01-22-2011, 05:52 PM
The Mac Pro takes much more expensive RAM (667 MHz DDR2 ECC fully-buffered DIMM is pretty much obsolete except for this computer line) but it is much easier to add hard drives, upgrade the video card, and you can easily upgrade to a newer computer if you have a LCD you like. The iMac holds its value fairly well if you are willing to swap the entire computer and LCD every few years to keep a modern machine. I would guess the 3.06 GHz dual core is almost as fast as that old 2.6 GHz dual dual core. I looked through several reviews at BareFeats but did not see a direct comparison between the Core i3 iMac and the 2006 Mac Pro.