Honestly If you are going to be photo editting. the 4gb over the 2gb ram is going to be a very nice edition.
Especially if you are like me… and have 38 other applications open at one time.
Software to use - Lightroom, and photoshop for photography. Lightroom is fun for quick editting. I’ve tried aperture but I really didn’t care for it. I guess i was too use to lightroom.
If you have an option for a larger harddrive… do so … photos especially in raw format (which you should be shooting in) will take up a good amount of room.
before you import any photos into lightroom be sure to thoroughly go through all the settings of how it imports the photos… I have 3 copies of photos and it drives me mad. I’m too lazy to go through and fix it. Don’t fuck this up when first doing it.
You may want to consider waiting until January to make a purchase. Apple should be revamping the macbook line with the new I7 quad core processor and will also hopefully increase the minimum amount of ram they are shipping with.
For what you need it for, I think you could get by with a regular macbook. A macbook pro will obviously be faster, but only by a minute amount for the additional cost.
the macbook ILC has is different than what you’ll be buying. the refurb macbook you have linked is effectively the pro, just not branded as such.
if i were you, i’d spring for the newest macbook. it’s $300 to $500 cheaper than those are and has very similar specs. 2 GB less of RAM, but you’ll be able to add 2 GB more for way less than 300 to 500 bucks. or i’d wait because like frofan said, a line refresh is going to happen very soon. i7 quad core would probably be what’s in there and man that thing is gonna scream.
i’m thinking of buying a new laptop also and i’m going back and forth between the new macbook, and the new pro. i’m actually more inclined to get the macbook. it’s so close in specs, runs cooler, gets better battery life according to the latest reviews, and because of the plastic housing gets better wi-fi reception.
4GB of ram is almost a MUST on the Mac, but then again you can upgrade it yourself for about $50 from crucial.com - firewire is very nice, I prefer using a FW800 CF reader for photography over USB 2.slow but that’s nit-picky.
However, they both have the same CPU, same cache, same chipset, same video card, etc, the “pro” moniker gets you FW and the new ones DO have a marginally better screen. That’s IT, that’s the ONLY technical difference, the rest is branding - Apple was (stupidly/slowly) moving back to having “Powerbook” vs “iBook” aka the pro machines are all metal now and the consumer machine, plastic. Honestly, the new PLASTIC white unibody macbooks are just as quick, I just don’t care for the form factor an would pay for the Alu over that in a heartbeat.
Don’t wait til Jan, they will be revamping the Mac Pro, but laptops JUST got an update (I could be totally wrong here LOL - I just don’t see them updating desktop and laptop at the same time, they aren’t tied to Macworlds etc for releases anymore), I would imagine that won’t be til next spring/summer at the soonest - check out:
… or you could buy my 15" for ~ $1700 - its the top of the line 4GB / 500GB 7200rpm / 512MB video / 2.53Ghz of the generation with ExpressCard/34 instead of this SD crap LOL - warranty through 2011. Just saying (I’m actually not all that interested in selling it, I love the machine, I just don’t utilize it enough and am thinking of “downgrading” to an Air)
I’ve gone through this myself and from talking to a ton of people at UB and Graphic Designers. If you are doing ANY Photoshop, go with the Pro. I’m glad I did. I’ve never had any issues with speed or performance with mine.
(I’m actually not all that interested in selling it, I love the machine, I just don’t utilize it enough and am thinking of “downgrading” to an Air)