the mini
Another vote for the mini. The hackintosh will be a headache and the Air is much more expensive.
Another vote for the mini. The hackintosh will be a headache and the Air is much more expensive.
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MacBook Air 13" vs Hackintosh vs Mac Mini
- Thread starter applereviewguy
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Although I can appreciate the "just works" sentiment. I really would go with the Hackintosh. 
If you "enjoy" Linux, in regards to figuring out things and troubleshooting a Hackintosh is a blast to build.
Built this computer 2 years ago and it's still running like a beast. I definitely feel like I have gotten my moneys worth and still continue too!
EVGA x58 SLI Motherboard, core i7 920
If you ever decide to overclock in general you never want to max out your dimm's because it can lead to more unstable voltages.
Anyways you can see my geekbench scores in my signature after following the link.
Getting a hackintosh to run great/closest to vanilla is having a solid DSDT. Using a solid DSDT I only need FakeSMC.kext and ALC88xxHDA.kext (injector) with AppleHDA.kext from 10.6.2
Also SpeedStep/Turbo working excellent =]
If you "enjoy" Linux, in regards to figuring out things and troubleshooting a Hackintosh is a blast to build.
Built this computer 2 years ago and it's still running like a beast. I definitely feel like I have gotten my moneys worth and still continue too!
EVGA x58 SLI Motherboard, core i7 920
If you ever decide to overclock in general you never want to max out your dimm's because it can lead to more unstable voltages.
Anyways you can see my geekbench scores in my signature after following the link.
Getting a hackintosh to run great/closest to vanilla is having a solid DSDT. Using a solid DSDT I only need FakeSMC.kext and ALC88xxHDA.kext (injector) with AppleHDA.kext from 10.6.2
Also SpeedStep/Turbo working excellent =]
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You can not choose that option with the quad i7 chip as the OP outlined in his system specs.
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Would you not just be better off with a 27" iMac, even a refurb ? Video editing on that big screen excels any of the others you've outlined and you would have more power than either of the two other macs you mentioned, and can upgrade to 16GB cheaply in the iMac too.
The i7 Air is the one my friend has. Final Cut Pro on it is DIRE. It doesn't provide (1) anywhere near enough CPU power to edit more than a single HD stream and (2) anywhere near enough storage that all the video files aren't going to be on external HDs for any decent sized project. (For big projects I take close to 300GB for the source files + edited versions) - Now, unless the OP is going to add a Thunderbolt RAID array, which is unlikely, thats going to cause stuff to be stored on a USB2 external, which will just make it even more painful.