Which to buy?

[BarryS]

A 15" Mac book Pro with 3gb of ram or a Mac book with 2gb of ram and a 23" cinema display. I do no video editting what so ever so i don't know if the upgraded video memory is really helping me in the pro. My old computer is a Power book with 1gb of ram and a 1ghz processor so anything is a huge upgrade. Let me know what you all think. I really like the black mac book and that is what i am leaning towards plus that combo is cheaper to boot and i would have 23" inches worth of extra monitor space. Thanks in advance with any opinions.

 

[peterparker]

- what software do you use to process photos?
- do you care about calibrating the laptop display?

 

[BarryS]

- what software do you use to process photos?
- do you care about calibrating the laptop display?

Never calibrated a display before but i hear i should. Also i use photoshop and bridge normally.

 

[peterparker]

Processing should be OK then, but I know there have been issues trying to calibrate the glossy display of the MacBook.

 

[BarryS]

Well they calibrate plasm monitors all the time so i dunno. However i probably would not worry about the laptop screen i would only worry about the cinema display and in that case i should be fine i assume. And i think a 23" monitor would help me a lot with my editing on my eyes at least.

 

[Clix Pix]

I use the 23" ACD with my MBP and it works really well! Nice thing about it is that if needed I can simply detach the MBP and tuck it into a carrying case and away I go....

I haven't used the MacBook so don't know how well that works with Aperture and CS3; there have been no problems with my MBP. Matte screen for me -- none of this glossy stuff! I don't know how much of a difference it actually makes when editing work on the road, but I would suspect that it could be somewhat problematic.

The three GB RAM could be quite useful when processing images....

 

[wbeem]

My advice is to get what you want. Otherwise, you'll end up wishing that you had. If the Black MacBook floats your boat, get it. The external monitor is definitely a big advantage for editing and I wish I had one here.

My choice was the 15" MacBook Pro because I wanted those other features it contained. I also didn't like the keyboard on the MacBooks.

 

[JohnR]

While the black macbook looks cool, the only advantage of that over the white one is the color and 40 more GB of hard drive space. In fact if you upgrade the white Macbook to 200GB (40 more GB than the stock black one), then you save $25 over a stock black macbook.

Since you aren't going to use Aperture, I would think that the Macbook would suit your purpose. Aperture relies a lot on the video card.

BUT....one thing you have to remember, if you get an external monitor, it will cut the video memory in half. So the macbook, with the 23" monitor, you will only have half of...weird, can't find on Apple's site what video card the macbook comes with.

Another big factor (in my mind) is the glossy screen. I thought it would be cool and haven't heard TOO much about them. But then yesterday at work they have a HP laptop with a glossy screen and the reflections were BAD. No thank you. Matte for me.

Go for the pro if you can afford it. 2GB ram should be more than enough for you.

 

[BarryS]

Well i went with the mac book and the 23" display. Haven't used the display yet since i forgot and the salesmen did as well to sell me a dvi to mini dvi cable. What i am mainly going to do is shut the laptop when i am home and mirror the display and basically use it as a desktop. Thanks for all the input. So far cs3 bridge and ps work amazing on it.

 

[Julien]

Great decision Barry , now fire up those setup shots :biggrin:

 

[BarryS]

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

 

[BarryS]

Don't mind the messy room behind it.

 

[Julien]

Boy does that ACD look mighty fine

 

[BarryS]

Its alot bigger then it looks too its scary.

 

[DBrim]

I love the cinema displays. Unfortunately, I don't have enough money to be able to afford one, but kudos to you for picking one up! And yeah, CS3 runs MUCH better on macs than some previous versions, especially the intel macs since it's intel-native. I've been rather impressed with its performance compared to CS1, which is what I used previously. Enjoy your macbook!

-Daniel

 

[DrewC]

oh julien look... your avatar is on his screen... look close

 

[Julien]

oh julien look... your avatar is on his screen... look close

Nice catch !! Now why were you looking so closely at his screen ??? :biggrin:

 

[DrewC]

mostly cause when you'd mentioned ACD i didnt (at first) know what you were referring to... eventhough i'm a very happy mac user... haha, so upon closer inspection i noticed it...

and i'm secretly in love with you

 

[Julien]

and i'm secretly in love with you

... ah sheesh , another one ... :866:

 

[wbeem]

..must..not..look directly at monitor...must...not spend more money today.