MBP 15 inch - desktop replacement?

I posted last week asking about the MBP13 and it's capability of running World of Warcraft. I was looking at a cheap MBP as my plan was to get an imac fairly soon after for work. So the MBP was just to carry around with me so I could do small bits of work on the move and the odd game. I'm just wondering if I can combine my two wishes.

However I'm wondering what the MBP is capable of. If I was to spend more and get 15-inch: 2.66GHz how well would that handle everyday work and usage? I wondered if I could hook it up to my monitor through the day to work from my desk and still be able to pick it up and take it off to play games on at the weekend? Or would that simply put too much strain on a laptop? Would it suffer with overheating?

My work is generally heavy photoshop and illustrator, light flash and video editing. The games I'd be looking to run are mainly World of Warcraft and Team Fortress 2.

Thanks in advance.

 

I have the Older core 2 duo version, and I usually hook up a external monitor to my MBP at home. I also regularly run heavy photoshopping, WoW and Tf2.

With all that said, my Laptop only goes up to 60° Max, So theres really nothing to worry about. The 2.66 GHZ will serve your needs fine.

 

my question is how heavy of video editing as well as what software

 

A bump from i5 to i7 is pretty bad price to performance wise. But there is some minor gain. going from 430 to 520 i5 on the other hand though..... yeah, absolutely nominal. Like a 2 second shave from rendering, 2 second there from encoding.

 

Video editing work is sparse and it's usually just someone going "oh hey while you're doing my site, I have some videos on an old VHS...". So generally copy the VHS to DVD for them, then rip with handbrake and edit with Final Cut Express. I would be tempted to look to get a copy of After Effects in the future though as it's a program I miss from my uni days. I just couldn't justify the money for it when I bought my other apps because it wouldn't get used very often for work.

General everyday work is InDesign/Photoshop/Illustrator. For example at the moment I have two jobs on the go. One is a 16 page holiday brochure, the other is a website for a comedian (lots of cartoons in illustrator, building the visuals up in photoshop). So nothing too taxing, I just don't want to spend that much money and find the laptop is slower, hotter and more stressed than a desktop.

The imac I was originally looking at was the higher 27" (with 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 8GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x2GB and of course Apple Care). Bringing the total to just slightly over £2000.

The more I talk this out I wonder in fact if I'm better sticking with the 27" imac and maybe just pick up the basic 13" mbp when I get more money. Thanks for the help all.

 

If you want a desktop replacement go for an Alienware system. MBP will not let you play games at the most extreme resolutions.

On top of that if you do a lot of video editing you will find the RGB LED screen available on the M17X to be the best notebook screen on the market currently. There is no apple screen that even comes close.

 

Worst... advice... ever....

I play TF2 and WoW just fine on my Macbook with the high res display. Also a rule of thumb is to do editing on the screen you are editing FOR with a good color correction. A color calibrated MacBook is easily one of the better LCD's in the laptop market. Maybe ONLY behind the HP Radiance and Dell RGB screens. Also the business standard for video editing, is OS X.

No to mention the weight and chunkiness of the Alienware machines, or that NO ONE takes a person with an Alienware seriously in a professional fasion.

Let me say as a MOSTLY PC guy (Windows at work, most of my personal machines have been PC's and my main desktop is a PC) I think Alienware is a JOKE and laugh at anyone with one no matter what reason they bought it. I have never seen a professional with one... and that's with good reason.

 

This must be the worst argument against Alienware ever. Let's not waste time debating about Alienware in the work place because you are just wrong. I am a professional in the internet/gaming industry and let me tell you MAC is seen as a joke.

I am in my late thirties though maybe not as old as you but even my boss in his early fifties has an Alienware.

We regularly visit Blizzard headquarters and almost everyone there has an Alienware including top executives.

Anyways again, no debate there, maybe you are just too old in your seventies but let me tell you that Alienware is THE brand of exclusive PCs even in the professional world.

Continue laughing just as we do in our industry with people having MBP.


Now for the OP, I have personally tested both the MBP and the M17X. I know both PC very well and here is the pros and cons:

M17X:
Pros:
- Build quality best on the notebook market
- RGB LED screen - By far best on the market especially when configured for video editing. MBP does not even come close. People who say otherwise just never saw the RGB LED screen and tend to compare it to a WLED screen. Well you can't compare. The RGB LED is the Ferrari of laptop screens.
- Better CPU and most definitely GPU options
- Amazing looks and no matter what some say is extremely well accepted at the professional level to the point that in my industry most executives have them and of course most game tester/programmer also have them. (Of course if you are in the legal department of the government some people without knowledge like altecx might make biased, jealous comments)
- Best warranty in the industry with onsite replacements and if something goes wrong you can get a full replacements for up to 4 years of a system of equal value. Needless to say that's amazing...
- Aluminium finish is just top notch

Cons:
- Short battery time
- Weight


MBP:
Pros:
- Weight
- MAC OS which is widely used in the video editing world

Cons:
- Not an Alienware
- Limited power for gaming and "dreamweaver" type applications
- Build quality good compared to HP but not even close to AW
- Warranty over 3 years is questionable.

 

Hold on, let me just call my friend at Insomniac games and find out what he develops on... OH WAIT I DONT HAVE TO! It's a Mac!

But we arn't talking about game development here, we are talking about Video development and occasional game playing. I work in a Video/advertising company, one of the biggest in the world. We use Mac's for all of our Creative, Flash and video work.

 

This thread is now closed due to arguing. Many posts have been deleted.