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Need help choosing, MBP or iMac

ViperDesign

ViperDesign

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 7, 2007
650
516
Utah
Things I will use them for:

I will run both mac and windows.
I will use the windows for one thing only, Madden 2008 and beyond..
I will do a lot of photo and video stuff.

My question I guess is which one is better. I will be a "convert" from a pc to a mac. Never used one before and have had only a limited amount of time on one to know that I want it lol

If I go with a iMac I want to get the 24 inch 2.8ghz model because right now I have a 24 inch WS Dell and I love the size for when I do editing.

Anyways which one will be good for gaming (again I really only play just madden on there) and video stuff.

Thanks in advance for any and all advice.
 
I'd probably go with the iMac, if you're planning to do a lot with photos and video.

You'll almost certainly notice the bump in processor speed, and you'll have more flexibility with your hard drive -- unless you have a strange yen for moving everything back and forth on an external drive.
 
Depends on the portability and if you can live with the graphics card in the iMac. I think the 8600 is probably a better card in the MPB than the ATI one in the iMac.
 
in your list of things you wanted to do, you don't mention the need for portability/travel. save some money and get an imac.
 
Since you already have a large monitor I advise you to get the MacBook Pro. Then just hook it up to your monitor when you need.
 
ViperDesign said:
If I go with a iMac I want to get the 24 inch 2.8ghz model because right now I have a 24 inch WS Dell and I love the size for when I do editing.
Click to expand...
With particular reference to the video editing, if this is one of the main reasons you're getting the machine, I would be very tempted to go for the 2.8GHz C2D Extreme.

From the benchmarks comparing different processors that I've seen, you should get rather a nifty performance boost over the C2D.

If portability is important, I would go with a MBP - but as you have mentioned this, I'm guessing this isn't one of your main priorities.
 
Yeah being portable is not an issue as I have a freebie laptop (PIII 700mhz) that I use for travel since I only check email and do a small amount of web design on the road if I am board. So the freebie suites me well.

The only reason I mentioned the MBP is because of the video card, but if you guys think that the iMac will run that one game just fine I will go with the iMac.

I love the new design and I am really looking forward to getting either one. I am going to go down to the Apple store here in Utah to play around some more.

Thanks for the advice :)
 
I had essentially the same question, except rather than Madden, I'd like to use the machine for some more graphics intensive games e.g. HL2. Having checked benchmarks for the Radeon 2600 in the iMac and the Geforce 8600 GT in the Macbook Pro, it seems they both suck for DX10 games (think Crysis), but the Geforce in the MBP is better for 3D gaming than the Radeon.

Would any of the difference be compensated for by the fact that the MacBook Pro has a 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo but the iMac has the 2.8 Extreme?

Right now I'm leaning towards the iMac, as portability isn't a big issue for me either and the extra power of the 2.8 C2E would help with the video and photo stuff I do.
 
Well folks I just purchased the iMac and I will be opening it up once I am done moving over around of 70 gigs of pictures to my external HD.

Thanks again for the advice :)
 
Very nice! Enjoy! I hope to be putting a new iMac on my desk shortly too.
 
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