which ntoebook is right for me?
Hey,
I'm new to the community, whats up everyone?
I am a student, amateur photographer and filmmaker, medium-core gamer, and love to tinker with small electronics and my machines. I'm pretty convinced that OSX is going to work great for me, after test-driving my friend's machines and going to the Apple store. I love the aesthetics of Apple's laptops, and the fact that they will run x86-based OSes now (ie WinXP and my various Linux incarnations) makes Apple almost a slam-dunk.
I am, however, concerned about which laptop to purchase. I don't have a ton of money, but $2000 for the MBP (+whatever i pay for another gig of RAM) isn't completely out of the question. I also travel a ton, and portability / battery life is an issue to consider. Initially, i figured that it was a no-brainer to get the 13.3inch MB and just shove a big hard drive and a lot of RAM in it. Then i realized i wanted to edit masses of RAW files in Aperture and PSCS2/3 with freaking Intel integrated graphics, and the $1600 i was ready to spend can get me a ThinkPad with very similar specs and a FireGl card in it. Hmmmm...
The MacBook Pro offers me a lot more juice, and the x1600 will be fine for whatever photo/film stuff i wanna do. It also seems to be a battery hog, and the only substantial reviews i have found on it say that the macbook pro didn't perform horribly well when tested under WinXP under 3d gaming use. However, i think that this applies to the Core Duo version, not the Core 2 duo. I can't find much information on the newer model and how it runs with WinXP.
Basically, i have two questions:
1. How are your experiences with the MacBook for dealing with RAW/TIFF files in a photoshop or aperture environment? Will it work well when i need it? (ie when i'm in the 3rd world and need to edit photos under battery power.)
2. How well does Windows run on the MacBook Pro? Will i be able to play games such as HL2 and BF2 with decent settings and have it look nice? And what is the battery power like on the newest incarnations?
I'm new to the community, whats up everyone?
I am a student, amateur photographer and filmmaker, medium-core gamer, and love to tinker with small electronics and my machines. I'm pretty convinced that OSX is going to work great for me, after test-driving my friend's machines and going to the Apple store. I love the aesthetics of Apple's laptops, and the fact that they will run x86-based OSes now (ie WinXP and my various Linux incarnations) makes Apple almost a slam-dunk.
I am, however, concerned about which laptop to purchase. I don't have a ton of money, but $2000 for the MBP (+whatever i pay for another gig of RAM) isn't completely out of the question. I also travel a ton, and portability / battery life is an issue to consider. Initially, i figured that it was a no-brainer to get the 13.3inch MB and just shove a big hard drive and a lot of RAM in it. Then i realized i wanted to edit masses of RAW files in Aperture and PSCS2/3 with freaking Intel integrated graphics, and the $1600 i was ready to spend can get me a ThinkPad with very similar specs and a FireGl card in it. Hmmmm...
The MacBook Pro offers me a lot more juice, and the x1600 will be fine for whatever photo/film stuff i wanna do. It also seems to be a battery hog, and the only substantial reviews i have found on it say that the macbook pro didn't perform horribly well when tested under WinXP under 3d gaming use. However, i think that this applies to the Core Duo version, not the Core 2 duo. I can't find much information on the newer model and how it runs with WinXP.
Basically, i have two questions:
1. How are your experiences with the MacBook for dealing with RAW/TIFF files in a photoshop or aperture environment? Will it work well when i need it? (ie when i'm in the 3rd world and need to edit photos under battery power.)
2. How well does Windows run on the MacBook Pro? Will i be able to play games such as HL2 and BF2 with decent settings and have it look nice? And what is the battery power like on the newest incarnations?
Comments
Running XP using parallels or boot camp still doesn't give 100% compatability, especially when it comes to gaming. You could expect a lot of glitches, especially with newer games, and at the very least, some slowdown. If you want to play Windows games, buy a windows computer. The MBPro is great for photoshop and audio/video editing, though, although the battery life is quite crappy. (again really bad w/games).
