Originally posted by: Marvolo
I own nothing associated with a Mac.

I didn't actually mean Mac specific equipment and software. If you have a decent monitor you probably wouldn't want an iMac. If you have a heap of Windows software then you likely wouldn't want to buy a PowerMac just yet. If you have a USB or wireless keyboard, mouse and a monitor a Mac mini may be more appealing. That sort of thing.

Anyway, if you wan't to get into serious editing you have three options really. If you don't have a decent monitor and don't need too much power then an iMac would be a good option. If you want a portable solution then a MacBook Pro is comparable spec-wise, but obviously a laptop. Probably max out the RAM on both those options (just don't buy it through Apple, markup is quite high); Mac's handle RAM allocation quite well, but it is always nice to have a fair bit and it isn't that expensive an upgrade. If you wan't to get into heavy compositing and either have a couple of decent displays or are willing to buy them, etc, then you'll really want the 'power of a PowerMac'. The current model hasn't been upgraded to Intel processors yet so you can't dual boot Windows or virtualise it at a decent speed, but it is still the fastest Mac available. If you aren't in a rush then I recommend waiting a couple of months for the new Intel PowerMac/Mac Pro for even a bit more speed and compatability with future apps (when they stop making Universal Binaries in a couple of years).

By the way, if you wan't to get the Final Cut Suite then this year I recommend you hop on eBay and buy a cheap copy of Final Cut Pro 4 or 5 (Retail or Academic, doesn't matter) and then send it in for the crossgrade to the full Universal suite. Should end up being quite a lot cheaper than just buying it new, though you won't have physical manuals (they are all in searchable PDF form on the discs though).

See http://www.apple.com/universal/crossgrade/ for details on that deal.