Mac Newbie Need Advice On Video Editing!

Hey im a video editor from the UK and a real mac newbie. I have used macs for editing before but was never aware of what specs of the systems i was using were. Now im looking to get myself an imac for video and movie production. Im on a pretty tight budget so im looking at getting one of the lower spec 17" imacs but am wondering which im gunna have to buy to get decent speeds and qualities. Is 512mb ram going to be decent? or am i better off buying the 1gb? another option is buying the lower spec and then adding in memory bought separetly, whats the general opinion on that?

i would very much appriciate any advice people could give me, however small, i really am stuck with this one and have to watch my money very carefully.....but am desperate to get my mac!

thanks in advance!

I'd say at least 1 GB of memory. As far as the cpu speed, not much to worry about there, and then you'll want to consider HDD space. If you get a smaller drive internal, you will want a large external to save your movie projects and raw video on. They tend to take up a lot of space.

Brian

thanks for that, i wil be buying a bunch of new external drives for that sort of thing trying to keep the internal as clear as possible. so again as a mac newbie what is the better option for me to take...buying the 1gb 17" or the 512mb 17" and then add extra memory seperately? which might work out cheaper (again with the budget!! im so cheap!)? sorry for the persistant lack of knowledge guys

I just bought mine from the refurb site, 24" with 1Gbyte already in it. I don't know how hard it is to crack the imac casing, sorry. BTW, if you haven't checked the refurb site, you should. The prices are generally a couple hundred cheaper, and they come with the same warranty and option for apple care as a "brand new" one.

Brian

ahh great advice, checked on the apple refurb pages and found a perfect system that im gunna buy. thanks very much for your help, finally gunna get me one of these macs