Macbook pro 13"

Hey guys and gals,
I'm considering purchasing the new macbook pro 13" model.
Refurbished at the apple website it's only a little over $1000. My max budget is $1200.
I could also get a refurbished imac for the same price, which I would prefer for power, but I'm also a college student and the portability of a laptop is greatly wanted.
My main question to you all is whether or not you think that the HD 3000 graphics in the 13" macbook pro will be powerful enough to run good editing programs. It is supported by fcp x and fcp 7(which I'm used to). I'll be using motion, but nothing beyond that as far as graphics go.

If the 13" is good enough, I'll go for it. And I do have a bigger lcd that I can use while I'm editing :)
I just figured it would be a good idea to consult indietalk before I buy.

Thanks all!
 
Thanks,
The lowest end macbook pro now comes with 4 gb ram and an i5 cpu! I'm just not too sure on the intel HD 3000 graphics processor. It seems pretty weak, but it might get the job done.
 
It's a weak card, but it still meets the requirements for FCP7 and FCPX. It's also usable with Adobe Production Premium, though you'll be missing on the GPU-accelerated performance. What program to you intend to edit with?
 
So you're definitely tied to Apple? I'm looking around at laptops, and you can get a quad core i7 laptop for the price you're willing to put out for a dual core i5. I'm not downing Apple, I've used FCP since 2003, but I suspect I'll be using the Adobe Production Premium suite a lot more from now on.
 
I do prefer os x. The school I'm going to does all of their editing on macs so it's probably a good idea to have the same os too. I'm open to premiere, but I don't have very much experience with it. I much preferred final cut, but fcp x sounds like it's a pile of trash. Which totally sucks.
 
I used to prefer OSX, but more and more I find myself impressed with Windows 7. I expect my next editing machine will be a PC unless some drastic changes happen with FCPX. Just to give you some perspective, here's a 15-inch laptop with a quad core i7 for $649.
 
Good point, I'm definitely reconsidering my options now. That particular model has the same graphics chip as the 13 inch mbp, but it's way cheaper. I think I'm just afraid of premiere because I'm not experienced with it. On a mac I could use both. Oh well, I should just get over it and start playing with premiere.
 
Hiya,
My regular 2011 Macbook runs all that perfectly. I absolutely LOVE it for editing. Anywhere from iMovie to FCE, it does the job perfectly. Just keep in mind your rendering time will be longer than if you did it on an iMac
 
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