Should I get a Mac book or Mac book pro for my needs?

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Hey everyone! I've been looking at this forum for a couple weeks now and haven't found anyone with my specific requirements, post on which mac to get. Sorry if I didn't see someone elses post.

I am a geography grad student in need of a new laptop and have decided on a mac. I'm just not sure which one. Right now I'm on a 4 and a half year old IBM T30 Thinkpad which is so slow and I'm hating windows.

Here are what I need to run on the laptop:
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Parallels to run ArcMap a GIS software program only for Windows which I will use to export maps to then edit in Illustrator/Photoshop
Web surfing/email
Word type program to create documents to be read by others with Word, ie excel type sheets, powerpoints, papers, etc.
Statistical programs
Chat programs
Itunes

My main use would be editing maps/images in Adobe, and this is why I have decided on a mac, I first just need to get the data out the ArcMap software.

What do you guys think Macbook or Macbook Pro? My thoughts on the Macbook is that it is smaller, so more portable and cheaper so I could get a large monitor as well (have about $2100 to spend). But the Macbook Pro is more powerfull with ram up to 3gbs and if I got it I probably wouldn't get the extra monitor just work with the 15".

Thanks.
 
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Black Macbook 2ghz C2D, 2gig Ram, 120gig HD / 60gig Black Ipod Video / 2nd Gen Ipod Shuffle
I have a macbook and I'm able to run Photoshop CS3 just fine. The new CS3 being universal runs a lot better on the macbook than previous versions. if you're gonna do a lot of rendering and any 3D work though you'd probably want to go with a macbook pro. I mainly use photoshop for Photo editing and it doesnt have any problem handling that. Whichever way you go though you'll definately want 2gigs of ram. I haven't ran illustrator yet so I don't know how it handles that.
 
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MacBook Pro 15" 2.33Ghz Core2Duo, 2Gb Ram, 120Gb HardDisk, X1600 256Mb & I LOVE Every Inch of her
quick glance on ur needs is that you will be staring at the screen for a long time in a single seating...

so a larger screen is what i would recomend. Screen space gets a little tight on photoshop on the macbook.

travel alot or will be leaving the mac at home? the other alternative is to hook it up to a larger screen when at home if u get the macbok.
 
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iMac 17" 1.8GHz C2D iSight 1GB RAM 160GB HDD
MacBook Pro probally, you need a good laptop for hardcore programs.
Get like 2GB RAM, 2GHz Processor and your fine.
 
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Well I would need to take the laptop to campus daily to take notes and to do work. So thats why I'm kind of leaning towards the MB but the MBP might better suit my needs. I will probably get a LCD monitor with either of the laptops to use at home.

Also, I am a student, is the ADC one-time discount the best price I can get for either laptop?
 
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MacBook white, 2.0 Intel Core 2 Duo Pro, 2 GB RAM, 13" screen
If you can get to an apple store, maybe spend some time on both during a few different visits. Call and see if they have those programs so you can really see how much screen space you have. My MB is heavy enough although I would love the extra screen room, I just don't think I want more weight. It's a tough choice. However I don't use some of the apps you're using, so that's the real issue. I do use PS2 and DW and a word processor and surf and email at the same without problems (and usually a few other things open as well).
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Apple Black MacBook 2 GB RAM, 2.0 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo Proecessor, 120 GB HD. 30 GB Black iPod Video
The MacBook could technically do all of that. But if you can afford it, go for the MacBook Pro. Go for the 15" since portability is an issue.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
MacBook Pro 15" 2.33Ghz Core2Duo, 2Gb Ram, 120Gb HardDisk, X1600 256Mb & I LOVE Every Inch of her
i posted in another post when someone else did ask the qn of the 15 or 17 MBP...

best is if you could go to an apple store and try your hands the MB and MBP's

only by trying out yourself will you know which one you prefer. I played with all 4, 2 of my friends had the MB's white and black, and i got to play with the 15 and 17 MBP.

althought i know that i would never get the MB because the screen was just too small for me, so it was just playing around with the 15 and the 17

haven been carrying my MBP around that much, but my old IBM T41 was around 5lbs and the MBP is 5.6 lbs, so not that much difference for me.
 
