Buying a new 27 inch...i3 or i5?

[prosector]

Looking for advice on which model I should buy. The i5 model will cost $339 more after tax. I don't do any gaming...mostly school work. I multitask a lot between pdfs, word files, excel files, spss (statistics software), powerpoint, web browser, itunes. Would the i5 have much of a noticeable difference over the i3 for these uses?

Any insight would be much appreciated.

 

[SuperPathy]

Save your $$$

I'm not an expert, but my vote would be to go with the i3. I actually just bought the 21.5" with the 3.6GHz i5, which would also be a good bet for you IMHO. Doesn't sound like you need the Quad Core i5. However, if you are thinking of getting the i5, you might as well go for the Quad i5 since the pricing is so close. Paying the extra $80 (CDN) is worth the jump from the i5 to the Quad Core i5, plus you would get the better GPU as a bonus!

 

[dwd3885]

Looking for advice on which model I should buy. The i5 model will cost $339 more after tax. I don't do any gaming...mostly school work. I multitask a lot between pdfs, word files, excel files, spss (statistics software), powerpoint, web browser, itunes. Would the i5 have much of a noticeable difference over the i3 for these uses?

Any insight would be much appreciated.

If you're going 27, just get the i5 quad refurb machine for 1529 or i7 for 1699.

Better value.

 

[Northgrove]

I would go for an i3 in that case, since I'd classify this usage as "light desktop use". For good multitasking with these apps, it seems like the memory (although 4 GB sounds enough) would be the bottleneck, not the CPU, since these apps are mostly just idly waiting on user input, not processing a lot of data.

And I hate that I'm not living in the US for those refurb models. The online Apple Store here offer nothing close to these deals, and the original products are considerably more expensive to boot.

 

[lobeyonekenobi]

I would go for an i3 in that case, since I'd classify this usage as "light desktop use". For good multitasking with these apps, it seems like the memory (although 4 GB sounds enough) would be the bottleneck, not the CPU, since these apps are mostly just idly waiting on user input, not processing a lot of data.

And I hate that I'm not living in the US for those refurb models. The online Apple Store here offer nothing close to these deals, and the original products are considerably more expensive to boot.

This is an answer I'd love to know. Could I buy the refurb i7 and get it shipped over here as we have only the i5 quad in the refurb store?

 

[xraydoc]

To the OP, unless your statistics app is doing some major number crunching for 20+ minutes at a time, I'd say the quad core might be more than you need. None of the other applications you listed are doing much in the background when you're not actively using them - PowerPoint, Safari, Acrobat/Preview basically just sit and wait for you...

I say go for the 3.6GHz dual-core i5 if you can swing that. It'll give you a lot of snappiness for your apps.

 

[prosector]

Thanks for the tips and input everyone. I decided to order the i3. Based on what I've read here and elsewhere, it seems like it will be more than quick enough for my needs. I don't work with huge data sets, edit (or convert/rip) movies or photos, create graphics, or play games, so I really can't justify spending the extra for the i5. I may order another 4 or 8gb of ram though. Didn't want to bother ordering the older i5...I know it's quad-core and all, but I really wanted a fresh computer and not a refurb (let's hope there are no problems though!)...plus I (well, my girlfriend lol), can get a free ipod with the new one.

Right now I'm running a late-2008 unibody macbook 2.0 C2D on my 22" monitor. Thought I'd pick up an iMac since I mainly use the macbook as a desktop anyway. I'm sure I'll notice a bit of a difference between the iMac and the macbook!

So I ordered Thursday 5th from my campus store (in Canada), and they said 5-7 business days. Does anybody know the average shipping time for these (should I expect by the end of next week?).