Which MBP for Design Work? Help!

[raiderarch329]

Gonna be getting a MBP for school in the fall and will be doing design work. Mainly AutoCAD (Bootcamp obviously), FormZ, Photoshop, Illustrator, and a few others here and there.

I want to go with a 13" because i love its size, and if i have any large projects i have a beast of a desktop that i can use. But while in class am i going to regret not having a dedicated graphics card that the 15" models have.

Either way i go im probably gonna do an SSD of some sort, and if so, does that make the 13" situation sit easier with you guys?

just need some insight to help ease my decision making since none of my friends or colleagues really now much about hardware requirements for design software.

*Also should I hold off until fall and see if something new comes out of the pipe? An i5 13" would make me pee my pants, but i don't know if it will happen.

 

[stefan1975]

the 15 HR AG would be most suitable for design work imho. better cpu. better gpu. more real estate (1680x1050 vs 1200x800). will run bootcamp better for autocad. and the AG is said to display colors in a more 'true' fashion.

 

[aohus]

the 15 HR AG would be most suitable for design work imho. better cpu. better gpu. more real estate (1680x1050 vs 1200x800). will run bootcamp better for autocad. and the AG is said to display colors in a more 'true' fashion.

+1 with caveat. You mentioned you have a main rig thats highly spec'ed. Maybe its best to just go for portability (13" MBP). However, if you are doing design work quite often, while at home and in transit, I'd agree, 15" MBP is the way to go. I may be wrong, but the Nvidia GT 330M would give a decent boost to your performance. Add in that SSD card that you mentioned and you're golden.

 

[deus ex machina]

the 15 HR AG would be most suitable for design work imho. better cpu. better gpu. more real estate (1680x1050 vs 1200x800). will run bootcamp better for autocad. and the AG is said to display colors in a more 'true' fashion.

The normal res of the 15" would be 1440x900. Either screen type requires calibration to assure color accuracy.

 

[raiderarch329]

+1 with caveat. You mentioned you have a main rig thats highly spec'ed. Maybe its best to just go for portability (13" MBP). However, if you are doing design work quite often, while at home and in transit, I'd agree, 15" MBP is the way to go. I may be wrong, but the Nvidia GT 330M would give a decent boost to your performance. Add in that SSD card that you mentioned and you're golden.

And thats what I'm thinking, my Desktop is an i7 920 @ 3.3GHz, 2x285 GTX, Velociraptor, 6GB ram (soon to be 12GB). When i was getting my first degree i always hated carrying around a big ass PC laptop that was required by the school. I'm not really worried about screen real estate in either case, i have 2 23" LED's at home that need calibration for sure, but i have a ton of real estate.

But the 15" has the nehalem processors, the dedicated graphics, and not much more size. It will probably last longer as well. Man this is tough. Portability Vs. Power, any designers out there with similar setup? I would love to hear from you guys! Thanks for the comments!

 

[stefan1975]

i wouldnt really worry about the cpu. i think especially the screen could be much better if you should upgrade to the high-res antiglare. no reflections, no glass plate.

 

[d88co88]

I wouldn't put an SSD in there because of your purpose. Don't SSD's have a limited re-write cycle or something? And with graphic design, you'll be saving over and over again. I'd go for just replacing the stock drive and going with a 7200 rpm one. My setup is a refurb MacBook Pro 15" and I use it for what you're going to use it for and a couple of other things. I don't think the high res is really necessary, but this is someone coming from a PowerBook G4 12" .

 

[raiderarch329]

My work won't be print heavy so color matching is not a main priority and as much as i love the anti-glare, the glass overlay is fine and i'm ok with it enough to not pay more for the antiglare. CAD & Modeling is where the bulk of my work will be, Architecture & Interior Design is my focus.