New to Mac

Hello All, I am seriously thinkig of switching over to a Mac Pro and could use a little help.I use Lightroom 4 as a

hobbyist and possibly CS6 in the near future.I have found this Mac for sale and could use some advice as if it's

agood buy or not and could also use some wisdom as to what to buy if what is listed isn't good enough.Thanks for

your time.

 

Model Name: MacBook Pro

Processor Name: Intel Core i5

Processor Speed: 2.53 GHz

Number Of Processors: 1

Total Number Of Cores: 2

L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 3 MB

Capacity: 500.11 GB (500,107,862,016 Bytes) / SATA

Memory: 4 GB

Processor Interconnect Speed: 4.8 GT/s

Intel HD Graphics

NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M /256 MB

Resolution: 1440 x 900

Glossy Finish: 15.4"

Backlit E/J keyboard

Running OSX Version 10.6.8

Brand new magna-link electric cable

<p>This isn’t anything super robust in terms of a Macbook Pro! And you start off talking about a Mac Pro which is a tower. The MacBook I have is 3 or so rev’s back and is running 2.66 Core i7 and LR runs OK. <br>

You can find pretty good refurb’s from Apple on the Apple store. Also check dealmac.com. <br>

Is it really a good buy? </p>

<p>Mac Pro: big tower computer. MacBOOKPro: high-end laptop in several sizes.</p>

<p>It's not a bad configuration, but without knowing the price, and the price of new machines in your local area, it's hard to tell if it is a "good buy". It is a mid-2010 model, so not too old, but it is not the most recent model, either.</p>

<p>My advice would be to go to your local online Apple Store (<a href="http://store.apple.com">http://store.apple.com</a> and if you are not in the US, pick your country from the "change country" link near the bottom of the page) and see what the current model of the 15" MacBookPro sells for. Also see if your country has a "sale" link on that site. Some places, you can get refurbished units at a discount with full factory warranty. Look for a blue icon with "SALE" or "SAVE" or the local equivalent toward the bottom of the left column on the web page.</p>

<p>You do want to maximize the RAM in the machine (8GB in the one you mentioned), and, if you do not buy that one, get one with an i7 processor if you can afford to. It's a small improvement, but it can't be added later.</p>

<p>I am not a Mac person; I run Windows on a PC, but looking at the hardware on your machine...</p>

<p>1) It is a dual core i5 with no hyper-treading capability. That may be OK for Lightroom, but Photoshop CS6 will make good use of up to 6 cores and OK use of more. At least CS5 would; CS6 may have improved.</p>

<p>2) Your hard disk is 500 Gigabytes; a bit small if you will have many photos. Since there is but one disk, you will need an external disk for backups. It also means your Photoshop scratch disk will be on the same physical disk as your paging area and operating system.</p>

<p>3) Main RAM is only 4 Gigabytes (yes, I know when did 4 Gigabytes become <strong><em>only</em></strong>?I would say about two years ago.) This may be fine for Lightroom, but Photoshop will run better with more.</p>

<p>4) The amount of display memory is about minimum for use with Open GL in Photoshop. More would be better.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>save your money, get a Imac instead of this macbook pro.. you have the best of both world.. more than you need as far as power, big 27inch screen, i7, quad processor.. for 50% less than a mac pro (witch is a tower that need a monitor).<br>

If you still want with a portable computer (laptop) go with anything new.. older technologies mean less support for newer software, and many time, you dont save a lot of money since you will need to upgrade sooner than later to something more powerfull...</p>

<p> </p>

Thanks you all for your advice...I can get this laptop for about $650.I am really not in a hurry but the person who is selling this unit wnats to do it quickly for financial reasons.I looked at the apple site in Tokyo and there wasn't really any great deals on used or refurbished.I will check dealmac.com later.

Do you think $650 is a good price for this unit? Thanks for your time....

<p>I'd gobble that up for US $650. Take some extra cash and max the RAM out to 8 MB, and you'll be good to go for a while. I'm still using a 2006 MBP with only 3 GB of RAM, processing pics from my Canon 7D, so you ought to be fine for several years yet.</p>

<p>You can always add external drives (I have 4.5 TB attached to my MBP via FW800), and get an external display up to 27".</p>

<p>No, it's not as good a configuration as you could spec new from Apple, but it is still quite capable.</p>

<p>No laptop screen is adequate for "serious" photo editing. If that's your goal, I agree with Patrick, get an iMac. If you do go with a laptop, and a Macbook Pro is a good one, I have an old one I use for travel, you'll need to budget for an external monitor as well as some external storage, like Larry, (which you'll need with an iMac as well.) If you get an external monitor and want high quality, budget for a hardware calibration device as well, i1 profiler, or Spyder. Laptops are great for many things, but high quality photography is not one of them.<br>

Good luck.</p>

<p>Sounds as if that laptop is the same model as mine. It's just fine for running Aperture (and probably Lightroom). I have no experience of CS6. You might find adding more memory will be advantageous - I'm fine with 4GB but it does creak occasionally.</p>

<p>I <strong>would</strong> advise adding a decent monitor to it though - the model is capable of using two screens - and making sure you colour calibrate both that and the laptop screen. The extra monitor will, of course, add to the cost but may be a good compromise especially if you value the portability of the laptop.</p>

Thanks for your help but that particular laptop already sold which will give me more time to think about switching over to Mac...Thanks again for your time

<p>At $650, if in good condition is a great deal. Max the ram at 8GB and it will run LR 4, Aperture, CS5 or CS6 quite well. Its not as good as a quad core model or especially the nice big screen iMac, but if you want/need a laptop that's a great price. Check out ebay for similar models and see what they are going for. BTW. I have a 2.4 core duo 2 and it runs CS5, LR4 and even Aperture without problem using 8 GB ram.</p>