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Hello. I am planning on getting a imac and would like to use dolphin to play gamecube and wii games. Want to know if any one knows which imac would run better. The new 2011 21.5 imac which has a i5 2.5 ghz processor or the year old i3 3.06 ghz model.

I know the 2.5 has a better video card but hear it does not matter much. The older model has a higher clock speed which I hear is more important but the 2.5 ghz model has turbo boost which apparently overclocks up to 3.8 ghz.

However, I do not quite understand how turbo boost 2.0 works. Will it consistently stay at a 3 or more ghz to keep good speeds? or is it only temporary and will eventually go back to 2.5 ghz which I believe is way to slow. The other processor cannot go up to 3.8 ghz but at least will consistently stay at 3 ghz. also for the i5. It is a quad core. So will it boost both cores to over 3 ghz or only one core? Wonder if anyone can help? Thanks in advance.
Imac (all in 1 desktop) isn't good at cooling . If you run dolphin on imac , it will cook itself till death
Build your own desktop ! ( search youtube)
Or buy Sandy Bridge Laptop with a decent graphic processor (Nvidia GT 540M - 550M or Ati 6570M - 6750M)

(05-26-2011, 04:58 PM)admin89 Wrote: [ -> ]Imac (all in 1 desktop) isn't good at cooling . If you run dolphin on imac , it will cook itself till death
Build your own desktop ! ( search youtube)
Or buy Sandy Bridge Laptop with a decent graphic processor (Nvidia GT 540M - 550M or Ati 6570M - 6750M)

Unfortunately, I have to get an imac. Sounds like you are saying the i3 3.06 ghz is a better option as I will not have to rely on the turbo charger 2.0 feature on the i5 2.5 ghz model as it could cause heating problems? Or are you saying either mac would overheat and become damaged because of the way emulator works? I never heard of a imac damaging itself without overclocking.
Turbo Boost won't work if CPU overheat (80C / 176F)
Same as Laptop , Imac has only 1 Fansink :
[Image: wpid-cad56e4691c05c25eb3.jpg]

I had to mod a second Fansink inside my laptop to keep the temp under 70C / 158F when running dolphin
PC games : 50-60C / 122-140F
Idle : 30C / 86F
The i5 Quad Core is better but i3 run cooler . I5 2400s has 2.5Ghz in clock speed , up to 3.3Ghz (max turbo)
If dolphin isn't your only choice , you should get i5 for video encoding , multi-tasking

Since you say you need an iMac, I'm assuming you need this computer for more than just Dolphin, because Dolphin runs much better on Windows than it does Mac OS. As such, I'd say go for the i5.
you need iMac?
then you dont need dolphin

Radeon

(05-26-2011, 05:17 PM)gamereye Wrote: [ -> ]Unfortunately, I have to get an imac. Sounds like you are saying the i3 3.06 ghz is a better option as I will not have to rely on the turbo charger 2.0 feature on the i5 2.5 ghz model as it could cause heating problems? Or are you saying either mac would overheat and become damaged because of the way emulator works? I never heard of a imac damaging itself without overclocking.
Why do you have to get an iMac?
(05-27-2011, 06:32 AM)Radeon Wrote: [ -> ]
(05-26-2011, 05:17 PM)gamereye Wrote: [ -> ]Unfortunately, I have to get an imac. Sounds like you are saying the i3 3.06 ghz is a better option as I will not have to rely on the turbo charger 2.0 feature on the i5 2.5 ghz model as it could cause heating problems? Or are you saying either mac would overheat and become damaged because of the way emulator works? I never heard of a imac damaging itself without overclocking.
Why do you have to get an iMac?

dont you know? "macs dont get viruses" and "macs are faster then PC"
lololol

What the most ironic thing is, that most all mac users say "mac is better then pc" which is the most ignorant statement you can possible make, because a mac is a pc... pc=personal computer, it has NOTHING to do with what os you have installed, or who manufactured the computer...
Get the one that doesn't come with OS X.

Radeon

(05-27-2011, 04:25 PM)jbone1337 Wrote: [ -> ]
(05-27-2011, 06:32 AM)Radeon Wrote: [ -> ]Why do you have to get an iMac?
dont you know? "macs dont get viruses" and "macs are faster then PC"
lololol

What the most ironic thing is, that most all mac users say "mac is better then pc" which is the most ignorant statement you can possible make, because a mac is a pc... pc=personal computer, it has NOTHING to do with what os you have installed, or who manufactured the computer...
You're thinking that I was talking about Macintosh OSes in general, when I was actually talking about iMac all-in-one computers. And as one has already said, all-in-one computers have terrible cooling.