iMac vs MacBook

[whougonacall]

Hi Peeps,

Would like to hear your thoughts on this, a friend is thinking of getting a Mac for music production. He had the initial idea of buying the new MacBook 13-Inch 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo but he has come across a someone selling an iMac G5 1.8GHz with 1.25 GB of RAM 80GB Hard Drive for Half the price of the MacBook 2.0Ghz (Not Mac Book Pro).

He wants to use M-Audio's Pro tools 7.1 which is compatible with Tiger which is the OS of the iMac. However, the MacBook is Intel so he will need to use Pro Tool's 7.1.1 which is the intel only.

Which is the better choice is the Lap Top light years ahed in speed leaving the iMac in Obscurity? Or is the iMac more stable and can offer alot more value for money and being that it comes with more Ram will be faster than the intel which is using 512mb of RAM?

Please let me know your thoughts

[Satcomer]

Well he needs to do some research on ProTools (for Intel) to see if all the plugins have gone universal yet. You most definitely will see an increase in render speeds on the Intel. Also the portability of a laptops (taking it to recording sessions, think mic splitter) is a huge advantage. One thing you have to remember is hard drive room when recording. External hard drives maybe needed.

[eric2006]

.. and without an external drive, the iMac will have faster write speeds, and support larger internal disks. The RAM will defiantly help out the iMac as well. For half the price of the Macbook, I'd say that it's a good option. Then again, there is the portability factor: how much is it worth to have a computer that is portable? The Macbook will be faster, but how much speed do you need? Just because Apple uses new processors now doesn't mean that the G5's are obsolete.

[whougonacall]

thanks alot guys for your thoughts