core 2 duo (21.5") or intel 5 or 7 (27")

[mqira]

I am seriously considering buying an iMac 21.5" or 27". I was told by an Apple employee that the 3.06GHz (upgrade to 8GB RAM) 21.5' iMac is more power than i would need to run my Protools music software. I use Waves plug ins as well. I am not a professional musician who is using 80 tracks of audio, just your basic guitar musician doing basic recordings (10 - 20 tracks with 20 plugins)
My friend just purchased the 27'' core i7 Quad Core, (upgrade to 8 GB) , but he likes to have the best of the best, because he has cash to spend.

I can get the 27" for $2600, or the 21.5 for $1550....big difference.


Can i effectively run Protools on the 21.5" iMac and not have issues. I do believe the Apple Store employee, but am still skeptical, i dont want to jump into anything and fall short. My friend tells me to spend the extra $1000.00 and get the 27".
Is this necessary, or is the 21.5" a worthy machine for Protools.

Any insight would be much appreciated.

(My dell has finally crashed for the last time, and i am done with PC's)

 

[Badger^2]

Not sure where you are getting your prices from -- but a 27" i5 is $1900 after $100 rebate

http://www.macconnection.com/IPA/Shop/Product/Detail.htm?sku=10682076

Add your own 4 gigs of ram to get to 8 gigs for another $109.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/8566DDR3S4GP/

If you are Ok with the 21", then I would go with the model with the 4670 card and 1TB drive, $1400 http://www.macconnection.com/IPA/Shop/Product/Detail.htm?sku=10684961

Add the same ram as above.

$500 difference for the 27" screen, faster i5 processor and much faster video card.

 

[Music_Producer]

To the OP - go for the i5. My core 2 duo macbook pro with 4gb ram can handle up to 30 tracks - but when virtual instruments are added (like nexus, softsynths, etc) then it starts stuttering with 3-4 soft synths.

The core 2 duo imac is faster than my MBP, so it can probably handle more - but plug-ins pretty much suck a lot of processing power. Waves plugins are awesome at reducing this, but if you want something that you can throw at even more - it would be a no brainer to get the i5 for $500 more as the poster above mentioned.

 

[Hellhammer]

If you have the money for quad, go for it as it's worth it in any application that can take advantage of it and I'm sure music apps can. It's over twice as fast as C2D and buy the RAM from 3rd part to save some more

 

[mqira]

Thanks...

So its my understanding that the 21.5" core 2 duo (upgraded to 8GB RAM) may have limitations when running Protools and plugins,.....but the quad (8GB RAM) will not have these issues.

 

[Hellhammer]

Thanks...

So its my understanding that the 21.5" core 2 duo (upgraded to 8GB RAM) may have limitations when running Protools and plugins,.....but the quad (8GB RAM) will not have these issues.

Yup, quad shouldn't have any problems

 

[iamthedudeman]

Thanks...

So its my understanding that the 21.5" core 2 duo (upgraded to 8GB RAM) may have limitations when running Protools and plugins,.....but the quad (8GB RAM) will not have these issues.

Wow. Not one person in this thread answered they OP's question. Why is it that everyone says get the most expensive Mac money can buy and always get a 27 with a i5 or i7 when all the guy asked if the 21.5 will handle what he is trying to do?

Yes the 21.5 will run what you want it to run and it will run very fast without issues. If you are going to do more extensive work that what you are proposing then by all means spend the extra $500, if not the 21.5 is more than enough. By far.

So the Apple employee did not deceive you. No need to spend a extra $500 if you don't need to.

 

[tigereat]

I have unrelate question. What the CPU series number of the i7 iMac?

Is it i7 860 or 920 ? I know core i5 is 750 serie?

If CPU serie of iMac i7 is 860, why I could not find here?


http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html

 

[HLdan]

I have unrelate question. What the CPU series number of the i7 iMac?

Is it i7 860 or 920 ? I know core i5 is 750 serie?

If CPU serie of iMac i7 is 860, why I could not find here?


http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html

It's the i7-860. Got this info from Intel's website. It's the last processor on the list. It perfectly matches Apple's description on their website.

 

[Hellhammer]

It's the i7-860. Got this info from Intel's website. It's the last processor on the list. It perfectly matches Apple's description on their website.

Yup, it's the i7 860

 

[mqira]

Wow. Not one person in this thread answered they OP's question. Why is it that everyone says get the most expensive Mac money can buy and always get a 27 with a i5 or i7 when all the guy asked if the 21.5 will handle what he is trying to do?

Yes the 21.5 will run what you want it to run and it will run very fast without issues. If you are going to do more extensive work that what you are proposing then by all means spend the extra $500, if not the 21.5 is more than enough. By far.

So the Apple employee did not deceive you. No need to spend a extra $500 if you don't need to.

Thanks...this does it for me....I dont plan on doing anything extra...its just going to be my protools machine.
I've been seeing a lot of negative things going on with the 27" - i7 and i5: a friend of mine is bringing his 27" i7 back because of issues.
This helps a lot...thanks for everyones input.