iMac 3.06Ghz ATI Radeon vs 17" MacBook Pro

[Tee.Nutter]

Hey All,

This post is going to be slightly strange, as I probably will answer some of my own questions and maybe have a contradiction or two.

I am now posed with a dilemma, I have ordered an iMac as per my signature. The plan was to get the 24" ACD with the iMac and my switchover to the macworld would be complete and painless!

I have now gone into an Apple store and seen the 24" ACD next to the iMac and don't like how low it sits complared to the iMac and would prefer not to put anything underneath the stand to make it level with the iMac.

So, now my thoughts are maybe getting 17" MacBook Pro with the 24" ACD. But I already have a 17" windows laptop, which I will carry on using and don't really need the MacBook Pro. It's just that it looks nice with the 24" ACD.

Also, getting anywhere near the same spec of Macbook Pro will cost quite a few hundred £'s more, which is is little more than off putting.

So any thoughts on this dilemma, lastly how much better is the ATI 4850 compared to the 9600GT. I'll be doing lots of paintshop type stuff on whichever Mac I opt for.

 

[larrymarshall2]

The only thing I can say is what will likely be told to you 1000x is that the ATI card hasn't been released yet and no one knows anything about it for sure.

 

[jnc]

Hey All,

This post is going to be slightly strange, as I probably will answer some of my own questions and maybe have a contradiction or two.

I am now posed with a dilemma, I have ordered an iMac as per my signature. The plan was to get the 24" ACD with the iMac and my switchover to the macworld would be complete and painless!

I have now gone into an Apple store and seen the 24" ACD next to the iMac and don't like how low it sits complared to the iMac and would prefer not to put anything underneath the stand to make it level with the iMac.

So, now my thoughts are maybe getting 17" MacBook Pro with the 24" ACD. But I already have a 17" windows laptop, which I will carry on using and don't really need the MacBook Pro. It's just that it looks nice with the 24" ACD.

Also, getting anywhere near the same spec of Macbook Pro will cost quite a few hundred £'s more, which is is little more than off putting.

So any thoughts on this dilemma, lastly how much better is the ATI 4850 compared to the 9600GT. I'll be doing lots of paintshop type stuff on whichever Mac I opt for.

Christ mate, hand us some of your money, I think I need it more

First off, if you know anyone in education, get them to buy it for you - discounts abound.

OK, you're considering the MBP. That'd be my setup of choice, mobility plus a bigger-screened "dock" for home. Can't you run BootCamp with that and flog your Windows laptop? It'll offset your costs a bit, and I imagine the MacBook Pro will be a bit more of a joy to use (just a biased guess given I don't know your current specs )

If you were in my shoes, a MBP + ACD would act as a desktop and laptop replacement. I wouldn't run two laptops just because one's Windows, when the Mac can do both. iMacs are great too but given they're deskbound, for that reason alone I'd take the MBP. If you're adamant about keeping your Windows laptop, sounds like you need to get over or find a work around for your "make it level" qualms....

Could always VESA the iMac to make it level? But then, that's even lengthier than just propping the ACD up, which you don't wanna do...

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

Your dilemma doesn't make much sense to me. 24" iMac + 24" ACD is a lot of real estate, yet you're considering the 24" ACD alone with 17" MBP just because it looks nice and which you admit you don't need? Unless the 17" windows laptop is work-provided, I'd get rid of it and use the 17" MBP in place and run windows on it. Alternatively, I'd just get the 24" iMac and forget about the 24" ACD (not a fan of the height differential either). You can always pick up a MB, MBP, or MBA later on down the line.

 

[Tee.Nutter]

Thanks for the replies guys, like I said it was not going to a straight forward question

I'm in education jnc, so will get the education discount hehe. Hmmm I knew that Mac's can run windows, but just didn't think of it in this instance, so that's something definitely worth thinking about.

I would deffo use it in bootcamp mode, don't really like VMware stuff. Also getting rid of my windows laptop woud certainly help towards the cost. Because of the work I do, I will need two screens.

From experiance does windows running under bootcamp run as it would on any PC and none of the system resources are are used for anything other than the windows your running?

 

[jnc]

Because of the work I do, I will need two screens.

From experiance does windows running under bootcamp run as it would on any PC and none of the system resources are are used for anything other than the windows your running?

The MBP shares the same resolution as the iMac 24", so aside from physical screen size, you can get the same amount of work accomplished on it as you could with an iMac.

What's the nature of your work? Do you absolutely need two displays, have you tried using Spaces on Leopard yet??

Windows operates natively, as if it wasn't even a Mac.

 

[Tee.Nutter]

I am at Uni and work alot with graphics, it's a great convenience having two screens and have always had them, so would be a little lost if I only had one Never had a Mac yet, have seen Spaces and will no doubt use it.

Glad that windows runs natively, going to deffo put it on with bootcamp. Do you know if the 2.93Ghz processor is the same type of processor as the 3.06Ghz on the iMac? I know they both have the same bus and L2 Cache.