Adobe Creative Suite

[:MoD:Shade]

Hey guys, I'm actually doing some investigation for my gf.

She'll be majoring in Art Education next year with a strong emphasis on graphics classes ect.  I was asking around and aparently CS does not work with the new Intel Macs?

I've told her to get a MacBook Pro but I wasn't sure if Adobe will be  coming out with a Universasl Binary yet or not.

Any insight on this?

[BTs_Mysterio]

Adobe won't be UB until CS3 (says Adobe).

You can run it in Rosetta... just not well.

Another option is running it in Windows if you choose to install it.

[:MoD:Shade]

Not all of CS will run in rosetta says an apple customer service rep.

And yes I was thinking of the windows  option as well, when is CS3 slated to come out.

[BTs_Mysterio]

~Q1 2007

[BFG]

Shade if she's not starting til next year then i would say don't rush...

Firstly an macbook/pro would be fine - for the moment she could run CS2 via bootcamp and windows... (although as you guys have pointed out youd need to check if its 100% happy under bootcamp, but if i remember rightly certainly photoshop runs happily)

On the downside you don't want to buy CS2 for windows only to have to then get CS3 for mac (when available) .. perhaps she could aquire one from a friend who wants to sell their copy...

All in all now is not the time to buy a powerbook... and unless she's doing some seriously heavy  lifting work then it is probably more worth while holding out with CS2 until we know when and in what shape CS3 is going to arrive in... the suite isn't cheap!

[BTs_Mysterio]

If there is a long delay; Apple will bump the MacBook Pros to Merom processors.

[:MoD:Shade]

Well, waiting is not an option unfortunatly.

We both need laptops for school in the Fall and she wanted one as a graduation present for this year.

I'll probably be getting the same computer more or less but may wait through the summer to see if there are any minor speed bumps.

[BFG]

well she wants to be looking at the macbook pro no question...

[:MoD:Shade]

Yeah, and I was trying to think if she would benifit to go with the 2.16GHz MBP with the 256MB vid. card and the slightly faster processor or if she should just say w/ the 2.

I do know she wants to max out the RAM, but I would say buy RAM after, its cheaper.  Anybody know if both RAM slots are accessable.

[BTs_Mysterio]

Yeah, and I was trying to think if she would benifit to go with the 2.16GHz MBP with the 256MB vid. card and the slightly faster processor or if she should just say w/ the 2.

I do know she wants to max out the RAM, but I would say buy RAM after, its cheaper.  Anybody know if both RAM slots are accessable.

http://barefeats.com/mbcd2.html

For some reason the 2.16 is MUCH faster. Some tests even neared a 50% improvement. Just a side note is that the 17 inch ones have a better graphics card set up in that it uses variable speeds so it can rev up when needed; unlike the 15 inch ones where it's set on middle of road levels... Apple make firmware update the 15 inchers some time.

[:MoD:Shade]

Well, I'll still stand firmly to the fact that the 17" laptop isn't the most portable thing to be luggin around campus.

But thats good to know about the upgrade. . .

[Cell]

Dudes......I don't know what the hubbub is about.  CS2 runs fine on my intel.  I heard the same shiznitz about Quark 6, and it runs fine as well.  I need all these apps for my job, so I have tested them out as they would be needed for GD. Not to say that it all doesn't run faster on my G5, but if it something you are worried about for the future, you really won't have to have any concerns by then.  ANd QUark released v7 today, wich is universal binary.

[(SiX)Sheixhundt]

Pardon my ignorance, but do the universal versions work on the g5's?
This is relevant to me in the next CS version and  Qkv7.
Or do they ship with both?
Becuase Im not upgrading my mac for some time,
BUT also anticipate some clients upgrading to Qkv7 soon...and Cs when it comes out.

And Cell, does it run faster on your g5 bc its the dualie 2.5? and the laptop is 2.16, or becuase of the system/rosetta etc?

thx guys

[BTs_Mysterio]

Well, I'll still stand firmly to the fact that the 17" laptop isn't the most portable thing to be luggin around campus.

