Comparing processing speeds of IMAC vs MacBOOK

[pacificmac]

Hi, I'm in the same dilemma in regards to chosing between an imac and a macbookpro. I'll be using Adobe After Effects CS3 and Maxon Cinema 4D. I was looking into getting the lower end macbook pro 15" screen vs mid or top range iMAC. I'm a novice at these programs at the moment and learning as I go. I like the speedbump that these new macs have, and would appreciate some input as to what is the best for me.

I'm interested in the macbook pro just because of portability issues. I can take it to work and don't have to be stuck at home learning and using the program., but at the same time the high price is something I have to think about twice..
In regards to chosing an iMAC I like the big screen, hard drive space and speed of 7200 rpm. The only thing I'm not sure about is the graphics card. I went to Adobe system requirements site and they recommend NVIDIA over the ATI Radeon since issues such as crashing may occur..which of course puts a bigger question mark in my head about which one would suffice my needs..

This is the current set up I'm looking at:

iMAC20-inch
$1,499.00
2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
6MB shared L2 cache
2GB (two 1GB SO-DIMMs)
320GB Serial ATA, 7200 rpm
ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB of GDDR3 memory

MacBook Pro 15"
$1,999.00
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
3MB shared L2 cache
2GB (two SO-DIMMs)
200GB Serial ATA, 5400 rpm
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB of GDDR3 SDRAM

[nixgeek]

Originally Posted by pacificmac

Hi, I'm in the same dilemma in regards to chosing between an imac and a macbookpro. I'll be using Adobe After Effects CS3 and Maxon Cinema 4D. I was looking into getting the lower end macbook pro 15" screen vs mid or top range iMAC. I'm a novice at these programs at the moment and learning as I go. I like the speedbump that these new macs have, and would appreciate some input as to what is the best for me.

I'm interested in the macbook pro just because of portability issues. I can take it to work and don't have to be stuck at home learning and using the program., but at the same time the high price is something I have to think about twice..
In regards to chosing an iMAC I like the big screen, hard drive space and speed of 7200 rpm. The only thing I'm not sure about is the graphics card. I went to Adobe system requirements site and they recommend NVIDIA over the ATI Radeon since issues such as crashing may occur..which of course puts a bigger question mark in my head about which one would suffice my needs..

This is the current set up I'm looking at:

iMAC20-inch
$1,499.00
2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
6MB shared L2 cache
2GB (two 1GB SO-DIMMs)
320GB Serial ATA, 7200 rpm
ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB of GDDR3 memory

MacBook Pro 15"
$1,999.00
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
3MB shared L2 cache
2GB (two SO-DIMMs)
200GB Serial ATA, 5400 rpm
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB of GDDR3 SDRAM

My personal opinion would say that the iMac is faster specwise for the following reasons...

Aside from the CPU's clock speed being faster on the iMac over the MBP, it also has a larger L2 cache than the MBP. This definitely helps performance. Also. the hard drive in the iMac is larger and faster than the one in the MBP.

Of course, if portability is a necessity then that extra edge of the iMac won't help you one bit.

As for which one feels faster, that's more aesthetics than anything. Of course, there are instances where this is noticeable, but I doubt you would notice much difference here. If you don't mind being stuck in one place in order to use the Mac, then the iMac is the choice. Of course, the nice thing about the MBP is that you can take it with you and use it wherever you go.

[pacificmac]

Thanks for the prompt reply. My question now is will the graphics card (ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB),on my selected iMAC, compete against the MacBook Pro's graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB) even though the iMAC will have a faster hard drive, CPU clock speed, and cache?? Remember, I'll be running AE CS3 and CINEMA 4d on these machines. I guess my main question is which computer will render my files faster..thanks for thelp

-Sal