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itwasepic

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 11, 2010
27
0
First, I've been saving up for my transition from PC to Mac. I have plenty of gift cards to cut into any Mac that I decide to choose.

Here's my current situation:

I travel for work literally every week and am working on a personal project during after-hours (outside of office). So I'm usually in a hotel or back at home on the weekends for personal project work.

I am not sure how much longer my travel situation will remain, but let's assume will I keep traveling for my day job indefinitely.

My personal project MAY utilize any of the following in no particular order:

1. Adobe Flash programming, Photography processing (i.e. PhotoShop), scripting such as Perl, database programming, other miscellaneous web development, potentially 3D processing. Video processing isn't in the cards yet but I would not exclude it from something I would like to dabble in.

So with that in mind, what is (in your opinion) an ideal setup?

Ideas I've thrown around:

1. Get a Mac Pro at home and remote desktop into it from my PC laptop. That way I can work on my project on the road and then, when I'm at home, I can have a huge LCD monitor.

2. Get a iMac i7 at home and remote desktop into it PC laptop. Basically the same idea as the Mac Pro in #1 above.

3. Get a MB Pro i7 (if and when it comes out) and dock it to a 27-30" LCD monitor when I'm back at home.

I want to be mindful of the costs but I already understand and accept that the 3 setup scenarios above will be relatively expensive where the Mac Pro setup will be high (expense), Mac i7 will be medium, MB Pro i7 with Monitor will be high.

Thoughts, Ideas? Anything else I may have missed? Any other things I should seriously consider?

Many thanks in advance!
 

Hellhammer

Moderator emeritus
Dec 10, 2008
22,164
582
Finland
Well, do you want a powerful portable which can be used when you're traveling or even more powerful desktop which can only be used at home?

I would take the MBP as it sounds you need speed while traveling too. Of course if you're budget allows, MacBook + iMac which would be around 3000$ (MacBook + i5 iMac)
 

itwasepic

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 11, 2010
27
0
Well, do you want a powerful portable which can be used when you're traveling

I was thinking that if I used my PC laptop on the road and remote accessed into an iMac or Mac Pro (at home) then the processing would be executed on the home machines and therefore I wouldn't necessarily require a fast laptop on the road. Or is this a really poorly conceived idea?
 

Hellhammer

Moderator emeritus
Dec 10, 2008
22,164
582
Finland
I was thinking that if I used my PC laptop on the road and remote accessed into an iMac or Mac Pro (at home) then the processing would be executed on the home machines and therefore I wouldn't necessarily require a fast laptop on the road. Or is this a really poorly conceived idea?

I wouldn't do that. That requires good internet connection and hotels may not be able to offer it so it might be sluggish plus you have to pay for it in most hotels.

I just figured that MacBook is 849$ from refurb store and i5 iMac is 1699$ from refurb store so that would be 2548$. If you sell you PC laptop, it will be even cheaper
 

JNickyJJ

macrumors member
Mar 26, 2010
53
0
I was going to say maybe it would be better to get 2 devices, but i suppose if an i7 17" mbp were to come out, it would be the best bet I think. Hotel internets are awful for remote desktop. it is just painful
signature_smiley-14923-happy-police.jpg
 

itwasepic

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 11, 2010
27
0
My thought is that carrying around 2 laptops (one for personal and one for work) would be a pain in the a** but not a deal breaker.

But if the overall consensus is that a "to-be-released" MB Pro i7 would do all of my development work (handily) including some video processing work, then I'll just go the MBP i7 route and get a nice big screen monitor at home.
 

Hellhammer

Moderator emeritus
Dec 10, 2008
22,164
582
Finland
My thought is that carrying around 2 laptops (one for personal and one for work) would be a pain in the a** but not a deal breaker.

But if the overall consensus is that a "to-be-released" MB Pro i7 would do all of my development work (handily) including some video processing work, then I'll just go the MBP i7 route and get a nice big screen monitor at home.

The i7 suitable for MBPs is still dual-core but iMac have quad core i5 and i7 so iMac would be a lot faster anyway. Sure MBP is able to handle what you do but slower than iMac.

Do you really need to carry that work laptop too? Can't you just give it back to them and say you have your own now?
 

itwasepic

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 11, 2010
27
0
The i7 suitable for MBPs is still dual-core but iMac have quad core i5 and i7 so iMac would be a lot faster anyway.

Shoot, I had NO idea that the laptop i7 would still be dual core. Shows how much I pay attention.

Do you really need to carry that work laptop too? Can't you just give it back to them and say you have your own now?

I think this is possible, we have some other guys doing this exact thing. In addition, I am trying to be mindful of controlling the costs right now.

Next up: it looks like the overall consensus, no matter what, is to NOT get a Mac Pro. I'm kind of concerned about the iMac burnout (life cycle) because once that screen goes, it sounds like I would have to throw in the towel and buy a new one. Of course, I have no idea what the life expectancy is of an iMac; is it a short life span?
 

Hellhammer

Moderator emeritus
Dec 10, 2008
22,164
582
Finland
Shoot, I had NO idea that the laptop i7 would still be dual core. Shows how much I pay attention.

Many people are under that assumption. Quad iMac is still 1.5-2 times faster

Next up: it looks like the overall consensus, no matter what, is to NOT get a Mac Pro. I'm kind of concerned about the iMac burnout (life cycle) because once that screen goes, it sounds like I would have to throw in the towel and buy a new one. Of course, I have no idea what the life expectancy is of an iMac; is it a short life span?

If you buy AppleCare, it'll last at least 3 years, very likely more. When it's coming till the end of warranty, you could sell it and buy a new one which will be noticeably faster.

For controlling costs, buy from refurb store (see links above), that will easily save you ~500$
 

itwasepic

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 11, 2010
27
0
Sounds good. Thanks for the advice. Know of anyone having issues with buying a refurb machine? I just always like buying "new"....
 

Hellhammer

Moderator emeritus
Dec 10, 2008
22,164
582
Finland
Sounds good. Thanks for the advice. Know of anyone having issues with buying a refurb machine? I just always like buying "new"....

Refurbs are human tested and if you ask from any veteran members here, they will tell you that refurbs are better than new. They have the same 1-year warranty which can be extended to 3 years by buying AppleCare.

You won't notice any difference between new and refurb, other than the price tag
 
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