But thats good to know about the upgrade. . .

The 15 inch MacBook Pro also has the huge (odd) CPU performance boost from 2.0 to 2.16 on the upper-middle model. (The GPU, as far as we know, is the same one as the old 15 inch; still overclockable [safely] to the same levels as the 17 inch).

Pardon my ignorance, but do the universal versions work on the g5's?
This is relevant to me in the next CS version and  Qkv7.
Or do they ship with both?
Becuase Im not upgrading my mac for some time,
BUT also anticipate some clients upgrading to Qkv7 soon...and Cs when it comes out.

And Cell, does it run faster on your g5 bc its the dualie 2.5? and the laptop is 2.16, or becuase of the system/rosetta etc?

Yes. The Universal versions of applications are referred to as such because they run on both, however be careful as I have seen some smaller applications ship as two versions. This might also happen to CS as it is big and a UB version may be too big to be practical.

Quark 7 did not ship as universal binary even though it was promised. As of now it is simply shipping as a PowerPC binary with a "Beta" universal version updater available for download. A real release isn't expected for a few months. [http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1764]

As for performance tests, (http://www.macworld.com/2006/02/reviews/mbpromain/index.php) the difference is quite noticeable against a Dual 2.0 G5 on Non-universal tasks. The Core chip is quite surprising when in Universal tasks it often outperforms a G5 of higher clock-rate.

Further buying advice for those on market is that the 2.33 GHz Intel Core Duo will be out relatively soon and we'll either see the 4th MacBook Pro free speed bump [most likely] or another $50-100 upgrade on the high 15 inch model and the 17 inch model. To summarize my predictions (based on facts of Apple since Intel and chip roadmaps):

MacBook Pro 15 inch:

Model 1: 2.16 GHz ($1999)
Model 2: 2.33 GHz ($2499) [Likely will receive variable speed GPU as seen in 17 inch]

MacBook Pro 17 inch:

Model 1: 2.33 GHz ($2799) [Maybe new GPU option (7800 series)]

MacBook 13 inch:

Model 1: 2.0 GHz ($1099) or¹ 1.83 GHz ($999)
Model 2: 2.16 GHz ($1299) or¹ 2.0 ($1249)

¹This "or" depends on whether Apple chooses to Bump the chip at same price or take the Intel price cut on older chip.

MacMini:

Model 1: 1.83 GHz Duo [feasible after price cut] ($599) or¹ 1.66GHz Duo ($499)
Model 2: 2.0 GHz Duo ($799) or¹ 1.83GHz Duo ($699)

¹See previous note.

iMac

Model 1: 2.0 GHz + X1600XT w/ 256VRAM ($1299)
Model 2: 2.16GHz + X1600XT w/ 256VRAM or 7800series w/256VRAM ($1699)

There have been so many updates its hard to believe it's the same Apple; hopefully these are accurate: I'd bet on it. 

[(SiX)Sheixhundt]

Much appreciated Myst..informative as always.
Quite a relief actually..im not ready for the upgrading..i got shit working like I need it NOW.

[:MoD:Shade]

Umm, will there be much of a difference between the default HDD running at 5400 RPM's and a $100 upgrade to the HDD running at 7200 RPM's

Is it worth it . ..

[BTs_Mysterio]

In terms of video or large file work I would say so. I don't know too much, but professional end users are always ranting about hard drive speed.

[(SiX)Sheixhundt]

IF you work anything OVER 100-200 megs, imovie, photoshop, you'll notice waiting time for shit to save...cds, or dvds to burn etc. I would think most machines youve worked on lately have been 7200s, so if you dont mind (read/writing) a little slower than that, you're fine.

Noticeable but not intolerable.
But can be a pain..BUT if you dont write a lot of large stuff, and could use food money, then buy food.

[Ethion]

It's mostly laptops that uses 5400 rpm, or very small computers.
I really don't see a high-end computer not coming with 7200.

[:MoD:Shade]

I just found a barefeats article that answers my question exactly, : http://barefeats.com/5472.html