Buy now or wait? SSD or not?

[pashko]

Hey everyone! Thank you for taking the time to read my post and help me out!

I currently have a 2007 Macbook Pro and the screen has started to go on me. It has out-lived its warranty so I cant get them to replace the motherboard for free. I have taken apart my notebook and checked all the connections and the issue still persists. So I have decided to get a new 15inch Macbook Pro and wanted to know what your thoughts are on the matter?

This is what I will be using it for:
-Editing photos from my D700 just about every other day. I will be using Photoshop 5 and Lightroom.
-Playing Starcraft 2 in my free time
-I will be using it for notes in class (I go to UCI) and I will need it to be a desktop replacement

So here are the options I am looking at:
Upgrading to the 2.3Ghz
Not sure what I should choose in terms of storage? 750 or 500gig? Or 128 SSD?
-Forgot to mention I have a 500gig external hard drive that is completely full of photos, so yes I take and edit a lot.

Also is it worth waiting for Lion and the free iPod in the summer? Thanks again!

 

[pedrofan]

If you are using it for photo editing:

CPU: the cpu power will impact in the proccesing speed, for example applicating filters in photoshop or rendering with vray. In my opinion any of the new i7 are very good for this. And you are not going to notice a big improvement from going to the 2,2 model to the 2,3 one for the money..

SSD: it will impact in the speed opening a lot of big pictures in photoshop, for example. So the faster the ssd is the less time you are going to take to open pictuers in the ram. This is a big recomended upgrade for you. Go for one of the new sandforce's ssds that offers transfers peaks of 550mb/s. So you can calculate:

Opening 4gb of photos of your last journey at the time in the stock HDD (60mb/s more or less) would last: 4000/60 = 66 seconds. In a vertex 3 (520mb/s) = 7,69 seconds. The same when saving changes. Real times and speeds may vary, but you can make an idea. Apple SSDs are getting 160mb/sec, so it is not a super big improvement but enough for noticing it. So I recomend you to waste the money on this and not in the cpu upgrade.


RAM: the more ram you have the more pictures you can have opened at the time for working with them. So go for the 8gb upgrade as it is not so expensive and you will have a more confortable working space. So ram upgrade is so recomended for you. You can find third parties ram modules at a big value, so go for them.

GPU If you are going to play... go for the 6750... You are going to love it and it will be very noticeable when playing.


Screen get the antiglare option without thinking.

 

[pedrofan]

Macbook pro's have just been upgraded, if you buy one now you are going to enjoy it more time before the next one hits the market. So if you have the money, don't wait for an ipod... The more you wait the less you are going to amortize your macbook pro.

Lion upgrade may cost arround 30$, so dont worry about it.

 

[pashko]

Macbook pro's have just been upgraded, if you buy one now you are going to enjoy it more time before the next one hits the market. So if you have the money, don't wait for an ipod... The more you wait the less you are going to amortize your macbook pro.

Lion upgrade may cost arround 30$, so dont worry about it.

Right but it will also take up even more space. So if I go with the SSD I will be left with even less space.

 

[pashko]

If you are using it for photo editing:

CPU: the cpu power will impact in the proccesing speed, for example applicating filters in photoshop or rendering with vray. In my opinion any of the new i7 are very good for this. And you are not going to notice a big improvement from going to the 2,2 model to the 2,3 one for the money..

SSD: it will impact in the speed opening a lot of big pictures in photoshop, for example. So the faster the ssd is the less time you are going to take to open pictuers in the ram. This is a big recomended upgrade for you. Go for one of the new sandforce's ssds that offers transfers peaks of 550mb/s. So you can calculate:

Opening 4gb of photos of your last journey at the time in the stock HDD (60mb/s more or less) would last: 4000/60 = 66 seconds. In a vertex 3 (520mb/s) = 7,69 seconds. The same when saving changes. Real times and speeds may vary, but you can make an idea. Apple SSDs are getting 160mb/sec, so it is not a super big improvement but enough for noticing it. So I recomend you to waste the money on this and not in the cpu upgrade.


RAM: the more ram you have the more pictures you can have opened at the time for working with them. So go for the 8gb upgrade as it is not so expensive and you will have a more confortable working space. So ram upgrade is so recomended for you. You can find third parties ram modules at a big value, so go for them.

GPU If you are going to play... go for the 6750... You are going to love it and it will be very noticeable when playing.


Screen get the antiglare option without thinking.

Wow thanks!! I am definitely going with the HD antiglare screen.

 

[kappaknight]

I'd get the 15" 2.2 - in fact, that's actually what I upgraded to from a 2008 model.

Game wise, Starcraft II works just fine on it.

As for the SSD, I'd get one - but at least the 256GB version so it'd last you longer. (less NAND rewrites on bigger SSD's)

External storage is cheap these days so you can do the work onboard and store them elsewhere - on an external drive or back them up in the cloud via Dropbox, JungleDisk, or even using Transmit connected to a S3 volume. I can attest to Photoshop and Aperture opening a TON faster these days. Also, loading up new libraries and transmitting photos from the camera to the SSD is a ton faster than before. Don't think I can go back to regular HD's.

