The GetDPI Photography Forum

Great to see you here. Join our insightful photographic forum today and start tapping into a huge wealth of photographic knowledge. Completing our simple registration process will allow you to gain access to exclusive content, add your own topics and posts, share your work and connect with other members through your own private inbox! And don’t forget to say hi!

New MacBook Pros and MacBooks launched

LJL

New member
My take on this is that the 17" MBP with the high res LED screen now becomes a true one machine option for folks not wanting to go the Mac Pro route, and wanting more than an iMac as a desktop unit. The ability to plug in another monitor has always been a great feature on the MBPs and even the PBs before that, as it does truly give one a lot of single machine capability. With the beefed up video, plus the speed bumps, these MBPs can easily become a single machine option. Add in all the external stuff, as Guy is suggesting, and you have a pretty complete and powerful workstation that is also portable without missing a beat.

I love having the G5 with dual monitors as my workstation, and will replace it with a Mac Pro soon, plus I need the laptop, so the 15" MBP is my solution there. If I did not have as much volume and spend as much time at both, I think the 17" MBP could be a single solution.....but still having that monitor for more workstation option. The 15" MBP could also be that single solution option too, but then the additional monitor becomes much more of a need than an option for doing things, IMHO.

LJ
 
M

Mitch Alland

Guest
Good point, Guy. I'm using the 17 inch high resolution MacBook Pro because I travel a lot on one to two week trips, and sometimes go to Paris for a couple of months. I don't want to have to keep another computer in Paris.

I've been thinking about getting the new Time Capsule driver and to connect a backuo hard disk to that through USB, just for the convenience of the wireless set-uo — and to run Time Machine to back up to the Time Capsule, which in turn would be backed up by the USB hard disk connected to it. Does this solution make sense.

—Mitch/Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/sets/72157603989168260/show/
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
I agree if your going with a single laptop 15 inch as your sole box than the need for a external monitor like a 23 or 30 becomes imperative.

But for folks that are working normally and just processing and doing normal work on CS3 than a laptop only deal is something i would rather see folks buy first and see if it fits there needs before jumping into a Mac Pro. Be surprised how well you can get along like this as long as your setup good on the external stuff. Honestly you may never notice your not on a desktop.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Good point, Guy. I'm using the 17 inch high resolution MacBook Pro because I travel a lot on one to two week trips, and sometimes go to Paris for a couple of months. I don't want to have to keep another computer in Paris.

I've been thinking about getting the new Time Capsule driver and to connect a backuo hard disk to that through USB, just for the convenience of the wireless set-uo — and to run Time Machine to back up to the Time Capsule, which in turn would be backed up by the USB hard disk connected to it. Does this solution make sense.

—Mitch/Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/sets/72157603989168260/show/

That's actually not a bad idea. the thing too is just buy a 23 inch cinema which really is only 800 dollars and keep that in Paris or ship it there before you go. I do this for the workshops is just ship the 23 inch. Now time machine is not a bad idea and for the OS and such a good one. But you maybe better off with a good external just for images so that is seperate. The problem with time machine is once you start getting filled it will take stuff off the back end so images on there maybe a bad idea so running seperate image drive might be a better solution and there not expensive either. There are a slew of off the shelf storage devices these days and small too. Or you can simply make one also. Get a nice Firewire 800 enclosure and either get a notebook drive 2.5 inch or go with a desktop drive 3.5 inch and use that.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Yes i think you have a few options to look at , that make good sense for you. I love having the 23 inch just dedicated to the laptop. Nice thing is there not extremely expensive either. Just watch out on off the shelf externals, there known for using slower drives like 5400 rpm or slower. Look for 7200
 

Terry

New member
I've somewhat decided what to do.....

I am getting the 2.5ghz 15" MBP with the faster hard drive. It will have 4gb of RAM not sure if that will be from Apple but with the lower RAM prices there is a bit less incentive to open up the machine.

This will leave me the new MacBook Pro, 10 month old MacBook and a 6 month old 24" iMac. A somewhat mixed up assortment of equipment but without the key ingredient -- the right set of external drives and back up plans.

