Whats right for me?

Im currently looking into buy either a top-o-the-line iMac or Macbook Pro...
24" iMac - 3.06ghz, 4 gigs yadda yadda
or
17" MBP - 2.5ghz 4 gigs... yadda yadda

Im a musician, and a gamer... Portability isnt mandatory, but would be nice for my music recording endevours..

i plan on using bootcamp and playing some Source based games and COD4... will the iMac greatly outperform the MBP or would you say the portability takes the cake...

also if i decide on the MBP will the 2.6 ghz give me that much of a performance boost FPS wise, and would the Hi-Res option be a bad idea as well... i would imagine that would put quite a bit of strain on the 8600m vid card... so should i stick with the normal Res.

You'll need at least a Quad-Core Mac Pro running Linux

How important is the portability to you? That's really what it boils down to.

Yep, I agree. I got the 20"iMac (caution, these take up more room than you think, I have a hutch on my desk and it's close) and a 13" MacBook for my husband's bday. Which, technophobe that he is, hasn't gotten near it yet. If I was in your situation, which obviously I'm not, I'd go for the MBP since I think DocZ06 is right. Good luck!

Well I've decided on the 17" MBP but for my gaming en devours is the 2.6 that much more effective... and also... Hi-Res... not worth it?... im looking for more FPS here... i plan on playing Source games tf2 CSS... all that jazz... maybe some COD4

The LED and battery saving features is Tempting

Will the HiRes decrease performance that much?

*bumpage*

I don't know anything about open source games but by looking at COD4's minimum requirements you should be able to play that on the MBP, as long as you get the 512MB card and upgraded processor. You most likely won't be able to play on the highest graphics settings and you can only play and use it at a 60MHz refresh rate in OSX and Windows. You do get the portability and up to 5 hours of battery life, which might be good for your music stuff.

As for the processor, I would get the 2.6 GHz. When I'm playing racing games (Test Drive Unlimited, GTR2) I frequently find myself using every bit of it (I'm set up using higher-than-medium graphics settings on my games but not the highest). Upgrading now means that your computer will stay up to date a little bit longer but you do pay more and things become out of date very quickly anyway.

Do you currently use a Windows PC for gaming? If you could still get by with playing games on that I would keep that, get a 15" MBP with minimum specs, and save up for a faster Windows PC in the future. What are your main reasons for a new computer? Do you need to have a super-powerful laptop or will a semi-powerful workstation laptop (MBP) work? Do you plan on using OSX to do your music stuff or Windows? If you are rarely ever going to use OSX, then I would just get a Windows-based computer.

You won't see much difference between the 2.6 and 3.06Ghz processors. You'll shave a few minutes off an hour's video encoding, but in every day use you won't notice.

Call of Duty 4 runs very well on the Radeon 2600, which is on a par with the GeForce 8600, so no worries there.

There's not a huge difference between the iMac and MBP. Both are great machines, so only you can decide if you need a laptop or a desktop.

Bear in mind, a 24" screen is vastly larger than a 17"!

Well I'm selling my windows machine actually and when i said source games i didn't mean Open Source... Source as in the engine thats used to play certain Half-Life 2 based games on Steam... Which would be through bootcamp...
I wont be playing games on the Mac Side

But my last question is... will the Hi-Res Option for the MBP effect performance greatly on 3D based games?.. i mean i know it will definately make a difference... but how much because i suppose its more of a novelty but it would be nice to have...

A question for you... if gaming is as important to you as it seems, why are you even considering a Mac?
If all you intend to do is run the games under a Windows partition, it would seem counterproductive to get an Apple computer.
You would be better off with a truly native Windows machine.

I'm running Half-Life 2 Episode 2 on my 15" MBP on medium settings just fine. Of course the fans start spinning and I think it's going to take off like a space shuttle. Just to let you know it recommended me for higher settings, but I decreased them just to make sure I got a good framerate.

My MBP only has a 128 ATIx1800 and a Core Duo processor. So obviously the newer one's will play it better.

I agree with D3v1L80Y...if your main concern/priority is gaming...don't even consider getting a Mac.

DocZ06 said:

You'll need at least a Quad-Core Mac Pro running Linux

Click to expand...

What?

To the original poster.

The MBP is fine for occasional gaming, as is the iMac (the latter is marginally better than the former), but really, you could get a Windows machine for less money that would be more capable than either.

