Need help on a decision

[Obese Lobsters]

Hello everyone, I'm currently looking to buy a 27 inch imac and can't decide whether to get a base i3 27 inch or a refurbished i5 quad core 27 inch. With the i3 I can get the student discount and qualify for the ipod, but the i5 is 23% off right now. Which should I get? Also is there a benefit of getting a 5 series graphics card over a 4 series graphics card? Thanks you for your responses.

 

[spinnerlys]

For what kind of tasks do you need the computer for?

 

[CBAviator]

I agree...what do you need it for? Beyond that, the best advice I can offer you is: set a budget and just buy the best you can afford. No matter whether it's the 3 or 5, it's going to last you a long time

 

[Obese Lobsters]

Well nothing too intense, but I intend to keep this imac for a long time. Does the 5 series graphics card have any advantages. I thought I heard that later OSX will be able to use GPU acceleration to help processing. Is the cutoff the 5 series?

 

[skcrane]

if this helps macworld just posted the benchmarks for the 27 inch 3.2 i3 and 21.5 inch i3. They compare the 2009 i5 quad as well in their comparison. You might want to check this out for your decision. I am personally waiting for their quad i5 tomorrow to make a decision but I am leaning more that direction to future proof my computer and I like the better video card as well.