Jerry,
There are a number of folks on this forum with some very good experience with Aperture, so I am hoping more will chime in. One of the first things you may want to decide is how you want to handle the RAW files. One way that many folks like is to keep them in their own folders on a drive (internal or external) and then import them into Aperture as "referenced files". This allows you to easily access them from other apps, such as C1. You can also adjust settings in Aperture for the quality of the preview image you want to display. This mainly impacts your ability to quickly move through images for sorting and other stuff. Bigger, higher resolution choices will use a bit more horsepower, but your machine should easily handle the task. (If you have not done so, upping the RAM to 8GB at some point will help a bit too, especially once you start doing work on the larger files.
There are several online tutorials for Aperture on the Apple site that do a fairly decent job of getting you oriented. The app is really pretty intuitive, once you start playing with it. You will quickly learn how to change the viewer depending on what you want to do, as well as shift to full-screen mode for some things. These are easy single keystrokes (toggling "V" lets you move through viewer options, while toggling "F" takes you into/out of full-screen viewing, and toggling "Z" lets you quickly zoom to 100% view (pixel level) for checking focus or other things.) The default camera settings are a good start for most processing, and you can easily batch process similarly lit images by lifting settings, and then stamping them onto other selected images. You may want to become selective in what you lift and stamp, such as only RAW profile tweaks, any exposure adjustments, contrast, vibrance, edge sharpening, sharpening, and not crops and straightening or localized brush adjustments. Getting a workflow for the kinds of things you need to adjust is quick and easy.
If you are not having to use it for finding people using the face recognition feature, I suggest turning that off, as it is a processing hog. Doing you IPTC data adds are very easy and quite fast. However, they only apply within Aperture, unless you export masters with data to work on in another app. So, if for example you wanted to rename some files, you might want to do that prior to importing them into Aperture if you also wanted to use those names for something like C1. I know that may sound a bit confusing, but once you work with it, you will quickly understand. You can exit to C1 (or PS or other apps) for work, and then return to Aperture, but not sure what you will gain with C1 for that. I think if you wanted to use C1 for RAW processing, do it there first and then import the referenced tiff file into Aperture for your cataloging. I have found that the RAW processing in Aperture 3 is really quite good, and if I needed some special handling, I do it in that app separately, but import the work file as a referenced file into Aperture for other adjustments and cataloging. Just remember, all of the adjustments you make on files stay in the Aperture Library, unless you export a master file with all the adjustments. The original files themselves can be stored anywhere, but work you do in Aperture stays in Aperture until you export either a version or master for other work someplace else. This becomes very clear once you use it a few times.
Not sure if this is helping or confusing..... Basically, the user guide has almost everything you need to know, but it is a PITA to read and find stuff. The tutorials are a good starting place to get the basics, as well as learn some useful features. First up is to get familiar with the vocabulary, how and where you want to store things, and then think about how you want to organize things into Projects and Folders inside Aperture.
It is a powerful and decent app for doing a lot of things. I have used it from its introduction several years ago, but only now, with version 3, have I felt comfortable enough to use it in full production mode for all my professional work. I go from import, through cataloging, keywording, through sorting, through batch adjustments where practical, through individual image adjustments as needed, to exporting images that have been reduced in size, converted to JPEGs, have a watermark added and placed in a folder to upload to my Web site galleries. All of that is taking me about a third of the time it took to do similar work in Bridge/ACR/PS, or C1 or other apps. I shoot several thousand event pics a week, and handling time is important for speed. Also, a good portion of the final images will be going into books for clients, which will be made directly from Aperture. A very powerful tool with good workflow, good RAW processing, and the ability to manage your images almost any way you want.
Welcome to the club that actually like using Aperture.
LJ
P.S. The issues you mentioned as "problems" should not plague you at all. There have been recent updates to Aperture to bring it to version 3.0.3, which is very stable and got many of the glitches fixed. And, since you are not converting a previous version Aperture Library, none of the other problems mentioned will ever come up. You are starting with clean imports to a new Library with no prior adjustments or versions of stuff. Does not get any simpler than that. BTW, I am running it on a 15" MBP i7 with 8GB RAM, and it keeps up with me as fast as I work. So, essentially the same computer, though mine has a bit smaller screen, and that is now my production machine. I keep all files on external FW800 drives, and I also back-up the Aperture Libraries separately after I finish a session. I keep separate Libraries that are easy to switch between as needed (e.g, polo, portrait sessions, landscape, commercial shoots, etc.). Each is stored on a separate drive that I easily import the Library to my main HD when visiting a client or traveling, but I then dump it from my main HD once I no longer need to use it. Very flexible for giving slideshows and stuff, but not working on files for edits, as they are stored as referenced files on another drive at the office. This is where it is worth having Aperture process screen-sized viewer files for storage in its Library when you import files at the start.
Now, if you keep all your files on your HD, none of this really becomes much of an issue, as you will have everything there already. I would still suggest using the "referenced files" approach. If you are using Time Machine, then everything will be backed up to where you want, so not a problem there. I do not use Time Machine, but do all of my back-ups manually, and I also have many external drives filled with files, so my set-up may be different than your needs. As mentioned, I probably shoot several thousand pics each week now, and that would easily swamp any internal HD for storing them.
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