Im ordering my 27" tomorrow and was wondering what some good ideas would be. Is the i7 worth the extra money? I do video and photog editing, but even with my late 2009 iMac, it's not too slow. Will the i7 Dramatically increase speeds? I was thinking about saving the $500 or so and maxing out my RAM and buying a second display.... Would more RAM or an SSD drive be more ideal for my uses? I was thinking about getting a small SSD drive and having my friend (ex-Apple employee) install it.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Best bang for your buck?
- Thread starter qzxyu
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
An SSD will produce the biggest performance boost, by far.
Do not have anyone but Apple install the SSD.
Do not have anyone but Apple install the SSD.
I personally think the SSD thing is a little overpriced right now. If you notice that much lag in booting and app launching, then by all means. But most likely you will store all your data on an internal SATA or external FW or TB drive. That said I would say get the stock 2.7 or 3.1 at $1,699 or $1,999. The only reason to go 3.1 is if you think you really need the higher end GPU. Most don't, not even for the uses you mentioned. You could take that savings and spend $500 more on the combo SSD/SATA drives, but like I said.
OWC (macsales.com) or newegg has RAM, comes with 2x2GB for 4. Get another set of those for $50-60 and you'll have 8. If you really want more than that, you could get 8 more (2x4s) for about $60-70 each stick. Then you would have 12. Or for about $250 you could pull out the stock sticks and go 16.
But starting with the 2.7 27" gives you the best bang, most options, etc.
OWC (macsales.com) or newegg has RAM, comes with 2x2GB for 4. Get another set of those for $50-60 and you'll have 8. If you really want more than that, you could get 8 more (2x4s) for about $60-70 each stick. Then you would have 12. Or for about $250 you could pull out the stock sticks and go 16.
But starting with the 2.7 27" gives you the best bang, most options, etc.
Thats what I was thinking... I was gonna buy a small SSD (60gb or so) since they are around $100 and have my friend install it for a second drive on top of my 1TB SATA. Im not worried about him messing up since he worked for Apple for over 4 years. This will allow me to get my RAM up to 12GB, buy a second display for ~$200 and have a second SSD all for less than the Top of the line 27".
Just understand that while the non-SSD iMac has the room for the SSD and the SATA power/data port on the board, it does not have the mounting plate, so the 60GB SSD isn't just a matter of opening it up and installing it, you will need to track down a mounting kit, and as of yet I haven't heard of iFixit or any other teardown site modding the new machines with a third party SSD. Now if your friend is confident they can do it, put your machine in his hands.
Very incorrect. A 256GB SSD under $500 is not available, so $500 for an SSD AND a bracket AND installation is actually a pretty good deal. The only thing they need to change is offer a $250 128GB option.
You have no idea what an SSD is for. OSX has more than 117,450 files JUST in the system and two library folders. Hard drives are extremely poor at seeking small files so an SSD will dramatically improve system-wide performance, not just launching apps or booting.