Help! New 27" Imac - Dual Core Or Quad Core For My Needs..., Would the 3.33 Ghz suffice? Options

[uvbnskoold]

Hi there community,

I have asked this question of many other people and forums but no one can give me a straight answer.

I compose music using Logic Studio and all included sounds, VSTs and a lot of different libraries (EW/QL samples) with very little live recording.

I want to upgrade my system (currently using a dual 2.3 Ghz PowerMac G5 with 8 GB of RAM) to one of the new 27" iMacs - definitely going to go 16 GB of RAM and a 2 TB HD, but I'm torn as to processor.

I just don't know whether the 3.33 Ghz Dual Core processor will be adequate or I should wait and get one of the Quad Core i7 processors for about $500 more money, but I'd have to wait.

For what I do, will the processor make a huge difference? What I've been told is that processor only matters for audio encoding (which I am not really doing a lot of) or video work/rendering... not really applicable to composing with samples using Logic.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Uvee

[kayj_prod]

Whew! If you're going for 16 gb of RAM
then an extra 500 for processing speed is a drop
in the ocean!!!
I always think it's best to buy the fastest you can afford at the time- you never know what you'll need in the future. I remember a time when my 350 MHz G3 was enough... Then my 450G4... Then my DP1.2 G4...!

In your position, I'd buy half as much RAM and the faster processor. You can easily upgrade RAM.