What machine do I need?

Situation:

-I have no home computer, just an old ibook G4. Just graduated and starting job as a designer (motion graphics).

-I have about $3,000 to spend on a new machine. I'll want to get one this summer. Won't be able to save much more than that.

-Will be primarily running Adobe After Effects + Illustrator and Photoshop. No gaming, no 3D (for a while).

-Is an iMac sufficient for this? Will 3k buy me a decent iMac with decent RAM & Processor for what I will be doing? Will I need to save up more?

Thanks in advance.

If you are doing anything with graphics definitely go for the 24" iMac. It will be plenty sufficient for what you have listed, and easily within your price range + you can get lots of extra software if you wanted. I'd suggest newegg.com or crucial.com and upgrade to 4gb of ram if you wanted to for ~$100. The most expensive iMac is just above 2K http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP...ome/shop_mac/family/imac&sf=wHF2F2PHCCCX72KDY

You're set.

Thanks a lot! I'll go for the 24" imac now and look at those sites for the RAM upgrade. cheers

$3K will buy you a nicely tricked out 24" iMac. At 3.06 GHz, the current models have all the umphh you need for what you are planning to do. Go for it. You will be happy!

Go for the 24" iMac with the 512 MB graphics card. Then add more RAM yourself... this could save ~$300.