Couple of Questions

They're answered out of order, but here it goes...

4) Santa Rosa is a chipset that will boost certain features in the portables (and all computers that use it). See the wikipedia entry here for clarification.

2) Leopard will be available on the portables as soon as it is released, probably in mid-June. If your Mac doesn't come with it installed at that time, they will either give you a Leopard install disc or a voucher to send away for it.

1) Since you are heavy into Photoshop and moving towards video...I'm guessing you'd appreciate the extra room for growth you'd get out of the Pro. If you plan on taking it to class, get the 15" and plan on saving for a bigger monitor if you feel you need it later.

 

All versions of Vista work with Boot Camp.

Only I think Ultimate, and Business work in Parallels. This is because Microsoft doesn't want you running their precious operating system in ways that could make it easier to get a virus, ie. running through virtualisation (WTF is the connection? I don't have a clue!). That basically means Microsoft likes to screw with Apple customers, who of course should not have bought a Mac, so they could control what operating system you use.

I agree, MBP is worth it if you are using Photoshop. List here half dozen reasons why MBP is better than MB. However, it is all up to you whether you think the better machine is worth the extra dough.

Oh, and MacRumour's Wikipedia Guides are your friend. Certainly much more user friendly than Google, although it does seem to often get filled with crap. That goes for everyone who will no doubt post questions without reading this post, and so won't know to use the MacRumours Guides first. Dammit. Well, at least this time people can spell "Santa Rosa". Nothing beats "Waiting for Memron" (ROFLMAO)

 

I would say the MacBook, Photoshop doesn't really use gpu its uses cpu and alot of ram, so if you get the MacBook get 2 gigs.

 

You could get by with a MB but I would get the MBP if you can afford it.
Reasons:
1. A MB can really slow down if you are using it to make presentations.
2. 2GB RAM is really the minimum to run Parallels. (2GB is the max in a MB, 3GB RAM in MBP.
3. The dedicated video chip/ram helps out a lot with performance. The shared ram for the MB just kills it.

I would try to wait until summer to see if Leopard is released and also Apple typically and an ipod/Mac deal for students.

 

It sounds like you could get away with a MB, but if you can afford it you may prefer the performance of a MBP for photo work etc. You'll probably get more life out of a MBP too. As for Leopard, buy your computer when it comes out in june/july. There may even be an update to the MBPs by August too.

 

Don't waste your money of features you don't need. From the sounds of it you don't use too many GPU intensive programs. My friends Macbook CD 1.83 can run Photoshop CS3 Beta really good, and he can run CS2 fine, just a little slow under Rosetta. The money you save could be put towords a new computer a few years down the road.

The Macbook is also more user servicable, becuase you have easy access to the hard drive if you ever wanted to change it. So my vote goes for the Macbook.

I think Bootcamp is supposed to come with all Macs with Leopard, right now you have to get it from Apples web site. The MBP and the MB should see the update at the same time.

There is a thread called the Macbook Appreciation Thread, you should take a look at that and dont listen to all of the people who are saying you need a MBP, from my perspective it looks like too many people are buying more than they need. The MB will be only a little bit slower than the MBP for you just because of the clockspeed.

Sorry for the long post I just get mad when people are ignorant and think if you do anything other than surf the internet you need a MBP.

 

If you are leaning toward the MB, then yes i would upgrade the RAM and the HD - both will increase the performance and life of the machine. My old PB performed very well longer than i would have expected, due in big part to the 100GB HD and 1GB RAM i installed. It's very easy to fill an 80GB drive these days, and i expect more RAM usage by programs in the very near future.

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Get the 2GB of RAM and the 120 is a good size. I will be purchasing a Macbook around June or July and will need to run bootcamp, so I was thinking of making the bootcamp partition 30GB and have 90GB for the OS X side. If you break up the 80GB drive you will see your space disappear quickly

 

Go 160GB aftermarket, you will save some serious cash. For the price of the 120GB upgrade, you can get a 160GB and use the 80GB as an external drive. Giving you 240GB of space as opposed to just 120GB, thats doubles

Upgrading the drive is cake, I would go with the Hitachi 5k160 which you can get for under $130 these days.

Go with white, unless you really like the black. I personally don't, but even if I did I would rather save the $200 bucks for other things.