The iMac is Apple's showpiece computer. It combines the CPU and monitor in a single unit with an extremely attractive, minimalist design. It's the kind of computer you'd expect to find on the desktop of a high-powered Hollywood agent. (As a matter of fact, the iMac is on the desktop of a high-powered Hollywood agent: Ari Gold, a character on the HBO TV show, Entourage..)

	(click image for larger view) The iMac combines the CPU and monitor in a single unit with an extremely attractive design. view the image gallery

The iMac comes with a 20- or 24-inch display, and built-in wireless networking. Inside, the system has one or two Intel Core 2 processors running up to 2.8 GHz, and up to 1 Tbyte of storage. There's a built-in camera (the iSight) for video recording, still photographs, and video chat. Support for video chat is built into the iChat software that's bundled with all Macs.

It also comes with a nifty little remote-control, about the size of an iPod Shuffle, which, in conjunction with desktop software called Front Row, turns your iMac into a home theater. You can show movies, listen to MP3s or podcasts, and watch video, sitting back at a distance and using the remote to control the action. The remote sticks to the side of the case using a weak magnet, the same kind of magnet you use to stick your kids' artwork to the refrigerator.

In short, iMac is a good, solid computer with a starting price of $1,199, almost $1,300 less than the low-end Mac Pro. I have one, and I've been reasonably satisfied with it. Nonetheless, I'm not in love with it. I just don't care for its lack of flexibility.

First, the combined display and CPU means that you can't upgrade the display without buying a whole new computer. If your display goes kaput, you have to bring the whole thing in to the shop to get it repaired.

And if you want a high-end gaming or multimedia workhorse, the iMac isn't for you, either. The high-end iMac has a 24-inch LCD, 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme, 4 Gbytes RAM, 1 Tbyte of storage, and an ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256 Mbytes of memory, priced at $4,085. That's a pretty powerful machine, but it's a cripple compared with the high-end Mac Pro with dual 30-inch displays, 16 Gbytes of memory, dual, 3.0 GHz quad core Intel processors, and 1.5 Tbyte of storage for $17,000.

Moreover, the iMac doesn't even look that great once you have it home for a while. Sure, it looks great in the showroom. But once you've got it home, you'll notice that it's a big hunk of ugly plastic, metal, and glass. And when you've got it on your desk a while, it'll start accumulating detritus, most of it attached by unsightly cables: Keyboard, mouse, broadband connection, etc.

Wait until you've put a few Post-its on the front of your iMac and dropped your Egg McMuffin on the keyboard a couple of times. Pretty soon, your beautiful, stylish iMac looks like something that was soldered together by a drunk genius out of parts found at the junkyard.

You're better off just accepting the fact that computers are, by nature, kind of homely. Get yourself a Mac Pro, and enjoy the greater scalability and flexibility provided over the iMac .

The Mac Pro is the one you want if power and flexibility are more important to you than having something that enhances the feng shui of your office. It uses the traditional PC design, separating the CPU case and monitor, rather than the fancy-shmancy all-in-one design of the iMac.

	(click image for larger view) The Mac Pro is the one you want if power and flexibility are more important to you than style. view the image gallery

The Mac Pro doesn't have a lot of surprises, but it's a very scalable machine. It uses two dual-core or quad-core processors (compared with the iMac's single dual-core processor), and up to 16 Gbytes of memory.

You have your choice of dual dual-core or quad-core processors, up to four graphics cards, up to eight (!) displays, one or two independent 10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet (RJ-45) interfaces with support for jumbo frames, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (of course), up to three terabytes of internal storage in four hard drives, optional RAID card for an external storage array, and up to two SuperDrives that read and write CDs and DVDs. All for a starting price of $2,488.

Excuse me, but I am overcome by gadget lust. I need to lie down now.