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Lab tested: 27-inch Core i5 iMac/3.6GHz (BTO)

13.08.2010
After posting our for the four new standard configuration iMacs, several readers had the same request: test the new 3.6GHz Core i5 iMac, a built-to-order (BTO) option for the . You spoke, we listened and we ordered a custom 27-inch iMac with the 3.6GHz Core i5 dual core processor, though we upped the ante by adding a second drive to the system, a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD) to complement the 1TB 7200-rpm drive that comes standard. We tested the system twice (once booted from the hard drive and then booted from the SSD) and the results are intriguing.

The drive and processor upgrades add $750 and $200 respectively to the cost of the standard $1699 27-inch 3.2GHz Core i3 iMac, bringing the price to $2649.

To see how this faster, dual-core processor affected performance, we ran with everything installed on the hard drive and unmounted the SSD. Compared to the results of the standard 27-inch 3.2GHz Core i3 iMac, we found the custom iMac to be 8 percent faster in our overall system performance test suite, Speedmark 6.

The 3.6GHz model was faster in most tests, with impressive gains in Cinebench (14 percent), MathematicaMark (16 percent) and Compressor (14 percent). The only two tests that the 3.6GHz custom system failed to outperform the standard 3.2GHz system was iPhoto import, which was just one second faster on the standard iMac, and our HandBrake rip and encode tests, which took the 3.6GHz system nearly twice as long to complete.

As we found in of the standard iMacs, Apple doesn't use just one supplier for components like the SuperDrive. In fact, we've seen three different SuperDrive mechanisms in our five new iMacs. Although they all boast very similar specifications, one of these mechanisms, the HL DT ST DVDRW GA32N, performs very slowly in our HandBrake test. Our theory is that the HL uses , a technology that aims to improve DVD watching on computers by slowing down the rotational speed of the disc for quieter operation. The stock iMac came with a Pioneer DVRTS09, which performs well. There's no way to know what mechanism your iMac will come with, so if you rip DVDs frequently, you'll just have to hope for something other than the HL.