Should I get the new 24in iMac for $1700 or the older...

model 24in for $1400 from MacMall?

The older one is a good price, but it only goes to 3 gigs as opposed to 4 and the bus speed is a little less and the hard drive a little smaller and little less video RAM. Would I notice the difference?

With a 3 gig max for RAM, can you have one 1 gig RAM card and one 2 gig RAM card?
I thought they had to be mirrored? If so... do they make RAM cards of 1.5 gigs?

$300 is a nice amount to save, but if the new one is that much better...

What do you guys think?

We have 1 of each model. RAM is not the issue and yes to the 1x1 plus 1x2 for 3 gb.

I want the matt from the old screen and the video card from the new. Both are great - what are you planning to do is the better question. Both are running Parallels both are a good choice.

Really just Photoshop... but I want to learn video editing.

I just picked up the 24inch mac and if you want to run photoshop then having 4gigs of RAM is nice, but if not then you really dont need it imo.

Easy answer - buy the newest Aluminum version. More ram and faster video card are the reason I picked this one also. My wife has the other. We are in graphic design and I have 3 gig in my Aluminum and cannot choke it. Now if you are looking to do colour editing that is another issue entirely as the monitors look good but are not he best for colour correcting. I have a DVI to DVI second monitor for hi res and you can add a better colour accurate monitor this way.