Setup suggestions for a Graphic Designer / Web Developer?

[keaj]

Hello All,
Just a quick background. I am in a corporate enviroment where I do alot of marketing, web devopment and graphic design. I am currently using a Dell Setup with a few 19" monitors and its ok.

my freelance business is starting to get extremley busy and I would like to have my own setup at home, preferrably with Mac equipment.

I have an older 15" Powerbook G4 and its time for an upgrade. I am planning on getting a full mac setup, since I can run windows for when I am developing Windows Applications in Visual Studio. I dont think its a problem running visual studio on bootcamp:windows xp is it? Hope not

anyways, I am definetley waiting for the new mac book pro to see what it has to offer before I make any purchases.

I was wondernig if anyone has any suggestions on what kind of setup I should go with. I am considernig getting the iMac 24" and then a cheap macbook 13" to use as a presentation tool for customers.
Or trying to see if it would be better to get a Macbook pro 17" and use that as my fulltime everything computer, and get a couple monitors for it.

I use Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe photoshop, and then hopefully I will be able to use Visual Studio 2005 on Bootcamp.

Thanks, any setup suggestions would be greatly appreciated. not sure if a laptop fulltime would work for what I need or if I should look at getting an iMac + cheap macbook.

budget is around $3,000. Would like to spend less but in my scenario I will remake that money through my freelance work.

Thanks!

 

[FFTT]

It sounds to me like you'll need the extra performance and storage of the iMac Core Duo 2.

A well equipped 20" Imac should cover your needs, but you'll also need to
run with 2 GB RAM to counteract Rosetta's RAM cravings.

For your portable needs and to stay somewhat within your budget, I'd consider
a refurbished MacBook 2.0 GHz or wait until we see what happens with Merom upgrades.

If you're going for production, it's hard not to recommend an upgrade to the
2.66 GHz Mac Pro.

The Mac Pro is a serious workstation with all the benefits of performance, storage, and expandability.

The big kicker at the moment is waiting for Adobe to get their act together on CS3 and the price of RAM for the Mac Pro.
Once Adobe releases their Universal Binary CS3, it will fly on either machine,
but I haven't heard any details on how much they're going to charge for the upgrade.

Mac Pro qualified DIMMS are averaging $250.00 per GB.

The non EEC unbuffered DIMMS for the iMac are running half that price.

I'm not sure if I've helped you of just added to the confusion, but best wishes
on your decision.

 

[NextTuesday]

iMac - $1,499.00

* 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 1GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x512
* 250GB Serial ATA Drive
* ATI Radeon X1600/128MB VRAM
* SuperDrive 8X (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
* Apple Keyboard & Mighty Mouse + Mac OS X (US English)
* 20-inch widescreen LCD
* AirPort Extreme
* Bluetooth 2.0 + ED

MacBook - $1,099.00

* 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo
* 512MB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x256
* 60GB Serial ATA drive
* Combo Drive
* Keyboard/Mac OS - U.S. English
* AirPort Extreme Card & Bluetooth

Subtotal - $2598

Buy RAM for both from a 3rd Party, such as Datamem or Crucial. $400 oughta get you a 1GB stick for your MacBook and 2GB (maybe) for the iMac.

Good luck shopping and welcome to the dark side

 

[FFTT]

The refurb store lists the 2.0 GHz MacBook at $1099 with SuperDrive.

For presentations, you might consider the BlackBook with a larger HD
refurb priced @$1299.00 for the 2.0GHz Superdrive model.