So, right now I am working out if I want the iMac or MBP to be considered my "main machine" which will then lead me down the path of what drives to get for image storage. I will also be getting a Time Capsule to use Time Machine for all three machines to deal with all the other stuff (music, documents, email, etc.)

Thanks for all of your comments and help. (yes, I will surely have more questions!)

terry
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Well I would sell the MacBook first off myself or donate to a family member. Than I would make the MBP the main deal. Frankly Terry i even question the Imac. get a 30 in cinema and hook it up to the MBP and have one glorious setup and work off that . But that is me.

Than i would get a E Sata Express card and than build a 2 drive hard ware setup with seagate.11 drives in 2 1 TB config. and run that as you backup and even some scratch since they will run as fast as your internal drive than i would have Firwire 800 externals. One for Raw only and store every raw file there and when full just put it away and start a new one
 

Terry

New member
Terry, I don't know how you're going to use the MPB, but if you are thinking of doing any PP on it without an external monitor then I would go for the 17-inch high resolution version, which is a day-and-night difference compared to the 15-inch regular LCD.

—Mitch/Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/sets/72157603989168260/
Mitch,
I loathe traveling with a laptop. I hate carrying it, taking it out in airports etc. etc. That is why at one point I was actually considering the MacBook Air. However, when I was away in Moab for the week working on the MacBook was frustrating. Screen was small so to see the full image I was looking at too small an image. More importantly it didn't have the horsepower to deal with files that got large from layers, uprezzing etc. So, it is clear that I need a new laptop. The scary part about the 17" is dealing with my carry-on requirements with my photo gear. For someone who hates carrying a computer buying a beast might be a bit over the top.

Before this I thought my iMac was my main machine. It is speedy enough and I just got 2 extra gb of RAM for it. There is nothing wrong with this machine and it could still be used as my main machine and there are plenty of people that would be thrilled with this for photography. However, two things have changed for me. I am taking a lot more pictures and doing more with them which is chewing up hard drive space faster than I thought.

I was already in the process of figuring out storage and back but
now that I will have a laptop that is really more capable than my iMac as my main machine I need to rethink the setup.

So, the comments about getting a cinema display eSata drives etc. are really quite valid.
 

Terry

New member
Well I would sell the MacBook first off myself or donate to a family member.
The MacBook has a home. When I wake up in the AM I like to watch the news and see what is happening in the world before getting out of bed. Then at the same time I can also check out my favorite websites :D. The MacBook therefore resides bedside....gave away my last bedside mac a Titanium PowerBook that was top of the line and then obsolete in about 6-9 month....that's when I went to my cheaper laptop replace more often strategy which we now know was a very flawed photography strategy.
 

simonclivehughes

Active member
WRT installing your own HDD in a MBP, be cautious. I asked when I bought my MBP and was told by Apple that it would compromise my warranty unless it was done by an Apple authorized shop. Since that time, I have upgraded twice (first from the stock 120GB to a 20GB and recently to a 320GB) and both times I have had it confirmed that to keep my (now extended) warranty, that it did indeed need to be done by an authorized dealer/shop.
 
M

Mitch Alland

Guest
...The scary part about the 17" is dealing with my carry-on requirements with my photo gear. For someone who hates carrying a computer buying a beast might be a bit over the top...
As I travel extensively between Asia, Africa, Europe and the States I appreciate your dilemma, particularly as I only have carryon luggage, as otherwise I would be spending hours and hours waiting for luggage — I've never received it faster than in 45 minutes at Charles de Gaulle terminal 1, and have not even attempted that at Heathrow — not to speak of losing luggage. My solution is that I only bring my GRD, now the GRD2 with the two converter lenses. The 17-inch MPB goes in my computer/briefcase, which I can squeeze, just, into my roll-aboard suitcase, in case only one carryon is permitted, as it was the last time I was at Heathrow, which I believe is still is the case.

Of course another advantage of the 17-inch MPB is that, with the wide, high-rez screen you can have documents side-by-side, which is convenient for work. Nevertheless, if I wasn't doing PP on the computer I would travel with a Mac Air; but that would mean having having to keep another computer in Paris.

—Mitch/Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/sets/72157603989168260/show/
 
Top