Hey, so i come to the apple gurus , I'm having a bit of a hard time deciding to buy either a MacbookPro 2.53ghz 4gb ram or an iMac 2.8ghz that comes with 2gb, I know i could put more ram on the imac but i think its kind of hard,so the question: Is the 2.8ghz (2gigs) Imac going to be way faster than the mbp?

I have a windows desktop and have two monitors so I'm guessing I could utilize 1 of them for the time being while i save for the Mac Pro, I also know that mobility is a big factor here, but the mbp will be used as desktop and sometimes i will carry it on... so what's your advice?

This is so hard.... I can't even sleep thinking bout it, well 1 thing is for shureeeee I'm going Mac all the way WoOt!!!!!

I wish I had but I do not... benchmarks on the two. I am guessing the iMac is marginally (read - imperceptibly) faster. Since you have an extra monitor you could buy the necessary adapter to get the display connected to the MBP. I am so happy that Apple finally made these machines easy to upgrade in the way of storage.

You have a tough decision. Rather than looking at the speed difference you would better spend your time considering the form factor. Do you need the portability of the MBP? $700 bump in price to have the portability.

The other thing that comes to mind is your mention of saving for a Mac Pro. If you are heading towards a future desktop purchase than why not go for the MBP now? A perfect complement to the Mac Pro later on.

Don't know if I am any help here or not... probably things you already thought of... lastly I would encourage you to purchase AppleCare if you go the MBP route. There was a time I would have told people not to waste their money but I have changed my mind on this over the years in regards to portables. They are expensive to repair once out of warranty.

Good luck! You will be happy no matter which choice you make.

Hi !

I first bought a MacBook... It's the best value in terms of mobility vs. price I think.
Then I bought an iMac because I need my hard disks to be connected for backups... and I'm not sure I want to bet on a single computer...

I think it's best to have both... Actually, I also happen to have a 22" Samsung display that I can connect to the iMac... or to the MacBook.

The iMac (20" 4GB) has become the workhorse, and the MacBook (13.3" and 2GB) is used for what it's best: mobility... I love the combo !
I never leave home without the MacBook when I'm in a multi-days shoot, but I love my "desktop" iMac for its power. Did I mention it takes no room and comes with a real keyboard and mouse ?

BTW, adding memory to an iMac is eaaaaasy ! You have a screwdriver, do you ? It's as easy as unscrew, mount, screw....

My advice: buy both an iMac and a MacBook... you get both for the price of a "big" MBP or a "big" iMac...

Cheers !

Well, its a real dilemma, well I'm trying to save some bucks for the MacPro and i don't have any kind of mobility right now as I don't have any laptop, I do have a desktop windows one , I'm guessing this is a good time for going with a MBP because they just updated it , but well Its more thinking and thinking, btw is this adapter sold in the mac stores? or I will have to go to a BestBuy or something?

Thanks very much guys for the response... I know its a hard thing to advice..

My guess is that the adapter is available at the Apple Store... possibly BestBuy as well.

If I were you I would be giving serious thought to the refurbished macs available at the Apple store online.
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/spec...mac?mco=MTM3MzI
You can get a 17" 2.5GHz 2GB RAM MacBook Pro for $2000 with full one year warranty. Bigger screen than what you are looking at and also the screen is not glossy (matte) which may or may not matter to you. You could use some of the saved money to boost it to 4GB of RAM. Sorry to make your choice even more difficult. (Oh... no adapter is necessary with the 17" refurb either)

Well, if you are saving for a Mac Pro, then it seems like a very good decision to get a laptop. You don't need an iMac and a Mac Pro, so once you get the tower you'll have mobility with the laptop.

Now, since you are saving for the Mac Pro, do you really need the Macbook Pro, or could you get away with the new 2.4 aluminum Macbook.

Take a look at these benchmarks:

http://www.macworld.com/article/136214/200...benchmarks.html

The 2.4 Macbook is pretty much just as fast as the 2.4 Macbook Pro. They are identical except for screen size, graphics processor, and firewire port.

The real question here is do you have any need for firewire on your laptop? Since you will be getting a Mac Pro, you could use that for anything requiring firewire, and going with the smaller/cheaper laptop will get you the Mac Pro that much quicker.

Something else you can do, which is very easy with the new laptops, is replace the harddrive with a 7200 RPM drive. That will give you even better performance. This is something you'll have to do on your own though since apple does not give this option for the Macbook.

Get one of these and put it in the macbook. I installed one in my MBPRO recently and they rocckkkk!!! http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Hitachi/0A57547/

MBP all the way! If you need portability, it's perfect.

Yeah Luis, honestly, get a refurb macbook pro. I saved about $500 or more on mine recently buy buying refurbished. Some of the last generation ones are actually faster and have better graphics performance than the new ones, AND they have firewire and matte screens. More discussion on that here: http://www.opensourcephoto.net/forum/index...37942&st=40

That's right. I just bought 15" MBP last generation with matte screen last week. It's really nice. I was using Windows too, and need to jump and need laptop for mobility use.

There's no substitute for me since I'm always on the go. Wouldn't be able to get any work done if not for my trusty laptop. Was looking at the new mbp's yesterday and I just can't see working with a glossy screen. I don't know if maybe the screen needed calibration but when I was looking at my pictures at the store and comparing the matte and glossy monitors, there was a huge difference in the color saturation and I know that when I print and compare to my laptop/desktop at home the colors are very very close.

It's really a bummer that Apple does not give you a choice now.

I recommend getting a regular MB and upgrade to 4GB RAM. The new version is really fast and they are back to the tough aluminum enclosure and have a glass trackpad.