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bmizar · Nov 20, 2007, 08:26 PM

I got it with the 200GB 7200RPM drive and I ordered 4GB of RAM from Crucial.

What can I expect performance wise compared to my 2.33GHz iMac C2D with 2GB RAM and 500GB HD? Will I see a big difference or not much at all?

I am a professional photographer and hoping the RAM will really help out when batching RAW files in Bridge.

steve77uk · Nov 21, 2007, 01:56 AM

I am in exactly the same boat as you although I went for the 250GB HDD and am getting the extra RAM later... This is replacing my 24" iMac 2.33...

It is just a waiting game now... ;(

JoshuaZ · Nov 21, 2007, 04:56 AM

Probably not much noticeable improvement in most day to day activities. Maybe a bit on the high end things.

mduell · Nov 21, 2007, 05:13 PM

Memory will help if you were swapping before, disk should only be a tad slower.

marsbt · Nov 21, 2007, 07:40 PM

I agree with JoshuaZ. I have a 2.0GHz MBP and just recently bought 1GB RAM to have a total of 2GB. For normal activity e.g. browsers with several tabs, itunes, calendar, 2-3 terminals, I haven't seen a difference. But I do hope that I get some performance boost while making DVDs with iMovies and iDVD.

You will only see an improvement if you are swapping a lot. In my case, normal use takes only around 600MB - 700MB of RAM and hence haven't noticed much difference.

SierraDragon · 09:17 PM

The OP is "a professional photographer and hoping the RAM will really help out when batching RAW files in Bridge." I too am a photog with a MBP. Batching RAW image files is heavy-duty graphics work. Any box less than a loaded Mac Pro is limiting, so the question is how to optimize our by-definition-limited boxes.

In general desktop boxes are inherently faster: MPs faster than iMacs which are faster than MBPs which are faster than MBs. Hard drives slow as they exceed about half full so keep your MBP drive empty for best performance. Best is to add a RAID 0 FW800 drive from OWC for PS scratch and images storage so you do not overfill the internal HD. PS performance is very dependent on having an independent fast scratch disk as well as on RAM. DSLR batch RAW editing is very disk i/o dependent, so basic single non-RAID hard drives are limiting.

As a photog no doubt you already back up to removable media, but be especially sure to do so if you implement RAID 0 because as RAID 0 throughput increases the likelihood of drive failure increases proportionally.

RAM will help either box. PS/Bridge performance will improve with RAM amounts well beyond what your boxes will take. PS memory assignment (PS/Preferences/Performance) should be about 70%; you may want to experiment in 5% increments from there with your particular workflow.

I am a PS user for more than a decade, but for photogs IMO a Bridge/PS workflow is very poor. Instead I strongly recommend Apple's Aperture for those doing any volume of DSLR RAW image capture. Note that cursory evaluation of this killer new category of app is a waste of time; all that happens is that either one develops bad habits or simply fails to get it.

I strongly recommend that every DSLR photog with adequate computer hardware first spend $33 and work through the tutorial CD Apple Pro Training Series: Aperture 1.5 (Apple Pro Training) by Orlando Luna and Ben Long (Paperback - Oct 18, 2006). Have the CD prior to ordering the Aperture trial so you don't waste time of the 30 day trial. Note that the value is in the tutorial, not in using the book as a manual.

-Allen Wicks

bmizar · Nov 22, 2007, 11:40 AM

I will look into Aperture and see if it can help me. I have a pretty quick work flow with Bridge though.

I just got my shipment notification for the laptop. Now for the wait!!!

SierraDragon · Nov 22, 2007, 12:19 PM

In my experience the same number of RAW pix you process in 8 hours with Bridge you can do in 5 hours or less once you learn and commit to Aperture.

-Allen Wicks

bmizar · Nov 26, 2007, 10:26 PM

Ok I got my computer today. I slapped in 4GB of RAM and this thing is smokin fast. The new OS is pretty cool too. Going to take a little getting used to.

Kyros · Nov 29, 2007, 04:44 PM

I'm considering that machine myself, and my main question is have you had any issues with heat? I know MBPs are supposed to get very hot, so I'm worried that the 2.6 will get painful.

bmizar · Nov 29, 2007, 04:52 PM

I have ran about 4 charges through it so far and it has not been too hot at all. I am just trying to get this dang screen calibrated.

mduell · Nov 29, 2007, 06:22 PM

Originally Posted by Kyros

I'm considering that machine myself, and my main question is have you had any issues with heat? I know MBPs are supposed to get very hot, so I'm worried that the 2.6 will get painful.

Should be no different than the 2.4, they're both at the edge of the TDP envelope.

PaperNotes · Nov 30, 2007, 06:31 AM

Originally Posted by SierraDragon

In my experience the same number of RAW pix you process in 8 hours with Bridge you can do in 5 hours or less once you learn and commit to Aperture.

-Allen Wicks

I have used all of these apps and nothing beats Capture ONE Pro (the industry standard for digital assistants in Europe for fashion shoots). It's a trim stable app and does its job on site and in studio faster than anything else and eats very little resources. Beyond that a RAID 0 with Raptors for Photoshop is highly recommended too.