Hey guys.
I will be traveling overseas within a month and will (almost definitely) be purchasing a 15" macbook pro, mainly for university (you strange Americans call it college). I'll be saving comfortably over NZ $1000 (Around US $800) simply from buying a relatively highly-specified model, to use while studying a Film degree and to meet my ever-increasing needs of processing my photography (large events & weddings) and of course, my film work. (Lighter everyday tasks included).
I've been caught up in many different suggestions of configuring my macbook pro. Speaking with many friends of mine, some recommend I stay away from an SSD mainly because of the price-capacity ratio, and the fact that given my budget, the 128GB wouldn't suffice. Additionally if I were to add a larger conventional drive into Optibay, that would essentially rule out most of the advantages of SSD (apart from boot & launch time which I barely care about). Hence he reocmmends I wait out around 2 years before I 'rejuvenate' my mac (around halfway through its expected lifespan) with an SSD that should be larger, cheaper and more reliable.
On the other hand, I've been really keen to do a 128 + 500/750/1TB configuration. I would store all my non-important things in my larger drive, and only important apps, OS and my current project files in the SSD. This would give me all the advantages of an SSD for my work that really does matter, and the non-important apps, music, thousands of emails & others in my conventional drive, which would be completely free of OS and large apps like CS5, FL, protools and the lot. I'll quite definitely be running Windows on there. 8GB RAM (with hopes of 16), antiglare, 2.2 with 6750M are pretty much certain.
Since I do produce a significant amount of work through my DVD drive though (when I say significant I compare with the majority of users who touch it once or twice in their lifetimes 😱) and retain the 128GB SSD. I could add a 32 or 64GB SD card, to leave more or less permanently in my Mac, for things such as my music files, email, and generally not-too-important stuff, just to boost the data strapped to my Mac. I would then run a FW800 500-750GB drive, and probably a larger >1TB desktop hard drive at home. This is a sketchy idea since SD cards cost even more $/GB and are much less reliable (and around the speed of a 2-year-old HDD)
I quite like the idea of running an iPad via Air Display actually - I will have my home television when I'm watching movies or simply want a crap-quality but large display to work on, but since I'll be traveling a heck of a lot, using an iPad as a small external display does make sense compared to a full desktop LED display. For one, I can carry it everywhere, it's essentially a carry-around monitor I can use on my film sets (since I import footage straight into a Mac to save importing time), I can easily stow it away from my desk, and there's probably much fun to be had on it 😛
The biggest dilemma would be the fact I'd be wanting an even mre portable machine (MBA come Ivy Bridge), and I'm skeptical of this MBP over a longer term. I always drive every bit of juice from every bit of technology I have - in the last eleven years I've been through:
1 AMD Athlon desktop and 1 Late-06 Whitebook
1 ancient throw-at-a-brick-wall-proof Samsung phone, and last year my HTC Desire
1 Creative Zen Touch
You may have doubts at the absurd amounts of waiting time I play seeing my highly demanding uses but I take enormous amounts of care over my products - my five year old Whitebook still sees 86% or roughly 3 1/2 hours battery capacity (according to coconut) and has only just surfaced its very first body crack despite everything I've thrown at it from Premiere Pro, Final Cut, Photoshop and Parallels 😀
Suggestions please? And no, I think it's time to move on from my whitebook.
I will be traveling overseas within a month and will (almost definitely) be purchasing a 15" macbook pro, mainly for university (you strange Americans call it college). I'll be saving comfortably over NZ $1000 (Around US $800) simply from buying a relatively highly-specified model, to use while studying a Film degree and to meet my ever-increasing needs of processing my photography (large events & weddings) and of course, my film work. (Lighter everyday tasks included).
I've been caught up in many different suggestions of configuring my macbook pro. Speaking with many friends of mine, some recommend I stay away from an SSD mainly because of the price-capacity ratio, and the fact that given my budget, the 128GB wouldn't suffice. Additionally if I were to add a larger conventional drive into Optibay, that would essentially rule out most of the advantages of SSD (apart from boot & launch time which I barely care about). Hence he reocmmends I wait out around 2 years before I 'rejuvenate' my mac (around halfway through its expected lifespan) with an SSD that should be larger, cheaper and more reliable.
On the other hand, I've been really keen to do a 128 + 500/750/1TB configuration. I would store all my non-important things in my larger drive, and only important apps, OS and my current project files in the SSD. This would give me all the advantages of an SSD for my work that really does matter, and the non-important apps, music, thousands of emails & others in my conventional drive, which would be completely free of OS and large apps like CS5, FL, protools and the lot. I'll quite definitely be running Windows on there. 8GB RAM (with hopes of 16), antiglare, 2.2 with 6750M are pretty much certain.
Since I do produce a significant amount of work through my DVD drive though (when I say significant I compare with the majority of users who touch it once or twice in their lifetimes 😱) and retain the 128GB SSD. I could add a 32 or 64GB SD card, to leave more or less permanently in my Mac, for things such as my music files, email, and generally not-too-important stuff, just to boost the data strapped to my Mac. I would then run a FW800 500-750GB drive, and probably a larger >1TB desktop hard drive at home. This is a sketchy idea since SD cards cost even more $/GB and are much less reliable (and around the speed of a 2-year-old HDD)
I quite like the idea of running an iPad via Air Display actually - I will have my home television when I'm watching movies or simply want a crap-quality but large display to work on, but since I'll be traveling a heck of a lot, using an iPad as a small external display does make sense compared to a full desktop LED display. For one, I can carry it everywhere, it's essentially a carry-around monitor I can use on my film sets (since I import footage straight into a Mac to save importing time), I can easily stow it away from my desk, and there's probably much fun to be had on it 😛
The biggest dilemma would be the fact I'd be wanting an even mre portable machine (MBA come Ivy Bridge), and I'm skeptical of this MBP over a longer term. I always drive every bit of juice from every bit of technology I have - in the last eleven years I've been through:
1 AMD Athlon desktop and 1 Late-06 Whitebook
1 ancient throw-at-a-brick-wall-proof Samsung phone, and last year my HTC Desire
1 Creative Zen Touch
You may have doubts at the absurd amounts of waiting time I play seeing my highly demanding uses but I take enormous amounts of care over my products - my five year old Whitebook still sees 86% or roughly 3 1/2 hours battery capacity (according to coconut) and has only just surfaced its very first body crack despite everything I've thrown at it from Premiere Pro, Final Cut, Photoshop and Parallels 😀
Suggestions please? And no, I think it's time to move on from my whitebook.
