Deciding between iMac and MBP for school/audio and video production

[CayucosSurfer]

I am looking at purchasing a new Mac this spring, and i need some informed opinions about which computer to get. I have been looking at the top end 15" MBP, and also the quad core 27" iMac. I am a second year SB city college student, and i am currently working on completing my undergraduate studies so i can transfer to a UC and major in psychology and/or music. I have little experience in audio and video production, but i am quite talented with music and with computers so i don't see it taking me too long to pick it up. Price isn't a huge issue (i AM purchasing a mac , but I want a machine that will be relatively future proof. If anyone could help, it would be much appreciated.

 

[BrianBaughn]

If this will be your only Mac, I think the deciding factors would be screen size and portability, with portability winning out since you're a student.

 

[MacAndMic]

I would have to lean towards the portability side as well since you are a student.

I would also lean towards portability with music in mind. I am not sure how you intend to use the Mac in music production but if you have jam sessions or use midi in multiple places, you will want some portability.

 

[Hellhammer]

15" MBP is now very powerful. As a student, you will always need portability so I would go for the MBP. You can get an external monitor to make it a desktop if needed.

 

[NutsNGum]

I agree wholeheartedly with Hellhammer, the new updates are quite excellent. Some of the Geekbench scores are beating the current generation iMacs, i5 and i7.

Speaking from personal experience, having owned both machines and been in the same situation as yourself (i.e. student), I would without doubt go for the MacBook Pro.

 

[CayucosSurfer]

really appreciate the advice. that's what i was leaning towards doing, getting a maxed out MBP and just a big LCD screen too hook it up to at the house.

do you think the MBP will still be faster when taking into account the new faster imacs are coming out soon? i will probably wait until summer in hopes of a student sale, and the new imac should be out by then. i was also thinking of getting a really nice imac and then just grabbing a normal macbook for portability. what do you think?

 

[CayucosSurfer]

i was also thinking about the amount of hard drive space as being an issue, as the highest it goes on the MBP is 750 gb.. whereas the imac i can get 2TB for relatively cheap.. are there cheap and mobile externals that i can use? it would be nice to have more space

 

[MoreAwesomeDanU]

really appreciate the advice. that's what i was leaning towards doing, getting a maxed out MBP and just a big LCD screen too hook it up to at the house.

do you think the MBP will still be faster when taking into account the new faster imacs are coming out soon? i will probably wait until summer in hopes of a student sale, and the new imac should be out by then. i was also thinking of getting a really nice imac and then just grabbing a normal macbook for portability. what do you think?

the new imacs will be faster for sure

 

[Hellhammer]

really appreciate the advice. that's what i was leaning towards doing, getting a maxed out MBP and just a big LCD screen too hook it up to at the house.

do you think the MBP will still be faster when taking into account the new faster imacs are coming out soon? i will probably wait until summer in hopes of a student sale, and the new imac should be out by then. i was also thinking of getting a really nice imac and then just grabbing a normal macbook for portability. what do you think?

Of course iMacs will be much faster than MBPs when they are updated but MBPs are still a great value. If you have the $ and don't need power when on the go, then e.g. 27" iMac + 11" MBA might be a good combo. The total cost may not be that much more when you account the external monitor and storage for the MBP.

i was also thinking about the amount of hard drive space as being an issue, as the highest it goes on the MBP is 750 gb.. whereas the imac i can get 2TB for relatively cheap.. are there cheap and mobile externals that i can use? it would be nice to have more space

Externals are cheap nowadays. I just grabbed a 2TB USB external for 100€ today. USB is a bit slow though so you might be better off with Thunderbolt external when they arrive (e.g. a RAID 0 setup).