Need Advice: New MacBook or MBP?.. (On Budget for Professional Photography)

[MacDuck]

Fellow forum members, I need some advice. Please read below for some background.

My wife is a professional photographer and owns her own studio with a partner. It is an all-Mac setup.

For security reasons, my wife keeps her MacPro at home. She brings a MacBook into the studio and to other job sites to offload photos as well as do quick editing on the fly. It can be considered her primary at-work computer (the MacPro is for editing in CS3 and Aperture). She also uses the MacBook at home for general email, internet stuff around the house.

The MacBook in question is a refurbed 1.8 CD. I have maxed out the RAM (2 GB). It is not bad for basic tasks...in fact it is quite snappy. It runs Leopard ok, and has Office 2008 and Photoshop Elements on it.

My question is, does she need to sell the MB now? It is from 2006, and C2Ds are much faster. Will the extra RAM help (4 GB) that is now available in the current MBP and MB for her photographic needs? I am thinking about selling it so we can at least salvage some resale value and get something slightly more current and last longer.

Personally, I own a PB G4 (2nd to last version) and a SR 2.4 MBP, maxed out RAM. I don't use the MBP as nearly as I should, but I like my toys. Should I give her my MBP or PB G4 instead of buying a current used/refurbed MBP/MB?

I am at the end of my rope here. We have lots of computers in the house (too many) but I want my wife to have the best computer we can get for the money for her business and profession.

Our budget, if we sell the MB, is $800-$1100.

Any advice would be appreciated.

List of computers I/we own:

SR MBP 2.4
PB G4 1.67
Mac Mini 1.6 CD
MB 1.6 CD
Mac Pro 2.6 Quad w/ 23" Cinema Display
Dell QX6600 Custom Gaming Rig w/ Vista Ultimate/Ubuntu.
Old Dell Inspiron 5150 w/XP.

Thanks!

 

[ChrisA]

If the computer she is using now can't do the job than replace it. If it can do the job keep it. Keeping a computer is always less expensive than replacing it. Don't worry about resale value.

Sounds like you have to many computers. Get VMware's Parallels or Sun's Virtual Box. Put that on the MP or even the Mini and consolidate

 

[OreoCookie]

Since she has a Mac Pro as her primary machine, IMO she doesn't need a ProBook. The MacBook runs Aperture acceptably (the only app that would benefit from the faster GPU), if it were her primary and sole machine, I'd suggest a ProBook instead.

I'd max out the RAM and wait until she needs to upgrade. If I were you, I'd sell all machines you don't really use now, computers lose value fast. In particular, I'd get rid of all PowerPC-based Macs before 10.6 is released (which is Intel-only!). If you were to sell her MacBook and at least one other Mac, you could easily get a new MacBook.

And yes, if you're a nice bf, you can also give her your ProBook.

 

[lasuther]

I'd at least wait to see if September brings MacBook updates. If you can wait a year, the new Intel Nehalem is supposed to be a big step fowards in power. That is what I'm waiting for.

 

[compuwar]

For editing, I consider screen real-estate the biggest factor, a 17" screen is useful for editing, smaller is less useful IMO. A 17" screen is also easier for clients to see, which may result in more sales.