[samuellei]

Considering to buy a new imac. But can't justify, in terms of overall performance, should upgrade to 2.8ghz or 3gb ram? Suggestion please, please! Normal use with some home video making.

[Simon]

That really depends on your needs and your budget. Apart from that consider that the CPU can only be chosen once. RAM OTOH can be added later on. Also, keep in mind that even quality RAM from third-party vendors can be a lot cheaper than what Apple offers. If money's not that much of an issue, I'd get the 2.8 GHz with 1 GB RAM. Then I'd buy two 2 GB DIMMs somewhere else. You can still sell the left over 1 GB SO-DIMM to reduce your upgrade cost.

[chipchen]

4gb of ram. better. (don't buy from Apple)

[Andhee]

Go with the 2.8GHz because you can always upgrade your RAM in the future, without breaking AppleCare warranty.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by Simon 

That really depends on your needs and your budget. Apart from that consider that the CPU can only be chosen once.

I believe they're still socketed, so you can upgrade your CPU whenever you want; doing so will, of course, void your warranty.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by mduell 

I believe they're still socketed, so you can upgrade your CPU whenever you want; doing so will, of course, void your warranty.

Obviously you would still be able to swap the CPU later, but that implies you lose your warranty and/or AppleCare coverage. In addition you'd lose money. The $250 upgrade price you pay Apple for the X7900 now is actually less than what you'd pay Intel for the X7900 once they start selling it in September even if you factor in that you can resell your C2D. By that time the 1k price of the T7700 will be $361. The X7900 OTOH will be going for $851 (again 1k so likely a regular customer will pay somewhat more).

So if you're now already planning on getting a faster CPU, get it straight away. On top of voiding your warranty, it's a bad decision from a financial POV to try to get it in there yourself.

Two or three years form now when your warranty's run out and you can get older cheap Merom XEs that will of course be an entirely different story.

[samuellei]

Thanks everyone. I'm very much agreed with you guys. 'cause, in a longer run, to upgrade ram will be much easier than cpu. I got it.

[Pao|o]

iMac Intel (Mid 2007) and Mac mini (mid 2007) Memory Testing of 1.0GB, 2.0GB, 3.0GB and "4.0GB*" configurations with timed tests using Photoshop CS3, a "Stress Test" (CS3 + iTunes Visualizer), "RAM Hog" (CS3 w/50% ram used by other things), Halo and XBench. See the note/disclaimer there on 4GB in the Mini (only 3GB accessable so the only benefit with that system of having 2x2GB modules is a very small gain from enabling dual-channel memory mode.)