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2007 iMac 10.6.8 | 2009 MacBook uni 10.6.8 | 2010 MBA 10.8.5 |
The MBP weight is dispersed over a larger area so when I picked it up it didn't feel that much heavier than the MB. I agree, sounds like you'd be better off with the Pro!
 
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Portability isn't an issue with any of the Apple notebooks.
I currently have a 15" PowerBook that I take with me just about everywhere.
Plenty of people at my school at 17" 'books. Not a single person complains about size/weight/portability. After all, they are "portable computers".
The larger models don't feel heavier to me at all. In the past few years, I have had plenty of iBooks and PowerBooks of all sizes. The extra pound/inch or so difference between the models is negligible.
 
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MacBook Pro 15" 2.33Ghz Core2Duo, 2Gb Ram, 120Gb HardDisk, X1600 256Mb & I LOVE Every Inch of her
i think dimensionally the 17" was not meant for carry around daily... although i believe that it would be somewhat in the same weight range as the other brands of laptops, but due to it's larger screen dimensions, maybe it was meant more for a desktop replacement but with the option of moving it around some.

but hey, the best suggestion is to go in and get ur hands on those babys and see which one you like, asking and reading posts here won't really help you much because at the end of the day, the money is coming out from your pocket and you are the one using it for the next 3 - 5 years
 
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Thanks for everyones help. I've decided to go with the Mac book Pro.

Does anyone know if the ADC one-time discount is the cheapest way to go?
 
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Thanks for everyones help. I've decided to go with the Mac book Pro.

Does anyone know if the ADC one-time discount is the cheapest way to go?

From everything I've read/researched you should check your ADC and compare that to those MBPs listed on the Apple online store refurb page. I don't recall what my uni professor friend said his ADC discount rate is; but refurbs typically go for about 20% less than retail.

I'm typing this on my new 15 in. MBP C2D. It's technically a refurb; but it looks absolutely new. It even came in the same black briedcase style box that you'd get at a brick 'n' mortal Apple store. So far, after three days, it's flawless.
 
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I have one of each (am uni prof) and I actually like the MB for mobile stuff and leave the MBP at home. Both have 2GB ram and are quite zippy and both have XP installed using bootcamp - again extremely zippy.

The university discount is probably less than 10%, so the refurbished option would be the best deal.

A few salient facts were not mentioned above...
The MBP's get hot. I'm talking Africa hot. The whole case is a heat sink and you do not want to set it on your lap.

The battery life on the MB is much better than MBP. I did just install the "battery update" so that may end up helping, but right now battery life is less than 90 min. If I want to get any real work done with the MBP, I need to be plugged in.

I would recommend the black MB and an external monitor for home use since the price diff between the 2 is significant - you could buy a pretty nice display with $1k.

Or you can go with the pretty silver MBP, don't plan on setting it on your lap, and make sure there is a power outlet handy. This is what I do.

Also, don't even think about getting a Linksys wrt54gs router. It won't play well with the MB or MBP.
 
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Cool post bnsteel you've answered some questions I didn't know I wanted to ask!
I'm going to change my tack now on what I'll go for.
I.E. a MB rather than a MBP, as I want the mobility and although I'll have power available I do like not having to constantly plug it in. I'll look at getting a iMac as well at a later stage...
 
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The video cards on 3d is mainly for viewing on screen graphics, rendering is done by the processor. You can do 3d on the macbook, but you wont be able to load heavy scenes, for simple box modeling the macbook is fine.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
24" iMac 2.16 GHz 15" MBP C2D 2.33 GHz 2GB RAM, Black Video iPod 80GB
for me, I initially thought about going with a MacBook, tried it out for a while, but decided that what I really wanted was a MBP. Really came down to screen real estate and the matte thing, since I do some photo editing, most of it is done on my iMac but since I'm mobile sometimes it will help there too. I was thinking of going for 2MB of RAM anyways, and a slightly bigger hard drive might be beneficial to me for all of the digital media that I'll be carrying around. Not a real gamer at the moment, so the better graphics card on the MBP is probably not something that I'll be taking advantage of anytime soon.

I'm happy with my decision to go with a MBP it ain't much heavier to me than a MacBook. But if you don't mind a smaller glossy screen, and not a gamer then definitely nothing wrong with a MB.

Kelvin
 

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