Buying a MPB 15in

Alright so come next week i'm breaking down and getting a macbook pro.
I have decided on the 15inch, with the higher end graphic card and 500gb 7200rpm drive
I've debated over 2 things
1) SSD, however i find 128 isn't big enough but the speed makes me want to

2) Ram - Buying it from apple or going with Newegg.. I do want 8gbs, but 200$ more from apple is abit much, or i can get at newegg for around 100$... curious on what the difference is? I'm only used to PC, where any ram will do, however is there a certain type of MBP ram? is there a large premium?

I have choosen the High rez and Matt finish screen. (150$) please say this is right for photos? From reviews i believe most photographers say its the best but still input would be good..

So far the total is 2500$ with 2.0ghz, 4gb, 500gb, matte screen. With Tax

Is there something i'm missing?

Playonpics.com wrote in post #11992292
Alright so come next week i'm breaking down and getting a macbook pro.
I have decided on the 15inch, with the higher end graphic card and 500gb 7200rpm drive
I've debated over 2 things
1) SSD, however i find 128 isn't big enough but the speed makes me want to

2) Ram - Buying it from apple or going with Newegg.. I do want 8gbs, but 200$ more from apple is abit much, or i can get at newegg for around 100$... curious on what the difference is? I'm only used to PC, where any ram will do, however is there a certain type of MBP ram? is there a large premium?

I have choosen the High rez and Matt finish screen. (150$) please say this is right for photos? From reviews i believe most photographers say its the best but still input would be good..

So far the total is 2500$ with 2.0ghz, 4gb, 500gb, matte screen. With Tax

Is there something i'm missing?

I find it an awfull lot of money. That's because I'm just a poor college student though.
I have a 13" MBP and am very happy with it. An SSD is really helpful (I don't have one) and I was actually just looking at buying one for mine and just buy a external HDD for movies, pictures, songs and other 'bulk' media. If you decide on getting an SSD, just buy one in a store and install it yourself. It's super easy and Apple asks way too much to place it. Same goes for more RAM; Apple even includes a little booklet on how to install RAM yourself, apparently they have faith in you. Just buy an SSD for 200$, an HDD for 50$ and 2x 4gb of RAM for 100$ and your lappie is gonna rock the world

I don't know anything about 'high rez matt screens', so I won't comment on that, but I'm a bit skeptical towards it. Is it gonna make a difference? Mac screens have an incredibly high resolution already anyway. I wouldn't spend a 150 bucks on it, but that's just me, if you think you'll need it, go for it!

The matte finish is better for photos over the glass covered. SSD size to coat Dario just is not worth it IMO. Yeah they are faster but not much working room for multiple large photos. That is unless you buy 500gb SSD for loads of cash. I'm guessing this is a newer 2011 model the higher end 15 is the new quad core sandy bridge 2.2 CPU but they do offer the faster 2.3. It's a big step in cash. I'd def go with a matte finish, 2.2 and 500gb 7200rpm personally.

TijmenDal wrote in post #11993186
I find it an awfull lot of money. That's because I'm just a poor college student though.
I have a 13" MBP and am very happy with it. An SSD is really helpful (I don't have one) and I was actually just looking at buying one for mine and just buy a external HDD for movies, pictures, songs and other 'bulk' media. If you decide on getting an SSD, just buy one in a store and install it yourself. It's super easy and Apple asks way too much to place it. Same goes for more RAM; Apple even includes a little booklet on how to install RAM yourself, apparently they have faith in you. Just buy an SSD for 200$, an HDD for 50$ and 2x 4gb of RAM for 100$ and your lappie is gonna rock the world

I don't know anything about 'high rez matt screens', so I won't comment on that, but I'm a bit skeptical towards it. Is it gonna make a difference? Mac screens have an incredibly high resolution already anyway. I wouldn't spend a 150 bucks on it, but that's just me, if you think you'll need it, go for it!

HAHA ya figure apple would know people would upgrade the ram.

As for the price. Trust me i've been debating on this aorund november. I'm a senior in college, so this will be a good computer in the next coming years when i start the work world. Only reason why i can look into this expense is due to a surge in grad photos.

The ssd is noted. i know poeple have taken out their disk drive and put in another hard drive, however i do want the optical drive during the summer months for on site burning of DVD.

i'm excited... the high rez screen will be a must

Steve Beck wrote in post #11993593
The matte finish is better for photos over the glass covered. SSD size to coat Dario just is not worth it IMO. Yeah they are faster but not much working room for multiple large photos. That is unless you buy 500gb SSD for loads of cash. I'm guessing this is a newer 2011 model the higher end 15 is the new quad core sandy bridge 2.2 CPU but they do offer the faster 2.3. It's a big step in cash. I'd def go with a matte finish, 2.2 and 500gb 7200rpm personally.

My question is the 2.2 to 2.3 processor upgrade needed/worth it?

Playonpics.com wrote in post #11992292
Alright so come next week i'm breaking down and getting a macbook pro.
I have decided on the 15inch, with the higher end graphic card and 500gb 7200rpm drive

An option is to get the cheapest hard drive and use the cost difference to put in your own. There are 7200 rpm 750 gb drives and 5400 rpm 1 tb drives. The 2 tb drives should be arriving by the end of this year.

If you don't use the optical drive often, it is more efficient to pull it and put an SSD in (move the HD to the OD bus, and put the SSD on the HD bus). That way you can get a small SSD (60 gb from OWC) for your boot and applications and use the HD as your home folder for your files. If you need an OD, just pick up an external USB drive - they are very inexpensive.

