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Should I buy an iMac or a Macbook Pro

E

estoesgenuino

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 23, 2012
5
0
Hi, I'm from Mexico and tomorrow (It cant be other day) I have to decide what to buy.

I've heard that new Imacs are coming really soon, so I dont know if I should buy an Imac or a Macbook Pro. I'm studying architecture and I'll be using autocad. Im also a photographer and I use a lot Photoshop, Lightroom and Illustrator.

My options are:

27" Imac 4gb ram 2.7GHz i5

and

13" Macbook Pro 8gb ram 2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i7

What to do? I really cant wait. I only go once in a while to the usa. Thanks for your advice.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
If you don't mind it not being portable, go with the iMac. It has a quad core processor versus dual core, which is a nice step up, and you can add 8GB, 16GB, or even 32GB of RAM to it later on. Plus that screen will be excellent for what programs you will be using it for.
 
And is it unknown when the new Imacs will be released? It would feel bad if I buy it and a month later the new ones get released... What should I do?
 
For what you'll use it for, I don't really recommend the 13" MBP, if only for the resolution. It's a pitiful 1280 x 800, and things will definitely feel cramped with the programs you mentioned.

If you want portability, go with the retina pro. Otherwise, go with the iMac.
 
Another option is to buy the mbp, and when the new imacs get released sell it and buy the Imac. I cant get out of my mind buying the imac and a month later see the new ones. I just can't decide. :/
 
You would probably take a hit on the price if you sold after a month and a bit. If you're this concerned, it sounds like you won't be happy with any purchase until you see the new ones.

It's basically $1700 (iMac) vs $1500 (MBP). Do you think you could spend another $200 on top of the iMac? You could then get a 15" MBP with the high-res screen and discrete graphics. It would be much faster than the 13" for your apps.

Also, how would you buy the iMac after selling the MBP? Would you be coming back to the US? Then why not just wait until then?
 
A refurbished 2011 17" MBP would be perfect in my opinion, large screen size and resolution, dedicated graphics, Thunderbolt, future-proof for RAM, SSD, etc.
 
estoesgenuino said:
The thing is I really need it for school. Any other opinions?
Click to expand...

Sounds more like a want than a need. As $900 would get you a Windows desktop, SSD bootdrive with secondary data hard drive, GPU and large screen that would be more than enough fulfill your needs. Heck a $500 desktop and screen could handle all those tasks. The iMac is more of a want.

That being said if the next iMac comes out in a month. I doubt it would be anything astounding. The current generation of i5/i7 are barely any faster, the low end iMac would either get a 2.8Ghz or 3.1Ghz CPU while the top end would be bumped from 3.4Ghz to 3.5Ghz. The focus for this generation was getting energy usage down.

The GPU probably would not be much of an improvement either as the Radeon HD 7000 series is about 15% faster than the HD 6000 series. Again the focus was on energy usage.

I doubt there will be a retina model. A panel that large would be too expensive and the resolution would really be hard on a GPU if they kept the same DPI. If they did come out with a retina model the price would be much higher.

So if the current iMac meets your needs and wants then get it and be happy. There is no point chasing the next generation as something is always on the horizon.
 
Bauer24 said:
For what you'll use it for, I don't really recommend the 13" MBP, if only for the resolution. It's a pitiful 1280 x 800, and things will definitely feel cramped with the programs you mentioned.

If you want portability, go with the retina pro. Otherwise, go with the iMac.
Click to expand...

I agree, but if you're planning to buy or have an external lcd to use with this then the 13" could give you a best of both worlds experience.

I wouldn't want to do cad / photo work on a 13" full time, it would drive you insane.

Have done similarly crazy stuff, I wouldn't recommend it. =
 
Mikey7c8 said:
I agree, but if you're planning to buy or have an external lcd to use with this then the 13" could give you a best of both worlds experience.

I wouldn't want to do cad / photo work on a 13" full time, it would drive you insane.

Have done similarly crazy stuff, I wouldn't recommend it. =
Click to expand...

Yeah, true enough. Although I don't think he wants to buy an external display, though if he did, I agree with you.
 
I think i will do that. Ill buy te 13" i7 8gb. And later ill buy an lcd. Maybe a 24". Which one do you recommend? Maybe a dell one? Or a samsung?

Do you find the 13" i7 a good computer?
 
I was in a similar situation. Ive been a semi professional photographer (about $25,000 a year) for about 6 years and just finished architecture school. The 13" MacBook has been indespensible. I actually sold off my 15" because it was pretty inconvenient to lug around. I got a Dell U2311H to leave in studio and in my experience it has much better color reproduction than my MacBook screen. I would really recommend going portable with an external monitor. I bumped up the ram to 8gb and put in an SSD using the optibay system and it works great for CAD, most 3D modeling, rendering, and editing photos like a fiend in Lightroom.

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Oh snap, i just noticed that this was from a week ago. Sorry!
 
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