Should I get an iMac Core 2 duo or i5?

I'm a life long PC user and am looking to get my first mac computer. I'm looking at the new 27" iMac's...

Not sure if I should just get the Core 2 duo or if it's worth it to spring the extra $300 for the i5 version...I don't do any video editing or play any games. Is there any other reasons why I should go for the i5?

i have a 50'' plasma for watching movies and an xbox360 for games...im going for a 27'' quadcore mac almost exclusivley for photoshop and photography. im clueless about macs so im not sure if im overdoing it with a quadcore but my 4gb windows vista pc really struggled to make using photoshop cs4 and lightroom a pleasant experience.

the staff in the mac store are awful for giving impartial advice and push me to get the highest spec I could buy as opposed to buying the spec I actually *need*.

guess only you know what you will use your mac for at the end of the day, and choose the grunt accordingly.

I mainly use the computer for pictures, internet browsing, downloading music, downloading/converting and burning movies...Not sure if I'll get into anything more advanced down the road but ya never know. Might get a camcorder in the near future so I dont know if I'll need a higher spec mac

Since your needs are rather basic, a Core 2 Duo is all you need. Even if you decide to dabble in some light video editing in the future, the Core 2 Duo will still be more than enough for your needs.

Darn double post. >_<"

bluefox9er said:

i have a 50'' plasma for watching movies and an xbox360 for games...im going for a 27'' quadcore mac almost exclusivley for photoshop and photography. im clueless about macs so im not sure if im overdoing it with a quadcore but my 4gb windows vista pc really struggled to make using photoshop cs4 and lightroom a pleasant experience.

the staff in the mac store are awful for giving impartial advice and push me to get the highest spec I could buy as opposed to buying the spec I actually *need*.

guess only you know what you will use your mac for at the end of the day, and choose the grunt accordingly.

Click to expand...

Mac and Windows PC spec are almost identical these days. The main difference is the OS.

Just because you have a lot of RAM doesn't mean your machine is going to run faster.

Most programs and applications are CPU heavy. Games/simulation are both CPU and GPU heavy.

rkoshack said:

I mainly use the computer for pictures, internet browsing, downloading music, downloading/converting and burning movies...Not sure if I'll get into anything more advanced down the road but ya never know. Might get a camcorder in the near future so I dont know if I'll need a higher spec mac

Click to expand...

Video encoding does take some time awhile to do. Having more cores might make it go by a little faster. You probably have to look at some benchmarks to see if it's worth the extra 300 bucks or whatever.

If all you do it basic video/picture editing you don't need a quadcore machine. Just buy what you need at the price you can afford.

CrimsonRequiem said:

Mac and Windows PC spec are almost identical these days. The main difference is the OS.

Just because you have a lot of RAM doesn't mean your machine is going to run faster.

Click to expand...

so..a 4gb ram on an imac won't be enough to run photoshop cs4? I was assured that 4gb of RAM was plenty on my windows PC (with 512mb graphics card) but it really struggles to run photoshop without straining it's self and hanging etc. this is on a 'clean' pc with not much other stuff installed.

it was always my understanding that having more RAM would make applications run faster.

If what you are saying is true, then it's pointless for me to buy a mac....if 4gb of RAM can't do lightroom and photoshop them no point in spending £2k+ on another computer that can't handle these applications. i wish someone in the apple store would give a straight answer instead of spouting off '' it just works'' countless times :-(

I ran photoshop on my first gen MBP with only 2gb, YES you will be fine to run every program you can think of with 4gb and an iMac.

bluefox9er said:

so..a 4gb ram on an imac won't be enough to run photoshop cs4? I was assured that 4gb of RAM was plenty on my windows PC (with 512mb graphics card) but it really struggles to run photoshop without straining it's self and hanging etc. this is on a 'clean' pc with not much other stuff installed.

it was always my understanding that having more RAM would make applications run faster.

If what you are saying is true, then it's pointless for me to buy a mac....if 4gb of RAM can't do lightroom and photoshop them no point in spending £2k+ on another computer that can't handle these applications. i wish someone in the apple store would give a straight answer instead of spouting off '' it just works'' countless times :-(

Click to expand...

That's not what I'm saying at all. I was pointing out that more RAM does necessarily mean things will run faster. RAM is basically like short term memory. The CPU does all the thinking, and the HDD stores the data.

You can run Photoshop on 1GB of RAM, but it's going to lag like there is no tomorrow. 2GB of RAM is more than enough for the average PC user. You can have that 4GB of RAM, but depending on what you are doing you still are going to get the beach ball occasionally.