Black MacBook 2.4ghz

[BEEEsH]

I have the opportunity to purchase a brand new-unopened Black Macbook 2.4ghz system for 999.99 CAD. The newer lower spec aluminum ones are going for 1399.99.

I mainly want to buy it for using Adobe LightRoom, Photoshop and Aperture 2.0.

I've played with a friend's briefly and Lightroom runs really well. It was one of the older blackbooks though (2.16ghz) and he didn't have aperture.

System is a:
2.4ghz Core 2 Duo
2gb of ram (4 max)
250gb drive
13.3 inch display
dvd burner
5.6 lbs, 3-5 hour battery time.
Has a firewire 400 port (the new ones don't)

Does anyone know how well Aperture runs on the blackbook?

[wlescall]

I had a white MacBook 2.4 GHz. Photoshop CS3 & 4 both ran fine. I didn't care for the smaller screen so I ended up getting a refurb previous generation MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz.

Aperture will not run as fast as on a desktop or MacBook Pro as Aperture make use of the graphics processor/RAM. The MacBook uses shared RAM for video.

I did not use Lightroom on the MacBook.

Pick up a 4 GB memory upgrade for around $50 and I think you will be very happy overall.

[BeritOlam]

If you are asking purely in terms of price -- for $1000 CAD, that's a good deal.

BUT....it really depends on what kind of Adobe and Lightroom user you are. If you are a *power user* the Macbooks are underspec-ed to do it well. Even if you max out the memory to 4gb, the video processor is not designed with the graphic artist in mind. Someone that just dabbles with things on the side (i.e. a few pictures here and there) can probably get away with a Blackbook just fine.

[Tony-S]

I have the opportunity to purchase a brand new-unopened Black Macbook 2.4ghz system for 999.99 CAD.

I wouldn't buy it. I'd get the white MacBook currently sold by Apple since it has the nVidia 9400m chipset instead of the Intel chipset.

[BEEEsH]

Hey guys, just checking in. I installed aperture last night and played around with my 40D files and it ran them pretty well. I was very happy with its performance. I decided to do the ultimate test and start playing with some 5D MKII RAW files.

I found the macbook's performance to be very usable during these tests however, it did notably lag in a few scenarios. I went out and purchased 4gb's of ram. The program is much snappier than before, and handles the 5D MKii raw files much better.

Thanks for all the help!