iMac vs PowerMac

[WannaMac]

My brand new P4 Windoze machine has finally pushed me over the edge. It was fine for basic stuff like photo's but now I'm getting into digital video and I'm spending most of my time trying to piece together and troubleshoot software and waiting for reboots after the software inevitably crashes my system... I don't even want to talk about the money and time I've spent trying to keep viruses and spyware out.... Sitting on some DV forums trying to figure out problems, people kept telling me to buy a mac.... So here I am...

I am a hobby photographer and now videographer and most of what I do is just for my family or occasionally for a church function, etc... I'm not a power user by any means.... I'm also not the kind of guy that likes to rip off the cover and start replacing stuff. Don't have time for that. I want to be able to sit down and have the thing just work.

I'm heavily leaning towards the new 20" iMac with 1G of ram and a 250G HD and just want some assurances that it'll do what I want for a while without needing an upgrade anytime soon. Do I need to consider a PowerMac? The cpu cost and the added cost of the monitor scares me off and I'm not sure it buys me that much more unless I were to go to the dual 1.8....

While I'm at it... Is .mac worth the cost? Seems like it just from what I've read....

What about Applecare?

Any other must have's that I should add on when I order?

Thanks!

Wanna:mac:

 

[witeshark]

The iMac you mentioned would do just fine

 

[Murlyn]

You just named the exact same setup that I just purchased.. havent received it yet though.. not until the 19th of November But from my experience with Macs.. oh man you're going to love it I had my first kernal panic (Mac's blue screen of death) this last week and I have had my computer for almost 4 years now.. so one crash in all that time.. not bad in my opinion

I purchased Apple Care though and I think it's a really good idea especially when you purchase anything with a LCD monitor since they are expensive to replace.. and Apple seems to be having problems with them. Anyways I think you'll love it, especially after everything you've gone through already.

 

[VastDeathmaster]

I've used a 600mhz iBook for what sounds like the same things you are doing. And it has worked fine. Since you are going for the new iMac, then I think everything will work even better.