Macbook Pro 17" - Main machine for PP

FlyTVR

FlyTVR

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I shoot weddngs, and currently use an I5 Windows laptop hooked up to an external monitor. Trouble is that I don't find the machine man enough to deal with Canon 21MB RAWS in LR.

Plan A was to buy a new super powerful PC, but I'm now starting to think that due to the fact that I have a full time job outside of photography, it would be useful for me to have a laptop so that I could process images in lunch hours etc.

So, plan B was to buy a super duper Dell Laptop. BUT - I'm not sure I am the only person who finds Windows to be a beast that just slows down over time, but I'm now on to plan C - a 17" Macbook pro.

Does anyone here use a Macbook Pro as their main processing machine? How do you find the performance? Once calibrated, how accurate do you find the screen?

Thanks in advance.

Dav
 
what spec macbook? theyre all the same hardware as other laptops under the hood.

and OSX does slow down over time the same way as windows if not looked after.

and get a matte screen at least if not a separate IPS monitor.
 
neil_g said:
what spec macbook? theyre all the same hardware as other laptops under the hood.

and OSX does slow down over time the same way as windows if not looked after.

and get a matte screen at least if not a separate IPS monitor.
Click to expand...

I agree Macs also slow down over time but not nearly as much in my experience.
 
Yep, I use a 15" MBP as my main machine as I am often travelling. You can spec them with a high res screen too. Mine is calibrated with Colormunki Photo and stays calibrated no problem, seems very accurate, certainly I don't get any surprises.

Performance wise mine is beginning to slow down a little with 5d Mk3 files but that said it is coming up 4 years old, I feel a new one coming on.

Have a look at the apple refurb store, some great deals on well specced MBPs.
 
Have you considered going for a laptop aimed at gamers? They are going to be thrashing the processing and graphics to the nth degree.
 
srichards said:
Have you considered going for a laptop aimed at gamers? They are going to be thrashing the processing and graphics to the nth degree.
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But aren't gaming laptops very expensive?
 
I wouldn't be seen dead with one either but the gaming fraternity spec requirements are probably the most demanding of all, bar the battery life.
 
What exactly the problem? What is slowing down?

CPU Maxing out? (look in Task Manager)
What speed hard disk has the laptop got in it? (SSD's aside, laptop hard drives aren't going to be very quick and could be a bottleneck)
How much memory have you got?
Are you running Windows 7, if so 32bit or 64bit?
What program you using? Lightroom? (edit: sorry, just re-read OP and it is LR)

I'm sure you could get to the root of the problem before having to splash a grand! :)
 
Last edited:
Thanks all.

Mick - spec is as follows -

Toshiba
64 bit
Windows 7 SP1 (64 bit)
4GB
Chip I5 m430 2.27 GHZ

I'll take more notice next time things seem to slow down. I suspect it is a case of the machine getting hot and LR sucking up more and more memory.

Cheers.

Dav
 
Also Dav, what part of your workflow is running slow?

Importing? (Are you importing via card and if so, is the card reader upto it? Speedwise)

Check cpu usage and disk I/o at this stage.

If its exporting, to say jpg, then the slow hard drive could well be holding things up as it can't write fast enough. (As well as having to both read and write to the same drive)

I've got 4gb with my old Q6600 CPU and LR runs ok. So hard drive aside, the laptop should be fine imho.
 
Thanks Mick.

Import and export ok.

Things start to get slower with more and more editing.

Dav.
 
Memory most likely then. If it starts swapping it will slow down and heat up.
 
srichards said:
Memory most likely then. If it starts swapping it will slow down and heat up.
Click to expand...

Indeed, check in Task Manager how much memory is being used, if you're up close to 4gb you might want to consider picking up some extra. As Suz says, as soon as your usage goes over 4gb you'll start paging (to/from hard disk) and with the hard disk in laptops being slower, this will exacerbate things.
 
I'd certainly look at upgrading the RAM, provided the machine will take it. It could be a fairly inexpensive option.

I used a MacBook Pro as a main machine, linked to a 24" monitor for about a year. It worked fine but my iMac is a much better option, and a bit cheaper than a 17" MPB. It also has twice as much memory and 2 more cores so that makes a difference.

If you do decide to go the Mac route, I'd hang on for a bit as there are rumors of a new range being available soon with the new Intel Ivybridge processors.

I'd still opt for the memory upgrade first though.
 
Thanks for the advice all.

I'll have a look at Crucial and see how much memory would be (and if the machine will take it).

Cheers.

Dav
 
Yep, your issue is probably related to a mechanical HDD (probably a slooow 5400RPM drive) and 4GB of RAM.

At 17" are you really going to be wanting to lug it around all day? I have a hatred of large laptops because I don't see the point though. Jack of all trades, master of none comes to mind!
 
Ok - just order 8GB of RAM. Amazed, less than £40!

Dav
 
FlyTVR said:
Ok - just order 8GB of RAM. Amazed, less than £40!

Dav
Click to expand...

Good stuff. Memory can be the cheapest performance bump. Fingers crossed it does it for you Dav. Let us know.

