MBP vs Air...

C

Climber

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jul 27, 2007
Messages
5,283
For a graphics / photo workstation. It would mostly be at home but would go with me on site. I would be traveling a few times a year out of state and country for various photo or commercial shoots.

I bought my parents an iMac a couple years ago and they love it but I've personally never used an apple product in the last two decades besides my iPhone. Any suggestions between the two? I know the MBP is more rugged while the flash is more portable but power wise does either lack the resources needed for editing and rendering raw files?
 
what do you use for your photo work?



either will do raw files, that is mostly CPU, just depends what else you may want to do with them.
 
Theres pros and cons to both systems

If you are comparing the MBP 13" i5 vs the MBA 13" 128gb
The MBP has a faster processer 2.3ghz vs 1.7 both are duo core
The MBP ram can be upgraded to 8gb but both will have 4gb
The MBA has a solid state drive, the MBP has a 320gb SATA***
The MBP has a optical drive***
Battery life will be nearly the same
the MBA display is a little better 1440x900 vs 1280x800

***i]In my 13inch macbook unibody I replaced the HD with an intel 120gb ssd, and replaced the optical drive with a 750gb hd(optibay). Total cost to me for this was about 400 but I love having all this space available. This along with the ability to install 8gbs of ram into the MBP it would be the deciding factor in choosing a MBP over a MBA.



Now if you go toward a bigger MBP the 15" or 17" you get some nice options you wont have with the MBA13" or the MBP13", can get a quad core processor, higher resolution screens, better graphics cards. But the price increases with every little thing you may want to get.
 
Is throwing an SSD a pretty common thing to do with the MBA? I haven't kept up at all with OSX compatibility, but I want to assume they run TRIM and such.
 
I use Gimp and Lightroom and most likely will be upgrading to CS 5. I was planning on putting an SSD into the MBP if I went that route. I like the higher resolution screen of the Air but I could go with the larger MBP as I've got a little over 2.5k set aside for a laptop. I've got an aging Dell latitude but it sucks on battery life and is slowing down. I would really only use whichever one I got for production work but would use it for light gaming and movie watching while on the road.
 
If you plan on any gaming/movie watching, then the MBP is the way to go. With $2500 to spend, I'd get the 15" Hi-Res with AMD 6750 1GB card. Upgrade the RAM and SSD yourself and the laptop would scream!

I love spending other people's money for them. :)
 
DOOMHAMMA said:
Is throwing an SSD a pretty common thing to do with the MBA? I haven't kept up at all with OSX compatibility, but I want to assume they run TRIM and such.
Click to expand...

Yes, OS X 10.6.6 and 10.7 do utilize TRIM, so you will be good to go.
 
Mr. Wolf said:
If you plan on any gaming/movie watching, then the MBP is the way to go. With $2500 to spend, I'd get the 15" Hi-Res with AMD 6750 1GB card. Upgrade the RAM and SSD yourself and the laptop would scream!

I love spending other people's money for them. :)
Click to expand...

Do this.
 
Red Falcon said:
Yes, OS X 10.6.6 and 10.7 do utilize TRIM, so you will be good to go.
Click to expand...

That depends. Unless you upgrade to an SSD from Apple you will not get TRIM support. Even if you buy the same SSD (Samsung 470 series.) Last word on the forums is that there is some custom firmware in the drives installed by Apple.


Honestly, I recommend against the MBA. Unless you plan to upgrade every year, I would go for the highest performing CPU (2.7 i7 on the MBP) and as much ram as possible (can find quality ram from Corsair and Crucial for 50-60 USD for a pair of 4GB DDR3.)

This looks to be your all purpose machine and the MBA as nice as it is, you pretty much hit a brick wall. On top of that, based on what you describe I am assuming you want this machine to last.

Fake Edit: The MBP13 i7 gets more battery life than the MBA from what I've been reading (Anandtech) and I've been able to confirm the MBP13 (2.7) has awesome battery life. I was coding for a good 7-8 hours in addition to a couple of youtube videos I encoded and uploaded with iMovie and some pictures I uploaded and organized with iPhoto the night before without charging it. Total about 8-9 something hours. This is with the fast i7 though. The MBP i5 oddly enough has less battery life. (One conjecture is that the i7 finishes task faster and there for goes idle faster.)
 
Thanks all, especially Mr. Wolf for spending my money Appreciate the advice and will make the drive to Boulder this week to raid the apple store.
 
martinmsj said:
That depends. Unless you upgrade to an SSD from Apple you will not get TRIM support. Even if you buy the same SSD (Samsung 470 series.) Last word on the forums is that there is some custom firmware in the drives installed by Apple.
Click to expand...

Why does this not surprise me.
 
Apple has the 128GB SSD upgrade for 90.00. Which SSD are they using? Is it worth them putting the SSD in for that price regardless of which brand it is?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top