Which mac to get for a Graphic Designer

[sheepdan2]

Hi,

I'm looking for a mac to use for Graphic Design work with CS5, and don't know what to get; (currently use a PC, and not used a mac for years - I think an SE30 was my last one! 40Mb HD, 5Mb RAM... still loads MS Word faster than my Quad-Xeon PC!).

I can't find any helpful info on google, so thought who better to ask than people who love macs?

I'll be using it for print & web design, not video work, so InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver.

I'm currently considering a MBP 17" i7 8Gb - will that be enough to run CS5 and handle InDesign layouts efficiently? I'm willing to go up to a 8-core Mac Pro (which could take more RAM) if necessary, but would really appreciate the flexability of a laptop if it'll handle it. I've no idea if an i7 is underpowered or overkill.

I'm wanting the machine to last 3-5 years, so hopefully able to run CS6 whenever that comes out.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Rob]

If you need portability then what you're thinking about should have more than enough juice for your needs, perhaps overkill but if it's your work then it's probably worth the money.

The advantages of a Mac Pro are better options for backup and storage as well as better performance overall.

[sheepdan2]

Thanks!

Just gone for a macbook, and it certainly seems fast enough with indesign so far.
And soooo much faster to boot and shutdown than a PC!

dan