I buy all my Mac RAM (and SSDs) from Other World Computing. They only sell RAM that meets or exceeds Apple's specifications. NewEgg may or may not, depending on the chips you buy (which is then only a guess).

Glossy is fine if you can control the ambient light. If not, the reflections are quite annoying. I have matte on my old MBP and glossy on my new MBP. Not much difference between them.

Tony-S wrote in post #11994647
An option is to get the cheapest hard drive and use the cost difference to put in your own. There are 7200 rpm 750 gb drives and 5400 rpm 1 tb drives. The 2 tb drives should be arriving by the end of this year.

If you don't use the optical drive often, it is more efficient to pull it and put an SSD in (move the HD to the OD bus, and put the SSD on the HD bus). That way you can get a small SSD (60 gb from OWC) for your boot and applications and use the HD as your home folder for your files. If you need an OD, just pick up an external USB drive - they are very inexpensive.

I buy all my Mac RAM (and SSDs) from Other World Computing. They only sell RAM that meets or exceeds Apple's specifications. NewEgg may or may not, depending on the chips you buy (which is then only a guess).

Glossy is fine if you can control the ambient light. If not, the reflections are quite annoying. I have matte on my old MBP and glossy on my new MBP. Not much difference between them.

Great information,
However i don't want anything higher than 500gb for Drive space... I've seen more failures in a laptop hard drive then i care to remember, and even if so, id rather not put anything more than 500gb in fear of losing large data!
I'll look at Macsales.com then for ram, however its only for USA? i'm in canada.

All hard drives fail - it's just a matter of time. That's why you should always have a backup plan. OS X provides Time Machine, which I use religiously for all of our Macs.

Is the $2500 your max? Are the senior pix adding up enough to attach your MBP to a 27" screen? An ideal combo for showing off your work to clients or potential clients. Also +1 on back up. Even a 250GB external drive to start storing your pictures and then upgrading your memory with third party would be starting off on the right foot.

These are just ideas. Not trying to destroy your budget. External storage and 3rd party memory would be priority one. Is the 2.0ghz i7?

I already have a desktop... So a screen isn't a big deal. Its a E8500 3.5ghz OC c2d with 8gb and 3 tb and 6850 ati card
However if you talking to simply put for adversing. I will be losing my studio after this year due to leaving school and moving back home to start a real career.

I have a Nas server that its a raid for mirroring two drives. So i'm not worried about data lost.. I have 3 copies of my Main photos and 2 copies of older not as important photos.

Playonpics.com wrote in post #11994609
My question is the 2.2 to 2.3 processor upgrade needed/worth it?

No.

Playonpics.com wrote in post #11992292
Alright so come next week i'm breaking down and getting a macbook pro.
I have decided on the 15inch, with the higher end graphic card and 500gb 7200rpm drive
I've debated over 2 things
1) SSD, however i find 128 isn't big enough but the speed makes me want to

2) Ram - Buying it from apple or going with Newegg.. I do want 8gbs, but 200$ more from apple is abit much, or i can get at newegg for around 100$... curious on what the difference is? I'm only used to PC, where any ram will do, however is there a certain type of MBP ram? is there a large premium?

I have choosen the High rez and Matt finish screen. (150$) please say this is right for photos? From reviews i believe most photographers say its the best but still input would be good..

So far the total is 2500$ with 2.0ghz, 4gb, 500gb, matte screen. With Tax

Is there something i'm missing?

I'm typing this post on the exact model you're deciding on... 2.2 model with 6750 graphics, upgraded screen to hi-res antiglare with a 500gb 7200 RPM drive. I thought about the SSD drive and additional ram and decided the ram is not worth buying via Apple, you can order it for less than 100 online. The SSD is far too expensive for any decent size, skip it for now and if you really want it later just buy the drive separately.

BTW - this thing is fast... It's my first Mac, moving from a Dell Studio and I'm not sure why I decided to wait this long!

synapxe wrote in post #12009279
I'm typing this post on the exact model you're deciding on... 2.2 model with 6750 graphics, upgraded screen to hi-res antiglare with a 500gb 7200 RPM drive. I thought about the SSD drive and additional ram and decided the ram is not worth buying via Apple, you can order it for less than 100 online. The SSD is far too expensive for any decent size, skip it for now and if you really want it later just buy the drive separately.

BTW - this thing is fast... It's my first Mac, moving from a Dell Studio and I'm not sure why I decided to wait this long!

This is what i decided on
I7 2.2hgz quad core
6750 graphics
4gigs of ram
128gb ssd
High rez antiglare.

Reason for SSD is because of the boot time and **** opening sooo quick.
Our apple Rep in our department showed me Lion the new opperating system with a SSD. 31 seconds to boot up
plus 10 seconds for photoshop cs5 to open with a document

Those are things i'd love. Plus if i need extra storage i can remove the optical drive after the summer and use that bay for another hard drive.

Overall i'm excited.

I strongly suggest you reconsider your SSD option from Apple if you do not need an optical drive. The Other World Computing SSDs are less expensive, even with the adapter, and have Sandforce controllers.

I think the hard drive of SSD quite comparable.. Newegg.ca are around 200 to 220 for a 128.
Ya it sucks i'll have less room, but i'll get used to it, and have to make me dump and save infomration more often which isn't a bad thing.