Choosing between different iMacs

[Devhux]

I've been contemplating getting a Mac for quite a while, and after playing with a Macbook Pro recently, decided that now is the time.

I'm looking at an iMac 27" unit right now, and can't really decide between the dual-core system or the i5 quad-core. The system will primarily be used for photo and audio editing/recording tasks, though some videos might be worked on as well.

Right now, I do have a gaming desktop running Windows that is using an i7 920 CPU. As I'm not doing much PC gaming at all now, the system is overkill for my needs. I realize that if I drop down to the dual core, I'll be losing performance based on what I have now, but I don't really know if it would be too noticeable.

Any advice?

 

[PCTC2]

Well, if you use Photoshop, I believe it's threaded to be able to use 4 cores nowadays so if you're doing it on a professional/prosumer level, I'd suggest the i5 iMac. Otherwise, the 3.06 GHz dual-core should be more than enough. The thing I would suggest doing is upgrading the RAM to 8GB. Just pick up 2x2GB DDR3 1066 SODIMM chips and toss them in. It has 4 RAM slots and only 2 are populated with the default 4GB.