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Macbook 13" and Photoshop, Window user needs advice

F

FEINT

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 14, 2010
20
0
Hello everyone,

I am new to the board and very new to Mac. I am currently running a Dell laptop with an i7-740qm, 6gb of RAM. My dad is willing to buy it off me, so I am in the market for a Mac!

I am wanting to switch to a MacBook Pro 13" 2.4ghz Core 2 Duo. I will upgrade to 8gb of RAM. I am afraid it won't have enough power compared to my current set up.

I use Lightroom and Photoshop a fair bit. I don't edit videos or play games. I use the internet, mail, calender, word, excel quite a bit too. I download a fair bit on Bittorrent. My laptop would run almost all the time. Screen size doesn't bother me, as I have a monitor to plug up to.

How does the Macbook Pro 13" 2.4 ghz handle all the above tasks? Does it do it well?

I am also toying with the idea of the 15" but would prefer the 13" due to portability.

I have never owned a mac, so I need your input to help me with this purchase.

Looking forward to your input! Thanks.
 
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I have a 13" 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo [2GB RAM] and PS CS5 runs just fine for me, no lag while I'm using it or anything like that. Never used Lightroom so I can't speak for that, but off a guess I'm gonna go ahead and say it'll be able to handle it. As for the other tasks, they'll all run perfectly fine, Macs are beastly machines ;)

You mention Word, Excel, etc. I think there's OSX versions of those..But I'm not sure. Either way, I highly recommend iWork, Pages blows Word out of the water, I haven't used Numbers [Mac version of Excel] too much so not sure on that part of it.

Hope this helps, & you should be very excited for your future Mac. You'll never wanna touch Windows again lol.
 
I have a MacBook Pro 2.4GHz with 4GB ram. Photoshop runs seamlessly just make sure you buy a mouse!

Cant comment on Lightroom, but everything else will run fine too. Only one thing I can't figure out is when you connect to a monitor, on my old laptop I used to be able to close the lid and still use it on the bigger monitor, but on the mac it will just put it to sleep. Can't find an option to turn this off but can just turn the display off and has the same effect.

I bought my mac in September, not looked back since, you won't regret it.
 
The only point, I'd make on the 13" vs. 15" MBP is screen real estate. I find the 13" a bit cramped when working with PS
 
Thanks for the responses. It seems that I have under estimated this 2.4ghz mac. It seems very capable for the specifications provided on paper. Thank you for clearing it up.

The reason I am staying away from the 15" is 1) Cost 2) Weight. However, in the long run, the 15" might be more worth while considering it has a i5 processor, larger screen, 150gb or so in HDD space and a better graphics card. Do you think the cost is justified? The difference in price could be put towards an imac? or a desktop?

Such a confusing process to go through. I guess that is always the case with the FIRST mac. :D

One last question, any of you leave your macbook pro on 24 hours a day downloading? Any over heating issues or anything of that sort? The macbook pro has no vents and I am just curious if it over heats?
 
The only time my Mac gets hot is if I keep it on my lap without a binder or something underneath [you should never have it on your lap without anything under it anyways, for that reason] other than that, mine pretty much stays cool always, and I use it a lot :p And yes, I've left mine downloading overnight many times [slow internet] and it was just fine. The fans & aluminum casing work wonders.
 
Also if its staying on for long periods I dont close the lid - the system needs cool air which it can get from between the keyboard keys. If the lid is closed, since the system is one lump of aluminium, it cant get any air intake. I tend to leave the lid open an inch or two.
 
Ifti said:
Also if its staying on for long periods I dont close the lid - the system needs cool air which it can get from between the keyboard keys. If the lid is closed, since the system is one lump of aluminium, it cant get any air intake. I tend to leave the lid open an inch or two.
Click to expand...

Ah yea I do that too, before it was to try and keep dust off the screen, but now if I leave it on overnight I just leave it all the way open, eh why not lol.

Note to OP: Make sure you buy a soft cloth for cleaning the screen, you will use it often :p
 
FEINT said:
Thanks for the responses. It seems that I have under estimated this 2.4ghz mac.
Click to expand...

