Gizmodo wrote an interested blog post recently about the powerful new 2.8GHz Quad-Core iMac with the Intel i7 processor. They argue that in terms of raw horsepower and bang for buck, that it’s “straight stupid” to sink your $$$ into a 4-core Mac Pro tower. From an editors POV, Scott Simmons has written a fantastic counterpoint to that argument, discussing the many reasons why a Mac Pro is still a viable option for editors, and why an iMac is limiting.

They are both correct, of course. The new iMac is spanking Macs across the board in benchmark performance numbers, and if you simply need some horsepower on the cheap (+ a nice 27″ display), it’s a great option starting at around $2200 (buy here at B&H and support FreshDV). But many editors need the pro monitoring and expansion options of a Mac Pro, as Scott argues. So I guess it comes down to the question “what do YOU need?”

To muddy the waters even further, the current Mac rumor de jour is that a monster 12-core Mac Pro is due in early 2010, offering 12 physical and 24 logical cores to Snow Leopard’s multi-core Grand Central Dispatch tech. Mmm, tasty tasty cores…