Macbook Pro - buy now, or wait?

novajoe · 16 May 2010 at 11:04

NicktheNorse said:
For those of you with 15"ers (MBPs, that is) can you pop over to this macrumors thread and post with your panel details? As you may or may not know Apple uses various panel manufacturers in their products at any one time - the one you end up with in your computer depends on stock levels and availability.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=914054

I've got the 15" High res anti glare and I'm not too impressed by the screen if I have to be honest, seems to have quite uneven backlighting and the bottom of the screen is rather warm colour wise (which means the bottom of the screen appears yellowey on a white background and makes black text look ever so slightly brown).

Been following that thread a little, turns out I have the 9CB7 Samsung Anti-Glare, no dead/stuck pixels or yellowing, loving the screen it's great, on the brightness side I've only ever really used it at half full as at anywhere near max it's far too bright.

SS-89 · 16 May 2010 at 11:21

I have the 9CBB LG panel, and for the most part it's pretty good, no yellow tint, even backlighting, no dead pixels. I will say that anything less than full brightness it becomes far too dim (at full it's perfectly fine and makes my sammy desktop monitor look really dim in comparison).

This is getting replaced though due to the dent so will let you know what my new ag panel is when it arrives.

J1nxy · 16 May 2010 at 23:05

For those having heat issues I've bought an Akasa Libra cooler over the weekend which has a USB powered fan on it. Seems to make quite a difference to the overall heat of the unit and you don't lose the usb port as it has a pass through for it. It also means that it remains usable on your lap even when it is getting a little toasty.

NicktheNorse · 17 May 2010 at 19:03

SS-89 said:
I have the 9CBB LG panel, and for the most part it's pretty good, no yellow tint, even backlighting, no dead pixels. I will say that anything less than full brightness it becomes far too dim (at full it's perfectly fine and makes my sammy desktop monitor look really dim in comparison).

This is getting replaced though due to the dent so will let you know what my new ag panel is when it arrives.

I've now also got a replacement on the way.

I've found the most obvious way to highlight the yellow tint issue I'm seeing is get a high resolution black and white photograph, open and zoom into it in preview and them move the image around. Any part of the image that gets pulled down in to the bottom 1/3 of my screen becomes very obviously sepia!

J1nxy · 17 May 2010 at 20:06

I've got a replacement coming Thursday as Apple have decided that its getting far too hot.

SS-89 · 17 May 2010 at 20:44

NicktheNorse said:
I've now also got a replacement on the way.

I've found the most obvious way to highlight the yellow tint issue I'm seeing is get a high resolution black and white photograph, open and zoom into it in preview and them move the image around. Any part of the image that gets pulled down in to the bottom 1/3 of my screen becomes very obviously sepia!

Fair enough, I've heard the Samsung AG panels are pretty good on average, but then some have reported back having very good LG panels. I'd say mine is good but not amazing. It does seem that the Samsung panels tend to be better though, hopefully our replacements will be those.

J1nxy said:
I've got a replacement coming Thursday as Apple have decided that its getting far too hot.

Yep mine is idling at 33 degrees atm and the highest temp i've seen thus far is around 66 degrees which is when I had multiple firefox tabs, 3 1080p trailers running and a couple instances of Pages.

J1nxy · 17 May 2010 at 22:07

SS-89 said:
Yep mine is idling at 33 degrees atm and the highest temp i've seen thus far is around 66 degrees which is when I had multiple firefox tabs, 3 1080p trailers running and a couple instances of Pages.

Mine would idle doing nothing at 32 but as soon as any load went onto it the temp would rocket.

sharingan_sasuk · 18 May 2010 at 00:49

J1nxy, how hot exactly when you are running it at full? And any idea anyone how hot it has to be before Apple might consider replacing it? I would have thought they stress tested this, considered it fine in their eyes, and thus it would be considered normal to get this hot.

Reason I ask is because I'm curious about mine, and whether it's worth checking out with Apple also, especially as summer is around the corner.

If the worst comes, I'm sure AppleCare would sort it out right?

I'm running WoW atm, and according to my Temperature Monitor widget, I'm getting 76C for 'CPU A Temperature Diode' and 72C for 'Graphics Processor Temperature Diode'. It's warmest at the back left, especially near the 'Esc' and F1-F4 keys.

hyper_piper45 · 18 May 2010 at 05:19

sharingan_sasuk said:
?I'm running WoW atm, and according to my Temperature Monitor widget, I'm getting 76C for 'CPU A Temperature Diode' and 72C for 'Graphics Processor Temperature Diode'. It's warmest at the back left, especially near the 'Esc' and F1-F4 keys.

