Apple Macbook instead of desktop? Oppinons pls

Hi, I'm currently thinking of selling my rig+monitor (specs in sig) to get some money for a Macbook. At first I thought it would be an easy desicion because I stopped gaming and I almost only use my PC for Photoshop and media stuff.
My idea was to get a Black Macbook, but I started to get unsure if the Intel GMA 950 is enough for Photoshop. So please, what do you guys think? Should I keep my main rig and just save some mony?
I really only want to photochop, write and have a portable media platform for vacations etc.

edit:/would a Mac book pro be more suitable? I saw some go on ebay for ~1500€

 

The gma950 should be fine for Photoshop. The problem I would imagine would be the screen size of the MacBook. I personally am holding out in hope for a 12/13" MacBook Pro, as it would be both portable, and have the graphic power to run a large external display.

 

Yea, that was one of my concearns as well, I think I'd miss my 20" .
BUT I thought I could save up some mony and buy me a 20" cinema display
for 500€-600€ on Ebay. It would take ma a few month though....

 

Yes, true, but there won't be one, as the MacBook is exactly the same as the Pro, minus that GPU.
Photoshop isn't really that reliant on GPU's, so it is fine.

 

You should be fine running the macbook on a big display it supports even the 30in apple from memory.

I've got my mac mini which has the same gfx hooked up to my 20in dell tft and it works perfectly.

PS need cpu power not gfx power

 

Thanks a lot, guys your comments were very helpfull. You convinced me to go for that Macbook

 

hey congrats on the purchase you gonna get the bog standard or upgrade it?

 

Thanks, haven't order it yet though, I still have to sell my rig and wait 'till my birthday untill I have the money. But I'll purchase the standart black MacBook with the 2,0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 120 GB HDD but only 1 GB RAM. I would upgrade to 2 GB, but exeeds my budget a little. Would I be able to upgrade to 2 GB afterwards?

 

it probably wouldnt be much more to just get it standard sell off the ram you get in it and buy 2x 1gb sticks and upgrade it your self! it really easy to upgrade the ram in a mac book!
may i ask why are you getting the black version? the white is soo much cheaper/ nicer/ better finish

 

Well, I'm a bit of a design wh0re and I just like the look of that black MacBook more than the white one. Also black is a little bit more "understating"
than the "in your face" white vers.
(plus it would match my black nano and my sunglasses)

 

I have barely used my pc at all since I got my macbook...in hindsight, i should have sold it while it was worth something. In my experience, the resolution on the screen is *okay* for photoshop work, but you will quickly be wanting an external monitor for it. Is it possible for you to sell the desktop sans monitor and just use the one you have? If so, that's what I would do. There's really no reason to get a cinema display unless you are really set on the design. Anyways, the GMA950 handles photoshop well, at least CS3 (that's all I have tried).

 

At school, we have Macs and PC. IT gaved up on Macs, and they want to trow them away, very badly.
One day everything works fine... (one of the items in the list)
1- then POOF monitor dies....
2- then POOF "freezes" (blocks) at log-in.
3- then POOF actually freeze on shut-down. So you have to unplug the power cable, as, unlike PC's, the power button on Macs are just like a keyboard key. If the OS freezes, it won't work.
4- random freeze on non-Apple softwares (including Photoshop)
5- loses internet, but network works fine... (reboot required)
6- USB fails to work...(reboot required)
7- no eject button on optical drive.. so if OS freeze, you got to reboot to take off your CD
8- If you burn a DVD/CD and the OS freezes, you got to send your Mac to Apple to unlock the optical drive. (on PC, either there is a DOS command, or you press on the eject button at power-up (that will unlock it) so you will be able to get your CD back.)
9- Apple 0 quality on their customer service.

Oh and let's not forget it's horrible to multi-task for it... (tricks for you to get used to, should not be created by you... it just must work logically)

Apple USED TO MAKE good computers and OS... but now they are jokes, waist of money. School spend 5 Mac iMacs 17inch, and 1 Mac Pro (for video montage), and they are all piece of crap... I don't know about their notebooks, but I know some students that have it, and say they have no problems...The rest of our computer are PC's with Vista Business installed and XP Pro (depending on the computers)
Picture can be shown to you, to see how much people are ready to use it (tip: no one)

Could it be the school got rip-off in having bad macs?
Anyway, semester just started... we will see, maybe Apple with replace them...

 

GoodBytes, I think your school just had some really bad luck.


Anyways, I think a MacBook would be appropriate, but make sure you get more RAM! OS X loves it, as does Photoshop. Keep in mind that CS2 is only native to PPC chips and has to run in emulation, which slows it down a lot, but the CS3 beta seems great. Also, the plain MacBooks only have a little mini-video-out; you need to buy a $20 dongle thing to use either DVI or VGA. Yeah, it's lame. I'm fairly sure it only supports up to the Apple 23" (i.e., any 1920x1200 display, like the Dells at half the price with an extra inch and a lot more functionality), not the 30" (2560x1600), but I could be wrong.

Since making the switch, I've spent almost zero time in Windows, and every time that I do (my Stats class uses minitab, which I have to use Parallels to run), I always get really annoyed. OS X certainly has its quirks, but whenever they seem to get annoying, using Windows for about ten seconds reminds me how much infinitely better off I've been since switching. Honestly, when I first got my MBP last May, I used BootCamp to put XP on and had the drive partitioned 50/50 (well, 40/40 GB). Almost never used Windows; deleted it and re-partitioned to a 70/10GB split, continued to not use it and just deleted the XP partition altogether. I have parallels for the thankfully rare occasions when I need Windows, but it's rare.

Just FYI - I used a black Macbook for a short while. Ever used a ThinkPad? Know how that plastic gets nastily greasy from your fingers? The BlackBook gets exactly the same way. I don't think the white models do that, as I'm pretty sure they have a polycarbonate exterior, rather than the matte stuff on the black ones. Just something to consider, especially if the style concerns you.

 

Yes absolutely - get the minimum ram and then buy 2 * 1gb sticks from Newegg or something and install it yourself - it will save you tons of money. Then, you can sell the ram that came in the machine to some starving student.

Also - regarding macbook vs. macbook pro - the macbook pro has an expresscard slot. There isn't much hardware yet for express card, but it's coming. Currently, you can get tv tuners, E-SATA controllers, high speed wireless mobile network cards (Edge, etc..) and others. Also, because expresscard is PCI Express, nvidia is working on an expresscard video card.

Just something to think about.

Oh, one more thing - see if you can buy refurbs or if you are eligible for a student discount.