On the music side, what are you planning to use? Logic Pro is the only compelling reason to go to Mac, although it's a VERY good reason. I use Logic Pro myself. If you are going to use Cubase or Ableton Live, then these run well on Vista, although they actually run a lot better on OS X.

Think about the gaming side. COD4 should run fine, but if you're going to want to play newer UE3 or Crysis based games, you're going to spend a lot of dinero on a Mac for very little muscle.

Zoolook said:

On the music side, what are you planning to use? Logic Pro is the only compelling reason to go to Mac, although it's a VERY good reason. I use Logic Pro myself. If you are going to use Cubase or Ableton Live, then these run well on Vista, although they actually run a lot better on OS X.

Click to expand...

I do plan on using Logic, and garageband for the easy of use and fun.

D3v1L80Y said:

A question for you... if gaming is as important to you as it seems, why are you even considering a Mac?
If all you intend to do is run the games under a Windows partition, it would seem counterproductive to get an Apple computer.
You would be better off with a truly native Windows machine.

Click to expand...

Gaming is not my only reason for the mac.. (first post) Also not counter productive cause i need a high performance machine for running multiple effects on multiple tracks. Otherwise i would just buy the regular mac book... then buy a windows laptop for games... the MBP seems to cover both bases....

I suppose I could get a smaller iMac and a windows laptop though... I'll keep that in mind... but that MBP is just so sexy....


Still however nobody has quite answered my question about the Hi-Res

pappienono said:

Obviously gaming is not my only intention (first post)

Click to expand...

Yes, I read your first post, but your focus seems to be heavy on the gaming performance of the machine.
The only other possible use that you mentioned was your "music recording endevours [sic]".
That is a rather broad and generic statement. You have neither offered any explanation nor expanded on the idea of what sort of recording you would like to do with the machine.

In a stark contrast, you have gone into great detail with your affinity and interest towards gaming on the computer.

When someone puts that much attention to detail on gaming, they are much more often than not disappointed when they put their money down on a Mac.

And if gaming isn't your primary or secondary or even tertiary intent, then what is your reasoning and motive for wanting to get a Mac?
If all you continue to ask about is gaming performance, then I will stick by the idea that you shouldn't get one. Get a high-performance Windows machine and you would be much better off, in my opinion.

EDIT

Since you have edited your post, I will add to mine.

cause i need a high performance machine for running multiple effects on multiple tracks.

Click to expand...

What program are you thinking about running tracks in?
What sorts of "multiple effects" are you thinking about, and what kind of track will they be for (instrument/vocal)?
Are you interested in recording live instruments/vocals or just software ones?
Are you more interested in final mixing and editing or actual recording?

Between the two choices, I'd go with the iMac. It has a better processor, faster hard drive, and noticeably more impressive video card (assuming you're getting the model with the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS with 512MB of video RAM). That said, something with a Core 2 Extreme or better sounds more appropriate for your needs, so take that as you will.

I did not mean to come across in an arrogant manner, if thats how it seemed then i apologize.

The reason I'm mainly concerned with the gaming performance is because I know that both macs can withstand what I intend to throw at them from the music recording end... so the performance from the side is not questionable, the gaming side is however a bit more trivial. Its more, as you said, a secondary purpose of this machine...

To test waters I purchased a Mac Mini a few months because i've been craving a mac since OS X's release. I hardly use windows anymore and when i do its the occasional TF2, or Counter-Strike: Source. So now I'm looking for more power. Portability would be convenient because I do record in other locations.

As far as recording I will be using a few of the following, Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase, and of course Garage Band.
For effects i will be using compression, delay, reverb, graphic eq. on both Live Intruments, Vocals, and Software tracks.. and in some instances uses of two or more delay plugins on a single track.

Some of my recordings will be close to upwards of 25 tracks, most more than likely with effects.

I really don't know many musicians that would use Cubase, Logic, Pro Tools AND Garageband at the same time. Basically 3 DAWs and a toy... that doesn't make sense unless you're a student and are going to be learning how to use each. Assuming you're just trying to cover all the bases, I'd say the Mac gives you better flexibility and stability in this arena. IMO, CoreAudio is better than ASIO and way better than Vista's polling based mess.

To be completely honest, in terms of a notebook, there is little to choose between a MacBook and a MBP when you're using music software, other than the screen size and the Firewire 800 port on the MBP. An iMac also now gives you Firewire 800, so no issues there.

Yeah Im heading into the music school and would like to be well versed in all