Ok iMac users, I'm considering my first iMac, and need your thoughts. The primary purpose of the computer will be casual home video editing (for putting pics of my kids to music, etc.) - nothing professional - iMovie will suit just fine without going to Final Cut (express or otherwise). Will the new $1200 entry-level iMac with an i3 processor, ATI Radeon 4670, and 8MB RAM be good for that? That is, would it render a video in a reasonable amount of time, and not freeze on me?
The $1500 upgraded iMac of course has a much better graphics card, the 5670, but would it really be worth the extra $300 for the somewhat "basic" and non-professional video editing I'm anticipating?
Another option would be a dell studio xps 8100 or 9000, with an i7 processor, ATI Radeon 5770, and 8GB RAM, for the same price ($1200). Would that offer significantly better performance for video editing (I would prefer the iMac if the dell might just spit out my movie 1 minute faster - i'm patient - but i might be motivated by say 5 or 10 minutes).
The $1500 upgraded iMac of course has a much better graphics card, the 5670, but would it really be worth the extra $300 for the somewhat "basic" and non-professional video editing I'm anticipating?
Another option would be a dell studio xps 8100 or 9000, with an i7 processor, ATI Radeon 5770, and 8GB RAM, for the same price ($1200). Would that offer significantly better performance for video editing (I would prefer the iMac if the dell might just spit out my movie 1 minute faster - i'm patient - but i might be motivated by say 5 or 10 minutes).