Mac Pro vs Mac Book

quad_red

Hey all,
A bit of advice - my girlfriend is buying a mac laptop this week. She's a graphic designer and plans to use Photoshop/Quark/Dreamweaver on it.

The question is this - for her, is the Macbook Pro worth the extra moolah?

For €1,699 she can get an ordinary macbook 13" with 2gb of ram. The only difference I can see between that and the Mac Book Pro 15" with 2gb of ram (€2,199) is

1. Bigger screen
2. Backlight keyboard
3. Separate ati x1600 graphics card.

Now - how much of a difference does the graphics card make when it comes to photo editing and graphic design (there'll be little/no video work done btw).

Cheers,
Quad

TerrorFirmer

For those kind of tasks the X1600 won't make any real difference. The integrated will do fine. If it's solely for work in the vein of what you've mentioned, I'd just opt for the money saver option...it'd be much more portable too.

Oriel

The fact that she is doing graphics work is enough to warrent the larger screen.
You also get an extra 800 Firewire port, and a decent metal case.
Apart from that, that's about it.

HavoK wrote:

it'd be much more portable too.

Do you think "much more" is a slight over-exaggeration?
I mean, an iMac and a MacBook, fair enough but a MacBook Pro...

davmigil

Bigger screen would come in handy for those tasks. Also the MacBook screen only comes in glossy, where as Pro you can specify matt. For photo editing purists that is a consideration. I have a mac book and sometimes when photo editing wish the screen was a bit longer. Does the job though. She could always plug it into an external monitor when needed. Size wise macbook is perfect though.

quad_red

davmigil wrote:

Also the MacBook screen only comes in glossy, where as Pro you can specify matt. For photo editing purists that is a consideration. I have a mac book and sometimes when photo editing wish the screen was a bit longer. Does the job though.

That'd be a major issue (I didn't realise you could only get gloosy screens with macbooks. They look flashy in the shop but are rubbish in real life lighting conditions).

RAM is more of a clincher than a graphics card when it comes to photo editng

Havok, sinecurea, davmigil - cheers

jpfahy

The MacBook Pro has a better screen run by a dedicated graphics card, this combination give much better visuals. A friend has had both and says he really noticed the difference in the screen. If shes doing graphics work she will regret not getting the Pro.

heggie

had this choice myself, and went with the pro. If you ever want to run a large 30" screen from it its a must, also, o2 at the time had 200 euro off the pro, which made the decision much easier so check if they still do. Keep in mind, any intel mac is an absolute pain with adobe cs2, so if your going for a new mac, your gonna need new software (when its out end of month)

Skud

they had the offer last friday anyway

Cabaal

I first started off looking to buy the high end Macbook but lack of a decent graphics card put me off and I've not changed to the mid-range Macbook Pro

Its a hard decision at the end of the day

quad_red

Well, she's settled on the basic Macbook Pro with a matt screen. I think a number of things swung it including the ram situation.

To upgrade the pro, she just has to throw in an extra 1gig stick. But to bring the macbook up to a gig, she'll have to buy two 1gig sticks. The screen and the graphics card were also issues. And the €200 quid off the pro helps...

jpfahy

Which O2 shops sell Macs, don't see any in the shops near me (Dun Laoghaire)

Urban Weigl

You can save some money by buying from the Apple Refurb Store:

http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/irl.woa/wa/QSLID?mco=19B76462&nclm=Certified

Everything there comes with the original 1-year warranty. Usually it's just kit that was returned for whatever reason, and legally Apple cannot sell as new anymore.

quad_red

JPfahy, all 3 'o2 experience' stores in town sell them (Grafton St, across from Trinity and Henry St).

Cheers for the heads up Urban but the 200 squid off makes it almost as cheap!

heggie

dundrum aswell.

Rollo Tamasi

Lads, is that 3 or 3G which have the offer?

xebec

It's the O2 Experience stores afaik.

heggie

o2!

quad_red

I think the offer ended on Thursday though....

Am typing this on the brand new spanking mac pro and I am hugely impressed. Hugely so.