Hello all. Long time no post. Ill try to be succinct, but its not my strong suit. Get ready for another I dont know what to buy, help me thread.
I am a communications professional who makes a living through writing, photography and graphic design. I have a mid-2009 MBP 13 with 2.53ghz dual core, 512SSD (crucial m4) and 8 GB RAM.
The upgraded ram and SSD gave the laptop new life and it has served me well. It is starting to show its age in high usage situations though and I am in a position to upgrade.
The most intensive applications I use are probably Adobe Bridge, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver and Fireworks. Often three or four of these programs are running in unison along with iTunes, Chrome, etc. I dabble in video work and may do so more frequently in the coming years.
I want something that allows me to jam out to some music, browse the web, work on large text documents (Scrivener), and swap between three or four graphics and photography editing applications while run handbrake in the background all without breaking a sweat. Gaming doesnt matter to me. I am looking for a computer that will not only handle this today, but 3-5 years from now.
Prefer a laptop, not really keen on the iMac as I work remotely much of the time and already have a nice graphics monitor at home (though I suppose you could twist my arm if you have a brilliant solution).
I teach at a local university off and on and have access to an education discount. I would like to be at $2,000 out the door after tax and apple care. Am I dreaming? I could push up to $2,500 but really dont want to go that high unless it nets me a considerable advantage.
Im thinking 16GB of ram is a must for future-proofing. So MBA is probably out of the question unless it is more of a beast than I think it is. I believe that leaves the 13 rMBP vs the 15 rMBP. Ive been scouring the web the last couple of days but its becoming information overload. So I turn it over to you, trusty MacRumors denziens can you solve my first-world problem? Advice? Suggestions? Flames for the novel of a post?
I am a communications professional who makes a living through writing, photography and graphic design. I have a mid-2009 MBP 13 with 2.53ghz dual core, 512SSD (crucial m4) and 8 GB RAM.
The upgraded ram and SSD gave the laptop new life and it has served me well. It is starting to show its age in high usage situations though and I am in a position to upgrade.
The most intensive applications I use are probably Adobe Bridge, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver and Fireworks. Often three or four of these programs are running in unison along with iTunes, Chrome, etc. I dabble in video work and may do so more frequently in the coming years.
I want something that allows me to jam out to some music, browse the web, work on large text documents (Scrivener), and swap between three or four graphics and photography editing applications while run handbrake in the background all without breaking a sweat. Gaming doesnt matter to me. I am looking for a computer that will not only handle this today, but 3-5 years from now.
Prefer a laptop, not really keen on the iMac as I work remotely much of the time and already have a nice graphics monitor at home (though I suppose you could twist my arm if you have a brilliant solution).
I teach at a local university off and on and have access to an education discount. I would like to be at $2,000 out the door after tax and apple care. Am I dreaming? I could push up to $2,500 but really dont want to go that high unless it nets me a considerable advantage.
Im thinking 16GB of ram is a must for future-proofing. So MBA is probably out of the question unless it is more of a beast than I think it is. I believe that leaves the 13 rMBP vs the 15 rMBP. Ive been scouring the web the last couple of days but its becoming information overload. So I turn it over to you, trusty MacRumors denziens can you solve my first-world problem? Advice? Suggestions? Flames for the novel of a post?
