The reason the RAM escalates in price that way is the difference in what kinds of memory chips you have to use to increase the memory that much. To upgrade a Mac Pro to 4 GB of RAM, you use (I think?) 512 MB chips. But to upgrade to 8 GB, you use (again, not positive) either 1 GB or 2 GB chips. The larger chips are more expensive per MB than the smaller chips.

Now, I would HIGHLY doubt that you need more than 4 GB of RAM. Hell, on my MacBook I upgraded to just 3 GB in order to be sure I could run Final Cut Studio well. And Final Cut Studio is a MUCH bigger memory hog than Photoshop.

Seriously, the more I think about it the more I think a Mac Pro is overkill for anyone who isn't using any of the apps Mac designates as "pro apps" - Final Cut, After Effects, Pro Tools, etc. I'd suggest looking at the Mac Mini and iMac to see if they'll suit your needs. And the pricetags are MUCH lower.

That would make sense except that it's 4x 1 GB vs. 8 x 1 GB memory...uh, modules? I understood why there was a $1800 price jump to get 8GB when it was 4 x 2GB but that wasn't this case. :) However, it seems that 8 GB is more than I can reasonably expect to need, even 4 years hence, so it's no longer a point of extreme annoyance.

The price tags ARE much lower. I just looked at a "fully loaded" MiniMac with 20" monitor (because I really want the dual monitor thing) and it's much more in the range of what I hoped to spend on the CPU.

I still remain a little concerned about underbuying because I don't replace my computer on a 3 or even 4 year cycle. My current one is 6 years old and I'm only considering replacing it because I've maxed out its memory options and it's still underpowered for today's Photoshop. But if a MiniMac will allow me to get a good enough processor and enough RAM, that's probably what I should be looking at.

To give you a data point, my Powerbook is...3 years? 4 years?...old, and I wouldn't have replaced it if I weren't using Final Cut Pro. Everything else I do it does beautifully. My experience has been that Macs don't need the same kinds of upgrades/replacements that PCs do. Though, to be fair, when I bought my Powerbook it was near the high end of what Mac sold for notebooks at that time.

Happily, Photoshop is the piggiest program I use (well, actually Firefox can be pretty damned piggy if you're shy of memory). I do use it from time to time to deal with the pics from my 8MP camera. That's the outer limits of what I currently do...but I like to have some padding because who knows what I'll do later?

But this laptop does sounds VERY interesting to me because it could well solve my two largest complaints about my system: memory and that it doesn't travel. I look forward to getting your e-mail when you have the time. :)

We find that our macs last about 5-6 years between replacement cycles. And we usually find that we want to do something cool with the old one when we retire it from desktop use, like make it a central music server.

Joe already has his eye on "My Little Sony That Could" for use in his studio, in fact. :) This will undoubtedly lead to another round of expensive toys that would freak me out if I knew how much they cost.

5-6 years sounds about right to me, given the way software bloats to fill capacity. Also, once I get the thing set up to the way I like it, I'm really not eager to go changing machines.