My notebook/desktop/monitor conflict!

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Hello all, I am an aspiring photographer / graphics designer currently using an 8 month old 15" MBP with 2.16ghz and 2 gigs of ram. I have been drooling over the 23" Cinema display for months now and was about to purchase it when suddenly the new iMac was released. Now I am torn between the 24" iMac and using a 23" cinema display with my MBP.

I feel that a desktop would be great for me since I take my laptop with me everywhere and it would be nice to have a computer dedicated to graphics design and photo editing. I would love a Mac Pro, but it is way out of my budget.

What I am asking for opinions on, and please feel free to explain in depth, is whether or not I will be able to run Photoshop, iTunes, and Safari all at once happily on the MBP + Cinema display or if realistically a desktop is needed. I could go for the iMac, but I feel that for the hefty price it is not as great for graphics / photo editing as it should be. Also, the glossy screen on the iMac is a turnoff for me as I enjoy matte surfaces. Thanks guys.
 
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Does the MBP run PS, iTunes and Safari at once now with no issues? I'd be stunned if it didn't, and if it does, then the 23" display will make no difference.
 
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Yes, it runs okay right now but I've noticed the machine runs considerably slower than it did when I first purchased it. How big/noticeable is the difference between 2.16 and 2.4ghz? I read somewhere that one con of the new iMac's is that they only have 800ghz FSB. I don't know what that means, but how much do the MBP's have?

I'm at the point financially where I can afford to spend $2,200 on the iMac but would much rather only spend $800 on the cinema display. I'd like to not cut corners if possible for the graphics editing but if the MBP's performance is very similar to the iMac the monitor is a better purchase imo. I plan on using this setup for at least the next 2 years for 6-8 hours a day and need to be sure it can survive the wear and tear.
 
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Yes, it runs okay right now but I've noticed the machine runs considerably slower than it did when I first purchased it.
When was the last time you:

Cleared out caches?

Allowed nightly/weekly/monthly maintenance scripts to run?

Repaired Permissions?

If your answer is, "I don't know/I have no idea what you are talking about"... then download Onyx and have a go with it.
 
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The iMac is essentially a notebook without a battery and a stand for it to sit on the desk.

The FSB (short for Front Side Bus) is the interface that the processor uses to talk to the memory with... so faster is better. HOWEVER, in my subjective opinion you will not see a real-world difference between an 800MHz FSB (such as in my MBP and the new iMac) and the 667 in your MBP.

Other than that, you should be aware that the current iMac is, while probably a bit faster than your MBP in the 3d graphics arena, a dog compared to the current MBP... This will not affect you if all you want to do is PS, iTunes, safari and other general-use stuff.

As far as 2.16 vs. 2.4 goes... you're talking a difference of 240MHz-something like 11%. It will be faster, probably measurably so. BUT, unless you stick the 2.16 next to the 2.4 and watch them both do the same task, I don't think you'll notice the difference. The big advantage to upgrading would be to get support for 4GB of RAM... but if you're not maxing out 2GB, that won't matter to you.

There are probably some ways to help speed up OSX without resorting to the drastic step I'm about to propose, I don't really know. I do Mac hardware and I do PCs; I don't do Mac software. My only real suggestion is to back up your data, wipe the drive and reinstall OSX.
 
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Hello, I have the same MBP as you (see avatar) and I noticed after a while it slowed down too. I would consider the following:

1) How much free space is on your hard drive? It's good to always have at least 6 or 8 gig free, preferably more. This can be fixed by deleting anything you don't need. If it's an application, search the application's name in spotlight AFTER you deleted it from the trash and delete any remaining .plist files and the like. I got rid of the HP printer driver for my officejet 4215 all-in-one because after the updates the driver for it was included with the OS and that helped quite a bit w/ boot time.

2) Run disk utility both when booted normally AND form the OS X disk. Sometimes running it from the OS X disk finds more stuff than running it while booted from the hard drive.

3) Get rid of unnecessary startup programs. You can do this by going into the system prefs>user accounts>login items and remove anything you don't need.

Next, your MBP has a 667mhz FSB (Front Side Bus) and the newer MBPs and iMacs have an 800mhz FSB, as well as more processor cache and 64bit instruction sets. Translation: a new iMac won't make a huge difference if you're primarily using the computer for Photoshop. Of course faster is always better, but that doesn't mean it's essential.

As per the monitor, you can get a very nice 24" monitor that runs the same 1920x1200 resolution for much less than $800 (one such example here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009113 ). Cinema monitors are nice, but I would never spend that much money on a display of that dimension. In fact, that Acer monitor I gave you the link to has both a better contrast ratio and response time, so definetely shop around for displays. Just about any monitor that works with DVI can plug right into your MBP, so don't worry about compatibilty. I've use mine with an HDTV through an HDMI adapter, 15"-19" LCDs, projectors, and 17"-19" CRTS and I can safely say all of them worked just fine. Good luck!
 

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