[LTParis]

I have been wrangling over what to buy for my next machine, and for the first time I'll be switching over to a Mac for home/personal biz use (for 1.5 years I had a 733 G4 Quicksilver for work use).

So I have been struggling first with mobile v. desktop, and then if I went desktop, which way to go with that (iMac G5 20", mini mac + 20", Dual 1.8 or 2.0). My sweet spot in my budget is $2500 so if I go the way of the PM, it would be sans monitor for now (I have a craptacular 19" CRT that will be holding the weight till I can afford the 20" on top of the PM).

So my question I pose to you all is which PM to get? Is the 1.8 Dual + 1GB a better deal, 1.8 Dual + @GB, 2.0 Dual + 1GB?

[jamil5454]

What are you going to be using it for?

[LTParis]

The workhorse side of things would be Go Live, Photoshop, Illustrator work, and now that I am going to the Mac side of things I may get into some iDVD or FCP and Garage Band.

I am not an extreme user, but I am a heavy power user (always multi-taksing).

[jamil5454]

In that case, I would recommend a dual 1.8 with 2gb of RAM and a 9600XT. Then, save up for a better monitor and buy that later. I've found myself most productive at resolutions of 1280x1024 or higher, so if your monitor can do that then a new Cinema Display won't be as important. My craptastic 17" monitor only does 1024x768, so most of the time I just use my iBook's LCD. When I go to Uni I'll probably get a PowerBook, mac mini, and 20" display. $3000 is my budget, and I'm not going to be doing anything really heavy anyway.