Decision Time

[webpoet73]

I have been given an ultimatum from my wife... buy a new machine by midnight tomorrow night or forever hold my peace...

So, I have been reading many threads and trying to get the right advice from everybody, so now I put up my own thread...

My choices are:
1) Refurbished Core i7
2) New Core i7
3) Refurbished Core i5
4) New Core i7

The price difference between the new and refurbished Core i7 is 500 bucks...
The price difference between the new and refurbished Core i5 is 470 bucks...

I almost can't justify the price of a new (2010) model with the refurbs are at such a low price. So, what is the best bang for the money? I was leaning towards the refurbished i5 because at 1530 bucks, it would run circles around my mid-2008 20" C2D iMac and save me 170 off of the Core i7 model.

Any suggestions?

 

[d88co88]

What are your needs? If you're just a casual user, the refurb i5 would do much more than suffice. In most cases, it would do Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Final Cut, etc. I think that would be the best choice unless you need a beast of a computer.

 

[easepease]

like many will say here, depends on your use. Gamer? Then I would get the new i5 or old i5... the graphics is going to be the limiting factor no matter what but the new i5 will be a slight bit better.

Average use (internet, email, etc...) I would go for the i5 refurb. The only time a new model is worth it with this update is if you are a student and can get the free ipod with the new model.

As far as i7 vs. i5 if you do a lot of handbraking, video encoding rendering type stuff then go i7.

Basically get a refurb assuming you are not a student because this update is not a major one. Get the i5 unless you render quite often because the only real difference is hyperthreading and that is only used in a few occasions.

So in conculsion get an i5 refurb

 

[webpoet73]

I dabble in Final Cut Express but found out that I can't wrap my mind around it, but I have done HD video in iMovie. I don't play games too much on the computer (i find myself enjoying the PS3/Xbox360 on a big screen tv).

I do run quite a bit of applications at once and plan to upgrade to 8GB as soon as I can. Plus with 2 users running multiple applications at once cause some slowdown and beach balls of death....

Though found that not using Firefox made things better. We now use Chrome or Safari.

 

[d88co88]

Maybe the refurb i7 then if you use HD stuff and plan to do a lot of multitasking. Like you said, upgrade the ram as soon as possible. The refurb i5 would be a good solid machine though, that in my opinion is your best bet.

 

[DoFoT9]

you will most certainly, 100%, guaranteed be a billion % happy with the refurb i7 iMac. i have it, and it purrrrs along in FCP/FCS.

the money that you save can go towards some extra RAM

 

[webpoet73]

I bought the Core i5 refurb... that with 8GB should be a pretty beastly machine for a reasonable price... I don't know if I will see the benefit of the i7 (at least not 170 dollars worth of benefit). Besides, both machine should run circles around my current iMac...

 

[DoFoT9]

I bought the Core i5 refurb... that with 8GB should be a pretty beastly machine for a reasonable price... I don't know if I will see the benefit of the i7 (at least not 170 dollars worth of benefit). Besides, both machine should run circles around my current iMac...

the only differences in the real world between the i5 and i7 are that the i7 will give you extra points (less computing time) when doing multiple conversions at once.

goodluck with the machine, 8GB RAM will give you heaps of overhead when multitasking

 

[d88co88]

I bought the Core i5 refurb... that with 8GB should be a pretty beastly machine for a reasonable price... I don't know if I will see the benefit of the i7 (at least not 170 dollars worth of benefit). Besides, both machine should run circles around my current iMac...

Good choice, you'll enjoy it. What screen size did you get?

 

[SamTheeGeek]

Hello ,

go for the new i7 27" its awesome !


Good Luck !

God bless ya all

 

[Thrilledge]

Just get the 21.5 i3. Its more than you will need. Best Computer I ever had.

 

[webpoet73]

I got it on Friday... it is an amazing machine. I did the yellow-tint test and i didn't see anything abnormal. My wife said ... "ummm... maybe...." so, I might have it but isn't bad enough to worry about. I absolutely love this huge screen. Replaces needing 2 monitors. I use spaces extensively as well.

Nothing but a big thumbs up to it. I really need to tax it. Say exporting some HD video out of iMovie. I would do it out of FCE if I could wrap my head around it... but that's another story for another day...

EDIT: I do wish the keyboard had a numeric keypad, but I do like the wireless-ness of it... and getting used to the magic mouse.