 

[Apple 26.2]

Macbook pro's have just been upgraded, if you buy one now you are going to enjoy it more time before the next one hits the market. So if you have the money, don't wait for an ipod... The more you wait the less you are going to amortize your macbook pro.

Lion upgrade may cost arround 30$, so dont worry about it.

Lion might actually come in around $129...

 

[Penn Jennings]

Hey everyone! Thank you for taking the time to read my post and help me out!

I currently have a 2007 Macbook Pro and the screen has started to go on me. It has out-lived its warranty so I cant get them to replace the motherboard for free. I have taken apart my notebook and checked all the connections and the issue still persists. So I have decided to get a new 15inch Macbook Pro and wanted to know what your thoughts are on the matter?

This is what I will be using it for:
-Editing photos from my D700 just about every other day. I will be using Photoshop 5 and Lightroom.
-Playing Starcraft 2 in my free time
-I will be using it for notes in class (I go to UCI) and I will need it to be a desktop replacement

So here are the options I am looking at:
Upgrading to the 2.3Ghz
Not sure what I should choose in terms of storage? 750 or 500gig? Or 128 SSD?
-Forgot to mention I have a 500gig external hard drive that is completely full of photos, so yes I take and edit a lot.

Also is it worth waiting for Lion and the free iPod in the summer? Thanks again!

I have a 2010 MBP 13 with 8 GB. I also use it for CS 5, video processing, programming with Xcode, running VMs and gaming (Wow, Call of Duty Total War).

In my experience, 8GB is almost a must if you plan if you plan on multitasking.

For gaming, the upgraded GPU is an absolute must.

The Hi-Res screen is worth doing, I personally don't like the anti-glare screen.

The CPU will not actually make much of a difference for photoshop work. Yes, it will help when you apply filters or run actions but in a typical 8 hours work session, a faster CPU might save you a only few minutes. It really depends on what you do and how you do it. People but way too much stock in CPU performance.

A SSD will make a very noticeable improvement in performance. However, 128 GB of internal storage is VERY limiting. If you are doing a lot of photo editing, you will need a good external storage strategy. If you shoot RAW with a new camera, every shot is going to use 15 - 20 MB. I can shoot 8 GB or more at a single shoot, event or wedding. Games can be 15 GB - 30GB. My iTunes library is about 100 GB....

Don't wait for Lion. Lion will be better but unless you KNOW that Lion does something for you that Snow Leopard doesn't, why wait.

Those are just my opinions. You milage will vary.

 

[aoaaron]

If you are using it for photo editing:

CPU: the cpu power will impact in the proccesing speed, for example applicating filters in photoshop or rendering with vray. In my opinion any of the new i7 are very good for this. And you are not going to notice a big improvement from going to the 2,2 model to the 2,3 one for the money..

SSD: it will impact in the speed opening a lot of big pictures in photoshop, for example. So the faster the ssd is the less time you are going to take to open pictuers in the ram. This is a big recomended upgrade for you. Go for one of the new sandforce's ssds that offers transfers peaks of 550mb/s. So you can calculate:

Opening 4gb of photos of your last journey at the time in the stock HDD (60mb/s more or less) would last: 4000/60 = 66 seconds. In a vertex 3 (520mb/s) = 7,69 seconds. The same when saving changes. Real times and speeds may vary, but you can make an idea. Apple SSDs are getting 160mb/sec, so it is not a super big improvement but enough for noticing it. So I recomend you to waste the money on this and not in the cpu upgrade.


RAM: the more ram you have the more pictures you can have opened at the time for working with them. So go for the 8gb upgrade as it is not so expensive and you will have a more confortable working space. So ram upgrade is so recomended for you. You can find third parties ram modules at a big value, so go for them.

GPU If you are going to play... go for the 6750... You are going to love it and it will be very noticeable when playing.


Screen get the antiglare option without thinking.

perfect advice. for your uses, go for the SSD.

 

[tcador]

agree with all recommendations above. i couldn't be happier with mine.

 

[johnnj]

SSD made a big difference for me in Lightroom when you import a group of photos and it does its preview generation. With my current laptop, there was also a big decrease in the amount of time it takes to go into Develop mode on a photo and to do any of the rendering tasks like printing and web gallery generation.

You'll be very happy with one of these new machines with a decent SSD in it.

I believe you should buy one right away.

 

[lilcosco08]

Hey everyone! Thank you for taking the time to read my post and help me out!

I currently have a 2007 Macbook Pro and the screen has started to go on me. It has out-lived its warranty so I cant get them to replace the motherboard for free. I have taken apart my notebook and checked all the connections and the issue still persists. So I have decided to get a new 15inch Macbook Pro and wanted to know what your thoughts are on the matter?

This is what I will be using it for:
-Editing photos from my D700 just about every other day. I will be using Photoshop 5 and Lightroom.
-Playing Starcraft 2 in my free time
-I will be using it for notes in class (I go to UCI) and I will need it to be a desktop replacement

So here are the options I am looking at:
Upgrading to the 2.3Ghz
Not sure what I should choose in terms of storage? 750 or 500gig? Or 128 SSD?
-Forgot to mention I have a 500gig external hard drive that is completely full of photos, so yes I take and edit a lot.