I've tried playing Quake 4 in OSX on an airplane, and the full charge lasted a little less than an hour - maybe closer to 45 min. I've also worked with Photoshop and ProTools on a battery, and if you're really using these applications, expect battery life of around an hour and a half to 2 hours, less if you're using multiple applications, and much less if you plan on using the DVD drive. The DVD drive sucks power like crazy, you can't watch a DVD for more than 2 hours without the system shutting down.
If you need to be on battery for longer than a couple hours, buy a second battery! Anyways, I've spent long stretches in Ghana, Nepal, Bangladesh and India, and power is never such a huge problem. I keep 2 batteries, and have never been without a charge.
MBPro is a great machine for professional a/v apps, and when/if the games finally come out, they work great (of course, the hardware is newer than what they were intended for on windoze machines, so they better work great). Just don't expect all of the expansion packs, etc., and a lot of titles don't make it (forget Half-life), and if they do, they're usually 6 months to a year late....
Does anyone have any input about the 13inch MacBook, and how well it handles Photo/Video/Audio apps?
Thank you!
Does anyone have any input about the 13inch MacBook, and how well it handles Photo/Video/Audio apps?
A Macbook should work fine, as long as it has enough RAM, with all the iPrograms. I don't think it would work well with intense photoshop usage or any of Apple's pro level software. But I've never tired to run those programs, so I can't say for sure.
Don't buy the MBPro if you want to play games. Especially on battery power.
I doubt many people play many games especially mid-high end ones on battery power.
Running XP using parallels or boot camp still doesn't give 100% compatability, especially when it comes to gaming. You could expect a lot of glitches, especially with newer games, and at the very least, some slowdown. If you want to play Windows games, buy a windows computer.
Not true at all. The X1600 in the MBP is a very capable GPU and I can only say about the iMac, which has the same spec but as far as Windows compatibility goes, I haven't come across any problems at all, especially when it comes to games. Prey, FEAR, HL2, Cold Fear, Prince of Persia Sands of Time all play at pretty high quality - FEAR and Cold Fear need turned down a bit. HL2 plays at full without Antialiasing. I admit it's not the best gaming card but it's very capable.
I've tried playing Quake 4 in OSX on an airplane, and the full charge lasted a little less than an hour - maybe closer to 45 min. I've also worked with Photoshop and ProTools on a battery, and if you're really using these applications, expect battery life of around an hour and a half to 2 hours, less if you're using multiple applications, and much less if you plan on using the DVD drive. The DVD drive sucks power like crazy, you can't watch a DVD for more than 2 hours without the system shutting down.
That's about right for a laptop while watching a DVD. To save power, you'd just rip the DVD to your hard drive and forget the disc. Also lower the display brightness and set your energy saver to save power.
MBPro is a great machine for professional a/v apps, and when/if the games finally come out, they work great (of course, the hardware is newer than what they were intended for on windoze machines, so they better work great). Just don't expect all of the expansion packs, etc., and a lot of titles don't make it (forget Half-life), and if they do, they're usually 6 months to a year late....
Ah, you mean Mac games. You're right Mac gaming totally sucks but since you can run games with full compatibility in Bootcamp, there's no problem there.
Concerning apps like Aperture and the like, the Pro apps all behave pretty much the same on the MB as the MBP with the exception of Motion because it uses hardware accelerated rendering. Almost all the apps including Photoshop are CPU based and the CPUs in both systems are the same. The only difference between the MB and MBP is the GPU, higher screen resolution and extras like backlit keyboard, firewire 800, matte displays.
I'd say the MB is ok for low end gaming but I think you'd be disappointed with it if you want Half-Life 2. As I say, the X1600 handles it very well. All reflections on and anisotropic filtering.
I doubt many people play many games especially mid-high end ones on battery power.
Not true at all. The X1600 in the MBP is a very capable GPU and I can only say about the iMac, which has the same spec but as far as Windows compatibility goes, I haven't come across any problems at all, especially when it comes to games. Prey, FEAR, HL2, Cold Fear, Prince of Persia Sands of Time all play at pretty high quality - FEAR and Cold Fear need turned down a bit. HL2 plays at full without Antialiasing. I admit it's not the best gaming card but it's very capable.
