tibbetts's Journal: Six of one, half a dozen of the other

On February 6th, iain, my beloved PowerMac 7600, officially turns 5. Granted, I haven't used it much since June of 2001, when my wife moved out to Virginia with me and we began sharing her iMac. But it's high time to find a replacement, and that's where the trouble begins.

I'm a developer; I've got needs.

Apple spoiled its users (and as Steve Jobs probably thinks, had an asinine business plan), starting with the second generation of PowerMacs, by putting its processors on daughtercards and spawning extensive upgrade capabilities. I snapped up this 7600 the first day I saw the better-equipped 7300s in the stores. Over the years, I upgraded the hard drive, processor, memory, and other assorted goodies. It was a dream machine.

No developer worth his salt would consider himself anything less than a Power User, right? Even if he only uses his home machine to surf, update Quicken, write letters in Word, and play the occasional game of Tetris or Caesar? (C'mon, cut me some slack here!) Now that the options are between a pretty damn practical LCD iMac or a much-more-expensive tower + monitor, which way should I go?

The iMac Option

Pros:

• Cheep.
• Small footprint. (1643"^2 desk, ~80"^2 base)
• More than adequate speed.
• More than adequate peripheral options.
• DVD burner.
• Amazing looks.

Cons:

• Practically no upgradability.
• Max. 1024 x 800 resolution.
• No L3 cache (but I don't have an L2 cache in my 7600, either)
• Not a Power User's machine.

The PowerMac Option

Pros:

• Raw, unparalleled power.
• Awesome expandability.
• Power User's machine.

Cons:

• Not cheep.
• Ugly, tired tower design.
• Big, loud fan.
• Soon to be replaced by something radically better (I hope)

Conclusion

I can't decide!