Building a Great Graphics Mac

Shaun @ Tru6 · 08-23-2007, 04:36 AM

It's easy to spec out a great machine at Apple.com, but was hoping to get some input on what is absolutely necessary vs. nice to have vs. don't bother.

Also, is a MacBook Pro up to the task so I can stay mobile vs. the Mac Pro towers? My current laptop, a 1.5 G4 with 512MB of RAM is not, and is also in need of serious repair.

Will be working mostly in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign with lots of fonts, effects, and filters.

Rob Channell · 08-23-2007, 06:58 PM

Here's what I would say, based on the applications you will be running. I'm not sure about the rest, but if you get into some of the more complex editing a lot of RAM will help. Plan on 1GB bare minimum and 2GB if you want a little more than the minimum. If you want to get a little more fancy you can see what they have in faster hard drives.

Do Macs have external serial ATA connections? eSATA? They are faster than USB and Firewire for external hard drives used for backup of important data. You DO backups, right?

For me, a Mac is not necessary, although now that they use the Intel processers and are getting ready to support Windows as well as the Apple OS it is gaining appeal in my eyes.

MichiganMat · MichiganMat's Garage

The new Intel MacBooks are way wwaayyy faster than that G4 you're flogging. I would even take a MacBook over a MB Pro, cheaper and just as fast (though the screen is smaller). The portables will be as stable as a tower or an iMac too, so no worries there. That said, the new iMac's are really really sexy and the screens are huge. Have you seen the new design?

I use Macs every day as my job and the Intel portables have plenty of firepower for heavy use (coding, design, gaming, etc), though my main machine is one of the monster towers (quad dual-core, 8Gb mem, etc).

kstar · 08-23-2007, 08:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shaun 84 Targa

It's easy to spec out a great machine at Apple.com, but was hoping to get some input on what is absolutely necessary vs. nice to have vs. don't bother.

Also, is a MacBook Pro up to the task so I can stay mobile vs. the Mac Pro towers? My current laptop, a 1.5 G4 with 512MB of RAM is not, and is also in need of serious repair.

Will be working mostly in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign with lots of fonts, effects, and filters.

For the type of work you describe, I think the 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro would be an excellent choice. I would get it with 1GB then add 2x2GB RAM chips via a 3rd party - RAM bought from Apple is expensive.

Get the 250GB drive and perhaps plan on getting a FireWire external (Serial ATA is your only choice for an internal drive) for large files or just for additional storage if needed.

The "jump" in performance from your current laptop to the MBPro will be staggering, IMHO. I made a similar jump several months ago and am very satisfied. I do a fair amount of Photoshop and Fireworks processing on my MBPro and am pleased.

I opted for the 15" screen because I travel with my MBPro and the 17" is big! Go to the Apple Store and check them out running some of the types of work you will be doing.

Plus, you can take the MBPro with you.

Best,

Kurt

BlueSkyJaunte · 08-23-2007, 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichiganMat

I would even take a MacBook over a MB Pro, cheaper and just as fast (though the screen is smaller).

Eh... only problem is that the GPU in the (plastic) MacBook is cheap garbage. Go for the MacBook Pro if you'll be doing gfx work.

Shaun @ Tru6 · 08-24-2007, 04:17 PM

thanks everyone for the good advice. I was going to spec out a tower, but perhaps a laptop would be better. Thing is I'm not really on the road anymore, and have my current laptop, so wonder if the ultimate speed of a tower would be better and suffer moving things over to the laptop when I go overseas, NY, etc.

I would just amp up my RAM in my current laptop, but the harddrive, and more I suspect, is on it's way out and every time I bring it in to Apple, they can't replicate the problems.

Having had Macs since 1985, I think the recent products are like the Mercedes of the 90s...all reputation, no quality.

Anyway, I love the double monitor set-up now and that's pushing the laptop buy.

Anyone have data that a tower will only be marginally faster than a properly spec'd laptop?

motion · 08-24-2007, 04:49 PM

I recently dumped my G5 tower and went to a 17" Macbook Pro Core Duo and am extremely happy. I have 3 GB ram and am running a wireless bluetooth Apple keyboard and bluetooth Logitech mouse. I have a Samsung 24" LCD as my primary monitor and just keep the Macbook Pro closed and sitting under the monitor. Don't even know its there. Now, I can go mobile in just a few seconds, which I could never do with the Pro towers. Beautiful!!!!! I would recommend this setup to anyone. Oh yeah... running Parallels Desktop with Windows XP, too, for my must-have Windows apps. I don't notice any slowdown at all with the Macbook.

stomachmonkey · 08-24-2007, 04:58 PM

shaun,

call me.

you have the number.

I have both boxes, laptop and tower.

DO NOT build out the tower at apple.com

I bought the stock box, stuck 3 500 mb sata drives in it for a total of 1.75 TB's and doubled the ram for less than half of what apple charges.

They make a big deal about the heat sinks on the RAM but if you order from memoryx you pay half the price and the RAM they ship is out of the Apple service parts bin, it's the same part that apple puts in, just comes in an ugly brown box but saves you hundreds.

Shaun @ Tru6 · 08-25-2007, 04:49 AM

this is what makes this board great! Nice talking last night Scott, thanks Motion for another confirmation.

Plan is simple: MacBook Pro 15, get the 7200 speed HD, load up on RAM after getting it, find a good 20 to 27 inch monitor. I'd love to spring for the Apple 23 and may just to make life easy, but a quick scan at CDW, CompUSA and MicroCenter says there are other good monitors out there for a lot less.

CDW has a brand listed called Planar that looks good at half the price of Apple. Any experience? I trust the CDW name, and therefore the products they sell.

Hawkney911 · 08-25-2007, 07:13 AM

i am running a macbook pro right now and I'm a current graphic design student and it works very well slow sometI'mes with multiple open programs and a second monitor but it get the job done.

i think i might just b 2 Impatient

stomachmonkey · 08-25-2007, 07:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hawkney911

i am running a macbook pro right now and I'm a current graphic design student and it works very well slow sometI'mes with multiple open programs and a second monitor but it get the job done.

i think i might just b 2 Impatient

Do you have the 7200rpm drive in it?

The 4800 and 5400's are fine for regular apps but if you are using the Adobe Suite or Final Cut suite they make tremedously large scratch files that kill the slower drives. Especially if you the drive is more than 75% full.

7200 rpm drive is a must for any laptop doing Pro grade graphics, and max the RAM.