What shall i get?

[willorrock]

Here is my situation,

I am a design student and heavily into anything involving mac/apple.
I use my macbook pro (2.16 duo/1GB) a lot. typically i run photoshop cs3, dreamweaver cs3, iphoto (20,000 photos), flash, logic pro etc etc.

The MBP is struggling and i want to upgrade. Now, do i go down the Mac Pro route so i can upgrade various aspects in future years as and when or should i go for a new MBP? (perhaps wait until the rumoured updates in mid October? or wait further more until the convention in San Fran, January 09?)
If i was to get a MacPro i would also buy a MB Air for portability etc (and i really want one of those lol!!)

Help me out with your advice and total costings for various set ups (in GBP please and also i can get student discounts)

Thanks

 

[Hawkeye411]

lol ... just go to the Apple website and you can select the computers you are interested in and it will allow you to customize the setup and it will provide you with a quote .... Or .. I suppose I could do this for you and report back to you .... nahhhhhh ..... you go ahead and give it a try ... it'll be good for you.

 

[willorrock]

it was an advice post not a how to,

but thanks for the concern anyway



alternatively i could get a top of range imac (4gb, 1TB etc), but in a couple of years time could i upgrade the processors within it like a macpro or increase the RAM (i understand there are probably only 2 slots on the 24" iMac so could be expensive to get above 4gb) but is it possible?

 

[willorrock]

canadians lol

 

[oddsocks]

If your doing print design, I would recommend not going for the imac. As has been mentioned on the forums many times, it has a glossy screen which does not give great accuracy for colours. (though rereading your post i'm guessing it's more web design). I just don't like the imac

If you are on a small budget I would recommend going for a high end macbook pro then getting an additional monitor for you to work from. This would also save you money for portability. With the money saved you could probably pick up a apple display. Though again a new version is rumored for January so this could be picked up at a later date.

As you mentioned there is rumors of an update in October with the buyers guide saying 'Don't Buy'. I would recommend waiting until the possible October update.

Also when specing up your mac don't get the additional ram or hard drive from apple as there are lots of cheaper places to get them from. For example dabs, and macupgrades.co.uk are two places I uses.

You can always get an external hard drive for your photos.

Hope that helps.