iMac or MacBook Pro for Final Cut Studio editing?

[Blitzer321]

So I'm looking at buying a new computer since my video hobby is quickly becoming more of a career. I was looking at two computers specifically:
The 27'' iMac with 2.8Ghz Quad-Core i7, 8GB RAM
and
The 17'' MacBook with 2.66GHz Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM

I'll be shooting in HDV (Canon Vixia HV40) and wish to utilize all of the software in FCS. Also, I will be using Photoshop and After Effects.

Now, I would love to have the portability of the MacBook, but I wouldn't want to sacrifice effectiveness or compatibility for it. If the iMac will be tons better than the MacBook, then I will go for it; however if the MacBook can easily get the same job done, I'll consider that a bit higher. Which do you guys think is best? Also, if you think I'll need something else for this situation, feel free to add it. Even though I'm good at editing, I'll still suckish when it comes to the whole technological aspect. Thanks for your time!

 

[spinnerlys]

Do you need to render often? If so the iMac i7 will be faster, as it has four cores (eight threads), the i7 MBP only has two cores (four threads). But other than that the i7 MBP is more than fine with HDV (AIC or ProRes) editing.

 

[Blitzer321]

OK, and it will be able to run Color and Motion well?

 

[spinnerlys]

OK, and it will be able to run Color and Motion well?

Yes, but that also depends on the complexity, resolution and compression of the footage. The MBP will handle them quite well, but the iMac will be better due to the better GPU.