mbp advice for a design graduate

[Daelos]

Am into my final year of a Graphic Design degree, currently running on a mid 2007 2.4ghz SR MBP (@gb ram) and going to make the plunge in upgrading pending graduation and no education discount.

Torn between i5 and i7. 8GB ram, though it would be nice, is not necessary at this point in time, and i will be purchasing either the intel X25-m g2 or the OCZ vertex 2 SSD drive aftermarket.

seeing as the machine will be used predominantly for Design work (InDesign, some illustrator and photoshop), is it worth stepping up to the i7, or would the 2.53 or even 2.4 i5 be practical, using the money saved for the SSD? Is ram more useful for adobe suite performance than processor?

Money is not necessarily an issue but, being a student, it's nice to have a little lying around!

Also; want to go AG hi-res (obviously better for my kind of work) but it seems to have a much worse viewing angle vertically than my housemates penryn MBP glossy standard res. any advice; greatly appreciated!

Am in the UK and looking to buy pre- sandy bridge models as vat rise due in january

 

[Eddyisgreat]

Either will work. It sounds like you want some cash laying around, so no reason to splurge for the i7. I have the i7, but unless you are working with serious spreads, the c2d,c2q,i5s and i7s will all feel pretty similar.

If You're working with the entire suite, swapping assets from one application to the other is when you'll want extra horsepower.

 

[Daelos]

i'll pretty much just be using indesign, photoshop and illustrator. Maybe a bit of after effects at some point and soundbooth for non work-related stuff. main concern is my santa rosa is 2.4ghz, though know the i5 is a much better processor in itself but admittedly dont know enough about computer hardware to get past the numbers.

also, the double amount of memory on the gpu is tempting but again, unsure of the bearing that will have on the type of work i'm likely to be doing

 

[aimbdd]

Nope. i Very much doubt youll use that extra video ram. Unless you game on extreme settings, or with an external monitor. You would be fine with the i5. i7 would just make your laptop more future proof .

 

[Daelos]

Well I will be running through an external display but not an avid gamer. Future proofing would be awesome: needs to last me 4-5 years, but my needs are likely to increase much.

 

[stevelam]

fyi you can always get the education discount. apple does not reinforce it.

even though ram is definitely a massive help for those applications, i'd go for the higher processor simply because ram can be upgraded. your processor can't without buying a whole new macbook.

also glad you're actually in a field that requires a mbp. a lot of people here seem to just buy a mbp just to surf the internet and chat. makes no sense to me.