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Coming to the darkside

L

lampielex

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 17, 2011
4
0
Hi all.

I have been a windows user for about 6 years and 4 years profesonaily, now i am looking to make the change to MAC.

I am looking on gumtree for a good deal, is this a good place ? anyone had any good/bad experiences ?

Im looking for a macbook pro than can run After effects/C4D as i will be designing content. I am 99% going to get the following

Macbook pro.
2.4ghz Quadcore i7
8gb Ram (Upgrade to 16gb when i can? )
750gb 7200rpm
15" HR Antiglare WS Display

would this be ok for what i want ?
I wont be doing any super advance rendering or anything like this yet, and if i do then i would build a tower for this.


My current set up (As my desktop fried) is laughable but wouldnt mind a comparason.

Celeron 2.6ghz duial core
4gb (I think its stupidly low htz)
GeForce 9700M GT 512MB VRAM

How much better is the macbook to this ?, sounds like a stupid question but i am new to mac and would like to know what im spending my money on


In the future i want to get an ipad1 to use as an exturnal controller for my live software (Could be module 8) as i am starting a live visuial/lighting company.




I have also convinced my GF to get a macbook pro, 2010 just for getting used to video editing on, the one im looking to get her is a 2.66duial core, is this enough ?


I will help people on the forum once i learn things.

Thanks in advance.

Alex
 
Hi Alex.

The MacBook pro you have specked out will be great for your needs. If you have extra cash to spend a solid state hard drive would be a nice upgrade.

For your girlfriend I would suggest a quad core MacBook pro as well as video rendering will be a lot faster compared to a dual core.
 
nippyjun said:
Hi Alex.

The MacBook pro you have specked out will be great for your needs. If you have extra cash to spend a solid state hard drive would be a nice upgrade.

For your girlfriend I would suggest a quad core MacBook pro as well as video rendering will be a lot faster compared to a dual core.
Click to expand...

cheers mate, I am buying it second hand but might upgrade when i can and when i learn what i can about hardware. Im currently touring with one and love it ! just so much easyer than windows.

Cheers for the help !

What about the 2.3 ghz with 8gb ram ? is there much difrence between the models ?


Thanks people !
 
lampielex said:
cheers mate, I am buying it second hand but might upgrade when i can and when i learn what i can about hardware. Im currently touring with one and love it ! just so much easyer than windows.

Cheers for the help !

What about the 2.3 ghz with 8gb ram ? is there much difrence between the models ?


Thanks people !
Click to expand...

2.3 was the old highest level option, now it's 2.5 GHz. When you think about the fact that they are quad core w/ hyperthreading (8 virtual cores), 0.1 GHz doesn't make much of a difference. They'll be able to handle just about everything you throw at them either way.
 
GuitarG20 said:
2.3 was the old highest level option, now it's 2.5 GHz. When you think about the fact that they are quad core w/ hyperthreading (8 virtual cores), 0.1 GHz doesn't make much of a difference. They'll be able to handle just about everything you throw at them either way.
Click to expand...

so to save money go for the lower one ? even know it has a lower spec GPU ? :s

I can get the 2.3ghz for 1300 and the 2.5ghz for 1450

Is it worth the extra 150 quid as they hold there value so in a year or so i can sell it if i dont get along with it ,
 
lampielex said:
so to save money go for the lower one ? even know it has a lower spec GPU ? :s

I can get the 2.3ghz for 1300 and the 2.5ghz for 1450

Is it worth the extra 150 quid as they hold there value so in a year or so i can sell it if i dont get along with it ,
Click to expand...

that's your decision to make. I wouldn't do it, but then again I don't care bout resale values because I use my computers until they die.

EDIT: Also IIRC the 2.3 has 8 MB L3 cache and the 2.4 only has 6 MB.
 
I just got my first MacBook Pro but I wouldn't call it coming to the darkside, to me it's more like finally seeing the light!
 
GuitarG20 said:
that's your decision to make. I wouldn't do it, but then again I don't care bout resale values because I use my computers until they die.

EDIT: Also IIRC the 2.3 has 8 MB L3 cache and the 2.4 only has 6 MB.
Click to expand...

I think the 8mb cache is pretty significant personally. If the OP is looking at the high end already, might as well get the highest high. To me, coming from a 2.3 early 2011 to a late 2.5 2011 - the difference was noticeable.

As already mentioned, one of the most significant upgrades one can make is the purchase of an SSD.
 
Ant.honey said:
I think the 8mb cache is pretty significant personally. If the OP is looking at the high end already, might as well get the highest high. To me, coming from a 2.3 early 2011 to a late 2.5 2011 - the difference was noticeable.

As already mentioned, one of the most significant upgrades one can make is the purchase of an SSD.
Click to expand...

So strait foward awnser

2.3ghz or 2.4ghz.

They both have lots of upgrades just not an SSD, will get one in the future.
 
Ant.honey said:
I think the 8mb cache is pretty significant personally. If the OP is looking at the high end already, might as well get the highest high.
Click to expand...
If you trust Benchmarks the difference can really be ignored for the most part. The extra Cache gets you maybe 1-2 percentage points in speed that is something close to the measure inaccuracy and definitely not worth a significant amount of money. The extra clock gets you more but still it is not worth it imo.
 
lampielex said:
So strait foward awnser

2.3ghz or 2.4ghz.

They both have lots of upgrades just not an SSD, will get one in the future.
Click to expand...

I would take 2.3 as i think you would be fine with it and the extra 0.1 doesn't really matter but you could spend the saved money on an ssd.
 
You are probably not going to notice a real world difference between the 2.3 - 2.5 unless you are a very heavy user and seconds an hour make a money difference for you.

In my case, they do. If I save 30 seconds for every 10 minutes, for every 10 hour day, 264 days a year, every year, it makes a marked difference in my income. For most it doesn't.

Get the 2.3

Also, get an SSD as there will be your most noticeable gains. Even if you can only afford a small, slower model at first compared to a platter drive it's a no brainer.

----------
dusk007 said:
If you trust Benchmarks the difference can really be ignored for the most part. The extra Cache gets you maybe 1-2 percentage points in speed that is something close to the measure inaccuracy and definitely not worth a significant amount of money. The extra clock gets you more but still it is not worth it imo.
Click to expand...

Certainly true. However 1-2% translates to 3-5% more money annually for me and that little bit translates to waaay more than the cost to go there.
 
lampielex said:
I am looking on gumtree for a good deal, is this a good place ? anyone had any good/bad experiences ?

Im looking for a macbook pro than can run After effects/C4D as i will be designing content. I am 99% going to get the following
Click to expand...

Why don't you look into the Apple refurbished store. Better than a used (& abused) MBP.

Does the design program run on OSX? Is the implementation as good as the windows version of the program?
 
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