Buy iMac i7 now, or wait?

[Bestdirector27]

I'm considering buying the 27" iMac with the i7 processor next month, or early July. Is it safe to say that the higher end version of the iMacs (with the quad core processors) won't be [far] outstripped by any update, making me kick myself?

On that note, does it seem likely that they iMacs will wait till September to be updated? Perhaps earlier? What improvements could really be made to the i7 model though?

Thanks!

 

[MathijsDelva]

It's safe to buy the 27" i7 model. No true upgrade can be done here.

 

[pilot1226]

I disagree. I'm in the same situation as the original poster here, and my desktop (an old PC I built myself prior to switching around 9 years ago) recently just had massive hardware failures to the point where I won't be trying to troubleshoot it anymore.

The biggest thing that concerns me about the iMac is the fact that you can't upgrade the video card. This is huge considering how quickly the technology is changing, and even moreso because the video cards within iMacs really aren't the "bleeding edge" that you'd find in comparable systems in our distant PC cousins.

So, I personally am waiting for the new release of the iMac - most likely I will get the 27" i7 too - but I'm hoping for a better video card before I bite. Fingers are crossed for WWDC in June, but who knows!

 

[flopticalcube]

Unfortunately, however, none of the recent video cards that are capable of being put into an iMac are much of an improvement over the 4850. Having said that, the new 5xxx series and the new nVidia 3xx series are capable of audio over mdp and are DX11 so perhaps its not a bad idea to wait just a bit longer.

 

[Hellhammer]

Wait till WWDC but if that brings nothing, just go ahead and buy one. As flopticalcube said, there aren't much better GPUs that can find their way to iMac