Mac Mini or iMac?

[Mac-A-Matic]

Hope someone here can give me a little insight.

I need to buy a new machine for a new shop that I am building. I need the computer to do a variety of tasks such as:

- Checking/sending email
- Surfing the Internet
- Light Illustrator/Photoshop work
- MS Office work, i.e. Word and Excel
- Controlling store music via iTunes (constantly playing and maybe upwards of 60GB of music)
- Play videos (either mpeg or dvd discs) to an external LCD TV Monitor
- Running VMWare and Windows XP
- QuickBooks Pro 2008 (on WinXP)
- POS Back End Management (on WinXP)

Lately I've been considering the Mac Mini because of it's small form factor but since it starts at $600 for the most basic machine and I still need to buy a monitor, mouse and keyboard, (not to mention perhaps upgrading its' specs) I'm wondering if an iMac might be the better choice?

The Mac Mini configuration considering is a 2.26 Core2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 320GB HD, magic mouse, wireless keyboard for $817.00

Checking the apple website, there's an iMac 21.5 inch with 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, with wireless keyboard and magic mouse for $1200.00.

Understandably, the iMac has better specs than the MacMini, but my question is what machine do I really need? I'd like to buy the right machine at the right price - that will handle my needs as well as being as small as necessary.

Thanks!

[AAA]

If you visit sites with Flash, or watch YouTube videos, I'd wait for an Octo-core with 16 GB of memory.

[Grateful11]

AAA wrote:
If you visit sites with Flash, or watch YouTube videos, I'd wait for an Octo-core with 16 GB of memory.

Yeah but when will we see that in a Mini? It's usually the last one to get upgrades. 4 RAM slots in a Mini?

[anonymouse1]

Either will handle your needs.

If it were me, I'd look into a refurbed mini, as the best value for money.

Or you can pick up a refurbed 24" imac for $999 to $1,099.

That said, the iMac is a very, very sweet machine for the money.

[jdc]

a mini, even with 2 gigs of ram, will do all that just fine

why a mac keyboard & MM? that $150 all by itself? you should be able to fine a microsoft or logitech mouse/keyboard combo for $40.

add an external drive for itunes, maybe a 120 gig IDE drive off CL for free and a $20 USB case?

ram is the only big expenditure, $100 for 4 gigs, and you can do it yourself

$579 for the mini at macconnection, no tax, free shipping.

you are going to want a cable like this to run it to a TV: http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10428&cs_id=1042802&p_id=5969&seq=1&format=2