That's about right for a laptop while watching a DVD. To save power, you'd just rip the DVD to your hard drive and forget the disc. Also lower the display brightness and set your energy saver to save power.
Ah, you mean Mac games. You're right Mac gaming totally sucks but since you can run games with full compatibility in Bootcamp, there's no problem there.
Concerning apps like Aperture and the like, the Pro apps all behave pretty much the same on the MB as the MBP with the exception of Motion because it uses hardware accelerated rendering. Almost all the apps including Photoshop are CPU based and the CPUs in both systems are the same. The only difference between the MB and MBP is the GPU, higher screen resolution and extras like backlit keyboard, firewire 800, matte displays.
I'd say the MB is ok for low end gaming but I think you'd be disappointed with it if you want Half-Life 2. As I say, the X1600 handles it very well. All reflections on and anisotropic filtering.
That's exactly the info i was looking for. I wouldn't dare try and play anything execpt CS 1.6 on the MB (intel's chips aren't made for it at all). Thanks for everything, all yall!
I doubt many people play many games especially mid-high end ones on battery power.
He was specifically asking about battery power.
Not true at all. The X1600 in the MBP is a very capable GPU and I can only say about the iMac, which has the same spec but as far as Windows compatibility goes, I haven't come across any problems at all, especially when it comes to games. Prey, FEAR, HL2, Cold Fear, Prince of Persia Sands of Time all play at pretty high quality - FEAR and Cold Fear need turned down a bit. HL2 plays at full without Antialiasing. I admit it's not the best gaming card but it's very capable.
I tried bootcamp a while back and HL2 was noticeably slower than my roommate's CoreDuo PC. He doesn't have a fancy graphics card either. Also, it wouldn't recognize my controller, and I had noticeable slowdowns that he never had. Also, making the Windows partition and eating up and extra 10-15 GB really cuts into what is already limited hard drive space (especially on MB).
That's about right for a laptop while watching a DVD. To save power, you'd just rip the DVD to your hard drive and forget the disc. Also lower the display brightness and set your energy saver to save power.
I think ripping a DVD and then watching it would take just about as much power as just watching it. Maybe you'd save 10 minutes of battery life...
Concerning apps like Aperture and the like, the Pro apps all behave pretty much the same on the MB as the MBP with the exception of Motion because it uses hardware accelerated rendering. Almost all the apps including Photoshop are CPU based and the CPUs in both systems are the same. The only difference between the MB and MBP is the GPU, higher screen resolution and extras like backlit keyboard, firewire 800, matte displays.
Also, memory and internal hard disk size and greater on MBPro. All of these things are important to pro apps - to run CS2 properly, there's already a big enough handicap with Rosetta, so I think you need all the memory you can get, and screen resolution and size are also, of course important. Photo and video editing on a 13" screen is not very pleasant for me, and managing 2 or 3 different applications with that small a screen is trying. For audio apps, you really need the firewire 800 for access to sample libraries in real-time and/or 24-bit recording to an external disk, as well as lots of RAM. I thought the glossy screen of the macbook made working in certain lighting conditions next to impossible, as well. Of course, CS3 is also around the corner, and it's sure to require a better system still...
I tried bootcamp a while back and HL2 was noticeably slower than my roommate's CoreDuo PC. He doesn't have a fancy graphics card either.
If it was a desktop, it could have been faster for a number of reasons. If it was either a laptop or a desktop, it could be because Apple underclock their GPUs quite a lot to save heat and battery life. This can be rectified using some software online. Was your laptop a MBP?
Also, it wouldn't recognize my controller, and I had noticeable slowdowns that he never had. Also, making the Windows partition and eating up and extra 10-15 GB really cuts into what is already limited hard drive space (especially on MB).
Yeah, that's the biggest issue I have with Bootcamp but I found that I was using almost as much with Parallels.
I wouldn't dare try and play anything execpt CS 1.6 on the MB (intel's chips aren't made for it at all).
It can actually play quite a number of games ( http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=70500 ), just not very demanding ones. You can actually play Half Life 2 on it but you have to use an older DirectX model so it doesn't look as nice. I actually played it and Counterstrike Source using Crossover so you don't even need to use Windows for those games.