!!!!!!Advice on Apple MAC Laptops Please !!!!!!!

[Greg Johnston]

Great advice above. I have traditionally been a PC person but bought my first Macbook Pro a couple of years ago and now I don't think I will ever return to the PC world. I love my Mac!

[JM Tran]

Sorry, gave you a bum steer, meant what MBP do you have, model and the like.???

sorry my MBP is

2.66ghz i7 quad core
8gb ram
128gb SSD
15 inch high res option monitor
non glare option
and lots of travel stickers on it

[Wayne]

sorry my MBP is

2.66ghz i7 quad core
8gb ram
128gb SSD
15 inch high res option monitor
non glare option
and lots of travel stickers on it

JT, are you sure that MBP is i7 QAUD??
The original i7 (and those at that freq 2.66GHZ) only had 2 cores, only the very latest early 2011 release onwards has the new i7 quad. If you are happy with the speed of that machine, then wait until you get your hands on an i7 quad, mine flies! They are much improved over the older i7.

[JM Tran]

JT, are you sure that MBP is i7 QAUD??
The original i7 (and those at that freq 2.66GHZ) only had 2 cores, only the very latest early 2011 release onwards has the new i7 quad. If you are happy with the speed of that machine, then wait until you get your hands on an i7 quad, mine flies! They are much improved over the older i7.

sorry its 2 cores, typo

unless u have an SSD equipped Mac as well, a normal HDD wont best utilize the speed of it due to it being a bottleneck - so I'll happy stick with mine if you dont have SSD

yes, I am an SSD snob now for nearly 2 years, will never go back to a normal HDD unless its purely for back ups

[Roosta]

JT, are you sure that MBP is i7 QAUD??
The original i7 (and those at that freq 2.66GHZ) only had 2 cores, only the very latest early 2011 release onwards has the new i7 quad. If you are happy with the speed of that machine, then wait until you get your hands on an i7 quad, mine flies! They are much improved over the older i7.

What model is yours Wayne, or do I just look for the specs under MBP i7 ???

[Wayne]

Mine is the early 2011 MacBook Pro;

Normally a custom build, but an Apple store in Sydney had one with all the specs I wanted in stock pre-built (ram they just upgrade in store at purchase in any event) except I wanted the 500GB 7200rpm HDD, however the in stock one had the 750GB 5400rpm drive, and I was just going to replace the HDD with the 500GB drive ordered separately so I could get it without waiting for the custom build and delivery, and just change it myself. I found that the machine hasn't been drive limited in performance so never bothered changing it out.

Core i7 2.3GHz Quad (now 2.4GHz with late 2011 release)
17" Matte screen (an option)
750GB 5400 rpm HDD
8GB DDR3 Ram - I since got the 16GB kit from OWC given these new models support 16GB, but it was still super quick with 8GB as built.

Check some of the benchmarks around the place, and you can see that the new i7 quads are far superior to the older i7 dual core architecture, and better on the battery too. I get a good 5-6 hours browsing over wifi watching some Youtube videos, and light editing in LR on a full charge, and charge is a little over an hour to full from almost dead. There is also the same spec machine available in 15" screen as well if you want all the speed with the smaller screen. Only thing is that normally you will have to custom order from the online store for this config, and I do recommend fully the matte screen over the glossy. The newest release late 2011 are all but identical to early 2011, and performance in the 17" model is about 5% faster for the late series.

[Roosta]

Mine is the 2011 MacBook Pro;

Normally a custom build, but an Apple store in Sydney had one with all the specs I wanted in stock pre-built (ram they just upgrade in store at purchase in any event) except I wanted the 500GB 7200rpm HDD, however the in stock one had the 750GB 5400rpm drive, and I was just going to replace the HDD with the 500GB drive ordered separately so I could get it without waiting for the custom build and delivery, and just change it myself. I found that the machine hasn't been drive limited in performance so never bothered changing it out.

Core i7 2.3GHz Quad
17" Matte screen (an option)
750GB 5400 rpm HDD
8GB DDR3 Ram - I since got the 16GB kit from OWC given these new models support 16GB, but it was still super quick with 8GB as built.

Check some of the benchmarks around the place, and you can see that the new i7 quads are far superior to the older i7 dual core architecture, and better on the battery too. I get a good 5-6 hours browsing over wifi watching some Youtube videos, and light editing in LR on a full charge, and charge is a little over an hour to full from almost dead. There is also the same spec machine available in 15" screen as well if you want all the speed with the smaller screen. Only thing is that normally you will have to custom order from the online store for this config, and I do recommend fully the matte screen over the glossy.

Thanks mate, Looking at this one I think in the 15" http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/perf...ch-performance

[Wayne]

I would recommend;

2.5GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM — 2x4GB
750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
MacBook Pro 15-inch Hi-Res Antiglare Widescreen Display
Backlit Keyboard (English) & User's Guide

This config is a couple of $$ dearer for the faster HDD, more Ram, and matte screen over the standard configuration, it comes in at $2849 and can be ordered from the education store if you know a student or are a student. I am a lifelong student at the school of hard knocks when I order Apple anything

[Wayne]

Shoot me a PM with your email address for a little tip..

[JM Tran]

I would recommend;

2.5GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM — 2x4GB
750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
MacBook Pro 15-inch Hi-Res Antiglare Widescreen Display
Backlit Keyboard (English) & User's Guide

This config is a couple of $$ dearer for the faster HDD, more Ram, and matte screen over the standard configuration, it comes in at $2849 and can be ordered from the education store if you know a student or are a student. I am a lifelong student at the school of hard knocks when I order Apple anything

I'd recommend a 128gb or 240gb SSD from MSY which is not that expensive, or pay a lot more through Apple as an option over the 7200rpm HDD if you want to maximize an MBP's power, a hell of a lot faster for multitasking and access and loading. I'd also recommend 3 years Apple Care if the OP is using it for professional photography.

Roosta I run 2 external monitors at once with my MBP, making it 3 usable screens, with CS5 running on 1 monitor, LR3 on the other one, and web browsing and a movie on the laptop screen, the ram and SSD really helps for smoothness and fast loadings. Tried it with my sisters newer generation MBP and her 5400rpm drive made everything a lot slower - especially if I open/run the same amount of programs that I do on mine - such as a batch convert of a hundred raws to jpegs on LR3, while doing skin retouching on CS5, with a movie playing on the laptop screen to keep me from dying of boredom