Sadly, the GT120 card is a dog. (not that I can brag, since I have an even slower Radeon 2600PRO)
http://www.barefeats.com/imi7g2.html
Looks like the 9400M is nearly its equal.
http://www.barefeats.com/mbpp14.html
The base 21" is clearly as fast as, or maybe slightly faster than your 24" (since its a 3.06) and the ability to go to 8 gigs of ram for an additional $100 is just icing on the cake...
And there are many places to purchase macs and avoid tax.
Im in CA, I buy my macs from either Amazon or macconnection.
MC has the base 21" for $1050AR and the ATI 21" for $1350AR, no tax, free shipping.
This is highly to each to his own...but there are some glaring false statements in your reply..
#1 Processor different is a moot point. Clock speed difference of 100mhz on the same architecture is purely for a bragging right as it produces absolutely NO difference in everyday usage....but I guess you can "technically" say it's "faster" since it is "technically" 100mhz faster....
#2 I don't know how this ...barefeats.com...did their test...but there is no way in hell 9400M is even "nearly" as fast as 120GT (rebadged geforce 9500gt)..
here's a test from a "credible" source...
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-120M.14953.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9400M-G.11949.0.html
You should see that
120M in 3dmark06: 5285
9400M in 3dmark06: 1824
Now this doesn't necessarily equal to 3x real world usage of 120GT compared to 9400M...but to put it that 9400M is as nearly as fast as 120M is a blasphemy...
Here is ATI 4670 3dmark06 for REFERENCE: 6995
By your term...120M should be as "nearly" as fast as ATI 4670..which is NOT true..
ATI 4670 is about twice as fast as 120GT in the real world usage.
#3 I was fully aware of macconnection deal...as I tried to buy their $1570 imac 27" but they never came back in stock...
Macconnection indeed offers $1050 "AFTER REBATE" deal on 21" imac...but why the hell would you want to save mere $50 to gain...
-smaller HDD
-smaller LCD
-much SLOWER overall machine (100mhz processor difference is absolutely overwhelmed by the prowess of 120GT in games...)
I think the only REAL advantage of getting imac 21" is NOT the unit itself...but the fact that
+comes with magic mouse/wireless keyboard
....that's about it
If the feeling of newness that'll expire the moment you rip the box is that important to you..more power to you...
EDIT:
Here is some more evidence on 120GT performance vs 9400M..
http://www.apple.com/macpro/features/graphics.html
You can see that 120GT is about half as fast as 4870 according to apple...so are you saying 4870 is ONLY twice as fast as 9400M since 9400M is on par with 120GT??.......not a chance....