If you can wait I would buy after Apple releases the Merom MBP and then pick up a Yonah MBP for what will probably be a savings of a few hundred dollars. You really dont need any more power than what Yonah packs for 99.9% of what you need to do.
yep I cant see you getting your hands on the Merom powered MBP before September. So if thats too late I'd consider buying soon, after all they have just been updated again.
BTW, people with access to pre-release ES versions of Merom chips have already dropped it straight into an intel Mac mini and it works perfectly without a BIOS update. see page 5 of this thread http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...t=91459&page=5
so upgrading an iMac or Mac mini will be possible, however the notebooks have their CPU's soldered onto the MB so no go there.
Hey! Gig Harbor in the house! I love that area man. Boy it's gotten spendy though
YEP... In da how!
But then again... everything's spendy these days most everywhere. It is worth living out here though with the simplicity of life and all but it is super BORING. Glad to have my puter's to keep me in touch with the outside world and once in a while I jump over to Seattle to root for my Seahawks. Go baby!
Yonah really is going to top out at 2.4Ghz or so and that'll come by next year so the majority of laptops will eventually migrate over to Merom. Eventually you'll see pricing parity between the two and it'll make sense to use Merom for all but the lowest end laptops.
In the meantime Merom will indeed provide that differentiation between consumer and pro for 6-9 months in the Apple arena.
I agree, but I don't agree with those who think the best chips shouldn't be in a MacBook. There are many other differentials beyond chip speed that separates the two lines. The low-end MacBook should have the cheapest, useful cpu, but why not put a Merom in the high end if you can charge more, even as BTO if necessary so that the brain dead don't get confused in the Apple Store.
I have never believed that cpu speed should separate a consumer or a pro laptop. What should be the difference is in connectivity, PCI slots, resolutions, size, durability and bundled software perhaps. I know many people who would get a black MacB with a fast processor and guess what they could make the margin the same as a MBP and so cannabalizing sales would not be an issue. More selection would actually help Apple see what the market REALLY demands and make adjustments more timely and at greater detail.
Helps a ton, thanks a lot. My needs are not very specific except I want the best I can buy now that will last me 4+ years through college (if thats possible). I definitely want the macbook pro, just not sure if waiting for the next chip upgrade will be within the time period where I can get it or will be worth it anyways. Thanks again.
5.5 years ago, I bought the first generation PowerBook G4 400MHz Titanium. I used it my past five years of college daily for all of my websurfing, apple mail, iChat, Golive (which was sluggish), iTunes, Word/Excel/Powerpoint. I also occasionally use the CS2 suite, although batch processing and more intense stuff was done on my Quicksilver 867 G4. With 768MB RAM in the PowerBook, it did the job way better than I expected.
I only carried it with me to class daily during the last year and a half, and I decided then, that my next computer would not be a 15" because something smaller would be so much easier to balance on my lap or those small desks while still using a notebook at the same time.
I urge you to think about these things when deciding on your college laptop purchase (will you bring it to class, or will it primarily sit on your desk back at the dorm/apt?)
I just ordered up a 2.0 White MacBook (adding aftermarket 2GB RAM and 120GB SATA drive) even though I think it is still slightly heavier and larger than I'd like, just because I've been waiting for a good PB 12" upgrade for a year and a half, and it looks like one won't come soon.
I really needed a new laptop, as I now have 4 years of graduate school in front of me. If Apple comes out with a convertible tablet 12-13" sized laptop under $2,000 with the features of the MacBook (and hopefully a dedicated GPU and aluminum casing), the MacBook will be on Ebay faster than you can say "HALLELUJAH!"
maybe i am the only one to care but the current aluminium design of the macbook pro and the previous powerbook g4 hasn't changed drastically for over three years. i know that the macbook pro is slimmer and wider, but it still looks the same really. i recently sold my beloved black powerbook g3 and i am planning to farewell my 17' iMac G4 by the end of this year as well and head over to macbook pro land. hopefully adobe cs3 is not too far off then, but i hope that the speed increase of merom will help make rosetta apps a bit zippier.
i got very excited when the black macbooks came out, and would absolutely love a new macbook pro design as well. isn't it time for a refresh? i originally thought the change to intel would have been the perfect time to changeover the look of the pro laptops as well. not that i mind the current design, but a macbook pro in a new case design would definitely make me more excited about laying down a few grand rather than getting the same old powerbook design.
now a black macbook pro would be something... do you think the macbook pro design will get a refresh soon or not for a long time?
shame though that the keyboard, ports and drive slot are still silver though...
