Recommendation for a purchase for female

I asked this on another thread but I didnt mean to hijack the thread. So, I wanted to ask separately. (Thanks for answering before Stunner.)

I am getting a MAC for my wife because I am sending to school for graphic design and I have a friend who may be able to get her an internship at his company. He told me that she should know "indesign and quark". She does a lot of photoshop and Illustrator so I am thinking about getting the 17" MBP with the upper end graphics card.

I am unsure on the requirements of the need to pick up a 15" that has a limited resolution of 1480x900 (I think) and the 17" 1900x1200. My wife is a petite girl and I realize the 17" may be a bit too big for her. (I also have a friend who has one and she says it is very heavy to carry around.) The question is: Is it worth the $400+ to upgrade the 2" and the higher resolution or can a 15" perform just as well.

My plan was to upgrade the ram to 4gb (by myself) with upgrading to a faster HD (again by myself). Stunner offered a great opinion in regards to waiting until the new "upgrades" come out but I dont know if that is an option if I get her the internship by the end of this month. Or am I just being too foolhardy and I should just suck it up and wait until the new upgrades since they may lower the prices on existing equipment and/or provide better video for the same price I would of paid?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

well, buy now if u need it. get later if u can wait. i would say that the 15 ich one will suffice for most tasks.

 

The GPU doesn't play much role in Image editing.
Even the Macbook would be fine, unless you need a bigger screen.

 

The graphics card won't make a difference in your Photoshop/InDesign work, its reliant on the processor and RAM really, which the MacBook can also deliver. My suggestion is to have an external display at home, so it doesn't matter that the screen of either the MacBook or 15.4-inch MBP is too small, she'll just plug it to the monitor when she's around. I think that will solve most problems!

 

^ Not that I'm disputing any of the above posts, but apparently future versions of Photoshop will be revamped to take advantage of GPUs for use as General Purpose Graphics Processing Unit (GPGPU). As GPUs have far more processing power than CPUs today, it may be advantageous to purchase a computer with a decent GPU for Photoshop; but chances are that the 15" MBP graphics card would suffice. Anyway, just throwing it out there.

 

my suggestion is to get the base model of the MBP or the 2.5 ghz one. upgrade with a 320 gb HDd at 7200 rpm and upgrade ram to 4gb and install crapdows(windows) if u want using bootcamp.

 

That is correct, I don't remember if its actually CS4 or CS5, but they will be utlizing the GPU later on!

 

You should "suck it up and wait for the new hardware" IMHO. Get her a macbook pro with a 15" screen with 1440x900 resolution and an additional 24" monitor @ 1920x1200.

 

In less than 12 hours at the time of this writing, Apple will be making an announcement for new IPods. Some people, including me, believe Apple might announce updates to the MacBook and MacBook Pro. If Apple doesn't mention anything new about them, then I'd say its safe to pick up a new MacBook or MacBook Pro.

Since she will be using Photoshop and other Adobe products, getting the MacBook Pro would do nicely since it has a very good screen and the resolution on it is good as well. Photoshop generally uses the CPU for rendering so the faster the CPU, the faster the renders. As others have recommended, the MacBook Pro (15-inch) with an external hi-rez monitor (22-inch or 24-inch) would cover all angles.

Just a quick note, CS4 is slated to be 32-bit/64-bit for Windows only. The Mac version is said to be only 32-bit at this time. Also, its unclear weather CS4 will utilize the GPU in rendering content.

 

Yeah no problem. I am going to post what I initially posted because I was unsure of somethings and was not sure if someone wanted to correct me on something:

"Gimmie09, really hold off on buying until the new Macbook Pros roll out. There is a problem with the current graphics cards as well. The new macbooks will be rolling out within a month or so, so I highly recommend you wait.

And in terms of graphics i am no expert, but I am pretty sure the difference between the 8600M GT 256mb and 8600M GT 512mb is minimal because of a bottleneck created on the BUS or something like that... So don't opt for the highest graphics card. In terms of the screen, think of how portable your wife needs to be and buy according to that, because the difference between the 17" and the 15" is definitely noticeable. I as well as many others here would recommend you and your wife go to a local Apple store to check out the computers themselves before you buy.

Edit: Ohh right, and tomorrow Apple is supposedly updating its products. People are speculating it will only be the ipods though. But you never know..."

 

The weight issue may have more to do with the bag you use than the laptop itself. I would go ahead and get the 17" for the bigger screen, and then get a good back-pack or a real messenger bag (not one of those Targus over-the-shoulder bags, but something like a Timbuk2 bag that puts the laptop on your back) that will distribute the weight of the laptop.

 

Thank you all for your answers. With what I have come to a popular conclusion is that it is best to get a 15" and then use the extra money to purchase a better monitor. I am wondering if the mbp would be able to use my current 24" monitor, Spectre or just a non-Apple monitor? Also, in terms of the mbp screen... for editing... I have heard it is best to get the matte finish screen is best for having the closest thing to end production viewing versus getting the glossy screen in which makes colors vibrant but yet not a wysiwyg? Advice on that would be helpful...

 

Yes what you said about matte is true. Go for the matte, it displays colors much more accurately than a glossy screen and is therefore a much better buy for someone who works with photography or video.

 

I don't think it is CS4, Adobe's kind of said they won't be switching to 64-bit and stuff, so, I don't think they'd be doing that. I read about that though xD. Pretty sure it's at least CS5, but I'd even say CS6...
EMZ=]

 

Well, CS4 will be 64-bit for Windows but not Mac OS X because Adobe had to transfer all its code for the OS X version so they can't have it 64-bit in time!

 

If she will really be using the display for photo work, spend the extra money on a good quality external monitor. Make sure you get something that contains a S-IPS or H-IPS panel. (All Apple cinema displays currently have S-IPS panels). There is a colour difference for those who actually look at photos all day long.

You don't necessarily need to go with an Apple display, but they aren't much more expensive than the competition with high quality monitors, and have a much more appealing case.