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Graphic Design student buying MBP

E

Ecelle

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hello everyone, Im planning on finishing my BA in Graphic Design and Im starting classes next month so I've been shopping for a mbp. I've never owned a Mac before so I'm pretty new to the whole scene(as far as purchasing one for myself) so I've been playing around with the features on the Apple store site and I've come to this:

MacBook Pro, 17-inch
2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Backlit Keyboard (English) / User's Guide
2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
250GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
MacBook Pro 17-inch Hi-Resolution Glossy LED Widescreen Display(This is a must for me!) Price after taxes: $2877.23

my question to you pros would this be enough to meet my needs, or should I add 2GB more of Ram and opt instead for the 200GB Serial ATA drive @7200 RPM Hard Drive(price after taxes: $2,925.38)? I do plan on doing some 3d modelling along with Design and Illistration work. I'm really not trying to spend more than 3K on a notebook, so are the two models such a big difference performance wise considering what I plan on using it for? any advise would be great, i'm trying to save as much money as possible but not end up with an inferrior machine.
 
Ecelle said:
I've come to this:

MacBook Pro, 17-inch
2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Backlit Keyboard (English) / User's Guide
2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
250GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
MacBook Pro 17-inch Hi-Resolution Glossy LED Widescreen Display(This is a must for me!) Price after taxes: $2877.23
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good machine, but what is your school recommending? Maybe you should find that out and go from there. Incidentally, you might want to reconsider the glossy screen since you will be dealing with color. Glossy look amazing, but matte is more accurate with color/contrast.
 
Ecelle said:
Hello everyone, Im planning on finishing my BA in Graphic Design and Im starting classes next month so I've been shopping for a mbp. I've never owned a Mac before so I'm pretty new to the whole scene(as far as purchasing one for myself) so I've been playing around with the features on the Apple store site and I've come to this:

MacBook Pro, 17-inch
2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Backlit Keyboard (English) / User's Guide
2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
250GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
MacBook Pro 17-inch Hi-Resolution Glossy LED Widescreen Display(This is a must for me!) Price after taxes: $2877.23

my question to you pros would this be enough to meet my needs, or should I add 2GB more of Ram and opt instead for the 200GB Serial ATA drive @7200 RPM Hard Drive(price after taxes: $2,925.38)? I do plan on doing some 3d modelling along with Design and Illistration work. I'm really not trying to spend more than 3K on a notebook, so are the two models such a big difference performance wise considering what I plan on using it for? any advise would be great, i'm trying to save as much money as possible but not end up with an inferrior machine.
Click to expand...
I am finishing up my BA in Film Production so I went through what you are doing last year... From my experience the two things that really made a big difference are a.) get as much ram as you can. This can be purchased after the initial order and you will save a little bit of money, but I just let the professionals do it and paid the premium so that I wouldn't mess it up. And be 7200 is much better than 5400 especially since you will be writing lots of data those are two of the more important things I learned... If you put those on you will be soo thankful you did in the long run.. also if money is an object I would look into the 15in. I was debating about the two and ended up going with the 15in and am incredibly happy I did. It is the perfect size where it is MUCH more mobile and you still have plenty of surface area.... the only other advice I have is I've heard that glossy screens are bad for design work because they don't show the true colors they beef them up a bit to make them look better... so that might be a problem for you... to what degree i'm not sure. I just took the plunge and got the glossy because i thought it looked much better for watching videos.. and i haven't noticed much of a color difference between my project on my mbp and my rendered exported projects played on anything from projectors to plasmas... so just a warning. Something to look into to... hope this helped... good luck to you in school..
 
THX1139 said:
Sounds like a good machine, but what is your school recommending? Maybe you should find that out and go from there. Incidentally, you might want to reconsider the glossy screen since you will be dealing with color. Glossy look amazing, but matte is more accurate with color/contrast.
Click to expand...

Good Point,I would then just go for the Hi-Def matte screen but what about the extra ram and hard drive? would it be a huge difference? Either way I know they both would be good enough for my school, but I want something that I could use somewhat professionally, as I plan on doing some free lance work between my day job and school.
 
mtfield said:
I am finishing up my BA in Film Production so I went through what you are doing last year... From my experience the two things that really made a big difference are a.) get as much ram as you can. This can be purchased after the initial order and you will save a little bit of money, but I just let the professionals do it and paid the premium so that I wouldn't mess it up. And be 7200 is much better than 5400 especially since you will be writing lots of data those are two of the more important things I learned... If you put those on you will be soo thankful you did in the long run.. also if money is an object I would look into the 15in. I was debating about the two and ended up going with the 15in and am incredibly happy I did. It is the perfect size where it is MUCH more mobile and you still have plenty of surface area.... the only other advice I have is I've heard that glossy screens are bad for design work because they don't show the true colors they beef them up a bit to make them look better... so that might be a problem for you... to what degree i'm not sure. I just took the plunge and got the glossy because i thought it looked much better for watching videos.. and i haven't noticed much of a color difference between my project on my mbp and my rendered exported projects played on anything from projectors to plasmas... so just a warning. Something to look into to... hope this helped... good luck to you in school..
Click to expand...


Thanks for the response, I was thinking about getting the 15 inch version but I've been hearing the opposite, that it's too small and it doesnt leave enough room when doing work, but if thats the case I could go for the smaller screen size in high def,and then get the 4gb of ram with the 7200 rps hard drive.I guess the best thing to do is go personally to the apple store and compare the two, God I hate making decisions!
 
You'd be better off getting the 15" and an external LCD. The 17" is just unwieldy, and you'll find yourself leaving it at home 99% of the time.
 
heatmiser said:
You'd be better off getting the 15" and an external LCD. The 17" is just unwieldy, and you'll find yourself leaving it at home 99% of the time.
Click to expand...


I dont think that would be such a problem, I'm actually finishing my degree online but I do plan on bringing it with me to work so that is food for thought.... just found out that you can't configure the 15 inch with high definition ><
 
heatmiser said:
You'd be better off getting the 15" and an external LCD. The 17" is just unwieldy, and you'll find yourself leaving it at home 99% of the time.
Click to expand...

A graphic design student won't mind lugging around such a bulk if it'll do an awesome job once at its location.

---To the OP---
DON'T BUY APPLE RAM

instead, buy from 3rd party. someone, like newegg, will do 4GB for $90

and as for specs...
17" Hi-res
7200rpm HDD
4GB 3rd party ram

and you're set....that'll be a supurb laptop
 
Genghis Khan said:
A graphic design student won't mind lugging around such a bulk if it'll do an awesome job once at its location.

---To the OP---
DON'T BUY APPLE RAM

instead, buy from 3rd party. someone, like newegg, will do 4GB for $90

and as for specs...
17" Hi-res
7200rpm HDD
4GB 3rd party ram

and you're set....that'll be a supurb laptop
Click to expand...



went to the apple store today and im definitely going with the 17'' Hi-res screen, I figure if i'm paying that much for a notebook I might as well get the bigger screen.Thank you everyone for the replys now I know exactly what I need to get.
 
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