Very Happy Switcher w/ post-purchase dissonance

First of all, I just want to thank everybody on the forums here for being so on top of their game in every aspect of Apple Inc. Not two months ago, I entered the market for a new computer, and was fully expecting to buy another Dell with windows vista. But after seeing the brand new iMacs in person, and utilizing education discounts and the $199 iPod rebate, and a printer rebate that proved to be pretty helpful, I can now say I've quite happily made the switch!

I paid $1099 for the
20" 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
1 GB Memory
250 GB HDD
ATI Radeon HD2400 XT 128 MB video Card

and paid $50 for a
30 GB Black iPod Video 5G

and paid $0 for a
HP Photosmart C4280 All-in-one printer

and $119 for 3 year applecare, which comes to $1,268.. which was right in line with where my budget was for this particular purchase.

I'm pretty big into video editing and used Sony Vegas 7.0 on my PC, but am not sure if it's supported by Mac OS X. I'm wondering if I should have purchased Final Cut Express for $149 (from $300) while i was there. Furthermore, would 256MB video card really have made that big a difference in intermediate video editing projects?

I will be installing some more RAM manually, and am not sure whether to get 1 or 2 additional GB's to possibly support Boot Camp so that I can run my Sony Vegas editing program.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE MY MAC to death and am pretty much enamored with Apple, especially for their attention to detail, but I'm experiencing some mild post-purchase dissonance, but mainly want to make my iMac experience as worthwhile as possible. And last but not least, I wanted to ask the experts' opinion!

Thank you,
-Jack.

well why dont you get bootcamp so you can run Vegas? best of both world eh?
i made the switch a few weeks ago, I even scratched my head as to getting another computer desk for my new iMAC but i have come to the conculsion that THIS iMAC will take over the "old" PC desk and the PC can be put on holiday for a "long" time. Once you have MAC you dont look back!

How much does bootcamp cost? Or is it free? And also, is there any way to transfer licenses for Windows XP on my old PC to my Mac, or would I have to purchase a new copy of XP?

bootcamp is free. Download Here.

And you could transfer your xp license using a flash stick or something. Read the Tutorial Here.

but that might not work, you could use the serial again, it should work that way.

You can use your xp license under boot camp if you bought the copy of xp you will be using, simply put in the serial number when installing and reactivate it from windows activation center. You must remove the old copy from your old machine. If the copy of xp came preinstalled on the machine then it is an OEM copy and can not be transfered to your mac. There is nothing to prevent you from doing this but it violates Microsofts EULA and if you have to call to have it activated Microsoft may deny it. As for the RAM question, I would go for the most memory you can afford(4GB max), newegg.com has great prices, this way you don't have to upgrade again down the line. Make sure you get high quality ram from a major manufacturer. While you are at newegg.com to get the ram I would also look at getting a bigger hardrive. Last time I looked 500GB was $100.00. The video card should be fine for what you have in mind, as far as I know the processor and ram have more of an effect on video editing than the video card. By the way 32bit XP/VISTA will only recognize a maximum of 2GB of ram on a Mac under boot camp. You will need the 64bit copy of the OS to recognize more than 2GB of ram. You can download the 64bit copy of XP for free from Microsft, just google it, and Microsoft will email you a serial number for a 1-year free trial. Good luck with your transition to Mac and welcome to the forums.

wow. $119 for the APP? I just checked it out and for us in Canada it's $199. Yikes. With the dollar exchange, I don't feel it should be more than $125. An extra $75 just for living in another country? Thanks for pointing that out.

Why not get FinalCut? Are you not a student anymore?

I am currently a student but I thought I would have had to have purchased it on the same receipt as my iMac, and I didn't have that big of a budget at the time.. but looking into it just now, they offer the 50% discount at any time.. sweet!!

That being said, should I get Final Cut Express or Pro? Is there a major (or minor) difference between the two?