MacBook spec?

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David
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Thinking of getting a 17" MacBook Pro. Does anyone who's more clued up on Macs than me having any suggestions as to upgrades that are worth the money?

I'm thinking the anti-glare screen is a must, and maybe the 7200 rpm hard drive as it's not much extra £.

Any help appreciated - I'm still a PC user atm!
 
Unfortunately the new ones are all glossy, and the screens are not that good (no laptop has a good screen). I'd recommend 15" + decent 24" S-IPS type monitor.

Macs are much better to use than PCs, you won't regret it.
 
Get as fast a processor as you can afford to put in there, and the antiglare screen. Ram and Hard drive I would leave, and just add those in yourself after the fact as you play alot less then you would if you were paying Apple to do it. Also a mini displayport to DVI adaptor would be useful if you want to use an external display.
 
A 7200RPM drive is a must, and at least 2GB of RAM would be good, nut as FJ says maybe look at upgrading it yourself, it will save money.:)

daugirdas said:
Unfortunately the new ones are all glossy, and the screens are not that good (no laptop has a good screen). I'd recommend 15" + decent 24" S-IPS type monitor.

Macs are much better to use than PCs, you won't regret it.
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Nice little dig there...

Buy your first paragraph was good, maybe a big screen instead of using the laptop screen. I only semi edit images on my laptop (when I am away) then move them onto my desktop for more screen space and proper calibration.:)
 
If you are not going to edit images on your notebook screen (that is you are going to get an external monitor, and only do preliminary edits on the go) then consider getting the 13 inch 2.53gig. It is actually pretty good value for money.
 
daugirdas said:
Unfortunately the new ones are all glossy, and the screens are not that good (no laptop has a good screen). I'd recommend 15" + decent 24" S-IPS type monitor.
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What are you on about?

The 17" does come with a matte screen option and both that and the glossy feature an excellent panel. The new 15" now has a smaller version of the screen in the 17" and is equally as good, although it doesn't have the matte option.

FranchiseJuan said:
Get as fast a processor as you can afford to put in there, and the antiglare screen.
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I really wouldn't bother spending the extra on the speed upgrade for the 17". It's not worth the extra expense as there's nothing the 3.06 will do that the 2.8 can't. It's highly likely that you wouldn't even notice the difference unless you were encoding, rendering or performing similar tasks.

FranchiseJuan said:
Ram and Hard drive I would leave, and just add those in yourself after the fact as you play alot less then you would if you were paying Apple to do it.
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It's a bit pointless upgrading the RAM on the 17" as it costs £800. The hard-drive might be worth paying the Apple tax on as it's a fiddly thing to replace, albeit entirely possible with due care and attention.

FranchiseJuan said:
Also a mini displayport to DVI adaptor would be useful if you want to use an external display.
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Totally agree. Essential for most users.
 
Not sure on the new MBPs but on the previous version the HDD was not a user serviceable item and replacing it voided the warranty.

OK to replace the RAM though
 
Eisbar said:
Not sure on the new MBPs but on the previous version the HDD was not a user serviceable item and replacing it voided the warranty.
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Nope.

On both* the 15" and the 17" the RAM and the hard-drive were classified as user-serviceable parts. It'll be the same for the new models.

*Page 63 on each PDF if you don't believe me.
 
glitch said:
Nope.

On both* the 15" and the 17" the RAM and the hard-drive were classified as user-serviceable parts. It'll be the same for the new models.

*Page 63 on each PDF if you don't believe me.
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My bad
 
Be careful with user upgrades on the 17" MPB. The extra large battery takes up space and makes it difficult for user replacement of the HD ,in fact I believe it's not user replaceable, However the bigger battery does give amazing life. Don't believe Apple they are over optimistic but I have heard of 5 hours in real world situation

The screen is good, but will tend to give slightly inaccurate results even if calibrated ( I speak from experience) You can't drive the blue channel hard enough to get a linear response. The screen tends to be a bit warm and a bit saturated.

The display is certainly good enough to give very reasonable results, but if you want accuracy, you are best using an external calibrated monitor.

I'm using my 15" MPB with a calibrated external 24" monitor and it works fine.
 
I have always had desktop macs and decided a laptop would be great so I could roame freely.

I found I could not get a reliable signal in my front room. Then I added a wireless keyboard and mouse (no cables!), and an external 24in monitor and an external hard drive array.

So I ended up with a desktop mac with a puny hard drive, not much ram and a slower processor for more money. And each and every upgrade was much more expensive than the equivalent desktop model and it is out of date so much quicker.

Then sold it for a proper mac, added 3gb ram, four hard drives and life is sweet.

So ask yourself if you really need a laptop first.

Graham
 
Have a look at my top tip #53 (post #151, http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=94135&post=151)

It is not actually always worth upgrading the processor as the steps are quite small, RAM makes the most difference followed by the hard drive. Apple always charge a premium on RAM but DDR3 is quite expensive at the moment. I would probably leave it at 4Gb unless you are rolling in dosh ! :)
 
I am very happy with slightly older mbp3,1 15" + Dell 2007 WFP. I do take it out occasionally so it must be a laptop. I couldn't care less about MHz, although I upgraded to 4GB the same day (from Crucial.com), and added Seagate external portable 320GB disk with FW800. I does more than I need.

