Mac mini with a 24" display or a new iMac 24"?

Hi,
Since Apple releases the new iMac, and at the same time, updated the mini, I'm wandering where my heart should go.
I like the iMac, a little bit more powerful, better video card and not sharing memory with main memory, better BTO (bigger HD, faster HD too, memory, etc) iSight and mike, and so on so on. I have not seen one yet, but I'm still puzzled by the glossy screen. Many article I read said that it is a like or not based on personal taste and environment you put it in. I bought a Sony display 2-3 years ago, which I returned, because of the glossy screen. The images were very clean and very fun too work on, but I could not endure to see my face in the screen continuously. That's what I'm afraid about the new iMac.
So far so good, I read the article on http://www.macworld.com that compare the new mini C2D with an iMac, and while it is less performant it is still a good performer. Only a few points below the iMac. So...
Choosing a mini with a 24" of my choice with the same resolution as the iMac will cost me around the same (maybe a few hundred $ less), but I'll have a smaller/slower HD and not a dedicated video card. I'm wandering if the larger screen resolution will affect the mini performance? Sure, for the HD space, I can use an external HD on firewire. Maybe even boot from it and use the internal and slower disk for backups (like TimeMachine for instance).
I do not play game, or very occasionally, I'm doing iLife/iWork stuff, and Internet surfing. I want the larger screen, as I like to have spaces to play with, but I'm afraid the mini will suffer the higher resolution.
In the long run, the display will stay mine, when I ever decide to change my computer, while buying the iMac mean I'll drop the display and buy a new one. There's pros and cons to all of this...
So I'd like to heard from people having the new (or even older) mini to let me your impression of what you feel about this.
Thanks in advance.

If you are not able to actually examine an iMac carefully before you buy, the risk that the glossy screen may not suit you is a real issue which has to be considered. Imagine that you bought one and found it to have the same problem as the Sony display you tried and had to return?
Ultimately, the actual performance of the system is remarkably unimportant in most situations. The majority of users and uses would not show markedly different operability between a brand new Mac Pro and older G5, even though in terms of specification and benchmarking, the two are like chalk and cheese. The fact is that while the Mac Pro would be greatly faster, OS and software, not to mention the user him or herself, are all quite inefficient.
What that means is that the difference in performance between the iMac and the mini is certainly measurable, and in use would show itself in some ways (the iMac would run smoother for example) but without the ability to sit them side by side, as a user you'd really never know. Bearing in mind that the new minis are way faster than the old G5s which were themselves screamingly fast when they were in production (and still are), it's hard to imagine that a mini would fail to impress.
And since the actual performance of the system isn't all that crucial, what IS vital is to ensure that the system you buy is usable. The devices that matter most in that respect are the bits you, as the user, interface with. Keyboards and mice are reasonably cheap and easy to change, but displays are not when they are fixed and integral to the system.
The downside of the mini is twofold: Firstly that the internal drive is 5400rpm, thus relatively slow. In reality this really doesn't matter all that much, particularly not if you go for 2Gb RAM. It's been criticized for it's speed, but on the other hand, it's the same as the best laptops, users of which don't seem to have problems with the drive speed. It can be got around of course with a fast external drive, used to boot the system.
Secondly, the integrated graphics - not because that's really limiting in any absolute sense (except for gamers) but because as time goes by, more and more of the top-end software is likely to exclude systems with integrated graphics from their minimum specification list. There aren't many like that yet, and it's hardly likely to be a widespread problem, but it does mean you have to consider what software you want to run as part of the equation.
If I were in your situation, I'd not consider spending money until I had looked at the iMac and given myself some time to work with one. The fact it has a glossy screen doesn't mean it WILL have the same problem as the Sony display had, and slight changes in the ergonomics of your desk with the iMac on it rather than the system with the Sony display previously may mean that even if it did prove reflective, it may be far less of a problem (or more of course). I would look to buy the best system with the best specification that fit within my budget (after all, it has to meet your needs for some time, even as they change), thus if the iMac screen was good, that would be the system I'd go for. If there were any sense that the reflective properties of the screen were going to be a problem, I'd dismiss it as an option immediately, and focus on either the lowest cost Mac Pro if one of those were within the budget, and if not, a Mac mini with bumped up RAM and your choice of screen.

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