anybody tried the iMac 21.5 i3

im thinking of getting this for my 5d2 and 7d files. Im running aperture so i guess the hyperthreading will help. Will i see a marginal difference on an i5 or i7. with that i mean a significant change - id be glad to hear from people who actually have tried them or own either... Cheers!!

Depends, are you shooting the odd JPEG and doing minimal editing, or shooting a 1000 RAW files and batching processing in as little time as possible?

second .....

Then get the i7

yeah - but i dont want a 27 inch screen..... I was looking at the quad core i5 as an option to the i3 on 21.5 inch screen but the i5 (QC) does not do hyperthreading....

but would not an i3 be quite ok?

zincozinco wrote in post #10713679
but would not an i3 be quite ok?

Sure, if you don't mind waiting for things to happen.

Remember the iMac range is primarily aimed at consumers who want something that looks pretty, is well built and takes up a small amount of space. It does those things very well, but at the expense of performance, expandability and functionality.

If your processing large numbers of RAW files from a 5D2 and a 7D then you do not fit into Apples target market for the iMac.
Your either going to have to cope with compromises (big screen to get the performance, or small screen but no performance) or your going to have look at other alternatives.

21.5" iMac: 3.6GHz Intel Core i5 processor with 4MB level 3 cache; supports Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost

27" iMac: 3.6GHz Intel Core i5 processor with 4MB level 3 cache; supports Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost

27" iMac: 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 processor with 8MB level 3 cache; supports Turbo Boost

There's no 21.5" QC AFAIK.

From here: http://www.apple.com/i​mac/specs.html

i was pretty sure that the first release of this models had the i5qc as an option.. I see that they dont any more, but here in spain its quite easy to find older models on shelfs.

thanks guys!! still not sure though....

René Damkot wrote in post #10713737
21.5" iMac: 3.6GHz Intel Core i5 processor with 4MB level 3 cache; supports Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost

27" iMac: 3.6GHz Intel Core i5 processor with 4MB level 3 cache; supports Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost

27" iMac: 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 processor with 8MB level 3 cache; supports Turbo Boost

There's no 21.5" QC AFAIK.

From here: http://www.apple.com/i​mac/specs.html

Im sorry again - which of these 27" would be faster for aperture??

The second in terms of cpu. Hyperthreading only gets about a 30% performance boost. For Aperture, upgrade your graphics card to the best available since it uses the gpu cores for its processing.

thanks, it looks like im going to be 2000 euro shorter - just get the top of the line Imac. Dont know about the huge screen though - ugly as hell.... my wife will kill me... ( Home office)

Get a used Mac Pro?

I really enjoy mac interface and the nice design of the hardware is a big plus. However i think that with the imac they have gone against the rules of design vs function. I walked away with a 21,5 inch because i cant have a humongous 27 inch. so i had to choose a smaller chip which im sure wont be as good. Ie my mac experience wont be as good as it should....

anyway im a mid happy new imac owner... now im just trying to copy across 4 years of info in some kind of order in the new machine.... from the old imac and the mac book.... headaches headaches....

If the older Mac is running OS X, then just connect the two by ethernet or FW (or maybe even wifi) and use Migration Assistant on the new Mac to transfer the files. It preserves settings and accounts, too.

yeah i know but thats not the thing, i dont want the old settings from the imac - just the mac book and some of the files on the imac - like itunes, and admin stuff... so its all about getting organized....