After three years of faithful service, it would appear that my trusty little G5 iMac is starting to develop some power supply quirks — inconveniently switching off at random. While there’s little doubt that I’ll get the guy repaired, the time may have come to upgrade the missus’ 6 year old desklamp with my repaired Mac and look for something with a little more umph for me.
[And here's hoping that I don't draw a douchebag when I visit my local Apple Store's "Genius Bar" tomorrow.]
But for you, my faithful reader(s), I ask this: laptop or desktop? I’ve got my eye on the following options and each would be pretty appropriate to the type of work I do in terms of graphics, audio, video (not a lot of heavy lifting needed, though):
MacBook (13″, 2.4ghz black)
MacBook Pro (15″, 2.4ghz)
iMac (20″, 2.4ghz)
Like I said, I don’t need a screamer. Just something that will do the job. Thoughts?
7 Responses
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well, if you HAVE to stay in the Apple family: the MacBook. I’ve got that hooked up to an external 19″ monitor for a dual-screener and it rocks. I like portability, and it’s fast-enough for all my needs. I think it’d do well. I don’t see the need for the Pro until you get farther along in production/development of audio/video stuff.
I have an Air and have been using it for design for the past few months with no issues. Love it. Only reason you’d want to avoid it possibly is no FW for video. If that’s not a show stopper then I’d consider it.
@Genius: Thanks for the nod to the MacBook. Seems like a solid little, no-nonsense computer.
@Jharr: The Air looks sweet, but the flexibility of those extra ports and an onboard CD/DVD drive seem to both be a big deal for me. But then again, I can’t think of the last time I actually inserted a DVD or CD into my computer…
I’ve got the Macbook Pro, and it rocks, but its cost is only really justifiable if you require the dedicated video card (or really need the larger screen for something.) The Macbook would be my Mac laptop choice for anyone who didn’t require the video card. The Air is spec’ed almost identically (but worse in a few areas) to the Macbook, is only a bit thinner (same dimensions otherwise) and costs a lot more. Purely a style purchase, IMO.
The iMac is a great machine, and priced pretty well, but I always go portable lately, unless I require a lot more hardware (… I have a 3.5 GHz Core2 Duo desktop with an 8800 GTX for that, heh.)
Oh, and like I mentioned in Twitter, wait until after Monday (June 9) and maybe even just wait out WWDC in general, as Apple will almost surely update at least a couple model lines.
I got my first Mac last fall, and it is a 20″ iMac. We absolutely love it. I already have a laptop for work, so I don’t need the mobility on my “home” machine as much. That (the mobility factor) is what I would consider the primary discriminator between the iMac and the Macbooks — the hardware is essentially the same.
@Justin: Definitely waiting for WWDC. The timing on my iMac’s issues couldn’t be better.
@David: The great thing is that I wouldn’t have to give up my current setup, which has only recently started to show its age. That would be the new digs for the missus — in a repaired and operational state, of course.
OK, you are in MY area of expertise. As I have preached for several years, every computer “pro-type” user who includes high end graphics and light video must be “ambi-computerous”.
The job will keep you in a WINTEL portable for day-to-day and major Web stuff… Go for the 20″ desktop because you’ll never carry around 2 portables.
Mac portables are also notoriously difficult to fix.
Also get the warranty, mama’s ed discount and wait for the NO TAX day this fall… there will probably be an Education special at that time from Apple.
And slip in a 1TB external for backups. ($200)