(New or Old?)iMac for FinaCutPro

[fkey]

I am an ameture videographer/student, and wants to make the switch from my first gen MacBookPro/Final Cut Express to an iMac 21.5/FinalCutPro.

I can get the Education discount.

I was about to buy either a refurbed 21.5 or new. If I buy a refurb iMac I can afford FinalCutProX and Red Giant Magic Bullet Looks. If I buy a new iMac the Red Giant will have to wait.

When not editing I use Numbers, QT, and iTunes.

But now the new iMacs are here so I even more confused than before. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

fkey

 

[jackoatmon]

Do you REALLY need that colouration suite? I've never run into anything that I couldn't more or less deal with in the FCPX colour pane. I mean it's $400. I've never played with it but I can't imagine what might be so incredible as to make it cost more than your base editing software.

Not saying colouration suites aren't worth money. But as compared with having really good hardware? I think I'd go with the hardware. It would be different if it was the difference between affording the video suite itself.

Also, you don't mention your use case. If you're shooting 1080p on a DSLR or something, you def want a nice beefy GPU.