Advice Needed for a Designer Wannabe

[zk_20]

Hi all,

I hope everyone is safe and well given everything that's going on.

I would greatly appreciate some advice in upgrading my laptop – I want to know which 2019-16 inch laptop to upgrade to?

I currently have the following:
- MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)
- Processor: 2.7 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5
- Memory: 8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3
- Graphics: Intel Iris Graphics 6100 1536 MB

(Which I purchased in late 2016, so I’ve had the laptop for about 3.5 years).

I use it for several hours every single day; for browsing, admin, Netflix – and photo editing and video editing on a less frequent but regular basis. I use FCPX, Lightroom and a little bit of Photoshop, but aiming to learn After Effects and Premier Pro too (and maybe even Illustrator). RAM currently fills readily. I also plug into an external monitor.

At the moment I’m very much just a hobbyist and a student with these programs. I do a bit of photography/videography/editing for myself, friends and local charitable organisations. I think my laptop currently struggles with running all these programs, hence the want for an upgrade. My dream is to transition into the creative world, though I reckon that's far from reality atm. I have a long way to go.

I am currently stuck in deciding which specs would serve me well. I know sometimes people say get what you can afford, but I don’t think it’s as simple as that. I'm wondering if it would work out cheaper to get better specs now, rather than buying something with lesser specs which eventually becomes a rate limiting factor, requiring me to upgrading to a new laptop again (sooner than I'd like).

The options i've narrowed it down to: (i.e. the 2 main options on the apple website)

1. 2.6GHz 6-Core Processor​

512GB Storage​

AMD Radeon Pro 5300M​

16GB RAM (£2399) or 32GB RAM (£2799)​

2. 2.3GHz 8-Core Processor​

1TB Storage​

AMD Radeon Pro 5500M​

16GB RAM (£2799) OR 32GB RAM (£3199)​

​

Totally undecided/confused about RAM =/

I don't intend on buying AppleCare right now, maybe in a year depending on my financial situation.

Any advice would be greatly welcomed – I’m really not sure what to get.

Thank you and sorry for the essay.

 

[barbu]

You’d benefit from more ram certainly. And a dedicated video card will help as well. It is my understanding that the CS apps don’t take particularly good advantage of more cores, but I am not an authority.


I’d personally recommend, in these troubled times, to double your money by folding it in half and putting it back in your pocket. Your Mac is still quite powerful and easily upgraded. Add RAM. It will be quite inexpensive for a huge upgrade. Put in an SSD if you don’t have one. Also inexpensive and your machine will feel better than new. Then keep practicing and getting better and see if your machine is still struggling after the upgrades. When you feel you’re truly outgrowing the machine and/or you’re in a position to make money at design, go ahead and purchase a workhorse.

 

[zk_20]

You’d benefit from more ram certainly. And a dedicated video card will help as well. It is my understanding that the CS apps don’t take particularly good advantage of more cores, but I am not an authority.


I’d personally recommend, in these troubled times, to double your money by folding it in half and putting it back in your pocket. Your Mac is still quite powerful and easily upgraded. Add RAM. It will be quite inexpensive for a huge upgrade. Put in an SSD if you don’t have one. Also inexpensive and your machine will feel better than new. Then keep practicing and getting better and see if your machine is still struggling after the upgrades. When you feel you’re truly outgrowing the machine and/or you’re in a position to make money at design, go ahead and purchase a workhorse.

Thank you very much for your advice, it's much appreciated

Will those upgrades stop my computer from overheating and occasionally crashing? This is the issue I have when I use FCPX.

(I do also have a job and some savings, so thank God I have some money pumping in).

 

[barbu]

Do you have a spinning hard drive? Replacing that will eliminate a lot of heat from the system (in addition to making it faster, quieter, lighter, and last longer on battery).
If you do, and you choose to put in an SSD, while you replace that, you can blow out your laptop interior with canned air. A five year old machine will likely have a bit of crud built up in the cooling system.