After much debate and consideration, mainly from what I read on here, and a couple of friends in the business, I just ordered the new IMAC with the I 7 quad core, 8gb and 1TB drive.

I'm doing more photography now than video (hopefully that changes this year), we'll see how it works out. I brought some of my EX1 files to the local Mac store and loaded them on an IMAC with the I 5 processor and they did fine. I'm pretty stoked about the whole deal.

I really wanted the Mac pro but buy the time I priced it out, I could have bought a really nice used car.

The only thing I'm not going to like is that I cannot use the display on the IMAC with my 17" MB Pro, apparently, you can't go from DVI to Mini Display Port into the thing. Oh, well, I've already got a 24" Dell that I can still use with the MB Pro. I'll report back in a couple of weeks when I get it all hooked up.

Peace

Congrats on the new purchase.... I got the same thing about a month ago and it works great!

You might be surprised even more... I think the new iMacs can do exactly what you want... you can use them as a secondary display for a MBP....

From Apple's iMac webpage: Apple - iMac - Features of Apple?s all-in-one desktop computer. (http://www.apple.com/imac/features.html)

Mini DisplayPort.

The Mini DisplayPort lets you connect an external display, including the Apple LED Cinema Display, to your iMac. On the 27-inch iMac, the same port offers input, too. So you can connect any external source that has DisplayPort output — including a MacBook or MacBook Pro — and use your iMac as a display.

The Mini DisplayPort lets you connect an external display, including the Apple LED Cinema Display, to your iMac. On the 27-inch iMac, the same port offers input, too. So you can connect any external source that has DisplayPort output — including a MacBook or MacBook Pro — and use your iMac as a display.The older 17" MBP has a DVI socket not a Mini DisplayPort. You can get an adaptor for DisplayPort->DVI from Apple. 3rd-party adaptors for DVI->DisplayPort have only recently come onto the market so I have no idea how good they are but Geffen do have a reputation for good quality products Gefen Inc. - DVI to Mini DisplayPort Converter (http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp?prod_id=8913)

Mine arrives tomorrow, very excited! It will replace a PowerMac G5 that I've had for 6 years. That thing has done a great job, but it's time.