encoding and I needed the i7.

 

[ChrisA]

Buy the smallest amount of RAM Apple will sell you, then later buy the most that will fit inside from a third party. Apple charges way to much for RAM and it is easy to install yourself.

As for CPU speed. You can't upgrade that later but on the other hand don't over pay for a that last 0.1Ghz either you will never notice it. (you will have to define "overpay" for your self.)

 

[HLdan]

As for CPU speed. You can't upgrade that later but on the other hand don't over pay for a that last 0.1Ghz either you will never notice it. (you will have to define "overpay" for your self.)

It's not just .1Ghz. The i7 has the hyperthreading for up 8 virtual cores. The i5 does not have the hyperthreading.

 

[PeckhamBog]

I'm planning on ordering the 27-inch quad core i5 but I'm wondering whether it's worth upgrading the processor or increasing the RAM - does anyone use FCS 3 and if so, would it be better to increase the RAM to 8GB+ to run more smoothly.. or does the 4GB RAM basic run fine with FCP 7 and the like?

Does FCS 3 benefit from hyperthreading and multicore processing? Otherwise the i5 is plenty, and the spare money pays for the additional RAM.

 

[Btom]

I've decided to jump on the apple band wagon and purchase an iMac.

I'm planning on ordering the 27-inch quad core i5 but I'm wondering whether it's worth upgrading the processor or increasing the RAM - does anyone use FCS 3 and if so, would it be better to increase the RAM to 8GB+ to run more smoothly.. or does the 4GB RAM basic run fine with FCP 7 and the like?

Thanks in advance.

James

This depend on what you do you want to do. i7 is a monster of a machine, but for now there is not too many applications which can really use this power. So for gaming, or extensive video work it probably is a good idea to go with i7, but for example for photoediting it would not be a must.

Tom B.

 

[X1Lightning]

I always get a kick out of people who say current software doesn't support multiple threads so it doesn't pay to have more cores.....

I really cant tell you the last time i only had one application running at a time.

 

[Btom]

I always get a kick out of people who say current software doesn't support multiple threads so it doesn't pay to have more cores.....

I really cant tell you the last time i only had one application running at a time.

Most of our everyday applications are not very demanding for the modern CPU and can be run using simple time sharing (and even then CPU runs at a few percent of its full capacity). To run this kind of typical tasks i7 can even power down some cores (and runs remaining ones at slightly higher clock speed).
To take full advantage of multiple cores, the application has to be able to split computing tasks into several parallel processes. So far not too many does it.

Tom B.