About five years ago, I bought what at the time was a pretty great iMac — which looked like this:
Well, as you know, the longer you use a computer the greater the likelihood that it will break down. The performance suffers with each new operating system upgrade, new software needs more processing power to get it to work properly, and, wear and tear eventually makes a computer obsolete. My old iMac was having some problems for the past year (hard drive issues during the start up, the screen was starting to malfunction with colored lines forming across the screen, and general performance issues — which means it was kind of slow). Anyway, earlier in the week, the computer finally died (or so it seemed) when I was constantly getting this screen as the computer was powering up:
I couldn’t get the computer to get beyond this screen. Each time I would boot it up, I’d get this message. Well, instead of paying an Apple guy $80 bucks just to come out (I had already been down that route that provided me with a temporary fix to a failing hard drive), Julie and I decided that instead of nickel and dimming ourselves, we’d just go whole hog and buy a new computer. And so off we went to Best Buy to see what they had for what price. After seeing what was billed as a new iMac selling for $1079, we looked a little closer and, yes, the model they were selling was one Apple was phasing out (known as the i3). I wanted the newest one that’s supposed to have a new processor that’s really fast. Well, the only place you can get that now is at the Apple store. After talking to the guy at the store, we went with the i5 (even though the i7 processor is the fastest they sell in that model). For what we do on this computer (mostly Internet, word processing, spreadsheet, listening to music, and watching videos), this was plenty fast. And the audio and video productions I do on the computer isn’t all that extensive, so I don’t need the i7 processor. Now my dad, who works in the graphic arts industry would need an i7 because the files he works on are so huge and to process that work, you need something that’s going complete those tasks with a good amount of speed.
Anyway, we’ve almost said goodbye to our old iMac (I have to get the system disk to erase the hard drive), and are now enjoying our newest purchase. Say hello to our new iMac — which looks like this:
3 thoughts on “Goodbye and Hello”
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There really aren't a whole lot of programs where the difference between an i7 and i5 would be noticeable. Not even Civ5 would really benefit from the faster processor.
The real key to getting the most out of your computer is have RAM. Lots and lots of ram. Start at 4gigs, but leave room to go up to 8 in a couple years.
Ooooh, I want one! but I think Danny will pass his down to me very soon.
Our new computer is GORGEOUS, and it boots up SO quickly. The screen is perfect. So clear and beautiful. I'm bitter and sad that a new computer becomes so necessary every 5 years or so, though. I have a fantasy in my mind that if you purchase the right product, be it car, vacuum, dishwasher, computer, whatever, you will NEVER HAVE TO REPLACE IT. Clearly, I am so far out of current technology as to make me insane.