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Originally Posted by KevinWeatherly  I want to use a MacBook Pro thethered for image reviewing with Aperture 2. |
I cannot comment on the direct suitability of either model you are considering
for tethered use with Aperture 2. Hopefully someone else here will chime in who has already tried exactly this.
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Originally Posted by KevinWeatherly Is there much difference between the 15" versions, 2.4 and 2.5? |
For your purposes: unknown.
The clock speed differences of these chips aren't great enough to matter much. The most glaring difference is that the former has a 3MB L2 cache and the latter a 6MB L2 cache. Benchmarks and performance analysis remains pretty skimpy on these very new systems, but initial test results suggest that
both configurations modestly outperform previous models in arbitrary tasks. Frankly, this academic stuff is pretty meaningless. The good news is that Apple clearly sees the MBP as a suitable platform for Aperture, or they wouldn't be
featuring it prominently on the MBP pages. In the absence of directly-applicable data and unless your budget is seriously tight, I generally think the smart move would be to get the more expensive 2.5Ghz configuration and hope that the extra cache space will enable the laptop to perform a little more efficiently with Aperture.
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Originally Posted by KevinWeatherly What difference will the larger SDRAM have practically? |
For your purposes: RAM matters more than anything else. More RAM means less use of virtual memory. Aperture has to shuffle large quantities of data around constantly. There's no question that you should put as much RAM in the laptop as it will hold: 4GB. It will get used.
However, understand you can mail-order two 2GB sticks from third parties for about $250, which is $150 cheaper than ordering a MBP pre-configured by Apple for 4GB. In other words, it's cheaper to buy your MBP with the base RAM and discard (eBay?) the 2 1GB sticks that come with it!
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Originally Posted by KevinWeatherly Finally, what are your views on the different screen options, which is better for assessing images? |
The LED backlight is the important thing, but that now comes standard in both 15" models. Glossy vs. matte finish is largely a matter of personal taste. With glossy, you get darker blacks and different glare characteristics. (I hesitate to say that the glossy screen has more glare than the matte finish, because that depends entirely on what in the environment is being reflected. It's probably possible to find situations where the matte finish will exhibit worse glare.) Most photographers I've talked with recently have been seduced by the glossy finish.
p.s., Kevin:
You might also want to look into this
Aperture support group. There may be a higher concentration of people there who can provide timely information.
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