Which of these MBP + accessories should I buy?

I would think about either Option 1 or Option 3. The 2.4 -> 2.5 ghz upgrade won't make as much of a difference as the 5400 -> 7200 rpm upgrade will.

Also, you say that you are currently using a wired hard drive; why not get another wired one instead of time capsule? Wired ones are cheaper and you can get a lot more storage for a lower price. But if you have more than one computer that needs to be backed up, then the time capsule would be a better option.

 

Best value= option 3.

But to squeeze even more value out of it, substitute the time capsule for a firewire external hard drive which will be faster, and u can even get an airport express if u want as extra for the wireless access.

If not, throw in an iwork and Final cut express.

You'll have stretched your dollar to the max then.

 

The 2.4 has a 3MB cache, while the 2.5 has a 6MB cache. The general consensus is that doubling the cache size makes a big difference in performance. I have not done any benchmarking or anything, but I'm inclined to believe that the cache difference will make a bigger difference than getting a 7200rpm HDD.

You will only see the speed increase with a 7200rpm HDD when dealing with big files. Since your primary use will be design and web work, I don't think you'll need the 7200 as your internal. 5400rpm as your internal drive should be plenty. The extra 50GB will be nice too.

Instead of getting a Time Capsule, I'd lean toward getting a FW800 HDD and just backing up manually with it. Since it is FW800, if you want to do video editing, you can also use this as your Final Cut scratch disk .

If you've gone on for a long time with just a 200GB external, getting a new 320GB external for around $150 should be plenty enough, and will also save you a bit of money.

Hope this helps. I would get the 2.5 and Adobe Web Premium. Hold off on the other software. Use trial periods until they expire.

 

if it were me i'd choose option 2 as long as you plan on keeping it for a while, its the most future proof MBP, with the bigger L2 cache.

 

I would go with option 2 if your budget allows it due to the more future-proof processor, if not either of the 2.4GHz models will be fine.

 

I had the Time Capsule and didn't really like it. It wasn't as stable as I liked. It gave me trouble a few times and i sold it for about what I paid for it. I'm sure I'm in the minority with that view, but that is my opinion.

I sold my Time Capsule and bought the AirPort Extreme and connect the Western Digital My Book hard drive to it. It works great with Time Machine. I personally found this set up much better and I haven't had any problems with it. I got 4 computers(3 Macbooks--mine, wife, son and 1 HP desktop) using the Extreme with the HD.

 

cache on the CPU doubles, as does the VRAM on the nVidia graphics card, from 256 to 512. Best bang for the buck and more performance and HDD inside. Sure, the 256 is great, I'm running the Ultimate from last summer and CS3 runs fine, but 512 w/ the better cache will be a lot better.

 

option 1 with a 7200 rpm drive,
the extra software will definitely help

 

You may want to check with your school, as the student/education versions of Adobe products are for non commercial use.

 

Glad to hear that you're happy with your purchase. I have the stock 2.5 also and think it's pretty awesome. Might upgrade the RAM later on though.

Congrats.