Need advice on purchasing a Macbook Pro

Hi folks,

We have decided it is time to buy a Macbook pro and am looking for some guidance on what to get and possible future strategies beyond. At the risk of giving too much context - here is the low-down:

1. Currently we have a 17" iMac 5.1 purchased in late 2006 - since purchase we have beefed up the innards (2008) so that we now have:

• 700 GB hard disk space (50% of it is used)
  
• 2 GHz processor (Intel Core 2 Duo)
  
• 17 inch display (1440 x 900)
  
• 3 GB of memory (2 banks - Bank 0 is 1 GB with 667 Mhz, Bank 1 is 2 GB with 667 Mhz)
  
• we also have an old LaCie external hard drive with an additional 300 GB of space (50% of which has been used)
  

2. Our user needs:

• Hubby has a G10 camera and underwater housing and has purchased Photo Shop CS5 to work with his pics
  
• I'm just starting to play around with Final Cut Express 4 to play with my HD underwater video and, once mastered, will likely upgrade to FCP (I have an HC7 and will be upgrading within the next year to a Sony 550 with the big in-camera storage space - or whatever is the current model at that point)
  
• We need a way to review and download Hubby's pics when we travel (our trips tend to be long ones with dozens of dives) - ideally I'd also like to be able to review, capture and possibly edit my video footage on the trip versus bringing 20 tapes home to edit afterwards
  

3. I think our possible solutions are:

• Buy a Mac desktop within the next few months as I will need more processor power to handle FCP. Deal with multiple tapes and photo drives and just download when getting back from trip
  
• Buy a Mac desktop within the next few months, buy an Ipad 2 with the camera plug-in to download Hubby's photos. I deal with multiple tapes and capture my video when I get home. We have no further need for an IPad so it would be purchased solely for this reason.
  
• Buy a MacBook Pro now and then use the MacBook at home as well, networked with our old iMac and add on external drives for disk space as needed.
  

4. I'm leaning toward the MacBook Pro solution. As such I think the specs for this would be as follows:

• 15 inch, 2.3GHz processor, 8 GB RAM, Anti-glare High res screen, Solid State Hard Drive
  
• We would buy external hard drives as needed to cover our storage needs and would likely invest in a large display screen (have a snazzy 2 screen setup) with a high-rate video card and other bells and whistles to have for home usage
  

5. My questions are as follows:

• Does this sound like a good strategy - any other thoughts?
  
• If so, I'm trying to figure out what type of SSD to get - the 512 GB SSD is AUD$1500 more, the 128 only AUD$120 more. I figure our strategy would be to keep all pics, video, music on external drives anyway, but what sort of memory should I look to have on the laptop's hard drive? Does this change if we bring an external drive with us as well on trips (and is this a good strategy to bring along an external drive?)
  

Any help is greatly appreciated!!!

Rebecca

Hi Rebecca,

Definitely go for the new MacBook Pro solution. With the new specs including the iCore7 processor, it's already much faster than the highest-end Macbook pro model from last year. More than capable of HD editing on FCP or even more graphics demanding software.

My suggestion is edit on your laptop then buy USB external drives for at least 2 back up. They are reasonably cheap these days and very easy to store.

Why do you need SSD for?

Hi Rebecca,

 

Definitely go for the new MacBook Pro solution. With the new specs including the iCore7 processor, it's already much faster than the highest-end Macbook pro model from last year. More than capable of HD editing on FCP or even more graphics demanding software.

 

My suggestion is edit on your laptop then buy USB external drives for at least 2 back up. They are reasonably cheap these days and very easy to store.

 

Why do you need SSD for?

Good question - because I was told that I would want it - it consumes less power, had no moving parts, processes more quickly... and it is the "wave of the future" - that once the cost issue is worked out, everyone will want one of these... Should I not be drinking this kool-aid?

Good question - because I was told that I would want it - it consumes less power, had no moving parts, processes more quickly... and it is the "wave of the future" - that once the cost issue is worked out, everyone will want one of these... Should I not be drinking this kool-aid?

