[cscade]

I went to the Apple store in Denver CO today for the first time. As I posted over in the PowerMac forum a while back, I am seriously considering getting a Mac for video editing, but I don't know what to buy. Today was my first chance to compare the iMac 2GHz and the PowerMacs in person and feel their "speed" and "snappyness". From my hands on experience, all I can say is WOW. The difference between the iMac (2 GHz) and the dual 2.3 was HUGE. However, I noticed in the about menu that the machines were tweaked. The iMac only had 512MB, the dual 2.3 had 1.5GB, and the dual 2.7 had 2.5GB. There was even a noticable difference between the dual 2.3 and dual 2.7 which surprised me. This leads me to a question. How much of the "feel" difference and load times I noticed was connected to processors, and how much was connected to RAM quantity? It was a very unfair comparison since not all the machines were running on 512. If I bought an iMac 2GHz and pumped it to 2GB, would it have the snappyness I am looking for on a single 2GHz?

[AU_student_iceBook]

In a quick word...RAM helps a lot but the snapiness is really from dual cpu's.

The dual's do a great job balancing any kind of load.

[driven]

My Dual 2 is still so much faster than I can ever imagine. I'm not sure what will eventually drive me to a new machine .... software will have to get MUCH more demanding.

[alex_kac]

I went from a Dual 2G to a single 2G iMac - with more RAM on the single 2G. Frankly, I find the single as fast as my Dual 2G was in MOST cases, with exceptions when I'm really using the computer hard (encoding DVD + Photoshop tasks + all the other stuff running). My main reason to move to a single iMac instead of my PMac was for space, quietness, and heat...in my office it got a bit more important.