Need a mac recommendation...

[Intranut]

Been wating to get a newer mac since June, "patiently" waited out the iMac display issues and the "rumoured" Macpro update earlier this month...

Here's what I need to do, which mac do you think is better?

1. Everyday tasks like web surfing, email, web chats etc

2. Photo work, I'm into digital photography, strictly as a hobby, working with RAW files and such. Aperture or Lightroom and Photoshop probably. My current iPhoto library is outgrowing my G4.

3. A little video editing, just got married and would like to put together a nice DVD, and for other life events, probably iMovie or FCE.

4. I use a EyeTV Hybrid for TV in my office, would consider using the mac the odd time to record something for later viewing and ipod transfer.

5. Not a gamer, have a X360 and Wii for that.


Through my work, I have employee discount to purchase Apple products, plus with Black Friday approaching, just wondering if this is the time to buy ....

I could configure a BTO 24" with the 2.8 Extreme, 320GB, 1GB RAM for $2000 CAD. Would upgrade the RAM to 4GB third-party. Might as well max it out, as there is not much else to upgrade.

The current base MacPro 2x2.0 1GB RAM and 250GB could be had for $2245 CAD. 3rd-Party RAM to be added later.

$245 lets me keep adding drives and memory and maybe processor updates to keep me going till the next major upgrade. Then again the current Macpro specs are expensive if you compare the cost of the hardware to today's PC offerings.

Would look at keeping whatever I get now for a while, probably more than 3 years. I've had my 12" G4 for close to 5 now. Not a bleeding edge upgrader.

Should I wait till Macworld to decide? Or should I stop pondering and jump in now.

Opinons are welcome, thanks for reading.

 

[0007776]

If you need it then buy it otherwise wait until macworld, or the next update.

 

[Nugget]

Now is as good a time as any to buy an iMac, and the machine you describe will be comfortably overkill for what you want to do. Should last you a good, long while. The only thing I'd suggest is to add an external FireWire or USB hard drive so that you can use Time Machine.

The current Mac Pro just isn't worth the money and to be honest it sounds like the additional capacity of the Mac Pro would be wasted on the tasks you're likely to do.

 

[edesignuk]

Since you have a nice 20" monitor (in your sig), I'd go with the Mac Pro - much better life span and many more options down the road for it to grow with your needs. I would wait until Mac World though.

 

[Nugget]

The cost difference to upgrade the RAM in a Mac Pro versus upgrading the RAM in an iMac is sobering. You'll enjoy having 4GB of RAM a lot more than you'd enjoy having 4 cores.