I think the normal HDD is still quite reliable itself. It looks like if you were to install SSD drive you have to open up the macbook itself? That will void your warranty so I wouldn't do that. Plus the SSD seems quite costly with less data storage.

The new macbook pro series comes with Thunderbolt port which is supposed to be even faster than SATA so why not save the money for that when it comes out? I would still backup on normal USB drives, especially now they've become so cheap.

Just my 2 cents.

I think the normal HDD is still quite reliable itself. It looks like if you were to install SSD drive you have to open up the macbook itself? That will void your warranty so I wouldn't do that. Plus the SSD seems quite costly with less data storage.

Just to clarify, I wouldn't consider installing the SSD after purchase, I'd specify that when ordering from Apple... and yes quite pricey with the trade-off of less data storage....

There are some issues with 2011 macbook pros being very noisy. I returned mine because of it. My cats were hiding whenever I started lightroom.

There are some issues with 2011 macbook pros being very noisy. I returned mine because of it. My cats were hiding whenever I started lightroom.

Mine is supposed to arrive in the next few days. Hope it's not a problem with all of them. Ordered mine fully loaded, as I expect to use it a lot more tethered for pool and studio shoots.

Just waiting for the Thunderbolt drives to come out and then I will be able to keep my full Aperture library attached.

I've had my new 2011 Macbook Pro for 3 weeks now. Here's what I bought:

- 2.2 Ghz i7 processor

- 4gb DDR3 RAM

- 500gb 7200rpm drive

- 1gb Radeon video card

- hi-res, anti-glare screen

A day after I bought it, I took the 4gb RAM out and put 8gb RAM in myself -- much cheaper than the $200 Apple charges for this upgrade. I also took my CD/DVD drive out and used OWC's SSD kit to put a 128gb SSD in it's place. Then, I cloned the 500gb drive (which is brand new at this point) over to the SSD using Carbon Copy Cloner (free program). I then used System Prefs to change my boot drive to the new SSD and used Administrator to change my data drive to be the 500gb.

SO -- after these changes, I have a ROCKING fast laptop that boots in 20 seconds and Lightroom will launch to full usability in 3 seconds (or less). I store my photos on the 500gb drive and weekly synchronize that drive with my Network Attached Storage at home.

- My Macbook Pro does not run hot and the fan hardly ever runs. It's very, very quiet

- The anti-glare hi-res screen is a *must-buy* in my opinion. It's glorious to look at.

- Putting an SSD in your Macbook does NOT void the warranty. This is a question asked over and over in the Apple forums.

- I have OSX, MS Office, Filezilla, iLife 11, Adobe Lightroom and CS4 loaded on my 128gb SSD and only 40gb is currently in use.

- I have about 270gb of photos loaded on the 500gb drive right now.

In short, do yourself a favor, get an SSD, everything loads about 10 times faster. Regular hard drives are okay if you need a large amount of storage, but trust me, they are on their way to being obsolete. Also, don't scrimp on RAM. If you are running CS5 and Lightroom at the same time, 4gb is not enough.

I love my new MBP -- it is awesome!

Before you choose to buy a computer, you may want to reconsider that upgrade to FCS 3, I suggest you look at Adobe Production CS5, specifically Premiere Pro. All 64bit with CUDA acceleration and the ability to natively handle AVCHD without conversion, something FCS 4 will continue to do.

Now what does the computer have to do with programs? CUDA works only on Nvidia GPUs, so programs like Sorenson's Squeeze and Premiere Pro can't have accelerated processes with a ATI GPU. And speed is very much increased with CUDA. FCP does not and will not have that ability, since ATI(AMD) has not provision other than OpenCL.

In fact, CUDA is so much better than having multi cores for quite a few of CS5's programs like Photoshop (with CUDA aware plug-ins) and Premiere Pro. Somethings like transcodes will be CPU (more precisely bus intensive) but everything else can be CUDA accelerated.

FCP has a slightly better GUI but it's slooowwww compared to Premiere Pro. That and you get Photoshop Extended with the Production Suite. The CS5 production suite is about $3-400 more than FCS @ street prices.

If you want to go CS5, then you can only buy a MacPro desktop with the GTX285. The Quadro 4800 isn't worth the money if you are not a production house. That also means your budget inflates quite a bit.

