Yet *another* 3.06 vs. i5 thread (with a Citrix twist)

[greg99]

All -

Been lurking for a while, and the extent of my mac experience is my wife's white macbook, but I need to urgently replace a PC with something (kids have ripped the drive drawers off a 2 year old PC and its drive is dying), and am likely to do so with a 27" iMac.

We have two little kids, so I long ago lost the time to game, but we watch a lot of HD video on our existing machine, and do a *little* bit of photo/video processing for family pics/video. Having read the ridiculous number of threads on this question, I think the 3.06 could probably fulfill our needs adequately.

BUT - and the reason for my separate thread, is that I often use Citrix to access my work system from home.

Does anyone know if the extra cores in the i5 would be used by a Citrix client? If so, that would push me over the edge.

Thanks,
Greg

 

[iShater]

Citrix doesn't run any of those work apps locally, so having the extra cores is not going to make it run faster.

You should be OK with the 3.06

 

[Hellhammer]

Get the i5 anyway. Citrix is virtualization client so I'm quite sure it benefits from i5. Your kids will sooner than later start using it and it may include gaming as well so all extra power is nice extra. I doubt you're gonna sell it but at some point, you'll probably make it a family computer or give it to one of your kids so thinking about future, investing 300$ more is well worth it in the long run

 

[BamaDMD]

I have both.

I have the 3.06 24". Very fast. Does overall good job. Use it at my office but used to use it at home.

Bought 27" i5. Very Very fast. Seems to be snappier (I know people love that term ) with most everything. Really notices dashboard loading about twice as fast as the 3.06 (I have several widgets displayed --- greater than 10). Makes me wonder what I'm missing with the i7.

Buy what you can afford. If there is a great difference in price then go for the 3.06. But if you can splurge or if it's pretty close in price, get the i5 or i7.

Also the 27" screen is just incredible. I won't go back to a smaller screen.

 

[greg99]

Thanks all - PC slipped the surly bonds on Friday, so I pulled the trigger on the i5. Arriving Monday.

Friends at office have mocked for overpaying, but that monitor...

Now trying to find a good sticky/FAQ here for the best things to do when you receive a new iMac (e.g., when should you install Boot Camp/Parallels, move files over from external drive, etc.)

GReg

 

[Hellhammer]

Thanks all - PC slipped the surly bonds on Friday, so I pulled the trigger on the i5. Arriving Monday.

Friends at office have mocked for overpaying, but that monitor...

Now trying to find a good sticky/FAQ here for the best things to do when you receive a new iMac (e.g., when should you install Boot Camp/Parallels, move files over from external drive, etc.)

GReg

There is no FAQ on that I think. I would move files immediately when you have set it up and then install Parallels when you have got over the hysteria and first impression (in few weeks).

Your friends are just jealous because they can't afford one!

 

[greg99]

Your friends are just jealous because they can't afford one!

Would that were it the problem - one of them has spent the weekend specing out a liquid cooled gaming machine - looking at spending between $7500-8500 on his machine.

Greg

 

[Badger^2]

Some great first links:

http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/

http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/

http://www.lynda.com/home/ViewCourses.aspx?lpk0=67

i5 will probably be great, but the 3.06 would have been fine. I run the entire Adobe Creative Suite + Quark 8 on an older 2.4 AL iMac w/4 gigs ram and it handles it all without even breaking a sweat. And I'm talking multi hundred meg Photoshop files and 100+ page files with gigs of links

Plus all of my home duties -- and like you with 2 kids = tons of photos and videos.

$1850 for a 27" i5 for me, same price I paid for my 24" 2.4.

http://www.macconnection.com/IPA/Shop/Product/Detail.htm?sku=10682076&cac=Result

 

[Hellhammer]

Would that were it the problem - one of them has spent the weekend specing out a liquid cooled gaming machine - looking at spending between $7500-8500 on his machine.

Greg

LOL!! Is he just trying to beat you? For that money, I could build him the top-of-the-line PC with best components!

He is overpaying a LOT! I doubt he even has use for the speed of it because all PCs +2000$ are quite useless because there is no software that can take advantage of its power, they are meant for benchmarking

 

[GregGebhardt]

I got a deal on spanking new 21" with 3.06 dual core with 1TB+4gb ram for $1025. My home work area is small with the dek only being 24" deep so I could not see getting the 27" unit!

It is replacing the PC. I like my MS office and Adobe CS on WIndows so I will be doing the boot camp and Win7 install on Wednesday when it gets here.

I can not believe how much space was opened by getting rid of the PC, monitor and all those wires. I have a new HP wireless multifuntion printer so there will be few wires on the desk anymore!

Hope is works as well as your people have indicated!

I got my iPad and next will be to replace the ThinkPad with the MBPro 15