I run a 400mhz powerbook, photoshop CS3 runs fine on it. Flash on the other hand sucks tho. I would go with a midrange macbook with lots of ram, screen size isn’t anything you need to worry about, because latter on down the road you can buy an extra monitor, And plug it into your macbook.
Ya, actually, here’s a question for all of you. On my office machine, which is a dual 2ghz G5 ppc tower, there’s this incredible lag when I run Flash CS3 and simply click on the text editing tool. Not only that, when I click on it, and then click on the stage to type text or edit existing text, there is also a solid 60 seconds lag time between clicking and then being able to edit. Not to mention when I click anywhere out of Flash, then click back into the app, such as cutting and pasting text from Word into Flash, there’s another 1-2 minutes of lag time. Is this because my system is a mess and might need a clean reinstall of everything, or is it because my G5 is not meant to be running CS3? It’s got something like 3GB of RAM in it.
I use a dual G5 at work and Flash CS3 runs quite fine on it.
how many fonts are active? Use suitcase: )
Do you have the latest version of Tiger or Leopard installed? Also is your Flash CS3 fully updated?
I actually haven’t updated it yet. I’m nervous about system updates. Likely due to the fact that I think if something works, don’t fix it. So Flash CS3 has been working fine, very slow, but no crashes, so I didn’t want to risk updating it. Does that make a big difference though? I’m almost sold on that 24" iMac. For my office it’s going to be that single Quad Core Mac Pro, but is even that overkill for Flash and Photoshop work? I really only do web these days.
^Update your software all the time for adobe products it makes small changes that speed up or optimize parts of the softwares.
They very rarely release updates so its not a big thing.
I have a back log of like 10 adobe updates
god dang annoying how it tells me to update evvvvvvvverytime i start my mac, even when i tell it to only check once a month.
r-tards
FWIW, the 20-inch iMac uses a TN screen, whereas the 24" iMac uses an IPS screen, which is why the 24" iMac screen is so much better.
[QUOTE=doctor_funk;2334327] there is also a solid 60 seconds lag time between clicking and then being able to edit.[/QUOTE]
Maybe you have too many fonts installed…
Anyway… you’re able to work like that? I think I’d format before working like that… 
macbook too…
its garbage
apple was sued over their false claims of good display-age on the 20"
I’m so glad i bought the 24, its a brilliant display.
This is all awesome advice, I’m getting excited about that 24" iMac. For my office computer I’m thinking a reformat and reinstall will be the best medicine at this point, at least until I have time to order a replacement machine. I’m still nervous about the iMacs reflective screen, but I guess there’s nothing much I can do about that. The staff at Apple said they sell some kind of giant sticker for about $80(yen to dollar conversion there) that will make it non-shiny. Not so sure about that.
To answer the earlier question about how can I work with such lags in Flash CS3. The answer is, I can’t. I drives me out of my mind, into a near hair pulling frenzy that which no man can imagine. The simple task of editing text has become as grueling a chore as scraping the inner lining of a bathroom sink. As much as I would like to blame it on my G5’s specs, I think it really comes down to needing a clean install. I just hate doing clean installs since it halts my workflow. Not to mention the annoying task of backing up many GBs of project data.
Do not buy that matte-stick on crap
It fails, soooooooooo hard. I was reading through the apple forums, and some guy bought it, and … well… its junk, but apparently the guy who sells it is “a really nice guy” but that doesn’t make up for the fact that his product is junk.
The gloss isn’t so bad, it never bothers me, but then again i don’t work under a sun of fluorescent lights
yea but the mac pro is also 900x more expensive, and then you have to buy a display on top of that.
I miss my aluminum g4 powerbook, but only because it was portable… my imac is so much better in every single way
I’m curious though, the specs on the Macbook Pro and the iMac are pretty similar. Is there any performance difference between the two? The spec sheets shows the same graphics card and CPU. I figured I would be satisfied with a Macbook Pro, but after owning a 12" powerbook G4, I never actually moved it anywhere, it’s always been stationary. The illuminating keyboard is gorgeous though, wish these new aluminum keyboards did that too…
yea seriously,
the fact that the macbook air (with the new keyboard design – almost identical layout as the actual keyboards) has this illumination feature, means they can bring it to their desktop keyboard… whether they will do that, is another question.
As for performance difference, if the specs are nearly the same, it won’t really matter… but with the macbook pro, you’re paying more money for portability, and if (like you said) you dont actually bring the laptop anywhere, you’re just spending more money on a useless feature
Note: imac harddrives are faster, and come in larger sizes than macbook pro’s
*ALSO: macbook pro’s are due for an overhaul, rumor has it they will bring it along the same styling as the new imacs (aluminum + black + glass (maybe?) )
So you might want to wait a bit and see…
the new macbook pro would also have the same keyboard as the Air (presumably) so thats also keen
Ok, I too am about to buy a new mac for work…
I was looking at the 20", but after reading this I’m not so sure. My company will want some good, solid reasons to spend $300 more on the 24" - What should I tell them? Why is it so much better?
I’ve been using Powermacs in my business for 11 years.
Last October, I bought a 2.4ghz 24" iMac with 4GB of RAM.
Best Mac, and best overall computer, I’ve ever used.
The display is excellent, but maybe not quite as nice as the Cinema display it replaced.
The “matte vs glossy” issue (reflections) has not been a factor for me, and in fact, the matte screen used to “catch” light from the office window that the glossy screen does not.
I’d rather have a Mac Pro for the additional expansion, but the performance of the iMac, even with the entire CS3 suite running, has never been an issue.
BTW, I’ve installed a few 20" iMacs, and the screen issues were definitely a real problem.
These displays have a very narrow viewing angle and color range, and cannot be calibrated for accurate, or even acceptable, color.
It has 4 more inchs of screen room? I’m gonna wait till i work here for 2 more years before I ask my work to upgrade my two monitors into 1 30", right now my computer kind of stutters when i have more than 3 adobe products open 
so I use my laptop for the other apps.
Better quality display, more screen-real estate (which equals better workflow, and it saves time in some instances)
if you’re going to drop money on a new computer, don’t half-*** it, any money you spend now on the 20" imac will be for nothing when you realize the TN-ness of the 20"…
