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The "I'm waiting for an iMac refresh" thread
- Thread starter Robert Grant
- Start date
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First of all, am happy the wait is finally over. Now comes the big dilemma though between high end 21.5 and quadcore 27 inch....
From what I can tell the 21.5 inch iMac with i5 3.6Ghz BTO is only about 300 CHF (I'm in Switzerland) cheaper than the 27inch iMac i5 2.8Ghz quad core!
Considering the latter comes with a huge (maybe too big) screen, a much better video card and quad core processors... well it's difficult to decide between the two... I don't really need such a big screen but quad core performance, better video card do seem worth the 300 CHF difference.
Anyone know what kind of difference in performance between dual core i5 and quad core i5?
or what about dual core i3 and dual core i5?
Thanks for your inputs!
From what I can tell the 21.5 inch iMac with i5 3.6Ghz BTO is only about 300 CHF (I'm in Switzerland) cheaper than the 27inch iMac i5 2.8Ghz quad core!
Considering the latter comes with a huge (maybe too big) screen, a much better video card and quad core processors... well it's difficult to decide between the two... I don't really need such a big screen but quad core performance, better video card do seem worth the 300 CHF difference.
Anyone know what kind of difference in performance between dual core i5 and quad core i5?
or what about dual core i3 and dual core i5?
Thanks for your inputs!
Here is the difference between the Core i3 550 and the Core i5 660. The difference it seems about %7 overall based on benchmarks.
http://www.cpu-world.com/news_2010/2010052401_Core_i3-550_mini-review.html
Now the difference between the core i5 660 and core i5 680 is not much at all. About %3 maybe.
So the difference between the Core i3 550 and Core i5 680 is about %10 percent it seems. Roughly based on the benchmarks. We will have to see the benchmarks for the imacs in question before we know for sure though.
Will 27" screen be too big & close if my desk has depth of only 60cm?
The specs say the imac has depth of 20.7cm.
The specs say the imac has depth of 20.7cm.
The only thing stopping me from hitting the buy button on the apple store is the graphics card. How well 'should' the 5670 run with Starcraft 2? In expecting high ranging from ultra! I'd bootcamp it if I have to. I won't consider 27 high end. As much as I hear the graphics card is better. I want to play my games on full screen and on the resolution of that screen. Doesn't it draw more power to run high resolution on a high card, then it would have a less powerful card to run a lower resolution? In this case the 21.5 high end.
How well would you predict the 5670 to run? High settings? I aint too bothered about AA x
Good luck. In bootcamp there is no fan control for iMac so gaming is risky when the temps start to rise on the iMac. I have a 27in i7 using bootcamp for some gaming, the temps were much higher then they should be with the fans never increasing to compensate. It's ridiculous that apple offers bootcamp drivers for everything else except it's fans.
We don't know anything about the 5670 that's in the iMac right now, but I'm gonna assume it's a slight upgprade over the mobility 4670, so I'm just gonna call it a slightly faster mobility 5650 for now-- in which case it will be able to run a mix of medium and high at native resolution.
Mine raises the fan speed to compensate, but the fans are controlled by firmware, thus the OS has no effect on them. If you raise the minimum fan speed in SMC Fan Control in OSX, they will run at that same speed with any other OS you have installed.
Ya, I use Smc in osx, so I would have to boot into osx first, then restart into bootcamp?
I'm sorry, but this is nonsense. My i7 iMac controls it's fans just fine in Windows 7. After a bit of gaming the CPU fan runs like crazy (1800-2000 rpm) to keep the machine cool.
I purchase my iMac a month ago and boot directly into windows. Not into osx first, and this is not the case for me. If your saying that I should be able to have windows as my boot drive and the fans should adjust on their own, then maybe I should have it looked at to find out why. My main concern is the HD temps being around 59c on the 2tb hitachi that was included. This is very high for a HD to be running at idle, in osx I can use smc to keep the fans running higher.
If this HD were to fail, or any other components failed because of heat would apple cover it? Because I use the iMac exclusively for windows, if it were to cause issues would I be held responsible? Also, is the "life" of my iMac getting shorter by running this hot?
Which 21.5 with which options ?
A couple of weeks back I've decided to replace my very old iBook G4 that left home 3 times by an iMac.
I definitely want to move on to Aperture or Lightroom and Photoshop and keep using it for personal admin, email and internet.
I have a good reflex camera and have been frustrated not to be able to take full benefit of it as i did in B&W argentic when I was even printing my shoots in a small lab.
I am using games from time to time but with basic graphics functionnalities and don't want to spend more time on games
usually (as you may figure out from the model In want to replace), i keep my machines for quite a while ...
Which 21.5 should I choose with which options to meet my short and long term needs
Thanks for your help !
Is it wortwhile waiting a little while before purchasing in case there would be some issues with the renewed range ?
A couple of weeks back I've decided to replace my very old iBook G4 that left home 3 times by an iMac.
I definitely want to move on to Aperture or Lightroom and Photoshop and keep using it for personal admin, email and internet.
I have a good reflex camera and have been frustrated not to be able to take full benefit of it as i did in B&W argentic when I was even printing my shoots in a small lab.
I am using games from time to time but with basic graphics functionnalities and don't want to spend more time on games
usually (as you may figure out from the model In want to replace), i keep my machines for quite a while ...
Which 21.5 should I choose with which options to meet my short and long term needs
Thanks for your help !
Is it wortwhile waiting a little while before purchasing in case there would be some issues with the renewed range ?
The base 21.5" is fine for you. If you don't need it right now, it's wise to wait to see are there any issues
Seeing as how there were minimal hardware changes - I suspect that the new line of iMacs will come off the line much more trouble free than the last refresh back in October 2009. At least that is what I am hoping since I am about to order mine!
Are you serious? Thats so dumb.
Of course its changing fan speed. How do i have to control it, the computer is smart, it changes according to temperature, it does that on all mac pc's.
Like on my mbp, fans kick in when i start playing, they do that on the imac as well. Such a stupid thing to say
This is a douche response.
There are plenty of people who have iMac heat problems in Windows when the fans do not change like they should. Look it up before reacting with stupid comments.
When you buy an iMac then you can talk.
Efit: I shouldnt have brought it up. Was hoping for more mature responses, but this is off topic and making this thread worse. Let's continue elsewhere
Define "heat problem". Any computer gets hot when playing games, it's completely normal.