Macbook Pro Advice

[Gustamize]

I'm an indie filmmaker and I do film competitions and challenges, so I would like to to purchase a MBP because I can't take my Mac with me.

Like many other folks I have to stay within a budget since I have to eventually purchase other film gear. A apple tech told me I could get away just having 512MB for my video card, and go with a very in expensive 15.4" for less than $1400. I'll be using FCP 7 and I will be editing HD Content from DSLR (mainly) Also I will be using Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Would 2011 MBP with only 512MB VRam be able to handle it? Should I go for the 1GB Vram?

With all the buzz about the new MBP Retina Display being "Fast" I started to think, couldn't I increase the speed (if I purchase a 2011 model) if I put in a SSD drive? Sure the drive space would be smaller, but if I used an external drive to keep my footage would it defeat the purpose of installing the SSD?

I would like to keep my initial purchase between $1700-$1800 (Including shipping/Taxes) If I go the SSD drive in an older MBP route I would do that later down the road and probably upgrade the RAM from 4GB to 8GB so I'm counting that in my budget at the moment.

Thanks in advance.

 

[derrranged]

I'm an indie filmmaker and I do film competitions and challenges, so I would like to to purchase a MBP because I can't take my Mac with me.

Like many other folks I have to stay within a budget since I have to eventually purchase other film gear. A apple tech told me I could get away just having 512MB for my video card, and go with a very in expensive 15.4" for less than $1400. I'll be using FCP 7 and I will be editing HD Content from DSLR (mainly) Also I will be using Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Would 2011 MBP with only 512MB VRam be able to handle it? Should I go for the 1GB Vram?

With all the buzz about the new MBP Retina Display being "Fast" I started to think, couldn't I increase the speed (if I purchase a 2011 model) if I put in a SSD drive? Sure the drive space would be smaller, but if I used an external drive to keep my footage would it defeat the purpose of installing the SSD?

I would like to keep my initial purchase between $1700-$1800 (Including shipping/Taxes) If I go the SSD drive in an older MBP route I would do that later down the road and probably upgrade the RAM from 4GB to 8GB so I'm counting that in my budget at the moment.

Thanks in advance.

If you are editing HD video content in FCX, you should know that the more RAM you have the better performance you'll get. Faster rendering times, easier scrubbing. Time=Money. Get the max RAM.