help! what should i get? ordering macbook today

elixir

ok ok , i'm doing it, i'm going to get a first gen system.



here are my options





the mackbook pro standard 1.83

1gb ram memory and 100gb harddrive

or

the 1.63 with 120gb harddrive or 100gb harddrive at 7200rpm with

2gb of ram memory.





someone who knows help me out here.



it'd seem like the 1.63 would be the better buy but how much of a difference will the 1.83 chip speed make? eh? 2ghz difference? can it be THAT much?



this laptop will be used for

business applications like microsoft office, keynote, etc

and my personal hobby- music production

with propellerhead software, ableton live, guitar rack etc





also some photo and video editing will be done casually as well





i plan on keeping this laptop for a few years.







anyone with some nice pros and cons would be appreciated!

sunilraman

sounds like you may not enjoy the experience for the first few months since universal binaries are not yet available. for example from propellerhead.se:



* Reason will continue to run in Rosetta, but the performance loss is similar to running Reason on a G3.

* ReCycle runs fine in Rosetta, with no measurable performance issues.

* ReWire works, as long as all applications in the session are PowerPC-based.



However, performance might be better on the shipping Intel-Macs but we haven't been able to test this yet.



No Universal Binary versions of our software are announced as of now. However, rest assured, Propellerhead Software is still fully committed to the Mac OS platform.

sunilraman

it may be several months before your music hobby apps will be shipped as universal binaries... so you may have to stick to your current? G4 for music stuff.



i reckon iLife, iWork, Office for Mac, those should be pretty sweet though. then once all the universal binaries start flowing over the next 3-9months, you'll be loving your Core Duo.



anyway, looking at the longer term, 2 years, this is a solid package for $2399 USD:



# 1.67 ghz Core Duo

# 1GB 667 DDR2 - 1 SO-DIMM

# 100GB Serial ATA drive @ 7200 rpm

# ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 - 128MB GDDR3

# SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)

# AirPort Extreme Card & Bluetooth

# Backlit Keyboard/Mac OS - U.S. English

# 15.4-inch TFT Display



the 1.83ghz Core Duo is only about 10% higher clock speed than the 1.67 ghz.

elixir

i doubt it will run at g3 speed.



anyways, 10 percent increase in speed is not that noticable.





but again i ask the better buy compared to what i posted.



i'm guessing the 1.67 with 2gb ram and 120 or 100gb harddrive would be the smarter purchase compared to the 1.83 standard mackbook.

gene clean

You are right. The extra 1GB of RAM will help more than 200Mhz of clock speed. It's obvious you will run a few heavy apps simultanaously, so more RAM = teh snappy.



Therefore, 1.67Ghz with 2GB of RAM.

sunilraman

well, looks like your mind is made up to buy the macbook pro. but yeah, essentially, a faster hard disk and more ram will be much better than a slightly faster clock speed.

peter_l

I'd strongly suggest getting the fastest hard drive possible (i.e. the 7200 RPM drive). If you ever plan on doing any sort of multi-track recording, this is a must.

elixir

Quote:

Originally posted by peter_l

I'd strongly suggest getting the fastest hard drive possible (i.e. the 7200 RPM drive). If you ever plan on doing any sort of multi-track recording, this is a must.

good point, very good point.



the 7200 is pretty fast huh?

sunilraman

hi elixir, not sure if i have been able to help, but anyway just had to point out that the 1.83ghz macbook pro comes with 256mb video ram. whereas the 1.67ghz model only comes with 128mb video ram, there is no option to add more, you have to get the 1.83ghz to have 256mb video ram.



here is an idea, initially RAM is expensive and you don't need it straight away, also you can buy it from other places besides apple for much lower price with acceptable quality. for example 1gb ram could be as low as $100 for generic quality ram ( http://www.18004memory.com ) instead of $300 apple charges.



if you get the 1.83ghz you have 256mb video ram, and can get 7200rpm 100gb drive, and 1GB. you can always add 1GB of ram later as you use for more and more stuff and ram prices drop quite a bit over time... however the 1.67ghz you can max it out to 2GB ram but the video memory will *always* be 128mb, you cannot add more video ram later.



so potentially if you buy the 1GB extra RAM for say $110 (not from apple store), + 1.83ghz, 1gb ram, 7200rpm 100gb drive for $2599 (from the apple store), then you get all this:



$2709

-1.83ghz core duo

-100gb 7200rpm sata drive

-256mb ddr3 video ram

-2GB total memory (1 stick from apple, 1 non-apple)



compare this with your $2699 machine if you bought the 1.67ghz with options from apple store

elixir

sunilraman- i see.





what does double the video memory do for me though?



given what i'll be using it for.

sunilraman

that's a tricky one. you could almost start another thread discussing 128mb vram vs. 256mb vram. all i can explain at this stage is given what you are using it for, 256mb vram, along with the 7200rpm hard disk and 2gb main memory, means that you can have a very responsive feel while running lots of applications simultaneously. with say iphoto, video, dashboard, web browsing, 256mb vram will help with the processing and display of images.



of course, other forum members may clarify this point by giving you more specifics.

sunilraman

oh, it occurred to me that you could argue that the 1.83mhz macbook pro has a 20% faster cpu than the 1.67mhz. because each core is 10% faster. so 10% x 2cores = 20% faster overall..! something to think about if it makes you feel better when ordering the 1.83mhz let us know anyway what you have decided to do?

elixir

i went with the standard 1.83.





i figured that i dont really need a 100gb harddrive at 7200 because it wouldve ate battery life. almost got the 120 but i'm thinking when i buy the extra 1gb ram i'll get an external hard drive to store all samples, plug ins, etc.





afterall i want this laptop for laptop use. if i wanted a desktop replacement i wouldve got an imac.





ordered it lastnight

wally007

I dont know what brand of 7200 rpm drive apple is using but when i bought my from Dell ( brand was hitashi ) 60gb 7200rpm and replaced old 5400rpm drive my battery life went up at idle 4 minutes and while dvd playback 7 minutes.

I dont have any other measurements or benchmarks.