I'm embarking on a new career as a web/logo designer, but feel slightly limited on my small, but excellent, MacBook. I already have a magazine design job, so investing in a new desk top isn't going to be a waste. I can't decide if its better to get the latest all-singing-all-dancing Mac/Imac or look to pick up a previous generation one and spend the saving on a decent monitor.

 

I mainly use:

Indesign CS4

Photoshop CS4

Dreamweaver

 

and in the not too distant future:

Illustrator

Flash

 

Any advice much appreciated.

The directors at my firm have sleek little MacBooks (Air or Pro, not sure which), which they simply hook up to big Apple Home Theater displays and external hard drives and keyboards when they're in the office. Seems to works for them

 

A good monitor is always worth it - you just have to make sure your RAM and video drivers are up to it.

If you're happy with the performance of your Mac Book, I'd buy a monitor and just hook into that when you need to use Indesign, Photoshop or Illustrator - a 13" screen should be large enough when you're coding. Apple offer a 24" monitor now that seems to be aimed strongly at laptop users.

 

If you're going to buy a desktop, you've obviously got the 2 options. If you go for an iMac, I'd suggest buying the best that you can afford as you'll be limited in options in upgrading it in future. On the Mac Pro side, one of the earlier quad cores will probably be sufficient. I think you'll find a few on ebay.es and probably save a thousand euros or more over a new 8 core Nehalem powered machine - just don't get distracted by any G5s that you find offered.

 

On a side point, whereabouts in south west Spain are you?

Hmmm, I'd not thought of the MacBook like that. Thank you.

 

I'm about 80km NW of Merida in the middle of nowhere - LOL (Talarrubias to be precise)

My wife used to use a Windows laptop like that some years ago and as Andy pointed out before me, he knows people using MacBooks exactly that way. Throw in a keyboard and mouse and you've got many of the benefits of desktop set-up and the advantages of a laptop when you want to work somewhere a little more comfortable.

 

I don't know Talarrubias, the nearest I've been is Castuera, though the property sales site I maintain, Property in Extremadura, recently listed a small place to the north of you near Puerta Peña.

 

I'll drop you a PM so this doesn't turn into a dull thread about Extremadura.

Do the 13" macbooks have enough 'grunt' for photoshop (say for the average web design page)? (with a 24"monitor attached)?

I would suspect that they do but confirmation would be nice...

 

(Currently my laptop can be a little slow in photoshop (not majorly but its very much noticable) - I have 2gb of ram but an integrated graphics card (128mb i think and a 1.66ghz processor)

I run a 13" macbook to a dell 24" monitor at 1920x1080.. and I NEVER see the rainbow circle apart from when im finally rendering after effects HD video but even then its 10secs max..

 

HOWEVER, I upgraded my macbook to 4GB RAM and 400GB Hard Drive - might have something to do with the performance I get out of it!