An apple a day....

I have been dying for a Mac laptop or desktop for quite some time now and had actually decided that I would wait a while to buy one since we just had the "laptop disaster of October 2007" and had to replace my old HP laptop with a new and improved HP laptop. Well....David really thinks I need a Mac for all of my design work especially since I have been getting so busy these days and who am I to argue his genius reasoning, right?!?!?! So, I plan on purchasing a brand new Mac here in the next couple of months and was wanting some help in narrowing down my selection.

First off, laptop or desktop??? I really can't decide because there are reasons why I would prefer both. I am leaning towards desktop because we already have a laptop and I really LOVE the way the Mac desktops look. Plus, whenever we eventually move and I have a "real" office I think I would prefer to have a desktop setup with whatever fabulous desk and office furniture pieces I will have for my dream office. :) Although, I also like the portability factor of a laptop, but I cannot imagine that I would actually need to take it out of my office very often. In instances where I do need a laptop I could always use the trusty HP instead.

Secondly, what screen size and capabilities do I need??? Not sure, but I am in LOVE with the mama-jamma enormous 24" monitor, but David thinks it is just too much. Is it ever too much??? I need a lot of screen space for working on design projects and I think the 24" would be perfect....or maybe it is too gigantic, I don't know, I just cannot decide!

That's why I need some opinions. Right now, I am leaning towards the Mac desktop with a 20" screen so that it is quite a bit larger than what I currently have with my HP laptop, but not insanely huge (as David would put it) as the 24". I *think* the laptop is going to just be too small for me as the largest screen size they offer is 17". In any case, that is where I need help and I'm counting on you Mac owners for some good advice!!!

• 2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 2GB memory
• 250GB hard drive¹
• Double-layer SuperDrive
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 512MB

• 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 1GB memory
• 320GB hard drive¹
• 8x double-layer SuperDrive
• ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory

OR

• 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme
• 2GB memory
• 500GB hard drive¹
• 8x double-layer SuperDrive
• ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory

• 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 1GB memory
• 250GB hard drive¹
• 8x double-layer SuperDrive
• ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB memory

• 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 1GB memory
• 320GB hard drive¹
• 8x double-layer SuperDrive
• ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory