Help me config my MBP for photography

[DAM-Photography]

I'm most likely going to get a 15" with the i5 or i7.

I plan on running CS5, and lightroom with this. I do concert and wedding photography so I'm going to be going through and editing lots of pictures. Not currently but within a year or two I will be doing light video editing(shot from SLR).

Do I go with the i5 or i7 and do I bump it up to 8gb of ram or will 4 be enough?

I def. going to be getting:
500gb 7200 HD as I cannot afford SSD.
15-inch Hi-Res Antiglare Widescreen Display
Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter(to plug into my 22" monitor)

Any light shed would be much appreciated!

 

[Westside guy]

If you don't already have a real screen calibration tool - like the Spyder Pro - that should be your first purchase.

There are people that never think they have enough RAM. 4GB should be more than enough, but there will always be people that will say something like "oh, my computer was so horribly, horribly slow until I upgraded to 8GB!". Personally, I think that money would've been better spent on an hour with a psychologist trained in diagnosing OCD.

 

[DAM-Photography]

My laptop was stolen about a week ago so Ive got to get a new one asap. I do plan on getting a calibrator as well!

I'm just not sure about the 256mb or 512mb video card and 4gb vs. 8gb of ram.

I was thinking of getting the 256 and 8gb of ram. I'm just new to the Mac World and would appreciate insight.

 

[stagi]

I would go with 8GB of Ram, I do see a difference on my MacPro when I went from 4 to 6 and am sure 8 will be superfast.

I also don't know about the benchmarks on the new MBP vs. the MacPro but doing video editing in the future you might want to look into that (I know you are looking for a laptop, but I think the expansion you get from the mac pros and power are great)

 

[DAM-Photography]

Thanks Stagi,
I would go with a Mac Pro, but a laptop is a must.

I may just go with:
15" MBP with
* 2.4GHz Intel Core i5
* 8GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB
* 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
* SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
* MacBook Pro 15-inch Hi-Res Antiglare Widescreen Display
* Backlit Keyboard (English) & User's Guide
* Accessory kit

 

[cosmokanga2]

Realize that you can't upgrade the cpu or gpu at a later date while you can the RAM. Maybe look at the i7 with 4GB RAM and upgrade to 8 later if you feel you need it.

 

[toxic]

if you have the money, then get the i7 and 512mb card. RAM is upgradeable, and I'm sure you can get it done later for less than $360...

 

[iSax1234]

As state earlier you can't upgrade the CPU or GPU down the road so get the best one you can afford. Also don't bother upgrading the HDD, I assume you use externals for everything anyway, go to Newegg and buy a Intel SSD for like 250 bucks to store programs. The SSD will boost your productivity much more than RAM. If I were you go for the 4 gigs or RAM now and update later if you need it, as RAM is always going down, but if you got the money now why not?

Conclusion for you:

15 in Macbook Pro w/ 2.66 GHZ i7 (the i7 will be great to if you get into video)

4 gigs of RAM ( 8 gigs if you got the money, kind of a can't hurt you thing)

Standard HDD then replace with Intel SSD later will boost the ease of your workflow

I say these BEST specs because you are a photographer that get's paid money so the faster the better, if you are an enthusiast like me going to school next year and need to save money then I would say go for the base 15 in

 

[wheelhot]

Get the 512mb GPU model, i7 and 500gb 7200 rpm drive. Those combination will do wonders and since RAM upgrade is easier, if you feel the need for speed, you can get the 8GB RAM on a later date.

GPU like someone mentioned before is not upgradeable so opt for the largest memory.

Can't wait for my 6gb RAM to arrive