First Design MBP vs new MacBook
Hey guys,
I have been looking at buying a MacBook, the bottom end one just with a 120Gb HD stuffed into it, so it's 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB memory which ends up costing around the £730 (education discount, plus DVI adapter).
This was fine until last night when I was offered a MacBook Pro, the exact specs I am not sure of yet however from what I can tell it's the launch 15.4" MBP, 2.16Ghz Intel Core Duo, 1Gb ram, 100gb hard drive and 256mb X1600 graphics for £740...
Looking around the net it seems clear that the Core 2 Duo processors are faster than the Core Duos, however it doesn't seem like much of a jump and the dedicated graphics card is a big bonus along with the higher res screen.
However I am a bit stumped with which one is best for me, I'm a college student studying graphic design, so it's working with Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator etc for long periods of time with some pretty large files, and dabbling in Windows (via Parallels most likely) from time to time for a wee bit of gaming.
Any help would be greatly appreciated,
Cheers,
Stewart
Edit: Meant to say I'm upgrading from a G4 Mini if that helps anyone give a recommendation :P
I have been looking at buying a MacBook, the bottom end one just with a 120Gb HD stuffed into it, so it's 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB memory which ends up costing around the £730 (education discount, plus DVI adapter).
This was fine until last night when I was offered a MacBook Pro, the exact specs I am not sure of yet however from what I can tell it's the launch 15.4" MBP, 2.16Ghz Intel Core Duo, 1Gb ram, 100gb hard drive and 256mb X1600 graphics for £740...
Looking around the net it seems clear that the Core 2 Duo processors are faster than the Core Duos, however it doesn't seem like much of a jump and the dedicated graphics card is a big bonus along with the higher res screen.
However I am a bit stumped with which one is best for me, I'm a college student studying graphic design, so it's working with Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator etc for long periods of time with some pretty large files, and dabbling in Windows (via Parallels most likely) from time to time for a wee bit of gaming.
Any help would be greatly appreciated,
Cheers,
Stewart
Edit: Meant to say I'm upgrading from a G4 Mini if that helps anyone give a recommendation :P
Comments
You'll want the Core 2 Duo. Not Core Duo one.
Is Core 2 Duo significantly better? Most of the benchmarks I could find suggested a negligible increase in performance, mostly in things like MP3 encoding where it was only quicker by 3 or 4 seconds, nothing which is really noticeable.
If you could find a refurbished or used 2.16 ghz Core 2 duo MBP, that would be your best value, IMO. That's what I have and it's great. The best computer I've ever had.
stew, what's the minimum wage where you live in euros?
6.5 Euros an hour give or take.
Refurb MBPs come in at the £1,000 mark, my budget is £700-750 and it needs to be a laptop so really it's down to will the higher res screen and dedicated video card be worth sacrificing on the CPU side of things considering I am coming from a G4.
I have read the Core 2 Duo runs cooler and is better with power consumption but I think the 10x faster graphics the MBP has will quickly outweigh those minor advantages in the Core 2 Duo Macbook.
The MBP is bigger though so it may be more awkward for carrying but the higher resolution and bigger screen is great for design. A couple of designers I work with got the MBP and they love it - one had a Macbook but found the screen to be too small and shiny and the GMA struggled on some 3D work.
6.5 Euros an hour give or take.
Refurb MBPs come in at the £1,000 mark, my budget is £700-750 and it needs to be a laptop so really it's down to will the higher res screen and dedicated video card be worth sacrificing on the CPU side of things considering I am coming from a G4.
luckily for me, i'm 17 and living with my parents still and make 9.50 cdn ( 6.7 euro give or take ) and i can afford to splurge for a better laptop. i initially was going to get the black macbook, but then i thought to myself, i game, and i want the best. I've purchased the macbook pro that can be read about in my sig. set me back 2470 cdn with the nano deal for school. but in my opinion, if you think you want to do graphic design and stuff like that, splurge, get yourself a macbook pro, a new one. it will last you a long time.
I wonder if someone with a core duo MBP would download cinebench 10 and run it. Then we could have some objective numbers. It might help the op make his decision.
Some hunting turned up this benchmark at BareFeats which pits the MBP CD 2.16Ghz against the MacBook C2D 2.0Ghz and aside from a few seconds in running a Photoshop Action and a few more seconds converting MP3 to AAC the MBP wins every test, and decimates the MacBook in GPU tasks.
So it'll be the Core Duo MacBook Pro I'm going to go for, I think I'd end up regretting the small screen of the MacBook after a while.
Thanks for all your help guys, much appreciated, certainly looking forward to relegating my G4 Mini to under the TV
The first gen MBP 15" Core Duos run pretty hot though.
It's nearly winter isn't it? :P
Thanks Aiolos, looking forward to getting it, be early October before I do though