Student loans just came through. Time to upgrade?

So im enrolled in the western academy of photography for the 09 semester, and my government student loans just came in. Up to this point i have been making due with a canon 40D and a 13" macbook. My new camera for school will be a Canon 5D mkII. Originally i was looking at upgrading to a macbook pro ( the new, late 08 model) but after playing with a 24" imac 2.8ghz with 4 gigs of ram I am split between the 2.

I loaded some full size test pictures from DP review and viewed them on both computers side by side. So far im leaning to the imac. I could make due with the macbook for minor editing and sorting.....

Would a decked out 2.8ghz MacBook Pro be faster than a decked out 3.06ghz iMac?

wow, things have changed.. I went through college with a Fm2 well, and a rollei and a 4x5.. but those weren't really needed

IMO if you already have portability, then go ahead with the iMac. You'll love the big screen, and no worries about cables and mini dvi to dvi thingies and all sort of stuff.

You can use you macbook for moving around, you really dont need that much power.

My bro who is a professional photographer does he's work on a 12" G4 powerbook and a G5 iMac, the one with ambient light sensor (no isight), just to show how really having the latest more powerfull stuff isnt really all that necessary.

Student Loans just makes me cry sometimes. Anyways it's your money will kind of so you can spend it however you want.

The great thing about being on the school athletics team is that when we need supplies and books for our classes the school pays for it. We have to spend our own money and then give them some of kind of proof that we need it for class and we get our money back.