Commit to switch?

I am slowly coming to terms into wanting to switch over to a Mac, possibly a macbook as my vista laptop is well, crap.

I am currently rocking:
Core 2 Duo 1.6Ghz
120Gb HDD
2Gb Ram
15" widescreen
Vista Home Premium

This set me back about £599 exactly one year ago. Now it is worth half that after discovering that this "Philips" machine, is an Advent branded machine.

I have been studying graphic design on a short course for a year and will be moving onto university in the summer. During then, macs have been the point of call when working on my designs digitally (eMac infact).

I will be studying Graphic Design & Photography next term and these are both very involved hobbies of mine.

I want to move onto a macbook possibly due to the mobility of use (I tend to use the internet a lot). I would find it helpful to work on my photos on location.

What I am wondering however is, Macbook or Macbook pro?

I did look at black macbook for a while due to the spec and the colour as I feel I could mess the white up easily. Macbook pro however has the dedicated graphics support.

This will be the programs I will be using with it:

Adobe Photoshop CS3
Adobe Illustrator CS3
Adobe After Effects CS3 (possibly, have only tried a couple of times from interest in typography)
Adobe Lightroom (may choose Apeture, if anyone has any opinions on which one is more effective?)

These all seem to run fine with my current spec.

I have around £1000-1200 to spend, however, I am skeptical into paying all of it.

So yeah, iMac, Macbook or Macbook pro? Please help. Thanks

Some examples of my work can be seen here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhysjonesphoto

Bear in mind you should be eligible for student discount, so check that out

Also peruse the refurb section of the Apple UK store, I saved £500 for a friend by recommending she go for a 2.4ghz over a 2.5ghz, going for a refurb and buying her own RAM upgrade

everyone on here will swear by the refurbs, they are if anything better than new since they have gone thru quality control twice, and a refurb may be even cheaper than new with discount

http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=MTE2ODI&nclm=Certified

and remember to buy any extra ram yourself from a good supplier like crucial

Good Advice ^^^^^

I love my refurb.

Discount

Thanks for the recommendation!

I forgot to add that I can also get 10% staff discount through the company I work with at the moment.

I would say get the Macbook if you have access to an external monitor. It's smaller, and lighter, and costs a lot less than an MBP. For Creative Suite, the video card isn't a factor really.

Definitely go with a macbook pro. If you are going to be doing graphic design and photography the pro is for you. You are going to wish you had the bigger screen (at least the 15.4") if you are editing images and doing graphics work. I would be miserable if I had to do my work on a 13.3" screen.

Having a "normal" keyboard instead of those terrible keyboards on the macbooks is a HUGE factor for me.

And...since you are doing photography and graphic design, I would go with a matte screen since the colors are a lot more true than glossy.

Good luck!

I'm a desktop person, but depending on how hardcore you plan on doing your designing, I'd say go for MBP. Invest in another monitor and peripherals. But at that point, you might as well go with an iMac, unless you want that portability, too.

discount

Well an external monitor could be a future possibility. 22" monitors are pretty cheap and the samsung ones look sweet.

I would like the 13" screen as it makes it more portable but dosent make the screen to small to understand (noticed that with many 11-12" laptops).

After noticing the refurb section , found a blackbook at £829 over its brand new version at £949. To be honest with 10% discount on the brand new one, its only a small difference to the refurb version.

The black macbook seems to be what i will end up with, any heating problems with them?

I just bought the 22" Samsung and am loving it. Very crisp

A 2.4GHz Penryn MBP is cheaper after HE student discount than a refurb. So grab your student ID card and go to an Apple Store. I've recently picked up a 2.4GHz MBP for just £1160 including AppleCare. This is a savings of roughly £400! MBP normally cost £1300 + £280 for AppleCare.

rjonez said:

Well an external monitor could be a future possibility. 22" monitors are pretty cheap and the samsung ones look sweet.

I would like the 13" screen as it makes it more portable but dosent make the screen to small to understand (noticed that with many 11-12" laptops).

After noticing the refurb section , found a blackbook at £829 over its brand new version at £949. To be honest with 10% discount on the brand new one, its only a small difference to the refurb version.

The black macbook seems to be what i will end up with, any heating problems with them?

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I'd really check into panel technology. That cheap 22" screen may look crisp, but it's color accuracy is more than likely not up to par if you're needing it to do design work.

Im not sure whats considered cheap. I paid 280 USD for mine though

samsung

for a samsung £220 is cheap. before discount. pretty cheap