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justify an i5?

S

sleyeu

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 18, 2009
325
0
i loved the 27" imac so, gonna get it.

however..... i wanted to know if i can justify paying £250 extra for the i5

i will be doing:

playing games like spore and sim 3 (not intensive...)
using blender 3d (or maybe a proper 3d software)
using photoshop/gimp
using the ilife suite
word processing
homework processing
internet...
xcode

ill add more as i think of them

so, how do i justify paying extra. (please include the other goodies like better graphics card on the quad core and more cache)

and i wont be buying a new computer any time soon, this is probably going to last me 3-4+ years as i will be studiying ect






oh yeah, the apple store has a great atmosphere, the geniuses were so helpfull and happy/cheerful and there was lots of clapping! lol
 
thats great! thanks

unfortunately i dont think i can get the education discount, only the little discount like £97 off
 
Yeah if you're going to keep it 3-4 years more reason to get the i5 I think. It's really a nice jump.
 
k thanks, but how would i convinse the buyer that it is really worth it (im not paying, he doesnt see why he should spend more for the i5)

the genius at the apple store said that the dual core was good enough... im not convinced
 
sleyeu said:
k thanks, but how would i convinse the buyer that it is really worth it (im not paying, he doesnt see why he should spend more for the i5)

the genius at the apple store said that the dual core was good enough... im not convinced
Click to expand...

While the tech used in Core 2 Duos is like 4 years old, the tech used in i5 is less than a year old. You are not a basic user so all extra power is appreciated.
 
ahh.... thats another thing to add to the persuasion list.

anything else i should know about the i5?

i know that i get the 512mb graphics card on the quad, 8mb cache

the programmes in the future will use the 4 core processor more efficiently...
 
By buying a quad-core CPU, you are future proofing your computer. That's one of the reasons I chose to go with the i7. Future applications (such as the Adobe Suite, games, and many more) will be coming with quad-core support that will improve performance drastically.

The Core 2 Duo is an old technology that is going to be phased out. Why would you by a new computer with it? That was my thinking at least.
 
I'm writing with an i7 and i can assure you that Quad Core is really wonderful for multitasking also if you don't need some brute power. In your special case I definitely recommend a Quad Core solution (i7 if you can afford it) also for 3D render! have no doubt! Get a quad core
 
Hellhammer said:
While the tech used in Core 2 Duos is like 4 years old, the tech used in i5 is less than a year old. You are not a basic user so all extra power is appreciated.
Click to expand...

? The C2D tech is 3 years old. The i5 technology is from Nov 2008. There is only a 2 year difference between the two, not that much.
 
ok, thanks for the feed back, i really apreciate it

i feel better about asking for the i5 upgrade

however i have to admit, the stuff i do with 3d modelling is pretty simple, but i do want to 'improve' my 3d work and work with textures! fun stuff...


oh yeah, i dont think blender even uses 4 cores... its open source so i don tthink its that advanced, or is quad core technology not thaat new...
 
The i5 is like 2-3 times faster. That is a huge leap in performance.

The Core 2 Duo machine is solid, but i5 will be so much less outdated in several years.
 
...the only way I'd go for a C2D is if I was buying a refurb or prev gen model for a good discount at this point (see my sig = that's what I ended up doing about 8 months ago)... wait a little bit more until some of these rev A issues get worked out and buy an i7 (the i5's are the low end of this processor class)...
 
MacWorld's review I think sums it up pretty nicely:

"Macworld’s buying advice

With the new 2.66GHz Core i5 iMac and the 2.8GHz Core i7 iMac, Apple has not only blurred the line between consumer and professional systems, it's darn near erased it. The 2.66GHz Core i5 iMac offers faster performance at most tasks than the 2.66GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro. The Core i5 iMac also has more memory and more storage space than the 2.66GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro, while being $500 less (plus you get a 27-inch screen with the iMac). Unless you absolutely require additional PCI cards, multiple internal hard drives, or a lot of RAM, the Core i5 iMac makes a strong case for the being the go-to system for most Mac professionals."

Keep in mind also that the i5 has the memory controllers in the cpu instead of the motherboard like the C2D which eliminates that performance bottleneck and the video card in the i5 besides having more video ram is also a much more capable GPU then the stock GPU in the C2D version.

I've owned both the C2D and the i5 and rest assured, the i5 is faster. Cheers!

James
 
i was in the same boat, C2D or Core i5, did not needed that powerful and bigger screen, ended up with C2D 21.5" ATI version. and i loved it so much.

also mind the budget if you are buying software
iWork
MS Office
Photoshop Elements
next OS X 10.7 :)
next iLife
and additional 4GB RAM.

i saved about $400 from the machine and plan on spending on the above in various time frames.

if $$$ is not a problem go with Core i5, if u are going to spend on other items after getting iMac then think about the whole budget...
 
I was faced with the same dilemma and ended up getting the quad core, I cant say I use it to it's full potential however It's pretty damn nice knowing I have one :)
 
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