Purchasing first Mac (iMac or mini), please help...

[devin_c_co]

Hi everyone. New member here and I'm looking at buying my first Mac. I'm pretty certain that I'm going to get an iMac, but still tossing around the idea of a mini. Anyway, I'm trying to decide which model of iMac or mini to get. Since it is my first Mac I'll be learning as I go. My main use for the machine will be typical home/office stuff, picture editing with Photoshop Elements, and video editing with iMovie or something similar, & a couple of virtual machines using parallels or vmware. I won't be doing any gaming on the machine. I also wanted to keep the price somewhat reasonable. So my choices are...

• Previous Generation (2008) 24" iMac, Either new from B&H or if that becomes unavailable then a refurb from the Apple store. Cost is $1199. I'll upgrade to 4GB of RAM when I get it.
• Current generation refrubed 24" iMac with the GT 120 video card for $1549.
• Or entry level current generation mini for $599 and upgrade to 4GB RAM after I get it. Possibly upgrade the HDD to a 329=0GB 7200RPM or 500Gb 5400RPM drive.

I'm leaning towards previous generation iMac because it seems to be a great value. But it's not using the newer video card, and the RAM expansion is limited to 4GB. I don't know if that will really be an issue since this will be my first Mac.

I've also heard that the performance of the new mini is pretty impressive. Does anyone know how it compares with the previous generation iMac? I'd still need to buy a keyboard, mouse and monitor. This combo would still come in cheaper than the previous generation iMac, but only by about $100.

The only reason I'm, considering the current version of iMac is because it's using the "newer" technology and is OpenCL compatible. But for the things I would be doing, I'm not sure if I'd really see the performance increase of OpenCL when Snow Leopard is released. Also, the ability to go to 8GB of RAM (when RAM prices drop) is attractive as well.

So any advice that people can give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks to everyone.

[Turboladdade]

From your listed options, definitely go with the current iMac.

a couple of virtual machines using parallels or vmware.

Forget Parallels and VMware, VirtualBox is the virtualization software of choice these days.

I'm leaning towards previous generation iMac because it seems to be a great value. But it's not using the newer video card, and the RAM expansion is limited to 4GB. I don't know if that will really be an issue since this will be my first Mac.

The more RAM the merrier. The video card, not so much an issue based on what you described your intended uses are, but that has a good chance of changing as the years go by.

Does anyone know how it compares with the previous generation iMac?

Not even close.

But for the things I would be doing, I'm not sure if I'd really see the performance increase of OpenCL when Snow Leopard is released. Also, the ability to go to 8GB of RAM (when RAM prices drop) is attractive as well.

It depends on if you want to replace this computer in 4 or 5 years rather than 6, 7 or even 8 years. The highest end Macs will give you the longest productive life of not only Macs but pretty much all personal computers.