If you want to go CS5, then you can only buy a MacPro desktop with the GTX285. The Quadro 4800 isn't worth the money if you are not a production house. That also means your budget inflates quite a bit.

From looking at the Apple site, none of the Mac Pro's come with NVidia anymore - they are all ATI Radeons. I think the only thing Apple makes which still uses Nvidia is the Macbook Air and the Mac Mini.

I've seen the CS5 benchmarks for CUDA-enhanced processing vs. non-CUDA and they are significant. If you are a big CS5 user, Apple may not be your machine now they have switched over to ATI in most of the line. For me, I use Adobe Lightroom 98% of the time and CS4 2% of the time and CUDA is not implemented in Lightroom as far as I know.

JP

Drew,

Keep in mind that a 64bit Final Cut Studio and a new Lion OS is just around the corner.

NVIDIA is greatly expanding the number of graphics cards that can be used for the Adobe products as well. I am currently under an NDA for Adobe's soon to be released new versions and, yes, the CUDA has been a joy to experience. I used to take a nap just waiting for AE to ram preview and now it is almost real time. I currently have a 4 month old NVIDIA FX4800 card installed and will soon be installing their 4000 card and then just sell one or the other as I certainly don't need both, however, your point that graphics card is a necessity is spot on. While CS5 will work with any graphics card, you won't have the speed and background power that could be available to you with the NVIDIA cards. Plus I like that Adobe can now use all the ram I assign to it. That will soon be the case for Final Cut Studio as well. And if I am wrong on this last point, I think I will slit my throat in despair.

Steve

I always advocate the hackintosh route. It may take you a day to work the kinks out, but getting a 40% discount on your computer is definitely worth it (especially if you are thinking about buying a $2000 laptop).

Apple makes a fantastic OS.... but their hardware is the exact same thing in all the other pc's out there (and pc's cost roughly 40% less).

When I get back to NYC from Southeast Asia, I will be building an "iMac" for half the price with a bigger screen and better specs .

Except Hackintoshes are illegal, don't work nearly as seamlessly and expansion card options like Thunderbolt are not available.

I suggest not to buy a Mac Pro now because of thunderbolt or lack thereof in the desktop range.

Like I said, a day to get the kinks worked out and then it will run as seamlessly as any standard Mac. And while there are no expansion options for the Thunderbolt yet*, I would be the farm that they will put out some generic thunderbolt card in the near future. Intel has too many incentives not too.

Except Hackintoshes are illegal, don't work nearly as seamlessly and expansion card options like Thunderbolt are not available.

 

I suggest not to buy a Mac Pro now because of thunderbolt or lack thereof in the desktop range.

Hi Rebecca,

Just to go back to your original post, and your needs. I now have your option 4 and have to admit it is sweet! For the needs you describe FCE and Photoshop CS5 the machine appears to be flawless. Running as fast at least for most practical purposes as my 2x2.66 Quad Core Desktop machine.

It's not the cheapest option, in fact I bought mine fully loaded, but I'm no hackintosher or hackinanything, so I ordered it, plugged in my old laptop and transferred everything using Migration Assistant in under an hour, and it runs like a dream. As Cor and Eric have said an SSD primary drive is a major benefit. I'm just waiting for larger SSD's to come down in price and will then add one to my desktop. Battery life is a huge leap forward from my previous laptop.

I run Photoshop CS5, Aperture, iMovie and FCE primarily. Unlike Cor's experience, mine runs nice and quietly.

Personally I've reached a point in my computing world where I never have to wait for my computer (I reached that point for non-graphics applications about 6 -7 years ago) I now have a laptop and a desktop that appear to cooperate seemlessly when transferring from the field to home with quite similar user experience, operating speeds etc. Almost computing Nirvana for me.

Thanks for all the input. We've taken the leap and bought the Macbook Pro with the specs as I outlined them in my initial post and we went with the 256 GB SSD - Delivery in less than a week. We will buy a few scratch disks, etc to boost the storage space -and need to find out more about this Thunderbolt technology and how we should use it.

Stay tuned...