[mousepod]

As a dyed-in-the-wool mac geek (we have three working desktop macs and a laptop in the house, plus and an old PowerMac and Powerbook in the "throw away" pile in the basement), I'll toss in my .02:

If you're looking at an iMac vs a single-processor PM, then iMac is the way to go. If you wind up wanting to add more drives (optical or otherwise) and don't mind a bunch of firewire or usb cables, then no big deal.

If, on the other hand, you want to do any serious processor-intensive work like editing video or working with massive graphics files, then a dual-processor PM is the way to go. Another obvious plus to the PM is the ability swap drives and upgrade your RAM. You can also have multiple monitors work seamlessly with a PM.

As far as my recommendation on applecare, I say buy it. You can wait until 365 days after you purchase your computer to take the plunge, but it is absolutely worth it. Speaking as a long-time mac owner who almost never calls any tech support, the extended warranty on parts and labor just can't be beat. My iBook G3 developed a problem with the firewire port a couple of months after the first year. Due to some boneheaded design, the firewire port was soldered directly to the logic board and the only available repair was a complete replacement of the logic board. The replacement cost with AppleCare - $0. The out-of-warranty charge to fix it - $900. The cost of a new iBook (at the time) - $1200. Buy AppleCare.