iMac: Mid 2009 Quad Core i5 2.66 vs Mid 2010 Core i3 3.06?

robbierrobbier
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
As I see the new Speedmark 6.5 test scores come out, I''m taken back somewhat.



I'm buying an iMac for my office which is used for internet, email, heavy excel and word. I like to get 4 to 5 years out of my computer so I'm switching to an iMac. That being said I'm buying a refurbished unit, but am wondering if it's worth the extra 4-500 bucks to upgrade from the 3.06 Core i3 to the 2.66 Quad-core i5??



Thanks in advance

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    futurepastnowfuturepastnow Posts: 1,772member
    Both 27", I presume? You won't notice a difference for most office tasks, but the quad-core will handle multitasking a little bit better. It's also more "future proof," but they'll both be equally obsolete in 4-5 years.



    You don't mention any sort of media editing or gaming, which is what the more expensive machine would really be faster with.



    I don't know what you ought to do, but I think I'd get the less expensive one and put that extra money towards a laptop or iPad or something.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    robbierrobbier Posts: 4member
    Yeah, that's my main focus on having the quad-core i5, extending the life of the machine due to a higher amount of processing power. I won't be doing any editing or gaming, so maybe the Core i3 will be fine for the tasks I need it for.



    I'll probably manually upgrade the ram to 8gb, but the 4-core advantage probably won't be as big of a deal as the lack of TurboBoost. We'll see what kind of budget I get from the company.
  • Reply 3 of 6
    emacs72emacs72 Posts: 356member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by RobbieR View Post


    I'm buying an iMac for my office which is used for internet, email, heavy excel and word .... am wondering if it's worth the extra 4-500 bucks to upgrade from the 3.06 Core i3 to the 2.66 Quad-core i5??



    the upgrade is not worthwhile given your primarily usage of the iMac.



    assuming we're talking about the desktop i5, single-threaded apps will only run on a single active core (the other three cores will be down-clocked close to 0GHz). even though the remaining core will be overclocked to 3.2GHz maximum that won't help you read email faster or download content from the Internet any faster / better than a top-end i3.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    futurepastnowfuturepastnow Posts: 1,772member
    For what you do, upgrading the RAM would probably be a better use for the money.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    henry101henry101 Posts: 1member
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  • Reply 6 of 6
    robbierrobbier Posts: 4member
    Thanks for the help.



    I believe I'm gonna try to squeeze the 27" Core i3 3.2 GHz into the budget, if not I'll just drop down to a 21.5" Core i3 3.06.
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