Looking for a new MBP

bcjames

bcjames

bcjames

Soldato
Joined
7 Jun 2003
Posts
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Location
Leicestershire
Hey,

Im being undecisive, especially as my play in the Apple store didn't exactly feel conclusive.

At the moment I have this:


Macbook Pro and Rotel by bcjamesmini, on Flickr

With this:


Screen shot 2011-04-17 at 18.12.22 by bcjamesmini, on Flickr

But I think it's time to make an upgrade. This laptop has served me amazingly well, but it's perhaps starting to show its age.

I'm looking at either a 13 or a 15 inch macbook pro, both base spec. The former would be run with an additional monitor to get a bit more space, the latter with the hi-res option. With student discount, and less what I can hopefully get for this MBP, the 15" is approx double the price of the 13, hence the 13 allows a decent screen to be purchased as well.

This will be my second Apple purchase, so I can't say as I know much about what is what. I'll use the laptop for research and writing up my own research mainly. I also use Aperture 3, but since I still use a basic compact, it's nothing too in depth, just the odd edit. I use a couple of other stats/science specific programs that run okay, if a little sluggish, on my current laptop, but do get the fans blasting.

My concern with the 13 is the smaller screen size and the lower power. I'm guessing it will still be much faster than my current laptop? Is it likely to be out-dated sooner than the bigger quad core i models? Also, can it's small gfx support a 24" screen for video etc?

Price isn't too much of an issue, especially as the student discount drops it down nicely, so going straight for the 15" isn't an issue. That said, I'd rather not spend extra unnecessarily. I hope for this laptop to last me a few years again, so don't want to buy something that may struggle with Lion etc.

Any input on this would be greatly appreciated! :)
Thanks,

James.
 
I would buy an SSD which will give the MBP a boost and maybe more ram, then just hook it up to a bigger TFT.
I have a C2D 2.66Ghz MBP and was thinking about upgrading before I went for more memory and the SSD and now Im more than happy with the performance boost they gave me.
 
Hey

Yeah my plan was to stick with the default hdd for now, then when SSD prices drop a bit, stick one in then. Do you mean for my current mbp? I've already maxed the ram, not sure it's worth throwing more money at it.

-james.
 
I have the 2010 13" MBP and it can quite easily drive my HD tv @ 1080p playing HD movies.

13 should suit you fine, I thought it might be a bit too small but it's fine really, nice size and very portable.
 
bcjames said:
Hey,

Im being undecisive, especially as my play in the Apple store didn't exactly feel conclusive.

At the moment I have this:


But I think it's time to make an upgrade. This laptop has served me amazingly well, but it's perhaps starting to show its age.

I'm looking at either a 13 or a 15 inch macbook pro, both base spec. The former would be run with an additional monitor to get a bit more space, the latter with the hi-res option. With student discount, and less what I can hopefully get for this MBP, the 15" is approx double the price of the 13, hence the 13 allows a decent screen to be purchased as well.

This will be my second Apple purchase, so I can't say as I know much about what is what. I'll use the laptop for research and writing up my own research mainly. I also use Aperture 3, but since I still use a basic compact, it's nothing too in depth, just the odd edit. I use a couple of other stats/science specific programs that run okay, if a little sluggish, on my current laptop, but do get the fans blasting.

My concern with the 13 is the smaller screen size and the lower power. I'm guessing it will still be much faster than my current laptop? Is it likely to be out-dated sooner than the bigger quad core i models? Also, can it's small gfx support a 24" screen for video etc?

Price isn't too much of an issue, especially as the student discount drops it down nicely, so going straight for the 15" isn't an issue. That said, I'd rather not spend extra unnecessarily. I hope for this laptop to last me a few years again, so don't want to buy something that may struggle with Lion etc.

Any input on this would be greatly appreciated! :)
Thanks,

James.
Click to expand...

Was in a similar position to you recently (I think you have the 3,1 and I have the 4,1).

Had a long play around in the the Apple Store and was not convinced on the MBPs. I think they will get a "major" update in the next year or so, so I just bit the bullet and bought an SSD (Doesn't have to be a superfast one as you are probably on a SATA1 system, like mine).

Not looked back since to be honest. Everything runs much faster now, and I can easily see this machine lasting me another year, minimum.

I calculated I needed about 120GB of space on an SSD so I spent about £170 getting one of those. Apart from a RAM upgrade, this is the only money spent on my 3 year old MBP so I think it is a decent price to pay for an extra year of usage. Prices of the SSDs have dropped a smidgen since I got mine so you could get a 120GB SSD for even less.

The HDD is probably the slowest part of your system so the SSD is a very nice speed boost. A 2.33ghz C2D is still avery fast CPU for a laptop imo (mine is a 2.53ghz one).


rp2000
 
neo2210 said:
I have the 2010 13" MBP and it can quite easily drive my HD tv @ 1080p playing HD movies.

13 should suit you fine, I thought it might be a bit too small but it's fine really, nice size and very portable.
Click to expand...

That's good to hear, thanks :) The smaller size and portability is great so long as it can happily run a big external screen/TV.

rp2000 said:
Was in a similar position to you recently (I think you have the 3,1 and I have the 4,1).

Had a long play around in the the Apple Store and was not convinced on the MBPs. I think they will get a "major" update in the next year or so, so I just bit the bullet and bought an SSD (Doesn't have to be a superfast one as you are probably on a SATA1 system, like mine).

Not looked back since to be honest. Everything runs much faster now, and I can easily see this machine lasting me another year, minimum.

I calculated I needed about 120GB of space on an SSD so I spent about £170 getting one of those. Apart from a RAM upgrade, this is the only money spent on my 3 year old MBP so I think it is a decent price to pay for an extra year of usage. Prices of the SSDs have dropped a smidgen since I got mine so you could get a 120GB SSD for even less.

