[urzsite]

Hello Macnn users

Im less then a week away from buying a Macbook Black.

(Me) Is just a guy who wants to have a computer to fiddle with his photo´s taken from a D50 Nikon (Raw files), play with them in Photoshop ( less then 20 layers ), build advanced homepages in Flash, do some small small video editing for the web. (No High Definition)

I was wondering if I will be able to handle Adobe Products, mainly Photoshop, Golive, Flash on this little machine ? - I am going to upgrade it with 2GB ram, maybe 7200RPM Hitachi drive (Is it worth it ? or just minor minor speed increase?), and add a 320GB USB 2.0 External Storage. - "Photoshop is slow, until CS3 is out as universal", 2GB Ram is mandatory, USB 2.0 / Firewire400 for external Scratch disk for photoshop or video apps. Internal drive should just be 5400rpm+ Seagate or Hitachi

Another question: Is it better to use an external scratch disk for Photoshop, even if its only USB 2.0 ? - "Use USB 2.0 or better" as scratch disk. "Firewire is better" but there is no firewire in Macbook´s.

Also, I have a 23" ACD, would I see any difference working on the small screen on Macbook to when I work on the external 23" ACD ? Im talking choppyness/slowness GUI, slower overall computing ? - "GUI is the same - except for CoreImage stuff which rely on OpenGL, because of the 64mb intergrated GFX" Photoshop will work fine, as well as all other apps.

Last question: Which would be the best program to work with RAW files on this little machine ? I see programs such as Aperture and Lightroom, and thinking they are to heavy for the little Macbook, so is there any other "cool" programs to work with these files "nicely" ? - It seems Lightroom will do the job, since it dosent require THAT much GPU from the macbook.

I am not considering buying any other laptop then a Macbook, so I hope this beauty can do it all for me

IT CAN !!

Looking forward to hear from what experiences you have!

[Eug]

Photoshop is slow (but usable) on the MacBook. It will only get faster when CS3 is out.

FYI: The Blacbook is on sale in the refurb store for $1299.

Try Lightroom first. If you like it, then great. If you don't you can try Aperture, although Aperture prefers having a much faster GPU.

[urzsite]

Originally Posted by Eug

Photoshop is slow (but usable) on the MacBook. It will only get faster when CS3 is out.

FYI: The Blacbook is on sale in the refurb store for $1299.

Try Lightroom first. If you like it, then great. If you don't you can try Aperture,although Aperture prefers having a much faster GPU.

Thanks for your answer.

I wish I could buy it, but im from Denmark, and living in France atm. So I just bougt a refund certificate (for an apple reseller) for the price of a Macbook Black from a guy that couldn´t get rid of it (and he didn´t need it) - so he sold it to me for about $450 less. Which makes a great deal for a new Macbook Black. That refurb price is just to cry about, if you live in denmark where we pay $2000 for a standard config black Macbook. So my price with the refund certificate is $1550. The cheapest Macbook Pro is $2670, so you can see that the Tax & Vat is deffinately included in the price lol

Back to the subject..

I would love to try out Lightroom, and it´s free for now! (Yay public beta)

What are your views on the Hitachi 7200 RPM drive ? Is it worth the $120 (in denmark) pricetag ? Seeing that I already got a 80GB 5200 RPM installed when it comes.

If anyone else can answer some of my other questions, I would be most happy!

Cheers!

[Landos Mustache]

If anything max out the RAM and yes use an external scratch drive.

[amazing]

just be sure to get a firewire 400/usb 2.0 case

firewire is still faster than usb 2.0 on the Mac

[urzsite]

Originally Posted by amazing

just be sure to get a firewire 400/usb 2.0 case

firewire is still faster than usb 2.0 on the Mac

Firewire 400 is faster then USB 2.0 ? I thought firewire 400 was "400" and USB 2.0 is "480" , where higher is better. (whatever they calculate in mps or mph etc )

Anyone useing a 23" with his Macbook, and working in photoshop, or other apps, who might chime in on how it goes together ? Again, this is just to know if the Macbook is choppy/lesser responsive etc when the spanning is on. Also if there is any tips on how to get the most out of the 23" while connected to a Macbook is very welcome

Thanks for your answers so far!

[Eug]

Those are theoretical speeds. Firewire 400 is much closer to 400 than USB 2.0 is to 480. Most of the time Firewire 400 is faster (and uses less CPU cycles).

OTOH, I've been having more problems with Firewire than USB 2 lately. A few enclosures I have are flaky with Firewire, but always work with USB 2 (albeit more slowly). I echo the sentiment: Get a combo Firewire USB 2.0 enclosure if you're going to get an external drive.

P.S. A 23" will work fine with the MacBook, but things like Exposé might be slow if you have a lot of windows open. 64 MB is not enough to ensure smoothness with stuff like this. The graphics memory will have no impact on Photoshop though.

