Mac for Lightroom

[Elliotte Rusty Harold]

I'm feeling the pain of my 2.5 year old MacBook (2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM) when working in Lightroom, my primary tool for managing and editing photos. What's a plausible upgrade? I could go to the MacBook Pro 13" with a 2.53GHz processor or a 15" with a Core 2 Duo and a 2.8GHz processor. Would either be a noticeable improvement? and if so how much?

Past that, the next alternative is a Mac Pro with either one or two Quad-Core Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" processor at 2.26, 2.66, or 2.93 GHz. I could also stuff a lot more RAM or disk into one of these.

Where's the sweet spot likely to be? Will Lightroom take advantage of more than two cores? What does it really need? Clock speed? More cores? More RAM? Faster disks? (5400 RPM seems standard with Apple, but I could probably find 7200 RPM from third parties.)

I could also go to SSD disks, but they aren't big enough to hold my library. At most I could put the system and the applications there. The library would have to live on a traditional hard drive.

Thoughts?

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I have a 2.53GHz MacBook Pro, which is fast enough for Photoshop, but for post-processing I prefer a larger screen. If I were you I would consider a 27'' iMac with i5 or i7 processor and 8GB memory. They come with 1 or 2TB hard drives. Most applications don't take advantage of multiple cores yet, but the i7 has some kind of 'turbo mode'.

[john j. henderson]

Agree with Axel, I have the iMac i5 and it works great.

[Declan Troy]

In most circumstances the main criterion in choosing between a MacBook Pro and a Mac Pro is the need for mobility. If you will be using Lightroom for traveling then the MacBook is the obvious route. If you can live with being stationary then you get more bang for your buck with the Mac Pro. Both (and many versions of each) are quite capable machines. I'm with Axel in craving more monitor space than any laptop has to offer but bear in mind you can always hook up an external monitor to the MacBook.

[Alfred Forns]

Elliotte its tough processing on a laptop !! Would go for desktop like the iMac for home usage and just do light editing on the road.... all depends on personal requirements !!!

[Tony Whitehead]

Agree with Al. Love my MBP on the road but do all the real editing on a iMac.

[Jeff Donald]

This article might be of interest, it compares Mac Pro's and seversal different versions of iMacs, including the i7 and i5 versions.

[Melchor Berona]

Well i am in the market for a new desktop. How important is ram over processor speed, if you got to chose between the dual core, 8 gb and the i5, 4gb, if you cannot afford both?

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Well i am in the market for a new desktop. How important is ram over processor speed, if you got to chose between the dual core, 8 gb and the i5, 4gb, if you cannot afford both?

If I'm not mistaken the current version of PS cannot use more than 4GB but CS5 will be 64bit and will be able to take advantage of more RAM. I might get the i5 with 4GB RAM for now and install 4GB later if you can or find it necessary.

[Alfred Forns]

The new PS will be out soon and the Mac will be able to use all the ram installed, would go for the ram !!!

[Don Lacy]

If I'm not mistaken the current version of PS cannot use more than 4GB but CS5 will be 64bit and will be able to take advantage of more RAM. I might get the i5 with 4GB RAM for now and install 4GB later if you can or find it necessary.

That is the way I went quad core i5 and 4gigs of RAM from Apple then added 4 more gigs for about a 100.00 cheaper then what Apple was charging from OWC http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iMac/DDR3_21.5_27. If you can try to buy at an Apple store so you can check the monitor out before leaving the store for the yellow tinge issue which is documented here http://imac.squeaked.com/yellow_tinge.php
The staff at the Apple store I bought from were aware of the issue and had no problem letting me check out the computer before taking it home. On a side note when I did get it home I notice a very small defect in the LCD about 1 millimeter long and Apple replaced the computer without issue and were very apologetic about it.