Imac + Macbook '13 or just a macbook pro?

[sapsjr]

I plan on purchasing my first mac in March. I'm still trying to decide which route to go. I'm considering getting an iMac + macbook together or just a macbook pro (not sure which size). (note: if I do get an iMac I'll be waiting for the update)

I don't need portability at the moment but that will change when I'm back in school (August 2009).

What are your opinions? Would it be a pain using both an iMac desktop @ home and a macbook in class/coffee shop? Not sure how easy it is to sync files between the two.

Or do you think it would make more sense to get a macbook and external display? This would obviously be my primary computer. The benefit of having a regular macbook would be the small size and ultra portability. I'm not sure if I would like switching between two computers though.

Whichever route I go I expect to use it for a solid 2 years before I upgrade. I'm literally on the computer 5 to 10 hours a day. I run a business online - so it will get A LOT of use. I do some video/photo editing, and the occasional game (like wow) as well.

Any opinions would be appreciated.

I was originally going to get an iMac - but now that I'll be in school soon I'm not so sure.

 

[Solemony]

You can get the previous gen. MBP 17" or the MBP 15" much cheaper and works almost the same as the new unibody 15" MBP. If you could afford it you can buy the new 17" MBP which works great on video editing I assume.

Btw what kind of video editing will you be doing? Intensive or no? Light video editing on a MB should be fine but upgrade to more ram would run it much more smoothly. From my perspective getting an iMac for gaming like WoW + video editing would run much better than a notebook but I think the MBP should do just fine if you upgrade the ram..Although you should sometime watch out for the temperature since WoW uses quite a lot of CPU...

 

[Demosthenes X]

Remember that the new MacBook does not have Firewire, so unless you have a USB-capable camera it won't work for video editing.

Personally, for what you describe, I would go with a MacBook Pro and a nice external display. It'll be cheaper than the iMac + MacBook solution, and the Pro is a very capable machine... should be nearly as or more capable as the iMac, depending which model of iMac you're looking at.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

iMac + MB (not pro) will work fine. You won't need to import video on the go so the lack of FireWire is not a problem.