P.S. For any external USB powered HDD you may want to use the right port. Left one is underpowered for some strange reason.
 
i looked at buying a MB/MBP last weekend as my own personal machine rather than having to use my dell laptop. until i figured out you cant run 2 external screens from the mac like you can with the dell (albeit docked)?
 
neil_g said:
i looked at buying a MB/MBP last weekend as my own personal machine rather than having to use my dell laptop. until i figured out you cant run 2 external screens from the mac like you can with the dell (albeit docked)?
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You can run a nice 30" display at 2560x1600 though :) or use the built in screen with an external 24" display. That is a bit of a niche requirement I would suggest but, yes, a valid point. I did have a compaq with a dock years ago. I came home placed the laptop in the dock and it charged up, selected a "docked" hardware profile, used the home network, monitor, keyboard, mouse and the dock even had a couple of PCI slots! But I am getting very bored with mac v pc debates so lets keep this thread on topic everyone :)
 
yeah but dont you need that Dual-Link DVI Adapter thing, which isnt cheap in itself plus it sounds like 90% of people have had issues with it on apple and non-apple screens..

call me fickle but i like having 2 external screens of the same size.
 
neil_g said:
yeah but dont you need that Dual-Link DVI Adapter thing, which isnt cheap in itself plus it sounds like 90% of people have had issues with it on apple and non-apple screens..

call me fickle but i like having 2 external screens of the same size.
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To save space they have used a mini DVI plug rather than the standard one but these adapters come with Apple monitors and they are not that expensive. I very much doubt your percentage is anything like correct. If it was then it would have been recalled or more likely never released. People don't tend to stand up and say "Oh my dual link external monitor works" they only do that when it doesn't. Apple are very good at fixing problems if they occur but you like your PCs are nothing I am going to say is suddenly going to convert you so lets not go off at a tangent. This thread is for someone with questions about a spec not another argument about macs and PCs.
 
Got a 15" MBP and the screen is ace - okay, it can catch some serious glare if you're sat in the wrong place (such as outdoors) but I use mine all the time and it's as good as, if not better (for clarity) the matt screen on the white Imacs, which were great anyway. They do get proper dirty though and need to be cleaned regularly –*plus all the grease from the keys transfers to the screen too. Still, it's a sexy machine :)
 
christ, im not arguing about macs and pcs i was genuinely looking at buying a mac.

i appologise, i should of written that most of the hits for google for the dual link gave me links to people having issues..
 
specialman said:
Got a 15" MBP and the screen is ace - okay, it can catch some serious glare if you're sat in the wrong place (such as outdoors) but I use mine all the time and it's as good as, if not better (for clarity) the matt screen on the white Imacs, which were great anyway. They do get proper dirty though and need to be cleaned regularly –*plus all the grease from the keys transfers to the screen too. Still, it's a sexy machine :)
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My screen is a matte one but the family all have gloss ones. It really isn't an issue inside the house for 99% of the time. The only time it has been an issue was sat in front of the window when the sun was glaring in but that would probably have affected the matter screen a little anyway.
 
Merovingian said:
Oh! Ok. No point mentioning Matrox kit then.
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Well you can use their kit to give you two displays but it is getting a little out of hand! It's not an issue for me as I have the Mac pro when I want two screens and have only ever plugged the Macbook pro into a second screen once just to have a look.
 
specialman said:
Got a 15" MBP and the screen is ace - okay, it can catch some serious glare if you're sat in the wrong place (such as outdoors) but I use mine all the time and it's as good as, if not better (for clarity) the matt screen on the white Imacs, which were great anyway. They do get proper dirty though and need to be cleaned regularly –*plus all the grease from the keys transfers to the screen too. Still, it's a sexy machine :)
Click to expand...

Is that not the whole point of laptops? So you can use them outside (among other places)?:p

My Laptop has the same issue, i'm sure it's a sales pitch more than anything else, just a shame laptop companies don't use matt/lustre screens anymore.:(
 
17" MBP has the matte screen option, the glossy screen looks richer and sharper, but I think that's psychological.
Faster CPU isn't worth the cash.
Do the HDD upgrade yourself, 7200RPM does make a difference, its covered under warranty and explained in the owners manual.
Swapping the RAM's explained too, but bumping to 8GB is >£700 even DIY from Crucial, and not worth bothering with until Snow Leopard (which if you buy a Mac now, you'll get for free)
The new batteries are impressive, and switching GPU's to conserve power really helps.

Once Snow Leopard drops, hopefully RAM prices will be a little lower, and a justifiable upgrade, but for now it's not worth the spend as it will not use it.

Order a miniport adaptor for your second screen and you're away, I ran mine with a second 24" display from Samsung for a while, but that's now attached to the 24" iMac and the MBP's just the portable now.
 
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