MacBook - Does it run Adobe CS3 well enough?

[cleanup]

I'm getting a MacBook. It's already around $2000 for me as it is with tax and all (CAD), so I don't feel much like upgrading to a MBP.

But I like running CS3.

Now, all CS2 apps (aside from Photoshop which was so ridiculously slow for some reason that I downgraded to Photoshop CS) run kind of clunkily but adequately fast on my 1.8 GHz G5 1.5 GB RAM.

But my G5 has a graphics card.

Will a Blackbook with say, 1.5 GB of RAM be okay for my CS3 (Photoshop/Illustrator/Dreamweaver) needs?

Thanks.

 

[iMeowbot]

Yes, they will be happy on there, none of those apps really benefit from a wizzy graphics chipset.

 

[netdog]

Agree 100%

 

[L3X]

if you want to increase some speed, hookup an external HD and run that as a slave drive.

 

[GnrlyMrly]

if you want to increase some speed, hookup an external HD and run that as a slave drive.

can you elaborate some more on this? cs3 runs decently on my mb, but i wouldn't complain if it ran a little faster.

 

[feh]

I'm getting a MacBook. It's already around $2000 for me as it is with tax and all (CAD), so I don't feel much like upgrading to a MBP.

Why not drive across the border and buy a $2000 MBP instead?

 

[cleanup]

Why not drive across the border and buy a $2000 MBP instead?

Well, while the cost for me is around $2000 CAD, I only quoted it in Canadian dollars because I'm FROM Canada. If you look to the left I'm actually in Shanghai, where a Blackbook runs about RMB14000, which is $2000 CAD, In Canada I would only pay about $1880.

If I was in Canada, you're right, I'd probably try to get a MBP if I didn't have to pay tax.

But I'm in China. While a Blackbook runs about RMB14000 (1,838.116 USD), the most basic MBP will cost me RMB19000 (2,494.586 USD), a $650 price difference.

The price hikes are enormous. The US really does get the best deal, especially with your dollar so low ...

Don't get me wrong, if I could, I'd get an MBP in the states, which wouldn't cost much more than a black MB would here in China.

 

[iMeowbot]

can you elaborate some more on this? cs3 runs decently on my mb, but i wouldn't complain if it ran a little faster.

Photoshop and Illustrator make use of their own scratch files, kind of like private supplements to the operating system's virtual memory. In each app's preferences, you can point these to separate drives if you have them. This can help performance if you do lots of fiddly or batchy work, if your system drive is preoccupied with other Stuff™.

 

[floodcasso2]

I'm a retoucher by trade, and I work on CS3 exclusively now on my 2.16 ghz white MacBook. Just bump it up to 2 gigs of RAM, and you'll be good to go. Springing for the 160gig hard drive wouldn't hurt either. Oh and don't buy the RAM from apple. Get it from Crucial or another online dealer if you can. Will probably be about $80-$90 cheaper.

Do NOT under any circumstances get 1.5 gigs of ram. Having an unmatched pair of RAM chips will reduce your performance like crazy!

Having matched RAM enables Dual Channel support which is a serious performance boost. If you can, get the 2x 1gig RAM from crucial. I got mine from there and its been awesome so far.

 

[cleanup]

Photoshop and Illustrator make use of their own scratch files, kind of like private supplements to the operating system's virtual memory. In each app's preferences, you can point these to separate drives if you have them. This can help performance if you do lots of fiddly or batchy work, if your system drive is preoccupied with other Stuff™.

Would the programs know to switch back to the system drive if I was using them while on the go/not at home wehre i have access to external drives?

Do NOT under any circumstances get 1.5 gigs of ram. Having an unmatched pair of RAM chips will reduce your performance like crazy!

Is this true? I remember I was worried abotu this when I got my iMac, but I was told in the Apple.com Discussion Forums that it was a non-problem. I have unmatched 1.5 GB on it. Granted, I have no matched RAM performance to base it on.

 

[iMeowbot]

Would the programs know to switch back to the system drive if I was using them while on the go/not at home wehre i have access to external drives?

Yeah, you can define at least two scratch drives, so that fallback can be automatic. The programs will also prompt you for a different scratch drive at launch if you forget to set it up that way.

 

[miniConvert]

Is this true?

No, not really. There's a slight performance increase from using matched pairs of RAM, so if you want to be safe in the knowledge that your Macbook is going absolutely as fast as it can then that's what you'll want. Otherwise, you wont notice a difference so do what you need to More RAM will always be better than whether the RAM is paired or not.

 

[floodcasso2]

No, not really. There's a slight performance increase from using matched pairs of RAM, so if you want to be safe in the knowledge that your Macbook is going absolutely as fast as it can then that's what you'll want. Otherwise, you wont notice a difference so do what you need to More RAM will always be better than whether the RAM is paired or not.

actually I learned that one the hard way. My friend's laptop is a macbook upgraded to 1.5gigs. With a RAM hog of software like Photoshop, having matched pairs, made his system fairly slower in rendering filters and loading large jpegs or raw files.

If doing pro level work quickly is what you need to do, stick with the matched pairs, it helps.