Also is it worth waiting for Lion and the free iPod in the summer? Thanks again!

Optibay the ssd

 

[NickZac]

It isn't worth waiting, as Lion will be about $25 to upgrade from SL, and I would not upgrade immediately or want the first systems that use Lion.

If you get the 15 without a SSD, you are not using that computer to its full potential and not maximizing your overall experience. The standard Apple brand (Toshiba) SSD is only about 50% as fast as the best aftermarket SSDs, but how much this affects actual program use is debatable and is surely not a 50% difference in performance. Since you use videogames, this difference may however be important for you, although it made no different to me and I got the Apple 128 SSD. Keep in mind that the Apple 128SSD will still run many, many times faster than the best enterprise grade hard disk drives.

 

[DarwinOSX]

The 2.0 ghz quad core is fine for what you want to do and the 6490 is ok for minimal gaming but barely. The only game I still play on a computer is CSSource and it's fine for that. For some reason Apple created a wider than normal difference this time between the two models gpus. 4GB is fine but 8 is cheap so why not. People who think they need more than 4 for multitasking aren't paying attention to their actual memory use. Once you have ssd you can't go back which should tell you that you really want ssd. Apples 128 for $100 is a good deal, is fully supported by Apple, and is plenty fast. Put a large hard drive in place of the optical. Hi res and antiglare are not for everyone btw. I like the glossy screens because they make colors pop and text looks sharper. I also like the standard res so I don't have to squint. The CPU difference is really about the 2.3 having greater cache and you won't notice the difference.

 

[pashko]

I have a 2010 MBP 13 with 8 GB. I also use it for CS 5, video processing, programming with Xcode, running VMs and gaming (Wow, Call of Duty Total War).

In my experience, 8GB is almost a must if you plan if you plan on multitasking.

For gaming, the upgraded GPU is an absolute must.

The Hi-Res screen is worth doing, I personally don't like the anti-glare screen.

The CPU will not actually make much of a difference for photoshop work. Yes, it will help when you apply filters or run actions but in a typical 8 hours work session, a faster CPU might save you a only few minutes. It really depends on what you do and how you do it. People but way too much stock in CPU performance.

A SSD will make a very noticeable improvement in performance. However, 128 GB of internal storage is VERY limiting. If you are doing a lot of photo editing, you will need a good external storage strategy. If you shoot RAW with a new camera, every shot is going to use 15 - 20 MB. I can shoot 8 GB or more at a single shoot, event or wedding. Games can be 15 GB - 30GB. My iTunes library is about 100 GB....

Don't wait for Lion. Lion will be better but unless you KNOW that Lion does something for you that Snow Leopard doesn't, why wait.

Those are just my opinions. You milage will vary.

Thank you so much for your input! Here is my concern, if I get the notebook now I am missing out on a free iPod and I will have to use up some of my SSD memory on installing the new operating system. Some people say it will only be $29 and some say it will be $150?

 

[Penn Jennings]

Thank you so much for your input! Here is my concern, if I get the notebook now I am missing out on a free iPod and I will have to use up some of my SSD memory on installing the new operating system. Some people say it will only be $29 and some say it will be $150?

Well, if you are willing to wait until August, then maybe you could get a free iPod.

As far as the cost of Lion goes. I purchased Snow Leopard last year for someone else and it was $29. I doubt that Lion would be much more but no one can say for sure. Besides that though, SL is still a fine OS. You don't "lose" anything by staying on SL for an extra month or 2. Many IT people recommend waiting a while before upgrading to a new OS anyway.

Flip a coin and go LOL

 

[Tadros]

I must warn you, if you are doing photography the antiglare screen would be much better. My girlfriend and her older sister are photographers and have been for about 10 years. My girlfriend bought an iMac that did not have an anti-glare screen option while her older sister bought an antiglare Macbook Pro. They both agree that though the glossy display makes photos look nicer, it also makes editing photos more difficult because the colors are not true. The anti-glare display shows the true color of the photo with no adjustments. They are both hi resolution, so I would say go with the anti-glare.

 

[Penguissimo]

As far as the cost of Lion goes. I purchased Snow Leopard last year for someone else and it was $29. I doubt that Lion would be much more but no one can say for sure.

For what it's worth, SL was the first OS X upgrade to only cost $29; every other 0.1 upgrade cost $129.

And OP, definitely max out your RAM, but don't do it through the Apple Store; it's a $180 upgrade to 8 GB. Order the laptop with the stock RAM, then order an upgrade kit from OWC or Newegg; you can get 8 GB for $80-120, AND still have your old RAM left over.

 

[punchwalk]

I'd wait until next year. SSD tech is maturing rapidly and you'll probably be able to get a much better bang for your buck in 2012. Also, I think Ivy Bridge will be worth the wait and Lion will have the first few crucial patches.