Macbook Pro 2.5Ghz vs 2.6Ghz, 15″ vs 17″ vs iMac 24″ 3.06Ghz

I’ve been a PC user since the beginning of time. That being said, this past year, with the release of Windows Vista and the new Macbook Pro with the Intel penryn processors I find myself torn between PC and MAC. In March I purchased a Sony Vaio from a friend of mine at a fantastic price. Now, before you think to yourself, “This guy is pretty lame for buying a Vaio,” believe me when I say, I bought it a a ridiculous discount.

The Vaio has 4Gb DDR2 RAM, 2.2Ghz Intel Duo Core, 2 x 150Gb Hard drives, 17″ high-res monitor and HDMI/Blu-Ray. According to the specs, this system is a MONSTER. However, the reality of the situation is, Vista is a nightmare, SONY packs so much bloatware onto the system that it’s always crashing due to proprietary VAIO software and overall, the performance using Adobe CS3 and gaming is horrible.

My dual core AMD FX-60 running vista blows this thing out of the water in my opinion and that shouldn’t be the case.

I’m fed up and I’ve decided, after some serious deliberation, that I am going to buy a MAC. Why? I hate Apple and everything it stands for! But, despite my deep sense of loathing for the fruit, it seems to be true that even Vista runs better on a MAC.

This leads me to a difficult decision. Do I buy the Macbook Pro 15″ or 17″ ? Do I spend the extra $300 to upgrade from a 2.5Ghz processor to a 2.6Ghz? Or, do I make the smart decision for the money and buy the iMac 24″ with the 3 GHz processor - which is actually a cross in architecture between the Extreme 9100 and a Nehalem, intel’s unreleased chip.

Macbook Pro 17″ w/2.6GHz $ 3681.40

Macbook Pro 17″ w/ 2.5Ghz $ 3418.25

Macbook Pro 15″ w/2.6Ghz $ 3232.93

iMAC 24″ w/3.06GHz $ 2836.30

What do I do!?