Why get a macbook pro over a macbook?

blackninja

blackninja

blackninja

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I am in the market for a decent portable laptop - I currently have an AMD Turion dual core 1.8GHz 17" acer that I have added to by installing 4GB 667MHz ram and a 200GB 7200 seagate momentus drive (This has 2 drives in it now)

Generally, this is just fine but not always for cpu intensive stuff and I now want more portability and basic oomph :) I have been attracted to the macs as of late and I fail to see why the macbook pro is worth the premium for me ... am I missing something? This is what I need and bear in mind that I am thinking of getting a 2.4 GHZ macbook here:

Screen size and resolution is OK ..
4GB Ram (I have 4GB of 667 RAM already)
Fast HDD (I have the seagate momentus and I will probably get a 64GB SSD drive soon anyway)
External drive - USB 2 is OK but I currently use esata drives (the only downside that I can see)

2.4 GHz C2D with 4GB + SSD ... what bother with the Pro?
 
Main selling points seem to me to be very slightly better battery life, better graphics card and bigger screen options (which also allow you to choose faster processors). You aren't interested in a bigger screen by the sounds of things, the quoted battery life is only about 30 min better on the Pro anyway (5hr vs 4.5hr), and so it's just the graphics card of any interest as far as I can see. If you intend to do any gaming on it, then the Pro will come into its own. Otherwise the Macbook is very good value...
 
Also note that if you do any processing (audio or visual) using apple software it will probably be using the OSX's Core Image. That'll use the GPU if possible so the better GPU the more likely you're to get performance out of it.
On the crappy GPUs CI has to revert to software rendering thus the processing defaults to the CPU..

Not sure if the macbook has a Firewire 800 port either.

I have tested an eSATA ExpressCard/34 that fits into the MBP. FW800 beats it but the MBP does offer that too. Forget USB2.0 it's the slowest of the lot!
 
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Kreeeee said:
As stated already: epeen and overheating issues.
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Wouldn't be the bigger resolution, Express slot, additional USB port, independent graphics card, Firewire 800 port and better build quality, rather than those?

There are plenty of reasons you could justify getting a MacBook Pro over a MacBook, depending on your needs. If you don't need what additionals the MacBook Pro offers, then get a MacBook.
 
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i upgraded from a macbook to a pro when my macbook died due to spill and love it over the macbook back light on the keyboard very nice more ports also fun bigger screen at a better rez works nice to put on the side and watch a film as even the 15.4 screen is good for that

i say go for a pro over a macbook but i think you should always go for the best if your not 100% ether way as that way you carnt regret not having the extra stuff u get with the pro
 
Interesting responses .. my prime use for this is to run virtual machines so I mainly want RAM and good disk speed and processing power in that order and I won't really use it much natively apart from the usual stuff (no video processing - my main rig sort of copes with that!). I think that to me the graphics/display at a premium of £400 is simply not worth it. Having lived with my Acer for 6 months now the only way that it is under spec really is in the processing department (and I want a smaller machine) - the C2D @ 2.4 GHz should sort that out!

Edit: In all honesty I think I would prefer the Pro but the cost is a factor!
 
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NickK said:
Also note that if you do any processing (audio or visual) using apple software it will probably be using the OSX's Core Image. That'll use the GPU if possible so the better GPU the more likely you're to get performance out of it.
On the crappy GPUs CI has to revert to software rendering thus the processing defaults to the CPU..

Not sure if the macbook has a Firewire 800 port either.

I have tested an eSATA ExpressCard/34 that fits into the MBP. FW800 beats it but the MBP does offer that too. Forget USB2.0 it's the slowest of the lot!
Click to expand...

I'd love to use the FW800 port on my MBP, but for the love of god, where are the drives that use it?? I had to buy a USB2.0 backup drive recently as the choice of FW800 in compact portable drives is non-existant and there was barely anything even for normal FW. FW kicks so much ass, why does no one use it?
 
Interested in some comments here as I was looking at the Macbooks for photo editing - raw using Lightroom or Aperture.
Would I be better off with the dedicated graphics of the Pro books in this case?

On a side note, how do Aperture and Lightroom compare?

Anderw
 
I think its only really gaming and video editing that make use of the graphics cards? Thats why I went for the pro at the time as I needed to edit videos and I didn't have another computer for gaming. Now I have a gaming PC I would change to a macbook pro but I love this :D
 
For running VM then just get a Macbook. A 2.4 vs 2.6 isn't going to make a huge difference and the graphics aren't going to make much of a difference if main use is VM.

TBH if main use is VM then I would say that there are better cheaper options out there and stick linux on it to run VMWare. If running VM then not really going to get much benefit of the Fruity Goodness.
 
I use and develop on OSX 10.5, kubuntu 8.04 and work on Windows XP. The last two by using Parallels 3..
They are slowly adding graphics support to Parallels (up to DX 7 or 8 atm) and obviously anything that uses OpenGL going to get accelerated.

Yup - I use a WD MyBook Studio. It's got USB, eSATA and two FW800 for daisy chaining.
 
Slogan said:
Wouldn't be the bigger resolution, Express slot, additional USB port, independent graphics card, Firewire 800 port and better build quality, rather than those?

There are plenty of reasons you could justify getting a MacBook Pro over a MacBook, depending on your needs. If you don't need what additionals the MacBook Pro offers, then get a MacBook.
Click to expand...

What he said.

MBP > MB

Even people with MBs want a MBP...
 
nero120 said:
I'd love to use the FW800 port on my MBP, but for the love of god, where are the drives that use it?? I had to buy a USB2.0 backup drive recently as the choice of FW800 in compact portable drives is non-existant and there was barely anything even for normal FW. FW kicks so much ass, why does no one use it?
Click to expand...
Apple have even removed firewire support from the iPhone now the 3G version is out, so I can't see FW800 being a huge selling point really what with the lack of support for it.
 
Wicksta said:
Apple have even removed firewire support from the iPhone now the 3G version is out, so I can't see FW800 being a huge selling point really what with the lack of support for it.
Click to expand...

I've been in touch with a few 2.5" enclosure makers and a FW800 power + data enclosure is in the works, I for one can't wait :D
 
If your buying a Macbook though, opt for the cheapest model. My 2.1Ghz C2D with a £25 upgrade to 2Gb RAM is no different to the 2.4Ghz versions unless your desperate for the extra HD space which would be probably cheaper to upgrade manually anyway.
 
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