MB Pro vs. iMac - Specific application

Hi everyone. I am a total Mac n00b, but I will be making my first Mac purchase in about a week (tax return time!). I don't want to start any kind of flame war about what's preferable between an MB Pro and an iMac so my questions are as specific as possible because both of them look great (it was hard for my wife to get me out of the Apple store 2 weeks ago).

I have a budget of around $1200-$1300 and I am going to be purchasing from the refurb area as I have had great success there with iPod touches and iPods. I am professional photographer and my purchase is going to be used largely to edit photographs. Now, while I would like the portability of the MB Pro, the 21.5" screen on the iMac is just gorgeous.

The thing is, I can get the base MB Pro for $999 and then purchase a nice 22-24" for around $200 external HD monitor to attach for editing and for also watching movies and web content.

At $1299 however, I could get the 21.5" iMac with a 1TB drive and ATI video card.

I am leaning towards the MB Pro because I really like the ability to have a more portable but I am concerned if the 2GB ram will be enough (along with the 2.26Ghz processor) for what I need to do and I'm not sure what costs are involved to upgrade the memory. If I got to the $1299 MB Pro (refurb) I am pricing myself out of the larger monitor.

My only frame of reference is to compare how they operate to PC based computers and I know that it's two different worlds, so any helpful advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Whenever the decision is between a laptop & a desktop computer...your main decision is how much do you need portability.

If you need or want portability...then get a laptop. If you don't really need portability...then get a desktop. It's really that simple!

Good luck,

- Nick

My thought is this: you can always make a laptop a desktop but it is VERY hard to make a desktop a laptop.....

Thanks to you both.

I guess the question then is this: Does the base MB Pro have enough horsepower to run apps like Photoshop and Lightroom?

Yes. >_>"

jaycaruso said:

Thanks to you both.

I guess the question then is this: Does the base MB Pro have enough horsepower to run apps like Photoshop and Lightroom?

Click to expand...

This is an important question...but...theoretically, if someone needs portability, a fast desktop still won't fit their needs.

Believe me...10-12 years ago when laptops were very very slow (compared to desktops)...folks that really needed portability just had to deal with less performance with the tradeoff being portability.

Fortunately for your demands...a MacBook Pro will give you the portability & computing horsepower you need.

HTH,

- Nick

jaycaruso said:

I am leaning towards the MB Pro because I really like the ability to have a more portable but I am concerned if the 2GB ram will be enough (along with the 2.26Ghz processor) for what I need to do and I'm not sure what costs are involved to upgrade the memory. If I got to the $1299 MB Pro (refurb) I am pricing myself out of the larger monitor.

My only frame of reference is to compare how they operate to PC based computers and I know that it's two different worlds, so any helpful advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Click to expand...

If you can find a refurb MBP with faster processor, go for it. 2gb RAM is ok and to buy 4gb (2x2gb sticks) on your own is roughly $120 USD. A 500GB 7200RPM hard drive would be about $130 USD to buy on your own. So there's some upgrades you can do at home and still have enough to get a good-size monitor.

For me if I was to get a MBP I'd only look for ones where I could get an internal 7200rpm hard drive in it. Cause for me the 5400rpm ones really don't thrill me at all. That's a big thing for me. But apart from that I think what everyone else has said above is right on the money.

the8thark said:

For me if I was to get a MBP I'd only look for ones where I could get an internal 7200rpm hard drive in it. Cause for me the 5400rpm ones really don't thrill me at all. That's a big thing for me. But apart from that I think what everyone else has said above is right on the money.

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That is a good point, but do bear in mind that hard drives (and memory) are a very easy and cheap upgrade to do after the fact.

Don't let a deficiency in memory or HDD be a major factor in your decision. Worry about the things you can't change, like GPU or screen size.

Get a 13 or 15" MBP and an external monitor if you need some portability and can only afford one computer.