When to Buy a Mac?

None of us can possibly know. The laptops are due for a refresh. It'll be before September, obviously. Desktops should also be updated sometime in the spring.

You don't need one. Wait until June and get a free iPod with it.

Sandy Bridge chips, probably.

GPU? Er... do any of the nVidia 400 series chips fall into Apple's self-set TDP limit? If not, a Radeon chip.

LightPeak? WAY too soon.

No optical drives? Maybe.

Built-in SSD instead of a hard drive? Maybe.

Better battery? Probably; it's Apple.

Everything else should be identical. Maybe Apple'll up the resolution on the 13 and 15, but don't count on it. I certainly don't expect it.

I'd say pretty likely and given that Ivy Bridge is due in October, the SB update would be best in January.


NVidia put a spanner in the works saying they aren't doing IGPs for Intel chipsets any more as this means there's a major problem with the low-end. Apple could use LLano but not until July. Their only real option is to put a 330M or equivalent into the low-end. They've used dedicated GPUs in the PPC laptops before so it should be fine. With the graphics switching, battery life isn't such a big problem but cost might be.


I actually think they should get on Light Peak as soon as they can. It's the last physical connection type that needs to be built. Once you go optical, there's no other transfer that will better it. It supposedly ramps up to 100Gbps, which is as fast as PCI express.

AMD already have something like this using external PCI:

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/new..._gpu_enclosure

You could buy a Macbook Air with a core-i chip and Intel IGP and then plug into a dedicated desktop card that is tethered to an electrical socket (a port won't provide enough power) and the cost would be fairly low.


I'd say it's likely and Apple can have both the built-in SSD on the motherboard and a 2.5" HDD.


I expect 1680 x 1050 on the 15".


Wait until CES 2011 on January 6th. Apple won't announce anything there but Intel will and NVidia/AMD will have some things too. The Macbook Pros are due an update and just after CES would be the ideal time.

Given the situation with Intel, I think now is the right time to drop the MB and 13" MBP. If they can't put in core-i chips + dedicated GPUs, they need a selling point and all-metal + SSD + light with the 320M at that price is enough. When the 25nm SSD arrives, they will get up to 512GB in the Air.

You don't have a Mac? Seriously? Think of the years you've lost without one. Tragic.


Check with your university to see if they'll have a special purchase program. Most do, but I doubt they'll offer more than the usual educational discount.