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Which iMac 21.5" 4670 Core i5 or 5670 i3?

A

alex.m90

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 14, 2008
73
7
Leicestershire UK / San Francisco USA
Okay, I am nearly 17 and I have been very lucky and have managed to secure a replacement MacBook Pro (Originally MacBook Late 08') from Apple Customer Relations which I will be selling for the tidy sum of £850.

I am looking to buy an iMac 21.5" but I am obviously on quite a tight budget. Mum is a lecturer & I am a student so I get roughly 15% off and free iPod which will be sold as I have no need for it.

Basically what I want to know is whether I would benefit more from getting the base model iMac but upgrading to i5 and going to the likes of Crucial and buying an extra 2GB of ram and upgrading to 6GB later on.

OR...

Buying the 5670 iMac and leave it at that..

I need dosh for a car and the 5670 iMac is going to cost me about £100 more than the base model.. I am hoping to use it for some heavy After Effects & Premiere/Final Cut work which was particularly laggy on my MacBook. I have a PS3 but I would still like to play some games such as The Sims 3, MW2, Bioshock 2 on decent settings.

Which one would best suit my needs in your opinion?

The other option is to sell my iPad and buy the base model 15" MB Pro? But if I buy iMac I won't be selling iPad as I need some sort of portable computing device to carry about with me.

Thanks. Alex.
 
Within my area, the "new" 2010 iMac 21.5" comes in:

3.06GHz Intel Core i3
ATI Radeon HD 4670 with 256MB
* NO CPU upgrade is available.

3.2GHz Intel Core i3
ATI Radeon HD 5670 with 512MB

CPU upgrade with:
3.60GHz Intel Core i5
ATI Radeon HD 5670 with 512MB

If wondering, I ordered the 2nd iMac (re: 3.2GHz Intel Core i3 / ATI Radeon HD 5670 with 512MB) last night. Based on my research, this combo in 21.5" bundle3 seems a good buy for the dollar - with longer lifecycle taken into consideration. I hear the i5 CPU is only slightly faster then the i3 CPU (which is NOT worth its upgrade of $200+).

Hopefully, this i3 with 5670/512MB combo is available in your region as well.

Happy shopping...

.
 
If you're selling the base 13" model. Gl with that at £850. Check eBay as I thought about doing that with my core i7, yet people are selling them at £100's less!

I'd just get the base model. Not worth the extra money IMO.
 
Spike88 said:
Within my area, the "new" 2010 iMac 21.5" comes in:

3.06GHz Intel Core i3
ATI Radeon HD 4670 with 256MB
* NO CPU upgrade is available.

3.2GHz Intel Core i3
ATI Radeon HD 5670 with 512MB

CPU upgrade with:
3.60GHz Intel Core i5
ATI Radeon HD 5670 with 512MB

If wondering, I ordered the 2nd iMac (re: 3.2GHz Intel Core i3 / ATI Radeon HD 5670 with 512MB) last night. Based on my research, this combo in 21.5" bundle3 seems a good buy for the dollar - with longer lifecycle taken into consideration. I hear the i5 CPU is only slightly faster then the i3 CPU (which is NOT worth its upgrade of $200+).

Hopefully, this i3 with 5670/512MB combo is available in your region as well.

Happy shopping...

.
Click to expand...

The first geekbench results for the 3.6 dual core i5 are in and they seem to indicate that the 3.6 dual core i5 is maybe a better performer than many here may have expected. Would like to see more feedback (and also the 64-bit results, only 32-bit scores have posted so far) but it may be that the extra $200 might actually get you a more meaningful upgrade than was first thought.
 
Radeon 5670 vs Radeon 4670

I picked up my new 21.5 inch 3.2 GHz iMac today. My decision to spend the extra 25% over the base model was due mostly to the Radeon 5670 vs Radeon 4670 issue. The 5670 on the 3.2 GHz model has twice the RAM and accesses it at twice the speed. If you do any kind of demanding graphics work, the extra cost is well justified.

Also: I'm pleased to report that there's no mystery hum and there's no piss-yellow tint on the bottom edge of the display.
 
Which iMac?

I can't personally see the justification for getting an i5 in the 21.5" iMac. It's basically an i3 with turbo-boost. Yes, it's faster but you're paying an awful lot more for the privelege. The i3 3.2 iMac gives you a bit more speed over the base iMac with a better graphics card and double the storage. It's a more compelling upgrade to me. If you're on a tight budget, however, the base iMac is no slouch either. Don't feel compelled to spend more than you need to. These are capable machines whichever you choose...
 
The eBay is quite a problem, as there a lot of sellers selling the USA version in the UK at a hefty discount. I think £850 is a good deal though because its £149 less than retail & it is brand new sealed and straight from Apple.

If you guys could suggest a way in which I can get its full value I would definitely consider the 5670 version. However with my tight budget I think I am looking towards the 4670 as it seems fairly capable & hopefully would play the sims which is the only game not on Playstation.

I must add that I already have a magic mouse & keyboard and I could sell the new ones on eBay for about £80 it seems.. LOL sounds like I am being really cheap but I am only on £4.87 an hour and even the lowest end iMac is a right luxury for someone of my age!

THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR REPLYS THOUGH, VERY HELPFUL :D
 
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