Funny that lots of people are complaining about the MacBook coming in only white or black without an aluminum option, and it goes the other way with the MBPs only available in aluminum.
IMO a bigger deal than the processor is the second Merom generation SantaRosa chipset's support for 802.11n WiFi. Downloading a 1/2 hr HD video in 45 seconds rather than 10 minutes (802.11g) or 45 minutes (802.11b) going to mean more to many ordinary notebook users than a Photoshop transform dropping from 6 seconds to 4.
IMO a bigger deal than the processor is the second Merom generation SantaRosa chipset's support for 802.11n WiFi. Downloading a 1/2 hr HD video in 45 seconds rather than 10 minutes (802.11g) or 45 minutes (802.11b) going to mean more to many ordinary notebook users than a Photoshop transform dropping from 6 seconds to 4.
That's an understatement and I agree. If Apple would allow the wireless connection to initialize at the login screen when doing a fresh boot. I could permanantly ditch the wires.
But seeing that virtually noone has that kind of bandwidth to serve you... 802.11n is cool, and I look forward to it, but last I checked, even a T3 is 30Mb/ sec, and 802.11g is 54Mb. Do you have even a T3?
But seeing that virtually noone has that kind of bandwidth to serve you... 802.11n is cool, and I look forward to it, but last I checked, even a T3 is 30Mb/ sec, and 802.11g is 54Mb. Do you have even a T3?
I just ordered up a 2.0 White MacBook (adding aftermarket 2GB RAM and 120GB SATA drive) even though I think it is still slightly heavier and larger than I'd like, just because I've been waiting for a good PB 12" upgrade for a year and a half, and it looks like one won't come soon.
which aftermarket drive?? and then what did you do with the native hd?? how hard/easy was it.
if easy then you'd suggest buying the smallest drive and adding your own?? how did you transfer from the origianal hd to the new one?? i'd sure like one of those perpendicular drives in my mb or mbp i'll get this winter
which aftermarket drive?? and then what did you do with the native hd?? how hard/easy was it.
if easy then you'd suggest buying the smallest drive and adding your own?? how did you transfer from the origianal hd to the new one?? i'd sure like one of those perpendicular drives in my mb or mbp i'll get this winter
I got the Seagate Momentus 5400.2 series 120GB SATA drive. Model ST9120821AS. I paid $175 shipped i believe, from computergiants.com, but since then they have drastically raised the price, and it took them 4 days to ship my drive, and only then because i called and nagged them about 4 times in one day I think, so I don't recommend them.
A quick search of some shopping sites yielded this list of stores and prices.
The actual install of the drive is the EASIEST of any ever that I've done on Apple's Laptops (and I've done their Pismo G3 PowerBook, Wallstreet G3 PowerBook, Titanium G4 PowerBook, and iBook G4).
It literally takes 5 minutes. You just remove the L-shaped bracket that covers the ram slots in the battery bay (3 screws, they stay in the bracket). Grab the little plastic tab and pull out the hard drive (it's in a little carrier). Remove the 4 torx-8 screws on the carrier to remove the stock drive and screw your new drive in. Slide the whole carrier back into the drive slot and replace the L-Bracket.
So I suggest buying the smallest (60GB) stock drive you can and installing the largest one you can afford afterwards. As for transfering the data, I hadn't really installed anything on my stock macbook drive, so i took the opportunity to do a clean install from Apple's install CDs. That way I was able to customize the installation and not install the iWork trials, office trials, and the 2GB of languages I wouldn't use.
Then I manually copied over my data and some preferences and keychains from a firewire backup of my old laptop (but very few preference files so that I could have the cleanest newest install possible- my old laptop had been through about 4 migrations of old computers and still had hundreds of classic programs that I never used anymore at all and I didn't even want to copy them over).
If you want to keep your stock drive as a backup drive (or keep a fresh clean install on it in case you need to send your computer to apple for repair- that way you can just throw the stock drive back in and not worry about them reformmating or seeing your private data) the cheapest way to plug it in would probably be this: http://www.newertech.com/products/pr...univ_adptr.php
I just received a non-branded version of this exact same cable setup and it worked for my stock 60GB drive perfectly, and it will also let me plug in a bare 5.25" DVD-Burner or 3.5" desktop IDE drive as needed. It's not really portable, since the bare drives aren't protected in a case, but it's good for quick and dirty drive recoveries or backups.
