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Notebook or desktop ... ?

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I'm graduating from high school in a month. For fall semester, I've been accepted to Columbia College Chicago with a major in Film & Video, concentration on Film Editing.

With my graduation money, I'm going to buy a computer for school. A Mac is my only choice, to run Avid Xpress Pro with the possibility of also running Final Cut Studio, among other uses. So here's my question: A Mac Pro desktop, or a MacBook Pro laptop?

Here's the hardware configurations I've narrowed it down to:

MacBook Pro
17-inch widescreen display (1680 x 1050)
2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
3GB RAM
200GB hard drive
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 (256MB)
8x "SuperDrive" dual-layer DVD burner
Three USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 400 port, one FireWire 800 port, one ExpressCard/34 slot
Total: $3,255 (with student discount)

Mac Pro
23-inch widescreen HD display (1920 x 1200)
Two 3.0 GHz Intel Xeon "Woodcrest" dual-core processors
4GB RAM
750GB hard drive
ATI Radeon X1900 XT (512MB)
Two 16x "SuperDrive" dual-layer DVD burners
Five USB 2.0 ports, two USB 1.1 ports on keyboard, two FireWire 800 ports, two FireWire 400 ports
Total: $5,148 (with discount)

I am on the fence as to which I should chose. I'm looking for any and all suggestions, advice, etc. ... anybody have any ideas?
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Originally posted by: ChainsawAsh
I'm graduating from high school in a month. For fall semester, I've been accepted to Columbia College Chicago with a major in Film & Video, concentration on Film Editing.

With my graduation money, I'm going to buy a computer for school. A Mac is my only choice, to run Avid Xpress Pro with the possibility of also running Final Cut Studio, among other uses. So here's my question: A Mac Pro desktop, or a MacBook Pro laptop?

Here's the hardware configurations I've narrowed it down to:

MacBook Pro
17-inch widescreen display (1680 x 1050)
2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
3GB RAM
200GB hard drive
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 (256MB)
8x "SuperDrive" dual-layer DVD burner
Three USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 400 port, one FireWire 800 port, one ExpressCard/34 slot
Total: $3,255 (with student discount)

Mac Pro
23-inch widescreen HD display (1920 x 1200)
Two 3.0 GHz Intel Xeon "Woodcrest" dual-core processors
4GB RAM
750GB hard drive
ATI Radeon X1900 XT (512MB)
Two 16x "SuperDrive" dual-layer DVD burners
Five USB 2.0 ports, two USB 1.1 ports on keyboard, two FireWire 800 ports, two FireWire 400 ports
Total: $5,148 (with discount)

I am on the fence as to which I should chose. I'm looking for any and all suggestions, advice, etc. ... anybody have any ideas?


I am not a Mac guy, I wouldn't mind trying to be someday, but if you want to do any video editing, I'd roll with the desktop Mac Pro, seeing as how it has a bigger HDD, a far better video card, and a much faster processor. That set-up you have should suit you for the course of your college career. The only way I'd run with the MacBook Pro is if you don't mind sacrificing a lot of space and speed in order to have the portability. Good luck on your choice and in college!
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For me, I always take a laptop hands down over a desktop. I have yet to own a mac (though I am very pro Mac, I just find my pocket book favoring PCs). From my PC laptop experience, I can say they break down a lot more (I have owned three different brands too, so it isn't just the brand) and parts are a lot harder to get to fix them and a lot more expensive too. However, I am not sure how easy Mac desktops are to fix, so in the Mac world it may not be that different. Desktop PC are incredibly easy to pull old hardware out and throw in new hardware, while laptops are a pain in the rear end to pull apart.

I like to think Apple takes a lot more pride in their products than other companies, I know this used to be fairly true, not sure about now though. But every laptop I have ever owned broke down within the first year, so I always made it a habbit to get the extended warranty. But like I said, Macs may be a lot more sturdy.

Also from my experience, laptops are never as powerful as desktops (pretty sure this would be true for Macs as well), since you need a powerhorse for editing, you might want to go with the desktop. Hope that helps some. A real Mac user like Jay will be able to give better input though.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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Laptops are great for trips and stuff, but finding a way to use them that doesn't kill my back makes me long for the relative comfort of an office chair.

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