Also, for Adobe CS2 on the MacBook, I agree with Landos: 2 GB is mandatory.

[urzsite]

Originally Posted by Eug

Those are theoretical speeds. Firewire 400 is much closer to 400 than USB 2.0 is to 480. Most of the time Firewire 400 is faster (and uses less CPU cycles).

OTOH, I've been having more problems with Firewire than USB 2 lately. A few enclosures I have are flaky with Firewire, but always work with USB 2 (albeit more slowly). I echo the sentiment: Get a combo Firewire USB 2.0 enclosure if you're going to get an external drive.

P.S. A 23" will work fine with the MacBook, but things like Exposé might be slow if you have a lot of windows open. 64 MB is not enough to ensure smoothness with stuff like this. The graphics memory will have no impact on Photoshop though.

Also, for Adobe CS2 on the MacBook, I agree with Landos: 2 GB is mandatory.

I guess the Firewire is the way to go, but since there is no firewire in a Macbook - I must rely on the next best option which is not half bad I hope (atleast as a scratch for photoshop or video apps, and pictures, music).

I guessed that all the CoreImage stuff is not going to be super smooth, but then again, I don´t pay for it (through a nice GFX card with more dedicated memory). I can handle choppy exposé, but I don´t want to have photoshop bailing out on me. And that 2GB is mandatory for sure, as I can understand rosetta is a girl with double the hunger for ram. I hope Apple will optimize rosetta, since there is still a long way till spring (thinking Adobe CS3).

So that rounds it up I guess.

Thanks for now, and if anyone have any other "You might want to do this, or did you know that xxx" remark for my purchase, and upgrade, then I would be very happy

Cheers!

[Karpfish]

the macbook does have firewire!

[urzsite]

Unbelievable. The Macbook Pro better get FW800 as standard, as this is just one more selling point to the little Macbook (Price considered).

I now updated it with Firewire + USB 2.0. Now I just ordered 1 x FW400 Harddrive case, and 1 x USB 2.0 Harddrive case, for my 74GB Raptor (and old one I had), and a brand new 320GB WD3200KS, both S-ATA drives.

I think I will use the Firewire 400 box with the Raptor, and use it purely as Scratch disk for Photoshop, how does that sound ?

The USB 2.0 box with the WD 320GB would be my backup - movie, music, photo file storage.

Sounds good ? This might not be the place to ask, but I would like to have a windows XP bootcamp/Parellel on one of my drives, and I was thinking making the Raptor Fat32 and do XP on that, but will I still be able to use it as a "good" solid scratch disk for Photoshop ? Or do I need to use the HSF+ system for better performance ? (I don´t have a clue if performance is better with whatever formattings).

Which means I would rather let the internal drive just be used for programs, but if you think it is better to make a partition with bootcamp on the internal drive, let me know what you think Any useful info is very much appreciated!

[mduell]

Originally Posted by urzsite

Unbelievable. The Macbook Pro better get FW800 as standard, as this is just one more selling point to the little Macbook (Price considered).

I now updated it with Firewire + USB 2.0. Now I just ordered 1 x FW400 Harddrive case, and 1 x USB 2.0 Harddrive case, for my 74GB Raptor (and old one I had), and a brand new 320GB WD3200KS, both S-ATA drives.

Did you make sure that both enclosures have SATA on the inside rather than ATA? Most enclosures have ATA on the inside.

[urzsite]

Originally Posted by mduell

Did you make sure that both enclosures have SATA on the inside rather than ATA? Most enclosures have ATA on the inside.

You bet! I saw plenty of ATA drives, and few S-ATA. The Firewire one is fugly as hell, but was only $45 or so (thats cheap in denmark, since we include Tax & Vat on everything... even this reply im writing right now!! ). The USB 2.0 enclosure is no where to be beaten in price... 40$ and with 3 USB Plugs, Aluminium for better heat dispatch, and some twinkling lights on the front.. how can I go wrong ?

Heres a link: www.E-TECH.nu - de E-TECH homepage voor Nederland en Belgi� / E-TECH homepage for the Netherlands and Belgium. E-TECH: faxmodems modems faxmodem modem ISDN ADSL HDSL ISDN-kaart ISDN-kaarten ISDN cards Netwerk Ethernet Netwerkkaart Netwerk kaart HUB hubs Rockwell Conexant Ambient Intel Kabelmodems Kabelmodem Cable modem MCNS DVB PCMCIA PCMCIA-cards PCMCIA-kaarten PC-kaart PC-card PC-cards multimedia TV cards TV-kaart - Its on the front page, in the bottom right cornor.

I know it´s not porshe design, but its been tested to be among the best USB 2.0 Enclosures out there, with an average of 28mb/s transfer rate. I could give you a danish site for the test, but who would understand it ?

Any I wrote their Support about questions, 10 min after I had my question answered. Maybe they don´t have enough to do, or just very nice service level for the customers.