What Mac do you use for Web Dev/Design?

I edit/artwork a bi-monthly magazine (18,000 circulation). The work is done on a 17" Macbook Pro (mine) and a 27" iMac (work's) - with occasional forays to an older 20" iMac I have at home. 4gb RAM on each. All are more than adequate for the task.

The same hardware is also used to design and maintain several websites (some work's, some belonging to clients) without any problems.

 

A good ol' trusty Top of the Line Macbook Pro 13" (Or 15", but I have a 13"). Power, Mobility, Usability, and it is Iconic. In fact, if you really want to get speed + power, go for the SSD, worth it. Just, just worth it.

Not to mention, iWeb provides a good foundation, even for professional sites.

+WebDesign=|HEAD EXPLODES DUE TO AWESOMENESS|

 

My "main" computer is actually a rev. B Macbook Air with SSD. I plug it into a 20-inch monitor in a studio several times a week. I spend most of my time in Photoshop working at web resolution and in programs like Coda, Flash, Flex, Processing, Xcode, etc. Its a great, portable development machine.I have even done some small after effects work on it.

I also have a hexacore Mac Pro for when I need more processing power, but most days I am on-site in someone else's studio, far away from it.

 

17" MBP 8GB ram with a 27" Cinema Display

Screen real estate > raw power for web work

 

For me it depends on where I'm at. I have 3 Mac's and I do web work on all of them with Dreamweaver CS4.

MBP (2,2) 2.33GHz C2D, 3GB RAM @ work
iMac (8,1) 3.06GHz C2D, 6GB RAM @ church
iMac (11,3) 2.93Ghz Core i7, 16GB RAM @ home

 

I use a 2009 Mac Mini. Web Development is not really a CPU intensive task. Any new Mac should be productive in this area. I started web design / development on a Quadra 800. I think the specs were 33 MHz CPU and 8-24 MB of Ram.

 

Lots of reputable designers are switching their setup to MacBook Air + iPad.
One of them went from MacBook Pro to iMac 27" down to a top spec 13" MacBook Air. Depends really what you're doing.. if you're not working with PSDs over 700MB on a regular basis and your storage system (he uses external 1TB passport in addition to 256GB Flash on the Air) is good then you'll be fine.

He backs his files up regularly with a RAID and two in the cloud. Pretty smart and it's a really lean setup.

 

This is my set up. I have a base 11.6" Air, the 64gb iPad and a 23" LG LED for use when I am at home. If I need a bit more oomph, I have a 2009 Mac Mini hooked up to my 42" TV, but I have not yet needed it. All it is now is a music/multimedia server for my wife and I to sync our iPads and iPhones to.

I am easily able to use Fireworks CS5, GIMP, etc. for photo manip/graphic design on the Air. I use a lightweight HTML editor called Taco for my coding. I conduct presentations, etc. for clients on my iPad. I do regular backups of all my files, particularly the raw files coming out of Fireworks and GIMP. The 64gb SSD on the air never concerns me.

 

Late 2008 MacBook Aluminum 2.4 GHz hooked up to a external monitor.

 

I use a 13inch macbook pro (9400m, 2.26, 4GB ram), i only feel limited by the screen resolution on the occasions and never by performance.

When i want to use the terminal, console log, and my IDE at the same time i have to switch spaces a lot.

I rarely feel limited in Photoshop CS5, the touchpad gestures(pinch to zoom ect) make it so easy to work with regardless of screen size.

When doing my site layouts(AutoCAD 2011) i do find the screen size quite limiting but i am sure once i get a big external screen this would no longer become a problem.

CSSEdit also is very limited on the small display i can't see the hole page layout and code layout at the same time which means i am constantly switching between spaces though thankfully i don't do much design work.