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Please Help me in this dilema...

Sdahe

Sdahe

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 26, 2007
1,725
25
San Juan, PR
Hello guys... Here is my dilema

I actually have a MacBook Pro 17" 2.4GHz with 2GB SDRAM and I want to have something more comfortable to work at home.

I have $1,800 to invest in these two options... Get a 24" iMac or make some upgrades to my MBP (4GB of RAM, new hard disk with 7,200rpm with 320GB space) and the new 24" cinema display.

Now I have a question about the second option... My MBP come with a GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB of RAM. Would this video card be ok with the 24" cinema display?

Another thing is... would it make that much of a difference 7,200rpm hard disk from the 5,400rpm that my MBP came with?

Thank you guys for your comments to help me decide...

:)
 
Sdahe said:
Hello guys... Here is my dilema

I actually have a MacBook Pro 17" 2.4GHz with 2GB SDRAM and I want to have something more comfortable to work at home.

I have $1,800 to invest in these two options... Get a 24" iMac or make some upgrades to my MBP (4GB of RAM, new hard disk with 7,400rpm with 320GB space) and the new 24" cinema display.

Now I have a question about the second option... My MBP come with a GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB of RAM. Would this video card be ok with the 24" cinema display?

Thank you guys for your comments to help me decide...

:)
Click to expand...

I think you should be fine. I have a 15" MBP running on ATI Radeon X1600 256mb and I am using an external 24" monitor without a problem.
 
Here is the information of my video card... looks different from the new MBP

gforce.png
 
Sdahe said:
And it's very smooth right?...
Click to expand...

Not a problem. I even run WoW on the external and it works fine! I have watched movies on the external as well, no problem. So I think day to day operations shouldn't give you any problems. I haven't done much graphic renderings though so if you do work on that I am not sure. Right now I made the external working as my main, and the MBP's screen as a secondary. Works without a hiccup.

Oh when running WoW, I do have to make the screen size smaller than the full 1440x900 as the frame rates become choppy if I try to run it at too high of a resolution.
 
Sdahe said:
Now I see that there is a new cinema display coming soon....
Click to expand...

Yeah the new cinema display looks like the iMacs. And the good thing i think is that it has that all-in-one cable to connect to the to the MacBooks or MBPs so you don't messy cables running all over the place. You probably won't be able to use that cable with your MBP.
 
andtwo said:
Not a problem. I even run WoW on the external and it works fine! I have watched movies on the external as well, no problem. So I think day to day operations shouldn't give you any problems. I haven't done much graphic renderings though so if you do work on that I am not sure. Right now I made the external working as my main, and the MBP's screen as a secondary. Works without a hiccup.

Oh when running WoW, I do have to make the screen size smaller than the full 1440x900 as the frame rates become choppy if I try to run it at too high of a resolution.
Click to expand...

I need it to work with photography and graphic arts... Photoshop and Illustrator... I think I would be OK!!!

Do you use another keyboard?
 
andtwo said:
Yeah the new cinema display looks like the iMacs. And the good thing i think is that it has that all-in-one cable to connect to the to the MacBooks or MBPs so you don't messy cables running all over the place. You probably won't be able to use that cable with your MBP.
Click to expand...

The all-in-one cable only has mini-displayport, so no, it will not be compatible with any machine other than the newest MB and 15" MBP. There are so-far no DVI->MDP adapters, and likely won't be for a little while.

I would recommend the 23" ACD rather than waiting for the new 24". It will serve you better purpose. Also, make sure you have a keyboard and mouse, so you can run in clamshell if you want.
 
jhamerphoto said:
The all-in-one cable only has mini-displayport, so no, it will not be compatible with any machine other than the newest MB and 15" MBP. There are so-far no DVI->MDP adapters, and likely won't be for a little while.

I would recommend the 23" ACD rather than waiting for the new 24". It will serve you better purpose. Also, make sure you have a keyboard and mouse, so you can run in clamshell if you want.
Click to expand...

Sorry to ask but when you say run in clamshell... you mean I can close the notebook and it won't to sleep mode if I connect a keyboard and mouse to the 23" monitor?...

That's to bad... That cinema display was very nice looking.
 
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