Pricing and Power

I'm thinking of switching. I was going to upgrade to Windows 7 but I'm finding out some of my programs won't work properly on Windows 7. So it seems like a good time to switch. I just have a question or two.

I will be doing some video editing and I'd like to know how the iMac's stack up. Will I need to spend $2000 on an iMac Quad Core? Or will I be able to get a Core 2 Duo and still get good video editing / rendering speeds?

I can get a PC Quad Core for $600 so the pricing is one of the things preventing me from being completely into the idea of switching.

Depending on the software you want to use, iMovie and Final Cut will work on most modern Mac's, regardless of the Intel hardware inside.