imac 2.7 or 3.1 machine

I'm getting ready to upgrade my home computer going from a hp laptop to an imac 27.

I'm not real tech savy and was wondering if the $300.00 price difference on the 3.1 ghz was worth it or just go for the 2.7ghz. I love to get the latest and greatest but if theres not that much difference here, I would like to save the $300.00. I do plan on upgrading the ram on whatever machine i get. I have played with these machines in the box store and have just fell in love with them. It will be the first mac for me. It looks as though the specs on both of these machines are the same except for the ghz. Going to us it mainly for home computer needs but my real reason for wanting one of these machines is for my photography...

any input??

tyia,

Mark

More RAM will do more for you than a couple of extra GHz.

I would just say spend as much as you can now because a few months down the road you dont want to be saying 'I wish I would've...'

Ram can be upgraded any time, a processor is a little more challenging.

I'd spend the $300 on memory, or a backup drive.

I'd go for the lower end machine and opt for more ram and an external hard drive for additional storage. There are plenty of externals that will match the styling of your new iMac but they aren't cheap.

Plus, if you want any sort of decent performance out of your externals (i.e. want to use them for anything other than backup you're willing to have take a few hours) you'll want a Thunderbolt solution. And they aren't cheap.

I'm learning that nothing for these macs are cheap.. I'm using an omega external for my hp. Will I be able to use this with a mac?

handyhaver wrote in post #13794409
I'm learning that nothing for these macs are cheap.. I'm using an omega external for my hp. Will I be able to use this with a mac?

Honestly I'm hoping someone brings out a USB 3.0 to Thunderbolt adapter sooner rather than later. If you just need backup, any old external drive will do - no need to get the 'special' version for Mac, just get whatever Iomega, HP, Western Digital, Samsung, etc. external drive of any size you want and reformat it. Very simple to do, same hardware as for you windows PC.

Difference is if you want a high performance external storage solution with read/write speeds equal to or faster than your internal drives, you will have to spend. Same holds true for any eSATA external RAID boxes for PCs, just there's more choice there (but eSATA is slower than Thunderbolt has the potential to be).

I just use my external to move pics onto to get them off my hard drive and not clog it up. I'm just shootin for fun/hobby but I take it seriously. So all I have to do is reformat my external for the mac. Will I loose any of the pics I already have on there... like reformatting a memory card?? Sorry for all the questions and I really do appreciate all the input. I just want to make sure I'm making the right choice before I invest in a new machine....

Yes, you will.

Macs can't write to NTFS (standard windows volumes) but can read NTFS natively. So copy the data from the drive to your internal mac drive, then reformat, then copy back. Alternately get one of the third-party NTFS driver solutions (google the phrase, there are a couple, some free that work OK as well) if you want to be able to read your backup drive on a windows machine - windows boxes can't deal with XFS (Mac's file system) last I checked.

The 3.1 also has a better graphics card with more vRAM.

thanks for all your input & help..... gotta make some choices here soon... sounds like I'm in for some growing pains......

If you decide to use Aperture or Pixelmator, the 3.1 may be better for the gpu.

Tony-S wrote in post #13797160
If you decide to use Aperture or Pixelmator, the 3.1 may be better for the gpu.

That's a good point, please don't buy ram from apple as its so expensive! Crucial are doing 8gb for £36 at the moment.

handyhaver wrote in post #13797002
thanks for all your input & help..... gotta make some choices here soon... sounds like I'm in for some growing pains......

Any external will work, I suggested looking into one that looked good which is why the price might be a little higher. Going for thunderbolt would be unnecessary for you. The current thunderbolt options are really only meant for professionals who need the reliability of the products currently available and can afford the cost.

Also, most external hard drives can't even keep up with the bandwidth that Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 offer, a spinning disk is just too slow. Thunderbolt externals will eventually show up that are just as cheap as USB 3.0 externals, but until then it really isn't necessary. Firewire 800 is all you will need.