LightRoom on a 2.4ghz C2D is fine. Cataloging and viewing thumbnails is very fast. Opening a RAW file in "develop mode" however might take a couple of seconds while LR transitions from the jpeg preview image.

My older macbook doesn't even have discreet graphics so any MBP would be an improvement.


The reason I am staying away from the 15" is 1) Cost 2) Weight. ...The difference in price could be put towards an imac? or a desktop?
Click to expand...

Apply the savings towards an external monitor.
 
Thank for the replies guys. Having a read on this forum has only made things a little more confusing for me.

It seems that the MBP13" might get a new processor next year some time. I am wondering if I should be considering a 15" model instead (Future proof my purchase as it has a i5 processor). Just pay the difference? I am so confused now!

At the end of the day, it is a little larger and heavier. But it has an i5 which will be good for quite a few years to come.

I know very little about mac. I need your input. What I use the laptop for, I have outlined above.
HELP.....
 
The 2.4 C2D is going to be a bit slower than an i7. The thing is, there's really very few times when you'll notice. Most lag comes from disk I/O, where an SSD would improve performance.

Basically, what it comes down to, is open up the task monitor (ctrl+alt+del) and look at your CPU usage when you are playing around in Lightroom or Photoshop. If it ever reaches 100%, the mac will be slower than the Dell you have now.

If it doesn't ever reach 100% CPU usage, or you don't mind a little bit of a slowdown, the 13" Macbook will be just fine.
 
I think the MBP should be good enough, I have been using photoshop for years and my 2006 white MB had no issue with Photoshop, and my Friends have yet to see an issue with CS5 on the 13" Mac.
You will see an improvement on the i5, but really the 2 cores @ 2.4Ghz vs i5@2.4Ghz (2-core/4threads) is not a HUGE difference when looking at most Photoshop tasks.
If you want to be safe then the 15" is perfect and I have yet to encounter an issue. i would suggest though getting a faster hdd than the stock 5400rpm (I got an ssd, but 7200rpm is fine too)
 
I heard people upgrading their memory to 8GB from the C2D models and they're a beast. The thing that worries me is that the i5 is the first gen, while the C2D has pretty much been figured out head to toe.

I'm also in this dilemma but to be honest, I would rather save as much money as I need to. If I don't like it, I figured I can always return it before two weeks and go for the 15 but have to pay for more.

After talking to a bunch of people here and researching, sleeping on it... I came to the conclusion that the 13 inch is perfect for what I need it for. And the price.
 
Thank you very much forum go-ers. I just placed an order for my very first mac.

I got a Macbook Pro 13", it arrives in a few days.

I bought mine from Apple Store as I was rather unsure about warranty coming from online outfits.

I will look at getting the 8gb of ram, and maybe a 7,200 rpm 500gb hard disk. SSD is great, but too small for my use. SSD is tempting though.
Looking forward to my "Mac Experience".

Thank you all again for the patience and input. :D:D
 
FEINT said:
Thank you very much forum go-ers. I just placed an order for my very first mac.

I got a Macbook Pro 13", it arrives in a few days.

I bought mine from Apple Store as I was rather unsure about warranty coming from online outfits.

I will look at getting the 8gb of ram, and maybe a 7,200 rpm 500gb hard disk. SSD is great, but too small for my use. SSD is tempting though.
Looking forward to my "Mac Experience".

Thank you all again for the patience and input. :D:D
Click to expand...

Cogratulations! You are gonna love it. For future reference, Apples warranty service is one of the best you will ever find. Whether you get it online or from brick & mortar, any Apple dealer will recognize the warranty.
 
If I got the Macbook Pro off the internet, how would Apple know when I got the laptop and when the warranty would expire? Do I have to register? Sorry for the newbie questions. Could you kindly explain the process? Thank you.

I am looking at upgrading the RAM and HDD to a 7,200 rpm one. I had a look on here and it seems the Seagate Momentus is the best option? Hybrid? In a nutshell, what should I be getting?? 1) RAM and HDD (7,200 RPM).

Thanks in advance!
 
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