imac or macpro

[jdc]

FWIW, new AL iMacs will be able to address 8 gigs of ram possibly before the end of the year

these are "business" machines for me, so I know i will be replacing them in 3 years

at which time i will buy another $1500ish iMac, that will be 5 ghz and will kick the macpro 2.66 (or whatever) out of the water

just like the current imacs kill the G5 towers

i will spend $1500 now, and $1500 3 years from now

your $3000 will have to go all 6 years to get the same return on your investment

heres a short test, photoshop

http://barefeats.com/imacal4.html

90% of the power for 1/2 the price

[Buckeye_Sean]

I have to agree with jdc. I too debated whether or not I "needed" the power of a mac pro vs. an imac. I run Adobe's creative suite all day along with Quark, Filemaker Pro, MS Office etc.

I ultimately chose the 24" imac and haven't looked back. Gorgeous screen, plenty of power and takes up a lot less room than a MP and Monitor. Absolutely best bang for your buck unless you do video all day long.

[bazookaman]

hmmm...I'm really torn. While I have actually SAVED the money for a macpro (with some extra ram) I would LOVE to spend a grand less. My only hesitation is:

I have 2 LCD monitors now. Although one is pretty old and looks crappy anyway. But the other (a Dell 20) would work with the imac? Right? So i'd still have two.

I have 3 750gb drives in my macpro now. So i would need to find something to do with 2 of those drives. Which means buying an external case.

I have a keyboard, turbomouse, scanner, printer, webcam and a wacom. I'm running a USB/FW card in my macpro now. Which means I would need a hub with the imac. I hate hubs.

So there would be some extra expense in going the imac route. Not that I am against it. Just trying to consider all my options.

[AllGold]

[quote jdc]heres a short test, photoshop

http://barefeats.com/imacal4.html

90% of the power for 1/2 the price
For Photoshop, yes, but not for all software (PS apparently does not multi-thread well). In the second test, AE, even a 4-core Mac Pro crushes any iMac.