The HDD is probably the slowest part of your system so the SSD is a very nice speed boost. A 2.33ghz C2D is still avery fast CPU for a laptop imo (mine is a 2.53ghz one).


rp2000
Click to expand...

Much to think about again. I've already filled my 120 drive and had to upgrade as I didn't want to carry an external drive around. I think the prices of a >120 SSD at the moment are pricing me out of the option. It feels a lot to put into my old, even if much loved, laptop, when £850 (in the next couple of months while I'm still a student) gets me a new one which has upgrade capability, where as I've about reached the limit on this current laptop. The 32bit/64bit and 3gb ram limit concerns me for Lion and onward.

Even if I got a new laptop, I'd be sticking with the standard HDD for a while until SSD prices fall. So long as a new laptop is a significant step up in all aspects aside HDD i feel thats a safer route to take. My other concern is that since SL, I feel I'm pushing the laptop at times with some of the packages we use, at least from the feedback I get from fan noise, which wasn't present before. I thought maybe a newer model would alleviate this with the newer process and potential 8gb ram. It's bloody annoying when the fans start blasting in the library!

I thought this would be an easy decision. Own old MBP, want new MBP, get over 2" screen size drop, done. But actually I just get more and more to consider and I'm no closer to buying anything!

I've just read this post back and it maybe looks like I'm set on a new laptop regardless. I'm not, I just don't want to back myself in to a corner where later in the year or next year I'm back in this mindset and still need to upgrade. :)


Edit: I'd not heard of 3,1 and 4,1 before, is that the version of my MBP?
 
I reckon if you buy any of the new MBP's you won't have the upgrade itch for another few years at least.

Just buy on the principle of 'will it do what i need it to for x years?', if the answer is yes then pull the trigger.
Lest you be left on the 'wait for the next refresh' bandwagon forever.

The new MBP's actually outperform the current range of iMac's in the bench's I've seen, the sandybridge CPU's are awesome.

Oh and unless you're doing something really hardcore like video rendering or gaming, they're completely silent as well.
Even when the fan is going at 5000 rpm I can't hear it unless I listen for it, and for normal use it's like there is no fan.

Also bear in mind a SSD won't make anything faster, it'll only make opening programs and booting/shutdown faster.
 
Thanks for your input Neo. Is that all the SSD does? I switch my laptop on in the morning, open stuff, then close and shutdown in the evening. I don't tend to open/close anything through the day, it just all gets left open in spaces.

I'm making sure I dont fall into the refresh waiting cycle. I just want to be sure I'm getting a significant upgrade from my current laptop if I buy a 13". Assuming a current imac is better than my old laptop, a new laptop should be better still, yes?

Thanks,
James
 
neo2210 said:
Also bear in mind a SSD won't make anything faster, it'll only make opening programs and booting/shutdown faster.
Click to expand...

While that's kinda true in processing terms it's not really true in terms of overall performance increase for an SSD equipped machine.

Take the Macbook Air for example - slowish processor, mid-range SSD, and yet the unit feels far more capable than it should do.... all down to the SSD.

Personally I would never go back to a physical drive for OS & Apps. I'd rather buy a cheaper processor and get an SSD.
 
MacRS4 said:
Personally I would never go back to a physical drive for OS & Apps. I'd rather buy a cheaper processor and get an SSD.
Click to expand...

+1 from me.

The difference an SSD makes to the user experience is night and day, processor speed is important when it's important but who only need to keep an eye on activity monitor to get an idea of how often that is for you...
 
That's how the guy in the Apple store explained it to me. Look at the numbers on the MBA and it's not great, play with it and it flies. It just seems a lot for the 13" version, I think I'd rather the 13" MBP and add an SSD to it later on. I'm just hoping that new mbp would give a good base over my current one :)
 
But I can only fit one hdd in the laptop can't I? I need the cd drive, and ideally don't want to use an external drive.
 
Yep, it'd be much simpler if I could lose it, but I use it quite a lot. I'm trying to get something that's all enclosed too, so no external drives or dvd drives, etc.
 
rp2000 said:
Had a long play around in the the Apple Store and was not convinced on the MBPs. I think they will get a "major" update in the next year or so, so I just bit the bullet and bought an SSD (Doesn't have to be a superfast one as you are probably on a SATA1 system, like mine).
Click to expand...

They just have had a major update :p

The Quads in the current machines BEAT the 2009/2010 Mac Pro Quad CPUs.

Bottom end 15" is an utter flyer!

I'd buy that, with an SSD using an optibay: http://www.mcetech.com/optibay/

It's what im going to do with my MacBook Pro once I decide to upgrade the SSD in my Mac Pro, getting frustrated with the sloowwwwwness of my MacBook Pro's HD atm.
 
Concorde Rules said:
They just have had a major update :p
Click to expand...

And they are very nice for it! There just wasn't a model that jumped out at me as the one! I can't use an optibay because i need the dvd drive, so whatever I get or do, I'll be waiting a bit before fitting a larger SSD once prices allow.

If anyone with a 13" can comment if its a good upgrade from what I have now, and if its a good platform for the next few years, then its looking likely I'll go for a 13" base model and an ACD.

-James
 
bcjames said:
And they are very nice for it! There just wasn't a model that jumped out at me as the one! I can't use an optibay because i need the dvd drive, so whatever I get or do, I'll be waiting a bit before fitting a larger SSD once prices allow.

If anyone with a 13" can comment if its a good upgrade from what I have now, and if its a good platform for the next few years, then its looking likely I'll go for a 13" base model and an ACD.

-James
Click to expand...

Optibay comes with a USB2 enclosure for it. Do you really us it that often?

I think my DVD drive usage of both my MBP and MP is about once every three months!
 
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