ANy Regrets Going for Low-End MB?

[DTphonehome]

I thought for sure I was going to get the 2.0 Ghz White MB with SuperDrive, but thought about it a little more this weekend, and thought maybe I should get the 1.83 instead. Even though I'll only get $50 off with the edu discount, as opposed to $100 off for the 2.0 model, I'm not sure the extra money is worth it. I don't burn DVDs all that often (pretty much never), and I have an iMac with a DL DVD burner anyway in case I must. So the speed is the only significant difference for me. Benchmarks show the two systems nearly identical, with the 2.0 having a less than 1% gain in most tests. Has anyone got the 1.83 and not been happy with the speed? I'm still chugging along with a 667Mhz TiBook as my portable. When I got that, the 800 Mhz was available, but I never regretted getting the lesser model.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

--DT

EDIT: Also, do you think the optical drive on the MB will be upgradeable, like the PB's drive was (with a third-party upgrade)? In case I ever decide that I want to be burning DVDs on the go.

EDIT 2: Corrected edu discount amounts

 

[count chocula]

sorry, this isnt really answering your question, but it is related. i have no regret going for the upper model. black with 1 gb ram and 120 gb hdd here. in your shoes, i would go with the 1.83, because you've already got a way better burner, and the speed difference probably wont be noticable in day to day tasks.

 

[kinesin]

Well seen as my MacBook runs at between 1.5 and 1.67GHz most of the time and has only been pushed higher during my Handbrake test I don't think in real world normal use you're going to see a difference.

As for is it worth the superdrive? - not in my opinion. It's only a single layer burner, RAM is more useful and a decent dual layer external if really required. I'm sure someone will make a 3party replacement at some point in the future.

Of course in 2 years time they might be fitted with HD-DVD/Blu-ray drives and burners - Your other burner will keep you sorted till then.

 

[BackInTheSaddle]

I don't think you're going to notice the difference between the 1.83 and 2.0 models. I think you'll be VERY pleased with the performance gain over the TiBook!

Save your bucks for RAM and/or a larger hard drive.

 

[X5-452]

You already have an iMac with DL DVD burner, so I'd say just go for the base model and upgrade the RAM with the money you'll save.

 

[chris y.]

Yep I love my base model MB. And this is coming from a Powerbook G4 1.25ghz aluminum model. The display was a really huge step up in brightness and clarity and the speed is really amazing even for a lowend1.83.

 

[DTphonehome]

Thanks for the great advice, everyone! You've helped me to make my final decision to go with the 1.83, and bump up the RAM to 2 GB, and maybe put in a bigger/faster HD when I need it. Now, I'll just have to wait a couple weeks for an updated nano to make the most out of the promotion!

 

[T-Stex]

I've been thinking that the low end MacBook is the way to go, as long as you upgrade the HD and RAM. Unless money isn't an issue, I don't see the extra features making much of a difference. I think the only place that there might be a large downside is resale value, but I'm second guessing myself on that one too. Assuming that the MacBook will get used for about two years, at that time, I think that HD-DVD or BluRay will be used instead of DVD, and the speed difference will be negligable. So by the time the MacBook gets sold, I doubt it'll make that much difference whether it was the base model or not. With that being said, I think unless money's not an issue or you need to be burning DVD's a lot, the base model's the way to go.