Which Mac to buy ?

Here are my choices :

1. 17 Inch iMac Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz
2. MacBook Core duo 2.0 Ghz

Of course the new iMacs are a lot faster than even the most powerful powermacs. However I lose mobility if I went with the iMac. I don't have the luxury of buying both desktop and a laptop. So am in a dilemna . All the digital photographers out here on NPN, what would you choose - an iMac with screaming power over a macbook with a reasonable power. Whats more important - mobility or processing power ? I know its a personal choice but am just trying to get some opinions. My budget is around 1200$.

thanks,
pradeep

I would only buy a notebook if mobility was critical, especially given your budget.

The workstation screen size is going to be much easier on your eyes. Notebook displays and I/O devices are a real pain compared to full-sized equipment. I have an iMac 20 and a 15" Macbook Pro, and unless I'm traveling the Macbook never gets used.

If you are not planning to do long tours where you would need mobility I would opt for the iMac. You will have a better screen and storage. You will need an additional hard drive as backup for your photos if you do a lot of photography no matter which way you go. Of course, you could get an additional LCD for use at home if you get the MacBook. If your hands are large you may find that the iMac keyboard is a bit more user-friendly. I find that the "mouse" on the portable can be annoying to use so I sometimes carry along a regular mouse to hook up onto my portable (and have taken along the regular keyboard when I was travelling for a couple of months).

I would do the Mac Book and a large add on display if you want mobility. My 6 year old Ti550 is on it's last legs. I planned on a new Mac Pro this year, but realized I need to replace my Ti first, so I'm looking at the Mac Book Pro. I run the Ti with a 20" Mitsubishi CRT monitor and 3 extrenal drives.

As I can interpret your circumstances, I'd follow the route Rob recommends. The large monitor resolves our biggest issue with laptops for image processing, while the laptop is mandatory if you also need mobility. In our circumstance, increased volume told us when it was time to switch to desktop units in lieu of laptops for speed, but the laptops still have utility.

If you go a MacBook and not the MacBook Pro the performance over the iMac will be slower, for starter the HD is Serial ATA at 5400RPM, the iMac is 7200RPM, that is a noticable difference in HD performance. The MacBook has less L2 cache as well. That's just two things that will make the iMac faster. So between the two you will notice a difference in performance, If that doesn't bother you the personally I would go the laptop if you can afford to buy at least the 20inch screen with it.

Thanks Everyone.

Keith, How does a macbook perform against the iMac. Thats exactly what I wanted to test ? Aperture was the only photo processing product available for this test at the apple store. However the Apple folks said they could not install aperture on the macbook ( which was shocking ) and so I had to make a comparison with the macbook pro. As you mentioned there is a considerable difference in speeds, the new core 2 Duo processors are definitely faster and there is a visible difference.
That bieng said, am trying to workout the best compromise. Looking at all comments, am leaning towards the iMac.