I'm buying one off of a buddy later today, as i need a new computer to run photo editing software.   any peripherals that i just gotta have to go along with it?  any awesome tools to make editing even mo' betta?

An SSD will make things faster if it doesn't already have one.

If you're doing photo editing (but really this goes for anybody who uses a computer) when it comes to backups, 2 is 1, 1 is none.

Invest is a nice TB drive as well as another HD for your backups.  Back up OFTEN and if you can, keep one off site in case of fire/flood in the home, etc.

As far as "accessories", not really sure what you're looking for.  You can find adapters to hook up an external monitor for home use.

External Buffalo Drivestation with two drives, do mirror RAID. That's what I use for MB Pro backup and scratch for large projects.

VGA adapter, if you ever want to plug it into a projector.

Does it have an Ethernet port?



If not you may need an Apple Thunderbolt-to-Ethernet adapter - About $29.95 in any color you like as long as it's white.

Right now Adobe is running a special rate for the subscription to creative cloud. You get Lightroom 5 and Photoshop CC for 1-year for $10 per month.

The programs reside on your harddrive and can go for 1-month without internet connection (it uses the internet to verify that you are paying your $10 per month subscription fee) thus you can use it on airplanes and areas where there is no internet service.

Edit: being that you've buying a mac for photo editing I assume you are already familiar with Lightroom and Photoshop. However, if you are not, set your camera to RAW format and watch lots of tutorials on youtube regarding lightroom and photoshop. Both programs are very powerful but totally not intuitive.

That's a good deal. Creative Cloud is awesome--I have it through work.

Get one of those slick neoprene sleeves for it. But don't get it from Apple. There are places all over the web that have them on sale for $12 or so fairly regularly. I also can't speak highly enough about the Magic Mouse. While the Macbook Pro has the most useable touchpad you will find on any laptop, there is still no substitute for a real mouse and the Magic Mouse supports a ton of gestures for flipping around the desktop quickly.