After reading that I want to puke. I go out and buy a MBP after waiting for a 12" iBook update and then Apple goes and makes changing the HDD like wiping your butt comparted to my MBP. You figure they would make it that easy on the pro line instead.
Here's to thinking different!
Quote:
Originally posted by natec
I got the Seagate Momentus 5400.2 series 120GB SATA drive. Model ST9120821AS. I paid $175 shipped i believe, from computergiants.com, but since then they have drastically raised the price, and it took them 4 days to ship my drive, and only then because i called and nagged them about 4 times in one day I think, so I don't recommend them.
A quick search of some shopping sites yielded this list of stores and prices.
The actual install of the drive is the EASIEST of any ever that I've done on Apple's Laptops (and I've done their Pismo G3 PowerBook, Wallstreet G3 PowerBook, Titanium G4 PowerBook, and iBook G4).
It literally takes 5 minutes. You just remove the L-shaped bracket that covers the ram slots in the battery bay (3 screws, they stay in the bracket). Grab the little plastic tab and pull out the hard drive (it's in a little carrier). Remove the 4 torx-8 screws on the carrier to remove the stock drive and screw your new drive in. Slide the whole carrier back into the drive slot and replace the L-Bracket.
So I suggest buying the smallest (60GB) stock drive you can and installing the largest one you can afford afterwards. As for transfering the data, I hadn't really installed anything on my stock macbook drive, so i took the opportunity to do a clean install from Apple's install CDs. That way I was able to customize the installation and not install the iWork trials, office trials, and the 2GB of languages I wouldn't use.
Then I manually copied over my data and some preferences and keychains from a firewire backup of my old laptop (but very few preference files so that I could have the cleanest newest install possible- my old laptop had been through about 4 migrations of old computers and still had hundreds of classic programs that I never used anymore at all and I didn't even want to copy them over).
If you want to keep your stock drive as a backup drive (or keep a fresh clean install on it in case you need to send your computer to apple for repair- that way you can just throw the stock drive back in and not worry about them reformmating or seeing your private data) the cheapest way to plug it in would probably be this: http://www.newertech.com/products/pr...univ_adptr.php
I just received a non-branded version of this exact same cable setup and it worked for my stock 60GB drive perfectly, and it will also let me plug in a bare 5.25" DVD-Burner or 3.5" desktop IDE drive as needed. It's not really portable, since the bare drives aren't protected in a case, but it's good for quick and dirty drive recoveries or backups.
Comments
BTW, people with access to pre-release ES versions of Merom chips have already dropped it straight into an intel Mac mini and it works perfectly without a BIOS update. see page 5 of this thread http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...t=91459&page=5
so upgrading an iMac or Mac mini will be possible, however the notebooks have their CPU's soldered onto the MB so no go there.
Originally posted by hmurchison
Hey! Gig Harbor in the house! I love that area man. Boy it's gotten spendy though
YEP... In da how!
But then again... everything's spendy these days most everywhere. It is worth living out here though with the simplicity of life and all but it is super BORING. Glad to have my puter's to keep me in touch with the outside world and once in a while I jump over to Seattle to root for my Seahawks. Go baby!
"Think Alike... BE Different!"
Originally posted by hmurchison
Yonah really is going to top out at 2.4Ghz or so and that'll come by next year so the majority of laptops will eventually migrate over to Merom. Eventually you'll see pricing parity between the two and it'll make sense to use Merom for all but the lowest end laptops.
In the meantime Merom will indeed provide that differentiation between consumer and pro for 6-9 months in the Apple arena.
I agree, but I don't agree with those who think the best chips shouldn't be in a MacBook. There are many other differentials beyond chip speed that separates the two lines. The low-end MacBook should have the cheapest, useful cpu, but why not put a Merom in the high end if you can charge more, even as BTO if necessary so that the brain dead don't get confused in the Apple Store.
I have never believed that cpu speed should separate a consumer or a pro laptop. What should be the difference is in connectivity, PCI slots, resolutions, size, durability and bundled software perhaps. I know many people who would get a black MacB with a fast processor and guess what they could make the margin the same as a MBP and so cannabalizing sales would not be an issue. More selection would actually help Apple see what the market REALLY demands and make adjustments more timely and at greater detail.
