The right set up for office, home, mobility...

Hi everyone and thanks in advance for your help.

I am starting a new marketing job with a small company. They are offering to purchase whatever set up I need. We have established that an Apple is the best fit for my needs.

I will be in the office most days, but will also work from home somewhat often and at night. With this in mind, I thought the obvious answer was a laptop.

However, at home I currently use an old Powerbook from '03. It has seen its better days. I do A LOT of photography... so it's time for a new home set up. We are thinking a Mac Mini and a new display.

My question is, should I have my new job get me a laptop, desktop, MAC mini??? or???

My thoughts: Have company buy Mac Book Pro, and hopefully they have a display I can plug into for office use. Then for home I can buy a Mac Mini + Display...

I would love any advice, insight, experience, thoughts...???

Thanks again!

Are they giving you a budget, because you could always get both a laptop and a desktop. If you do have a budget, it sounds like a macbook pro with an external monitor will be your best bet. Maybe even get 2 external monitors so you have one at home and the office so you can just bring your macbook pro back and forth.

Thanks! That's what I'm thinking. My guess is that they would budget for a Mac Pro + Display. It doesn't look like the cost for a Mac Book is too much more $.

The quad-core Mac Pro is $2499
A cinema display is $899

A 17" Mac Book Pro 2.8GHz is $2499
Plus cinema display is $899

If anyone knows how much I'm losing with the Mac Book Pro vs. the Mac Pro, it would be much appreciated.

Then I can stilll buy a display and Mac Mini for home...

Well I would try to bargain with them. See if they will buy you a mac pro for the office and a mac mini for home. Of course, you could save a little money by choosing a different monitor. You are losing portability by getting the mac pro but you gain expandability and speed. If you haven't heard, apple is expected to release a new line of macbook pros and mac pros so if you can wait, it may be a good idea. Don't forget about the new iMac. You can get the 27" i7 quad core iMac for about $2200 which is a great machine and it has an awesome screen built into it, so you wouldn't have to spend another $900 on a cinema display.

15" Macbook Pro and 2 cinema displays