That seems fine to me. I'm have the previous years 13" MacBook Pro and if I am doing video encoding the processor will get to 95.C easily. I think if your temperatures start going over 100.C then you might have a problem.

J1nxy · 18 May 2010 at 07:23

I've seen on my CPU clear 100c at one stage it hit 105c and the gpu go into the mid > high 90s. That was running age of empire 3 (mac) or CnC 3 Mac. In windows I could get it over 100c without trying to hard, but it was hitting 80-90s just running office 2010

bigredshark · 18 May 2010 at 12:15

I see the white macbook has got the same upgrade now give or take, £150 less than the base macbook pro and the only major difference is 2GB RAM instead of 4GB and no SD card...

Andr3w · 18 May 2010 at 13:35

2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 065-9635
4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB 065-9637
250GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm 065-9638
Keyboard (British) & User’s Guide (English) B065-9671
SuperDrive 8x DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW 065-9641
Accessory kit B065-9673

Thats around 930 quid...so for an extra 69quid you can get the MBP.

I would have thought the MB would be cheaper!

sharingan_sasuk · 18 May 2010 at 13:43

I had the dilemma of waiting for a new MB or get the latest MBP too, but decided to spend the bit extra and go for the latter because I know that 2-3 years down the line, I might regret getting the MB instead of the MBP! And it looks way better too...

AbsenceJam · 18 May 2010 at 14:49

Andr3w said:
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 065-9635
4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB 065-9637
250GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm 065-9638
Keyboard (British) & User’s Guide (English) B065-9671
SuperDrive 8x DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW 065-9641
Accessory kit B065-9673

Thats around 930 quid...so for an extra 69quid you can get the MBP.

I would have thought the MB would be cheaper!

If you buy your own RAM you can maybe make it a £90 difference and more if you still the 2x1GB it comes with. But yeah, smaller difference than I'd expect.

Anyone know which is sturdier?

Tummy · 19 May 2010 at 14:06

My lovely MacBook Pro will be here by the 28th of this month according to Apple

Can't ****ing wait.

a0004uk · 19 May 2010 at 14:29

Tummy said:
My lovely MacBook Pro will be here by the 28th of this month according to Apple

Can't ****ing wait.

My core-i7 finally arrived the other day ! i couldnt wait either, its much faster than i thought it would be.

I havnt got any problems with Hi-Res screen, unlike other people, its crystal clear!

ps3ud0 · 19 May 2010 at 14:31

Still waiting to order - worked out that Ill be spending over £2k with Apple over the next 2 months - ouch...

Went into the MK Apple store last Wednesday and had a good chat with the manager and had a play of OS 4 on his iPhone - very nice and quick multitasking. Think Ive upsold myself to picking up a Mac mini now as a general device, not sure when they are due to refresh but will get one then...

ps3ud0 :cool:

sharingan_sasuk · 19 May 2010 at 15:23

ps3ud0 said:
Still waiting to order - worked out that Ill be spending over £2k with Apple over the next 2 months - ouch...

Went into the MK Apple store last Wednesday and had a good chat with the manager and had a play of OS 4 on his iPhone - very nice and quick multitasking. Think Ive upsold myself to picking up a Mac mini now as a general device, not sure when they are due to refresh but will get one then...

ps3ud0

According to MacRumors here: http://guides.macrumors.com/Mac_mini_Buyer's_Guide buy it if you need, otherwise as it's approaching the end of its cycle.

l3g3nd · 19 May 2010 at 15:25

AbsenceJam said:
If you buy your own RAM you can maybe make it a £90 difference and more if you still the 2x1GB it comes with. But yeah, smaller difference than I'd expect.

Anyone know which is sturdier?

The alu is much sturdier and more resistant to marks. I also love the fact it doesn't flex at all when I pick it up by the corner, not that the macbook does but most laptops do.

Westyfield2 · 19 May 2010 at 15:42

sharingan_sasuk said:
According to MacRumors here: http://guides.macrumors.com/Mac_mini_Buyer's_Guide buy it if you need, otherwise as it's approaching the end of its cycle.

I'll be buying the next Mac Mini

.

I'll even be willing to overlook the fact that I'll have to do Mini DP -> HDMI and that I'd have to open it up myself to add in a Blu-Ray drive!