Originally posted by Homestar06
Helps a ton, thanks a lot. My needs are not very specific except I want the best I can buy now that will last me 4+ years through college (if thats possible). I definitely want the macbook pro, just not sure if waiting for the next chip upgrade will be within the time period where I can get it or will be worth it anyways. Thanks again.
5.5 years ago, I bought the first generation PowerBook G4 400MHz Titanium. I used it my past five years of college daily for all of my websurfing, apple mail, iChat, Golive (which was sluggish), iTunes, Word/Excel/Powerpoint. I also occasionally use the CS2 suite, although batch processing and more intense stuff was done on my Quicksilver 867 G4. With 768MB RAM in the PowerBook, it did the job way better than I expected.
I only carried it with me to class daily during the last year and a half, and I decided then, that my next computer would not be a 15" because something smaller would be so much easier to balance on my lap or those small desks while still using a notebook at the same time.
I urge you to think about these things when deciding on your college laptop purchase (will you bring it to class, or will it primarily sit on your desk back at the dorm/apt?)
I just ordered up a 2.0 White MacBook (adding aftermarket 2GB RAM and 120GB SATA drive) even though I think it is still slightly heavier and larger than I'd like, just because I've been waiting for a good PB 12" upgrade for a year and a half, and it looks like one won't come soon.
I really needed a new laptop, as I now have 4 years of graduate school in front of me. If Apple comes out with a convertible tablet 12-13" sized laptop under $2,000 with the features of the MacBook (and hopefully a dedicated GPU and aluminum casing), the MacBook will be on Ebay faster than you can say "HALLELUJAH!"
i got very excited when the black macbooks came out, and would absolutely love a new macbook pro design as well. isn't it time for a refresh? i originally thought the change to intel would have been the perfect time to changeover the look of the pro laptops as well. not that i mind the current design, but a macbook pro in a new case design would definitely make me more excited about laying down a few grand rather than getting the same old powerbook design.
now a black macbook pro would be something... do you think the macbook pro design will get a refresh soon or not for a long time?
Originally posted by hwaechter
now a black macbook pro would be something... do you think the macbook pro design will get a refresh soon or not for a long time?
I wonder, what would a MBP look like as a black, brushed metal. From what I can see in my head, pretty darn sexy.
Originally posted by websnap
Wonder no more
shame though that the keyboard, ports and drive slot are still silver though...
Originally posted by hwaechter
shame though that the keyboard, ports and drive slot are still silver though...
Funny that lots of people are complaining about the MacBook coming in only white or black without an aluminum option, and it goes the other way with the MBPs only available in aluminum.
Originally posted by OccamsAftershave
IMO a bigger deal than the processor is the second Merom generation SantaRosa chipset's support for 802.11n WiFi. Downloading a 1/2 hr HD video in 45 seconds rather than 10 minutes (802.11g) or 45 minutes (802.11b) going to mean more to many ordinary notebook users than a Photoshop transform dropping from 6 seconds to 4.
That's an understatement and I agree. If Apple would allow the wireless connection to initialize at the login screen when doing a fresh boot. I could permanantly ditch the wires.
Originally posted by 1337_5L4Xx0R
But seeing that virtually noone has that kind of bandwidth to serve you... 802.11n is cool, and I look forward to it, but last I checked, even a T3 is 30Mb/ sec, and 802.11g is 54Mb. Do you have even a T3?
Home networking is what I am referring too.
Originally posted by natec
I just ordered up a 2.0 White MacBook (adding aftermarket 2GB RAM and 120GB SATA drive) even though I think it is still slightly heavier and larger than I'd like, just because I've been waiting for a good PB 12" upgrade for a year and a half, and it looks like one won't come soon.
which aftermarket drive?? and then what did you do with the native hd?? how hard/easy was it.
if easy then you'd suggest buying the smallest drive and adding your own?? how did you transfer from the origianal hd to the new one?? i'd sure like one of those perpendicular drives in my mb or mbp i'll get this winter
Originally posted by NOFEER
which aftermarket drive?? and then what did you do with the native hd?? how hard/easy was it.
if easy then you'd suggest buying the smallest drive and adding your own?? how did you transfer from the origianal hd to the new one?? i'd sure like one of those perpendicular drives in my mb or mbp i'll get this winter
I got the Seagate Momentus 5400.2 series 120GB SATA drive. Model ST9120821AS. I paid $175 shipped i believe, from computergiants.com, but since then they have drastically raised the price, and it took them 4 days to ship my drive, and only then because i called and nagged them about 4 times in one day I think, so I don't recommend them.
