Art professor needs guidance

Hi,

I need to buy a new Mac, and need advice.

In general, my demands are simple: word processing, presentations, video ripping and editing, photos, web surfing. No gaming. I am, however, beginning an art history book project which will demand that I examine color images and video in detail on my screen and have both a word processing app and a web browser open next to the images.

As such, I'm guessing a 27" iMac would be the way to go, but am unsure how best to customize it. How can I ensure the most accurate and vivid image representation? Which CPU do you recommend? Am I better off getting a smaller Mac (iMac or or Powerbook) and simply adding a second monitor to it? If so, which one? Any help is much appreciated.

TIA

If you don't need the mobility then an iMac will work well for what you will be doing. If you are doing a lot of video editing then I would probably get the i7.

Thank you.

Will do.