I find myself at the apple store often, and replace laptop or desktop roughly once per year. It can be a difficult choice to select which computer is right for you.

With the Mac Pro, you're sure to pay for plenty of raw processing power, but do you need it? Powerful Laptops are sexy but cost a premium.

I tax my computer more than most. I like to encode video, and run 2 or three virtual machines simultaneously. You might think you need a pro series computer for this, But I tell you-- save your money and get the iMac instead.

If you got a MacPro or MacBook Pro (for desktop) you'd likely need an external monitor as well. iMac's monitor is gorgeous and built right in.

They memory is cheap and easy to upgrade yourself, and will likely give you the performance increase you seek in most tasks.

With a couple of tools and a tutorial you can even replace the hard drive.
www.amfiteatar.org­/content­/view­/155­/57­/lang,en/

There are plenty of haters out there who would steer you away from Mac altogether, but if you know you want a Mac-- the iMac is a good choice.