How much power do I really need?

I was looking at getting a quad mac pro. But reviewing the prices of interfaces and mics and stuff, I'm thinking it might be worth it to save a few bucks and get a duo 2.8 Imac instead.

Am i going to regret this move when I don't have to power I need soon? I worry about hitting a celling too soon. I'm basically going to working with Reason, Live, reaktor, Max msp, plus recording live, mixing samples, hyper sampling synths and other instruments, you know, basically the same stuff everyone here is doing. Will a duo 2.8 be enough for me to run reaktor synths while recording off a mic? Is there anything else I should take into account before I make a buy?

Should I save more bucks and get a 2.4? 2.0? Could I do all this on a mac mini and have lots of extra money left over for other stuff? Or would that be stretching it? (I tend to think so...)

You can do a lot with a mini, a LOT. Marginally more with an iMac. Tons more with the quad / octos.

If you are goin to be usin a lot of software, you may wanna future proof yourself somewhat, so that the newer stuff that gets released still runs sweetly.

So my advice is always to get the fastest comp you can afford.

Grrr

Heheh, check out http://bigbluelounge.com/forums/index.php , there are heaps of threads in the Hardware section where people have 'audio benchmarked' various models (eg number of plugs etc).