Which mac is right for me

I'm still a student in high school and after that I will be going off to a trade school to study in guitar lutherie. I should be starting to work very soon once this semester is over (There is a class that I have to put my full focus on.) But I'm wondering which mac would be right for me and not be to expensive, I do some light gaming nothing to hardcore spec's requirements. And desktop or laptop doesn't both me either way. I want the mac to be able to run two programs like photoshop and illustrator without much or any lag at all I might also need a program that is or similar to autodesk inventor, so I will be able to draw up a 3d image what the finally finished guitar would look like.

Let me say thank you ahead of time,

gagnerants

what kind of projects/programs are you going to be working on? what is your budget and how much is move-ability important to you?

photoshop and illustrator for sure 100%, what I'm aiming for is something that I can draw up both 2d and 3d examples of what the guitar would look like then a program where I can drawn it up as a blueprint type thing. Move-ability is not a problem because it will be living on a desktop it's whole life, and for budget under 1,700.

ps don't include the price of the software

Since portability isn't an issue, stick with an iMac. You'd probably appreciate the 24 inchers most since you are doing graphic design, but the base price on those already breaks your budget. You can get the 20" iMac with the 2.4GHz cpu and upgrade to 2 gigs of RAM for $1649.

You may want to budget for a different mouse also... Apple's Mighty Mouse is not a mouse many people easily get used to. A lot of people outright hate it (myself included). I keep the wired one around in case I'm in a pinch if my Logitech rechargeable one runs out of juice on me.

Thank you all, I'll be going with what lifeisabeach said and I'll probaly add the applecare onto just incase something happens to it

Yes, a sound decision. The Apple Care plan is a must have for any all-in one system (mini, macbook, macbook pro, imac) - too many things can go wrong with just one part failing.