A quick search of some shopping sites yielded this list of stores and prices.
http://geek.pricegrabber.com/search_...terid=10598364
The actual install of the drive is the EASIEST of any ever that I've done on Apple's Laptops (and I've done their Pismo G3 PowerBook, Wallstreet G3 PowerBook, Titanium G4 PowerBook, and iBook G4).
It literally takes 5 minutes. You just remove the L-shaped bracket that covers the ram slots in the battery bay (3 screws, they stay in the bracket). Grab the little plastic tab and pull out the hard drive (it's in a little carrier). Remove the 4 torx-8 screws on the carrier to remove the stock drive and screw your new drive in. Slide the whole carrier back into the drive slot and replace the L-Bracket.
So I suggest buying the smallest (60GB) stock drive you can and installing the largest one you can afford afterwards. As for transfering the data, I hadn't really installed anything on my stock macbook drive, so i took the opportunity to do a clean install from Apple's install CDs. That way I was able to customize the installation and not install the iWork trials, office trials, and the 2GB of languages I wouldn't use.
Then I manually copied over my data and some preferences and keychains from a firewire backup of my old laptop (but very few preference files so that I could have the cleanest newest install possible- my old laptop had been through about 4 migrations of old computers and still had hundreds of classic programs that I never used anymore at all and I didn't even want to copy them over).
If you want to keep your stock drive as a backup drive (or keep a fresh clean install on it in case you need to send your computer to apple for repair- that way you can just throw the stock drive back in and not worry about them reformmating or seeing your private data) the cheapest way to plug it in would probably be this: http://www.newertech.com/products/pr...univ_adptr.php
I just received a non-branded version of this exact same cable setup and it worked for my stock 60GB drive perfectly, and it will also let me plug in a bare 5.25" DVD-Burner or 3.5" desktop IDE drive as needed. It's not really portable, since the bare drives aren't protected in a case, but it's good for quick and dirty drive recoveries or backups.
Here's to thinking different!
Originally posted by natec
I got the Seagate Momentus 5400.2 series 120GB SATA drive. Model ST9120821AS. I paid $175 shipped i believe, from computergiants.com, but since then they have drastically raised the price, and it took them 4 days to ship my drive, and only then because i called and nagged them about 4 times in one day I think, so I don't recommend them.
A quick search of some shopping sites yielded this list of stores and prices.
http://geek.pricegrabber.com/search_...terid=10598364
The actual install of the drive is the EASIEST of any ever that I've done on Apple's Laptops (and I've done their Pismo G3 PowerBook, Wallstreet G3 PowerBook, Titanium G4 PowerBook, and iBook G4).
It literally takes 5 minutes. You just remove the L-shaped bracket that covers the ram slots in the battery bay (3 screws, they stay in the bracket). Grab the little plastic tab and pull out the hard drive (it's in a little carrier). Remove the 4 torx-8 screws on the carrier to remove the stock drive and screw your new drive in. Slide the whole carrier back into the drive slot and replace the L-Bracket.
So I suggest buying the smallest (60GB) stock drive you can and installing the largest one you can afford afterwards. As for transfering the data, I hadn't really installed anything on my stock macbook drive, so i took the opportunity to do a clean install from Apple's install CDs. That way I was able to customize the installation and not install the iWork trials, office trials, and the 2GB of languages I wouldn't use.
Then I manually copied over my data and some preferences and keychains from a firewire backup of my old laptop (but very few preference files so that I could have the cleanest newest install possible- my old laptop had been through about 4 migrations of old computers and still had hundreds of classic programs that I never used anymore at all and I didn't even want to copy them over).
If you want to keep your stock drive as a backup drive (or keep a fresh clean install on it in case you need to send your computer to apple for repair- that way you can just throw the stock drive back in and not worry about them reformmating or seeing your private data) the cheapest way to plug it in would probably be this: http://www.newertech.com/products/pr...univ_adptr.php
I just received a non-branded version of this exact same cable setup and it worked for my stock 60GB drive perfectly, and it will also let me plug in a bare 5.25" DVD-Burner or 3.5" desktop IDE drive as needed. It's not really portable, since the bare drives aren't protected in a case, but it's good for quick and dirty drive recoveries or backups.