[iMac] All-in-One Disadvantages?

[Joe Sporleder]

How much of a concern is it for folks if one the new flat screen  
iMacs, if one component dies, you are dead in the water? Let's say  
one buys the new 24" iMac. 3 years down the road, lets say after  
AppleCare expires, the logic board dies. That 24" screen is awful  
nice (and expensive) to just throw away. One should have a choice to  
either replace the logic board and/or use that 24" screen as an  
external screen on another computer. Is there a way to do that now?

As a small newspaper publishing company, budget is important and it  
is nice to get every dollar of worth out of computer technology as  
possible. The Mac mini is OK as a basic workstation, but video can be  
sluggish if too much is going on at the same time (even with memory  
maxed), which I attribute to the integrated graphics shared memory  
setup.

Its kind of hard to ignore the horsepower of the newly released  
iMacs, and it is nice that an extra screen in extended desktop mode  
can be added. I hear shouts for a "headless" iMac that lets you  
choose your own monitors (of course, if its headless, it really  
wouldn't be an iMac anymore). Maybe if the Mac mini had performance  
specs closer to the iMac, maybe it could fill that void for folks  
that want the horsepower of an iMac, but the ability to choose your  
own screen. I've looked at the specs on the MacPro, and it is  
overkill in performance and price for our needs. It wouldn't make a  
significant increase in productivity for the price. Of the 6 or so  
production apps we use, only a couple are Universal.

Joe