Hi guys
here is the situation
I am an amateur photographer who knows few about computer, and I use a 50MP digital back
and my normal Intel i7 laptop, which I use at work, wont hold up anymore, it basically dies when processing the images
so I am starting from scratch here and options are,
-give up the laptop and get a 15" all juiced up Macbook Pro for both the image processing and work (costs about $2800?)
-keep my laptop for work, add a desktop + screen at home for image processing
lets say my budget is as much as the Macbook Pro costs
if I spend the same money on a desktop + screen, will I get better result? what kind of configs should I be looking at?
the thing is with the 15" Macbook Pro is that I might need a larger screen later on, and the Mac screen is like $1000
is there other screen choices that performs just like the Mac, or better, for less money?
what are the pros and cons with the Mac setup as oppose to the PC?
I know the thunderbolt is coming but it doesnt seem to me it will be popular in a year or two so I guess we can forget about that?
Thanks a lot
Donald
.....here we go again.....
Firstly, why is your i7 laptop not coping? An i7 in a laptop would normally mean it is a fairly well specced machine, do you have onboard graphics like Nvidia or ATI with a least 500MB video RAM?
If so the laptop should be able to cope fairly well.
You will always get better value from buying a desktop, whether it's PC or Mac. So if you must have the best performance for your money get a desktop. Use your existing laptop when travelling.
Display quality is never as good on a laptop compared to a desktop monitor, price taken into account.
There are better displays than those Apple supply, checkout NEC Spectraview monitors.
The pro's and con's over PC versus Mac are well documented across the internet, the fact of the matter is that both systems work fine if they are similar specs and are utilised correctly.
Choose well, for speed (CPU, Graphics card, RAM, fast disk drives) and most of all DISPLAY, and choose which system feels better to you when you use it.
If yo go the Mac route, you can always run your necessary Windows software by dual booting to Windows via bootcamp.
Bear in mind that there are other devices that you may need, such as a Colormunki for display/printer profiling, extra software, large hard drives etc etc, any money you can save
on the basic computer can be used to buy these important additions.