Am getting ready to install Premiere Pro for the first time and wondered if anyone might have any insight into which hardware route I should take.

OPTION 1
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013)
2.6 GHz Intel Core i
58 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel Iris 1536 MB
24" external display

OPTION II
iMac (24-inch, early 2008)
2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256 MB

Obviously, the MacBook Pro is a faster performer. However, it's also my daily computer that has a bunch of other stuff on it and that I travel around with.

The iMac would be a dedicated to editing, would allow me to work on my laptop parallel, and wouldn't threaten any of my other files/programs. That said, it's a really old model w/o retina that just barely meets the OS requirements for PP.

Thoughts?

The hardware on your iMac is 5 years older than the MacBook Pro. That makes a huge difference. An iMac in and of itself is ideal for editing, with the larger screen size and desktop internals, but a five-year generation gap means you'll have a better experience editing on your MBP, especially if you attach a larger display to it.

Thanks for the feedback. Since my MBP isn't the newest though, are there any best practices you might recommend for ensuring that PP does't crash and is as fast as possible i.e. programs not to run in the background, particular logging or scratch disc set-up, etc.?