Well I am a home user too. I am far from a Pro user. Yes I do some more intensive apps such as GIMP. I love the machine its great. I hardly ever max out the CPU but I defiantly would sometime max out the imac's but it would not happen very often. Its really depends on if you have the money and can get a decent monitor. Also do you game? Does not having a remote bother you? I didn't like the idea of having no remote so i bought one and a IR receiver works great with front row.