Ok so I bought my iMac in November really good one of my fav imac. But now I see that the new iMacs 21.5 i3 chips came out, I want to kno is it even worth upgrading my iMac to the i3? And how much of a difference will I notice if any, I use it for basic **** like surfing, dl games and movie shut like that, I just want to kno if I'll notice anything?
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iMac 21.5 late oct vs i3 chip
- Thread starter djbattaglia
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i3s are only slightly faster than the high end core 2s (and some are slower).
Feel free to get the i5 21.5 though. That should be worth the extra bucks, but, since your computer is fairly new, I'd wait a month for the 21.5 i5s to end up at the refurbished shop and save a bunch. Sell your current model on ebay, and you'll probably only have to fork out a five to six hundred for the upgrade.
I'll probably sit out a few refreshes, as my 21.5 still feels crisp.
the i3/i5's are based on Nehalem from the 2008 Xeon's. i just switched to an i5 laptop Wintel laptop from a Centrino one and it's a big difference. mostly the CPU is more efficient and doesn't spike up to almost 100% when running flash and other everyday things. even on older games it's more efficient than the centrino.
i think Core2 was based on the same tech as centrino, but not 100% sure. i think it was something with the architecure. either it was funky or no one optimized for it.
my old laptop would always get hot. the new one never does. not even when viewing flash content. same thing on my old desktop that's a P4 Prescott. it seems a lot of everyday apps seem to like hyperthreading. my P4 never got hot or had the fan come one unlike my centrino laptop
i think Core2 was based on the same tech as centrino, but not 100% sure. i think it was something with the architecure. either it was funky or no one optimized for it.
my old laptop would always get hot. the new one never does. not even when viewing flash content. same thing on my old desktop that's a P4 Prescott. it seems a lot of everyday apps seem to like hyperthreading. my P4 never got hot or had the fan come one unlike my centrino laptop
I know it's been an issue, but I've never had that dreaded flash CPU draw on the newest Imacs.
i used to read all kinds of stories here about people's machines getting hot when running flash. i always thought it was just an OS X issue.
but now based on almost 10 years of using different CPU's with different architectures it seems to be a CPU issue as well. i though the P4 was crap when compared to the more efficient centrino and AMD Athlon, but it seems some software likes the architecture and runs better than on the supposedly "more efficient".
not that nehalem is the same as the prescott, but it seems parts of the prescott architecture was pretty good
but now based on almost 10 years of using different CPU's with different architectures it seems to be a CPU issue as well. i though the P4 was crap when compared to the more efficient centrino and AMD Athlon, but it seems some software likes the architecture and runs better than on the supposedly "more efficient".
not that nehalem is the same as the prescott, but it seems parts of the prescott architecture was pretty good