Need advise on purchasing first MacBook Pro

[stevemgrimes]

I'm a long-time PC user looking to get my first Mac. I've started going back to school and need portability. Before the newly upgraded models came out last week, I was pretty fixated on the 15" for it's screen, firewire port, graphics power, etc., but really liked the 13" for it's size. Now that they've fixed most of the issues I had with the prior 13", I'm leaning that way, but would like some other views on my application - especially since I'm a total newbie with the Mac world.

What I'm looking to do:

- Internet, email

- MacOffice (mainly wordprocessing and presentations)

- Photo organizing and basic editing via iPhoto

- Some importing of video from my standard and HD camcorders for general editing and burning to DVD for family

- Connecting my guitar for use in GarageBand for basic "fooling around" and possibly some other recording.

- Parallels w/ Windows XP (for remote access to work and some Windows-specific apps), as well as trying out Windows 7 and Ubuntu Linux.


My biggest concern is over the graphics power, which I've been told may be an issue when editing video. Can someone tell me if the upgraded graphics processor on the 13" is capabable of doing what I need? Is there anything else I should be concerned about in deciding between the two sizes? Lastly, if I purchase AppleCare, will there be an issue if I upgrade the HD?

Thanks for any help!

 

[spinnerlys]

The graphic processor on the 13-inch wasn't updated in any way during the June updates.

But it will be more than okay to use that 13-inch's GPU for editing, as editing is not that GPU dependent as 3-D or colour correction or compositing might be.

I edited two five and ten minute films on my old 12-inch iBook with 32MB of video RAM (although dedicated, but today much, much slower than current shared GPUs) and Avid Xpress DV. I had no lags in video playback, just rendering was a little bit slower, but so was the CPU.

So the 13-inch will be more than fine, unless you wanna throw effect after effect after effect onto the video, which might slow the machine down a bit.

But the 13-inch screen might be a bit limiting if you use FCE or other more "professional" editing software.

But if the video editing is more of a hobby, go with the 13-inch, it has plenty of power.

PS: Upgrading the HDD will not void your Apple Care. It is meant to be user replaceable, therefore: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3419 - 17-inch, but same principle.