I'm in the process of debating whether to get the 20" iMac vs. the 24" iMac. I am planning on using it for some audio production, video editing as well as using it for school work. I want the 24" soooo bad because it just screams "BUY ME" when you see it in the apple store.



Here is what i'm pondering:

For just over $2100 the bare bones is what i'm getting plus apple care with the 24"

(which is still great)

For just over $1900 i'd be getting 2GB of ram, 500GB hard drive and apple care

with my student discount for the 20"



Also one more question:Do I need to get apple care right now or should I wait until around a year???



Any insight that anyone has to help me make a decision is greatly appreciated.

get the 24", you can always upgrade the other stuff later. and get applecare for it, it is worth it

Probably it is not what you want to hear, but for an extra $500 I'd buy a Mac Pro, personally. The difference is like day and night, IMO.

Get a mac pro, im getting myself 2x 30"screens at the end of the month, so my 20" iMac will be, umm lacking some umph.

like all the else are saying chip and get the mac pro, you wont regret it. and with applecare you have one full year to upgrade so its not like its a thing you have to do right away

Uhm.. the Mac Pro isn't 500$ more, it's 500$ more and you still don't have a nce monitor..

So depending on the amount of money you have.. I'd go for the 24" with graphics upgrade Enad eventually build in 1 gig more ram yourself

But most of us already have a monitor. Personally I have a SyncMaster 205BW and I don't want anything bigger.
On the other hand if you buy an iMac it will feel outdated in a couple of years, while you can keep upgrading the Mac Pro for a very long time.

Yeah but I don't think I can convince the wife to let me spend the money to get the Mac Pro. That is what makes me weary about getting a iMac instead of the Mac Pro though is that in a couple of years the iMac will feel outdated, but then again a 24" iMac is better than nothing.

Clock for clock, a smaller scale iMac seems to be faster than its larger counterpart (not sure why). So if you want as much speed as possible, then get the 20 inch model.

Is this verified or is it just subjective? I'd say go with the 24" and the 7600GT, it's a great deal, and you'll looove the extra screen real estate for video and music work.

Just gone throught the same exercise - iMac24" or MacPro. I decided to go with the MacPro, give you so much more upgrade options, you can load up to 4 x 750GB Drives in there - you can only have 1 in the iMac, and if youre into video editing, you need the space. And hopefully in a years time the 8 cores cpu will be cheaper than now and I will upgrade the CPU.

Also if you really getting serious, you can add up to 4 videocards which each have their own monitor.

Maybe you can help her understand what "better value for money" means?

You could show her this thread

Is there a working VGA to DVI adapter so that I can use my current desktop monitor. The one I found on the Apple website supposedly doesn't work with the stock card.

There are quite a few user comments here:

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebO...rnMore=M9267G/A

Maybe they can help you?

After alot of debating with myself (and convincing of my wife) I have decided to get the Mac Pro instead of an iMac and I am going to wait the extra month or two to save the difference. I decided that I didn't want to be stuck with an unexpandable/updateable computer in a couple of years, plus if something happens to the iMac's screen then I would be {censored} out of luck for the time it takes to fix it.

Thanks everyone for their advice.

Well done

I'm ATM planning on getting the following specs:

* Two 2.0GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
* 1GB (2 x 512MB)
* 250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
* 2 x NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB
* One 16x SuperDrive
* AirPort Extreme card (Wi-fi)
* Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
* Mac OS X - U.S. English

I plan on using a dual monitor setup and eventually upgrading the RAM when I get some more money.

See - you done the right thing to go with Mac Pro! - You could not had a Dual Monitor setup with the iMac24".

Check out www.macsales.com for memory later on, they are cheaper than apple.

Why would you need 2x7300 GT's. One would be enough for a Dual Monitor Setup.

U.C. even with a DVI to VGA adapter for both monitors?

May be a stupid question but I haven't researched my monitor situation yet?

How about an ATI Radeon X1900 XT instead of 2 x NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB? The 7300 is a low end card.

Thanks for the advice Alessandro17, I didn't know that.

Welcome