New i7 iMac isn't as fast as I thought it would be

hey guys, bought new sandybridge i7 3.4 ghz imac couple weeks ago, stock 1 tb drive , 4 gb ram. it's beautiful machine, doesn't seem fast thought be.

upgraded 1.8 ghz core duo imac (early 2006 model) expecting new mac blow out of water -- , things, subjectively "snappiness" doesn't seem have increased enough reflect 5 years of technological advances. i'm starting wonder if wrong.

cpu seems fine. handbrake crushes movie in 40 minutes. booting , launching apps doesn't seem faster old computer, though. imovie still takes forever , day load clips in. worst thing wife has been complaining lately iphoto , other apps have been pinwheeling on her. once checked activity monitor shortly after complaint , there still free memory available (the green part of pie chart). oh, , ran memtest night last night , came clean.

realize hard drives slowest part of computer, i'm starting wonder if not quite right mine. there no suspicious entries in system log regarding pinwheeling, , smart data checks out ok. can't figure out why we'd many pinwheels when there's still free memory. think (but not sure) happens when 2 users logged in, said there plenty of free memory @ time.

kind of lame post because it's subjective, of new imacs , standard hard drive, computer crazy-fast across board, or disk i/o seem lacking? i'm not @ home i'm happy post disk i/o , boot time benchmarks, if help.

thank you!

 

hey, have same imac, top of line 27" in i7.

play alot of games, , im having same issues describing.

find runs champ however, disk i/o cant keep speed. find myself waiting 2 minutes game load.

feel hard drive blame this.

know second thundebolt ssd's arrive, im buying one.

 

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