Buy the most expensive computer you can afford. Still apply?

[ATB]

I'm not building my own pc so let's get that out of the way. It has been 11 years since my last build and I'm woefully out of touch.

So my question is:  For basic home related stuff, financial software, photo editing, maybe a little midrange gaming and lower level video editing, I'm down to two choices.

A dell xps with an i5 chip at 3.1 ghz and 8gbs of ram or for 150.00 more the same machine with the i7 at 3.4ghz.

Is the processor speed boost worth the 150.00 more?

My thoughts at making the jump would only to increase the viable functional life of the machine by a few years.

(If history serves, we typically upgrade machines every 7-10 years).

Thoughts?

i5chip vs i7chip.  150.00 Price increase.

Thanks.

[Purge]

Go for it.

[CeeKay]

might as well if you're looking at keeping it that long.

[Nonnahob]

I believe on that dell the i5 is actually a newer processor than the i7.

[Punisher]

If your photo and video editing software supports multi-core, you will most likely see a performance boost with the i7... plus $150 to jump up, especially if you only replace a PC after 7 years, would be worth it...

[ATB]

My friends and lovers.  I sweated over this decision for several days but ended up upgrading to the higher end.  Who knows if I'll ever use all those horses, but hopefully it bought me a few more months before I need to upgrade again.

Thank you so much for the overwhelming response. We love you, goodnight!

[Knightshade Dragon]

My friends and lovers.  I sweated over this decision for several days but ended up upgrading to the higher end.  Who knows if I'll ever use all those horses, but hopefully it bought me a few more months before I need to upgrade again.

Thank you so much for the overwhelming response. We love you, goodnight!

You'll appreciate the i7.  There aren't a lot of multi-core applications out there, but at just a cursory glance to my taskbar I'm running 5 things concurrently.  Checking my processor utilization, I've got 4 cores working hard.