iMac specs or maybe Macbook Air - Help

[mikew09]

Hi Team,
Well it is almost that time again. My 3 yearly replacement of my laptop but with a twist this time. I want to move to Apple Mac and I am thinking a macbook pro 13" screen with retina display. However I have no knowledge of the specs I need to run my system setup.

Current have Dell i& with 512 Geforece card 4 GB ram. Attached two 1 Terabyte seagate desktop drives and a 24" HD monitor. Additionally I use external wireless mouse and keyboard when hooked up at the desk.

Run Photoshop CC (Cloud member) and LR4.x along with Photomatrix, noiseware and the like.

Can I replace my Dell laptop with a midrange iMap Pro and have the same level of performance and useabitity as I currently have?

Anyone out there using a similar setup can help?

Thanks in Advance,

Mike

[Pixley]

Cant help with the macbook specs but about a year ago I switched to a 27 inch IMac with 8 gig of Ram, one terabyte hard drive (with another external drive for Time Machine back up) and I use a MS wireless mouse as I never got used to the one that Apple supplied with it. I also have a newish PC with better specs (a gaming PC - not for me by the way) and although I have LR etc on the PC I always use the Mac. I will always be a Mac user now and if you are a heavy image editor the 27 inch screen is hard to beat (except with some of the very expensive Dell monitors of course).

[ryanbarlin]

My brother has the 21 inch iMac, he's had it for a few months. (The one with the 512mb Geoforce).

I have the iMac 27" (top one). I notice the difference when I'm doing heavy photoshop or After Effects stuff. I second that the monitors on both are awesome.

I've used the retina macs (student's machine-I teach) and I think (in my experience) not as powerful as either iMac. It is a great machine for a laptop, you probably won't find a better laptop on the market. It is expensive though, and less powerful than the iMacs. Read up though, I think they don't allow you to upgrade the RAM in some macs meaning if you want the most you'll have to do it when you originally buy it. I would go with 8GB of RAM at the bare minimum.

The short answer is the more you pay, the longer the machine is going to last you because of the speed differences.

Might be worth holding out - check this. http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/ They recommend when Apple does updates. I think I read somewhere they're going to upgrade the chips in the laptops to better, faster ones very soon.

If you're looking for a cheaper machine and money is an issue, you can also go with the Apple refurbished ones. I think they even come with the same amount of warranty as a new one. If you search around, there are guys on eBay that do the Extended AppleCare warranties for way cheaper. Just find a reputable one.

[swifty]

If you're looking at the retina MBPs, consider waiting for the Intel Haswell update that should be just around the corner. The new MBA's already got that update.
If you're looking at the 13" MBPs that doesn't have a discreet video card, expect a bump in that category but most significantly would probably be the battery life improvements. Going by the updated MBAs, don't expect significant CPU performance increases.
I have the current 13"MBP and run LR and PS just fine. But then again I only have to deal with single 12MP and 16MP RAW files most of the time so my system doesn't really get stretched.

[mikew09]

Cant help with the macbook specs but about a year ago I switched to a 27 inch IMac with 8 gig of Ram, one terabyte hard drive (with another external drive for Time Machine back up) and I use a MS wireless mouse as I never got used to the one that Apple supplied with it. I also have a newish PC with better specs (a gaming PC - not for me by the way) and although I have LR etc on the PC I always use the Mac. I will always be a Mac user now and if you are a heavy image editor the 27 inch screen is hard to beat (except with some of the very expensive Dell monitors of course).

I am impressed with the iMacs but I want the portability of a macbook. Thanks for the comments.

Mike

- - - Updated - - -

My brother has the 21 inch iMac, he's had it for a few months. (The one with the 512mb Geoforce).

I have the iMac 27" (top one). I notice the difference when I'm doing heavy photoshop or After Effects stuff. I second that the monitors on both are awesome.

I've used the retina macs (student's machine-I teach) and I think (in my experience) not as powerful as either iMac. It is a great machine for a laptop, you probably won't find a better laptop on the market. It is expensive though, and less powerful than the iMacs. Read up though, I think they don't allow you to upgrade the RAM in some macs meaning if you want the most you'll have to do it when you originally buy it. I would go with 8GB of RAM at the bare minimum.

The short answer is the more you pay, the longer the machine is going to last you because of the speed differences.

Might be worth holding out - check this. http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/ They recommend when Apple does updates. I think I read somewhere they're going to upgrade the chips in the laptops to better, faster ones very soon.

If you're looking for a cheaper machine and money is an issue, you can also go with the Apple refurbished ones. I think they even come with the same amount of warranty as a new one. If you search around, there are guys on eBay that do the Extended AppleCare warranties for way cheaper. Just find a reputable one.

I wouldn't cost is a major driver within reason and I am defiantly looking to 8 Gb the ram. This is the second time I have heard that a new upspec-ed model is on the way. Interesting

- - - Updated - - -

If you're looking at the retina MBPs, consider waiting for the Intel Haswell update that should be just around the corner. The new MBA's already got that update.
If you're looking at the 13" MBPs that doesn't have a discreet video card, expect a bump in that category but most significantly would probably be the battery life improvements. Going by the updated MBAs, don't expect significant CPU performance increases.
I have the current 13"MBP and run LR and PS just fine. But then again I only have to deal with single 12MP and 16MP RAW files most of the time so my system doesn't really get stretched.

Thanks swifty, image file size is a consideration also as at the end of the yr I am upgrading to a 5d3 and do all my work starting with raw files.