Sort of makes the case for mac mini; get some good thunderbolt peripherals and swap out relatively less expensive CPU.
Mel
What I'm hearing is that the EOL cutoff is based more on GPU than CPU for Mountain Lion.
As for the "iOS-ification" comments, it's nonsense. Of course Apple wants to make certain applications and UI elements have the same look and feel across devices -- why shouldn't they? It makes it easier to capture iOS device users on the desktop, and it gives those who buy into the entire Apple ecosystem a consistent look-and-feel across devices. And with iCloud integration, it's not just consistent look-and-feel, but consistent data as well.
The point the naysayers miss is that these additions take nothing away from the existing OS -- they're new features. If you're using Apeture and Photoshop, they will still work just fine.
Nor is Apple the only one doing this. Windows 8 anyone? I fail to see what is bad about cross-device consistency.