Help needed for buying mac

[Vandefilm]

Hello. Im a newby when it comes to macs. I just recently found out about macs (I know, I was living in a windows-cave) and fell in love with them and thus want one. The only problem is, I bought a new windows-machine a few months agoo. Now I'm in dubio and that is where I need you guys to help me.

I want to do some serious photo- and video-editing and I want to build websites, dont play games and further just the usual stuff (listen to music, surfing etc). With my new windows-machine I bought a LG Flatron E2241 along with it (21 of 22 inch). So now I'm thinking about buying an imac and just sell my complete windows-setup or buying a MBA and keep the screen.

The Imac is a beautiful machine with many features (mouse, camera, keyboard, wifi, bluetooth etc.) but I dont have the money to buy an SSD harddisk.
The MBA uses a flash HD which is faster and is important for video-editing I think and I have an external hard drive for storage of large files. I don't really need the portability so thats not an issue.

1. Is the screen of an imac far better than the LG screen I have? There is no apple store where I live (Holland) so I cant check it out for myself.
2. Makes the flash HD of the MBA it much faster than an Imac without SSD?
3. My budget is somewhere between 1400 - 1600 euro's (I think thats about 1800 dollar).
So what do you recon is the best setup for me? Btw, I have no problem waiting a bit longer for the new Imac.
Thanks in advance!

 

[karmamule]

If you are going to be doing any coding while building web sites, or want to have references open while building your sites, the extra resolution of the 27" iMac is a *huge* help.

I love coding on mine at home, and hate having to go to work each day where I have dual monitors. Pretty much equivalent screen real estate, but the one large screen is much easier to use, IMO.

 

[yashi]

I would go for a base 27" iMac and then buy an extra 8 GB of memory to install yourself. That should fit into your budget, and the 27" screen will be awesome for what you want to do.

I don't do much in the way of photo or video editing, but I'm a web developer and I constantly have a browser, text editor, and terminal all side by side with no overlap. The real estate is perfect for me.

 

[arjen92]

I would go for the iMac if I were you. If you want to do video editing you need a good graphics card (the macbook air won't do), a fast processor and fast RAM. I don't think the MBA was built for speed.

If you want to see the differences with the screen you can go to the Apple Store (remember, the one in Amsterdam). But since that one isn't open yet, you could go to one of the many resellers (iFactors, LJS, iCentre, Mediamarkt, Dixons, mycom etc. I would go to one of the first three since these focus merely on Apple).

For under €300 euro you can get an SSD a casing to put the SSD where your superdrive is and 16 GB RAM.

The screen has really good colors, however, it has a glass panel with nothing to stop reflection, so you better be in a dark room if you want to see the correct colors.

 

[Vandefilm]

Thanks for the input. I think i'm gonna wait for the new imacs to arrive and then decide to have a 21.5 inch or 27 inch. Maybe apple will put in an ssd-drive by default .