Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

glenn5

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Have waited a few months for the MBP upgrade, and its time to pick one up.

I have decided for the 15'' version, with a high-res screen, but im still thinking about high vs low-end. And a couple of other choices.


---
This is what I will use my mbp for:
Illustrator
PS (painting)
Adobe software in general
Photo editing
Browsing the web.
A fair amount of multitasking.
Maybe using Parallels for some Windows use.
I also want to learn 3d modelling at some point so I guess Zbrush (and similar) will be used down the road.

(I might do some light gaming, but this is not a priority. Im not looking for a gaming laptop.)
---



Will I need the slightly more powerful Quad Core i7 (2.0 vs 2.2), and maybe more importantly, will I benefit much from the much more powerful gpu? Or is this mainly for gaming?
Maybe a stupid question, but will the high res screen have any impact on the performance? Enough so to push me in the direction of high-end gpu?

Considering what I will be using the mbp for, should I upgrade from 4 to 8GB RAM? Its fairly cheap, even cheaper if I dont buy it from apple. Thoughts?

Lastly, the HDD vs SSD? I have never used an SSD and dont know what Im missing so to speak. If I dont get an SSD, will the HDD be a great bottleneck no matter what other choices I make?

---
If I break it down to two choices, I could get those custom builds for roughly the same money. Which one would benefit me most?

Low end 15'', 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, Hi-Res Screen
High end 15'', 4GB RAM, HDD 7200RPM, Hi-Res Screen


Thank you
 
Last edited:
sorry for bump, but it would really be super helpful if someone could guide me through this.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.