After that, i'd personally be looking at going from the mechanical hard drive to a SSD..... if funds and space requirements allow. :eek: (120gb for just over £100 these days)
 
Zarch said:
Good stuff. Memory can be the cheapest performance bump. Fingers crossed it does it for you Dav. Let us know.

After that, i'd personally be looking at going from the mechanical hard drive to a SSD..... if funds and space requirements allow. :eek: (120gb for just over £100 these days)
Click to expand...

I was also thinking along those lines :)

Thanks for all your help!

Dav
 
Dav

If you are thinking of going down the route of a 17"MPB then you might want to think about getting one soon. Mac Rumours seem to think that the 17" may be killed off when the next round of upgrades comes through, as sales of this one line are disappointing.

Good news is that there may be a 27"iMac with a matte screen.

However these are only rumours !!!!!
 
Imo, there is no way that they will get rid of the 17''....

I've got a baseline 15'', which by luck and pure fluke i managed to get for free from apple, after something happened in the store with my PowerBook...

Its great, it runs, LR4 and CS6 run awesome, and i haven't found the lower res screen an issue, it works well with this screen size imo, and if you need more windows open, just use spaces/virtual desktops and it works just as well...
 
Dav, Are you shooting the whole wedding on RAW? That's crazy..... The candids etc do not need to be RAW.

Average wedding of over a 1000 shots you will be uploading/downloding all night. And editing would take for ever.....

Surely only the key important shots need to be dual shot.. I only use RAW as a 2nd. Set the camera to shoot jpeg/Raw on the key shots and all the candids or Reportage as some would say.... as normal small files.... No one ever asks for reprints of candids and you really do not need Raw for the Whole wedding... Just giving your self more work.....
 
daugirdas said:
8GB is OK for now, thinking 2-3 years ahead you'll need 16++
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8gb is all she'll take.

8gb fitted. Having monitored core temp and mem usage, it looks like disk speed to me :-(

I think a £35 mem upgrade was worth a try, but it's the end of the line for my laptop now.

Dav
 
FlyTVR said:
8gb is all she'll take.

8gb fitted. Having monitored core temp and mem usage, it looks like disk speed to me :-(

I think a £35 mem upgrade was worth a try, but it's the end of the line for my laptop now.

Dav
Click to expand...

Dav,

So are you seeing CPU at 100% usage?
And how's your memory usage looking?

If both are below your max, then yes, its probably you're hard drive read/write speeds proving the bottleneck and maybe a little premature to be writing the laptop off just yet.

I don't think you've mentioned what size your current Hard Drive is and what size you'd need if you were to go to SSD?

Typical SSD sizes and prices

64gb (unlikely for messing with RAW) - £60
128gb - £100
256gb - £180

The Crucial M4 probably the best bang-for-buck drive out there at the moment, especially with recent price drops.

http://www.ebuyer.com/309385-128gb-...28gb-m4-ssd-7mm-w-transfer-kit-ct128m4ssd1cca

As you can see with this version, you get a data cable and some imaging software that will copy your existing build over to it. (unless you fancied installing Windows again from scratch)
 
Zarch said:
Dav,

So are you seeing CPU at 100% usage?
And how's your memory usage looking?

If both are below your max, then yes, its probably you're hard drive read/write speeds proving the bottleneck and maybe a little premature to be writing the laptop off just yet.

I don't think you've mentioned what size your current Hard Drive is and what size you'd need if you were to go to SSD?

Typical SSD sizes and prices

64gb (unlikely for messing with RAW) - £60
128gb - £100
256gb - £180

The Crucial M4 probably the best bang-for-buck drive out there at the moment, especially with recent price drops.

http://www.ebuyer.com/309385-128gb-...28gb-m4-ssd-7mm-w-transfer-kit-ct128m4ssd1cca

As you can see with this version, you get a data cable and some imaging software that will copy your existing build over to it. (unless you fancied installing Windows again from scratch)
Click to expand...

Mick.

Thanks for all your help. :thumbs:

CPU doesn't hit 100%.

I did look at the option of switching to SSD, then started weighing things up. I've made the decision to stop using my laptop to process images, and invest in a desktop (with i5 and ssd). Just ordered it. Hopefully it will fly :)

Thanks again.

Dav
 
FlyTVR said:
I did look at the option of switching to SSD, then started weighing things up. I've made the decision to stop using my laptop to process images, and invest in a desktop (with i5 and ssd). Just ordered it. Hopefully it will fly :)
Click to expand...

I'm sure it will Dav......

I just can't help myself trying to get the best out of older kit rather than having to buy new................ I think its called being tight! ;)
 
Zarch said:
I'm sure it will Dav......

I just can't help myself trying to get the best out of older kit rather than having to buy new................ I think its called being tight! ;)
Click to expand...

I totally agree with getting the best out of kit, and why I've struggled to justify it to myself. Then again, maybe I'm tight - and that would explain why I am about to cancel my order for a 5d3! :shrug:

Dav
 
New machine turned up today.

I5, 8gb and ssd drive. It flies!

Dav.
 
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