OK, I have to admit that I'm tempted to swap my current 2009 i7 27" iMac for one of the new ones, but which one? I will probably be using Powermax's trade-in program, so figure I'll get about $1300 or so for my existing machine.
I'm honestly happy with the performance of my current machine - I do mostly Aperture and PS CS5 (I'm a photographer, and do my gaming on an iPad 2), but I've just started a new freelance job and don't really know what level my income is going to settle at. While more performance is always nice, I'm thinking that the clock-for-clock speed increase of Sandy Bridge over my current i7 will make up for most of the hyperthreading benefit, and the 6770 appears to be a bit better than my current 4850 GPU across the board. I don't know that the incremental benefit of going to the 3.1GHz i5 or the 3.4GHz i7 are worth the extra outlay for what I do.
I mostly want to upgrade for Thunderbolt, but that means I can wait a bit to decide, since Thunderbolt peripherals won't be on the market for a little while yet. That doesn't mean I want to wait, of course
So, is any of my math WAY off? If I'm happy with my current machine's performance and can upgrade for about $400 and get similar performance + 2 Thunderbolt ports, that's pretty tempting. Spending another $500 to go to the new i7 isn't as attractive, but I'm open to being convinced. I honestly don't see a reason to go to the 3.1GHz i5 - anything that could justify the extra cost would more than justify another $200 to get the i7.
I'm honestly happy with the performance of my current machine - I do mostly Aperture and PS CS5 (I'm a photographer, and do my gaming on an iPad 2), but I've just started a new freelance job and don't really know what level my income is going to settle at. While more performance is always nice, I'm thinking that the clock-for-clock speed increase of Sandy Bridge over my current i7 will make up for most of the hyperthreading benefit, and the 6770 appears to be a bit better than my current 4850 GPU across the board. I don't know that the incremental benefit of going to the 3.1GHz i5 or the 3.4GHz i7 are worth the extra outlay for what I do.
I mostly want to upgrade for Thunderbolt, but that means I can wait a bit to decide, since Thunderbolt peripherals won't be on the market for a little while yet. That doesn't mean I want to wait, of course
So, is any of my math WAY off? If I'm happy with my current machine's performance and can upgrade for about $400 and get similar performance + 2 Thunderbolt ports, that's pretty tempting. Spending another $500 to go to the new i7 isn't as attractive, but I'm open to being convinced. I honestly don't see a reason to go to the 3.1GHz i5 - anything that could justify the extra cost would more than justify another $200 to get the i7.