MacBook Pro buying advice

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Hello all, I'm a long time windows user who's had limited experience with Apple products, but I really love the feel and stability of OS X. I'm going to grad school at the end of summer, and will need a laptop and I have decided to make the jump to Apple. Performance and longevity are important to me (as well as looks), which leads me to the decision to purchase a MBP over the new iBook (MB?).



My real question to those who have followed apple for a long time: Is there any reason to wait to purchase the MBP? I'm going to need the laptop before school starts, which means at the latest I will be purchasing sometime in the middle of August. Does anyone think there will be any change to the system, either in specs or price point in that time frame?



I know that Intel has the new mobile chipset coming out sometime in September or October, but that's too long to wait. Should I just spring for it now, or does anyone think there will be any speed bumps in the near future? Thanks for any advice.



On a side note, I do have the prospect of acquiring a Powerbook Ti (400mhz) for free, but it needs both a new battery for the motherboard as well as likely it's main battery. This repair will cost probably $200 or so, and that machine could tide me over until the new 64bit mobile chip is out. I don't know if that would be worth it in the long run, and I have not seen too much discussion on this new chip as it's only supposed to be 20% better then the CoreDuo.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    spec will change but the price point will only increase IMO
  • Reply 2 of 4
    ipeonipeon Posts: 1,122member
    CalBear02,



    Heads up... Duplicate sentences... makes it hard to read... edit... edit...
  • Reply 3 of 4
    Good save, I needed to read it once before I imported from word.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    backtomacbacktomac Posts: 4,579member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by CalBear02

    Hello all, I'm a long time windows user who's had limited experience with Apple products, but I really love the feel and stability of OS X. I'm going to grad school at the end of summer, and will need a laptop and I have decided to make the jump to Apple. Performance and longevity are important to me (as well as looks), which leads me to the decision to purchase a MBP over the new iBook (MB?).



    My real question to those who have followed apple for a long time: Is there any reason to wait to purchase the MBP? I'm going to need the laptop before school starts, which means at the latest I will be purchasing sometime in the middle of August. Does anyone think there will be any change to the system, either in specs or price point in that time frame?



    I know that Intel has the new mobile chipset coming out sometime in September or October, but that's too long to wait. Should I just spring for it now, or does anyone think there will be any speed bumps in the near future? Thanks for any advice.



    On a side note, I do have the prospect of acquiring a Powerbook Ti (400mhz) for free, but it needs both a new battery for the motherboard as well as likely it's main battery. This repair will cost probably $200 or so, and that machine could tide me over until the new 64bit mobile chip is out. I don't know if that would be worth it in the long run, and I have not seen too much discussion on this new chip as it's only supposed to be 20% better then the CoreDuo.




    Everyone expects new ibooks to come in April. If they come with Core solos and Duos as well as Intel IG they will probably have performance similar to the new minis. The core solo I find underwhelming. Macworld has benchmarks for performance that may be helpful. You be the judge. If Apple would drop prices for the outgoing ppc models, I may be tempted to just pick up a 14in iBook or a 12in powerbook. I don't expect the new iBooks to have that great of an increase in speed over the models they will replace. Link to macworld benchmarks below.



    http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/index.php



    As for the core duo replacement,merom, it is supposed to be 20% faster than core duo at the same clock speed. BUT, it is supposed to have higher clock speeds. So it may end up being quite a bit faster, depending upon how high intel can get these to run. I'm going to try to wait until the merom MBPs come out before making a purchase decision.

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