iMac 21.5 i5: 2.7 ghz with Fusion Drive or 2.9 ghz with standard?

I'm pretty close to getting an iMac paying in part, and in part as gifts for my birthday.

With my price range, I have three options.

1) iMac 21.5 2.7 ghz i5, 8gb RAM with 1 TB Fusion Drive

or

2) iMac 21.5 2.7 ghz i5, 16gb RAM with 1 TB ATA Hard Drive

or

3) iMac 21.5 2.9 ghz i5, 8gb RAM with 1 TB ATA Hard Drive.


I do most of my editing through LR4 with some light use of CS6 (Photoshop/Bridge).

I also do some light video editing with iMovie but that is not very often.

I know there will be suggestions for other computers but I would much prefer Apple.

Any help or suggestions would be nice.

i personally would go with more ram, as it is not user replaceable on the 21 inch. pretty sure that means you also could not upgrade to a SSD or fusion later on either, but the ram is where it's at.

I wouldn't get an iMac. I'd get the 2.6 ghz Mac Mini. The iMac is a major compromise and its nearly impossible to upgrade.

I agree with Tony-S.

And Just buy an IPS 23 inches monitor and RAM.

Thanks. I'll take a harder look at the Mac mini.

Any links to the IPS monitor?