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More Macbook Pro questions

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dhorn

Senior member
I am in the market for a laptop, and I have been weighing between a macbook and a macbook pro. Recently, it was discovered that Nvidia dropped the ball on the 8600's, and that some, or possibly all of them are faulty and can fail due to heat issues. So, here's my questions...

Is it worth it to buy a Macbook Pro based on the following?
  • Performance vs. Macbook
    Will the 8600 overheat and fail?
    Possibly being redesigned in a few months
    Free Ipod touch promotion ends on September 15th
    Will the MBP offer enough performance to satisfy a moderate gamer, with say...Call of Duty 4, or Age of Conan?

I would prefer to have a laptop by the beginning of August, as I will be going to school soon after, and didn't want to take my desktop unless I have to. I am a computer science major, and the college I'm attending has quite a few Mac Labs, so I'm thinking Macbook, or Macbook Pro. There is a 400 dollar difference between the notebooks (Blackbook - 1400, MBP - 1800). Is it justified?

Any insight on any of the above would be appreciated. The MBP does have some nice extra features (multi touch, backlit keyboard, bigger screen...) but what are your experiences?
 
I'd say yes. Based upon the following:

- Backlit Keyboard is wonderful
- LED backlit LCD is beautiful to work on
- 8600GTm if you decide you want to game at all

Those are the main things which make the price hike easier to swallow. If you can go down to an Apple Store and check out the two side by side.

Just based on the screen alone, I would have a hard time working on a regular MacBook now that I've been using my MacBook Pro for over a year.
 
I was thinking the added screen real estate would be helpful. I do a little bit of photo and video editing, so it definitely can't hurt. I used to have a 17" acer laptop, same resolution as MBP, but it just weighed too much and was a little too big for me.

I was pretty set on the MBP, but now this whole 8600 fiasco with faulty Nvidia chips kind of set me back. So, do you think if the gpu fails, Apple will replace it no problem? I was going to purchase apple care just to be sure.

My two options are

Base MBP w/ Applecare w/ Ipod Touch - 2500 (before 300 rebate)

or

Black Book w/ Applecare w/ Ipod Touch - 2100 (before 300 rebate), then maybe a PS3 with the price difference.

Those are just pretty close estimates.
 
Originally posted by: dhorn
I was thinking the added screen real estate would be helpful. I do a little bit of photo and video editing, so it definitely can't hurt. I used to have a 17" acer laptop, same resolution as MBP, but it just weighed too much and was a little too big for me.

I was pretty set on the MBP, but now this whole 8600 fiasco with faulty Nvidia chips kind of set me back. So, do you think if the gpu fails, Apple will replace it no problem? I was going to purchase apple care just to be sure.

My two options are

Base MBP w/ Applecare w/ Ipod Touch - 2500 (before 300 rebate)

or

Black Book w/ Applecare w/ Ipod Touch - 2100 (before 300 rebate), then maybe a PS3 with the price difference.

Those are just pretty close estimates.
Click to expand...

Don't get a Black Book unless you absolutely want to have a black one. You're basically paying $200+ for the color.

If the GPU fails, and your laptop is under warranty Apple will replace it no questions asked.
 
Originally posted by: dhorn
I was thinking the added screen real estate would be helpful. I do a little bit of photo and video editing, so it definitely can't hurt. I used to have a 17" acer laptop, same resolution as MBP, but it just weighed too much and was a little too big for me.

I was pretty set on the MBP, but now this whole 8600 fiasco with faulty Nvidia chips kind of set me back. So, do you think if the gpu fails, Apple will replace it no problem? I was going to purchase apple care just to be sure.

My two options are

Base MBP w/ Applecare w/ Ipod Touch - 2500 (before 300 rebate)

or

Black Book w/ Applecare w/ Ipod Touch - 2100 (before 300 rebate), then maybe a PS3 with the price difference.

Those are just pretty close estimates.
Click to expand...

Yea.. I would go with the first option.

Apple will cover any hardware failure that you have with the computer for 3 years with that Applecare option.
 
Hmmm, a black one would be nice, but I guess the only real benefit of the black one is the larger hard drive. So there would be that much more of a price difference, So were looking at

2500 for MBP - 1800 for MB

Benefits of Macbook Pro over Macbook
40gb hard drive space
8600gt vs. Inegrated
15" high resolution screen
Backlit Keyboard
Multi-touch pad
LED Backlit Screen

Based on this agenda, what should I do? I hate making decisions.

I'm going to be going off to college, small dorm. I have a nice desktop (quad-core, 8800gts) that I "could" take. I was going to leave it behind, and get a laptop. Here is what I do..

Adobe Photoshop (fair amount)
Video Editing (a little, not much)
Music/Movies/Web (all the time, plan on hooking to HDTV for some move action)
Programming/Coding (fair amount)
Gaming (Moderate - plan on games like Call of Duty 4, Age of Conan, etc...don't have to be maxed)
Need to BootCamp XP and possibly Vista

Now, will the 700 make that much of a difference, and justify leaving my desktop at home? Or should I spend the extra 700 on a PS3 or XBOX360?

 
Ok.. well for gaming a 360 or PS3 will be fine...

But for Photoshop, and Video Editing... you are, more than likely, going to want the bigger screen, dedicated GPU.. but the HDD space would be nice to have as well.

I can't honestly tell you what would be the best for you... but for me, the Macbook Pro was the better choice.
 
See, I've been thinking the Macbook Pro for a while now. It just has all the bells and whistles, and it offers the promise of being able to play some games, where as with integrated graphics, you really get the shaft. I am still thinking the Macbook Pro, but I would still like feedback. If you can give me a good reason, I might change my mind.
 
You can always get a external monitor. A 22 inch is cheap. I use it with my Macbook and OS X handles external monitors much better then Windows ever will.
 
That's true, but I've heard the regular macbook has trouble pushing a 30" display, which I might do eventually. And the other thing nice about the macbook pro is that you don't need an adapter for an external monitor.
 
Originally posted by: dhorn
That's true, but I've heard the regular macbook has trouble pushing a 30" display, which I might do eventually. And the other thing nice about the macbook pro is that you don't need an adapter for an external monitor.
Click to expand...

The regular macbook will not push 2560*1600. The macbook pro will. I've used my macbook pro with my 30" and I haven't had any performance issues, however, I never tried to game with it. But Photoshop, Dreamweaver, all those apps seem to work fine.
 
I will say this.. gaming via BootCamp works great. I could play Call of Duty 4 (native res, medium/high settings), and it was a great experience. I also have HL2, Portal, and those were good as well.. but those games scale really well.

 
I think I just need to take a leap of faith. I know they are going to update them in a few months, but then I won't get my free ipod, so I should just do it and get it over with.

If I'm not happy with it, I should be able to resell it, and get most of it back, as long as I keep it in good condition.

Are you guys familiar with either techshell or speck products? Are they worth the investment? And they are porting CoD4 to the Mac around October I think, so it should run pretty smooth natively.
 
Did they change the date on CoD4 again? I thought it was coming out next week?

I'm not familiar with Techshell, but I do like the Speck products. I would get it on Amazon, or eBay, though, because all those type accessories are WAY overpriced at the Apple Stores.
 
Maybe it is earlier than october...don't know why I think that actually. Do you know how much weight or thickness the speck products add...and do they cause any heat problems or connection problems?
 
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