Purchae Advice - 2011 MBP or 2012 MBP 15" Base Model

[mac mac mac]

Hi,

I got my boss to say okay to invest in a new Apple laptop. It'll be used to produce advertising materials for our company (printed ad and TV commercial). This will be our first Apple computer company-wide. All of our computers are Windows. I've using my personal iMac to make ads, but it's time for the company to invest in the right tool.

My question is, which MBP should I buy? I'm thinking either the late 2011 MBP 15" base model (2.2Ghz Sandy Bridge, 4GB ram, 500GB HD, AMD 6750 GPU) for $1499, or the current base model 15" MBP (2.3Ghz Ivy Bridge, same amount of ram and HD, nVidia 650m) for $1709. I plan to upgrade the ram myself. Is it worth paying $200 premium to get Ivy Bridge and I assume better GPU? Is 512MB of vRam sufficient these days? Because I can get the top of the line late 2011 MBP for $1799 instead, which has 1GB of vRam, AMD 6770 GPU but that's the most I want to spend. I don't want to burn a hole in his wallet

I use Illustrator CS5.5 (maybe upgrading to CS6 soon) for the printed ad, and Final Cut Pro X for the TV commercial. Which machine would be a better choice? The reason I want to get a MBP instead of an iMac so that we have more flexibility. Whoever that'll be working in the ad for that week can take it home and work on it. You can't really do that with a desktop. Thank you for your help.

 

[mac mac mac]

Anyone? I need to order one for the company soon. Just want to get a second opinion. Also, I forgot to mention that we'll use Photoshop CS5.5 or CS6 along with Illustrator and Final Cut Pro X. Thanks for your help.

 

[JoJo Zzang]

Anyone? I need to order one for the company soon. Just want to get a second opinion. Also, I forgot to mention that we'll use Photoshop CS5.5 or CS6 along with Illustrator and Final Cut Pro X. Thanks for your help.

I posted this earlier from front page news:

Even if I get down voted, I agree (with the non-upgradable part). While I applaud Apple for producing the retina display on the MBP, I honestly wish they waited for Haswell and etc. Next year will be the year to purchase a retina Mac.

This is just a excellent example of pushing the envelope before hardware can support display in full. The price tag is a hefty tax for early adoption. I suspect a flood of retina Macs come next year on Craigslist/Ebay so people can get what the laptop should be.

As for me? I opted once again for the regular high end 2012 15" MBP. I have a sad feeling this may very well be the last we see this breed. I support design, but when it comes at the cost of not being to upgrade on your own that makes me second guess a purchase. At least allow the community of Apple users to upgrade the RAM and etc...

I don't want to hear, "well, just purchase it with it upgraded." Why pay more for when you get it done for less? Why limit get what you need now - and upgrade when you need it? I truly hope that Apple allows a few design changes to allow some form of user customization next year. If so, then Apple I will be more than happy to throw my money at you. Until then - I am sticking with the old and boring (sarcasm of course) 15" MBP.

I too work with Adobe programs alongside photography. I do appreciate that the retina is ideal for individuals such as ourselves. However, the current top end MBP is superior in my opinion. If you get an 8GB RAM rMBP... you are stuck with that. I rather have the user option of self upgrading.

As far as performance? The system will perform slower than that of the current top end 15" MBP. Is it truly noticeable? It depends on scenarios - but, anyone that tries to say otherwise is drinking the kool-aid and driving fast on the hype-wagon.

I want one, can buy one, but I have decided to wait next year or even potentially a little later than that. For now, the 15" MBP connected to a solid external display is the way to go for this guy.

 

[jtus]

I would get the 2012 MBP current base model 15" MBP (2.3Ghz Ivy Bridge, same amount of ram and HD, nVidia 650m) for $1709.

 

[stevelam]

aren't you going to use an external monitor? can not imagine working with video/illustrator on a tiny 15" screen the whole time. and why aren't you backing up files onto an external drive anyway? that way multiple people can work on it using external drives without taking the main machine home/back to work.