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Buy MBP 17" TODAY or wait till after WWDC? Please!

true777

true777

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 30, 2000
658
1
California, Austria, Arkansas
I know there have been similar threads, but I need an answer to this ASAP (want to buy today, actually).

I want to upgrade from my PB G4 15" 1.5Ghz to the 17" MacBook Pro.
Speed does matter to me. I am going to Europe for several months on Tuesday, but can only buy the MBP here in the US (where I am right now) due to the academic discount I get here. So I would LOVE to buy the MBP 17" TODAY, but want to make sure it's a good time to buy.

Should I go out and buy a Macbook Pro 17" TODAY?
How likely is it that they will upgrade it to the 2.33Ghz within a few days/weeks? And will the 2.33 just be a built to order option that you'll have to pay for, or will they upgrade the MBP to 2.33 and keep the pricepoint the same? And when would they do that? Any day, or weeks out?

Also, what is a reasonable guess for MBP's to actually be upgraded to Merom, and could someone summarize how large the benefits of Merom will actually be? Like, will I want to shoot myself in the leg if they upgrade to Merom in Sept, or will this just be a slight speed advantage?

Finally, what if I buy today and, say, in 2 weeks they bump to 2.33 Ghz. Can I take the MacBook back and get a 2.33 model for a restock fee if it's been opened, or not? Can I do this in Europe if I purchased the MBP here?

And if I buy now and a Merom one comes out in Sept, would it only cost me a few hundred bucks to sell my current one on Ebay and buy a new one then?

I am basically sick and tired of the PB G4 and dying to get a new one before I leave for Europe -- but I don't want to be mad at myself if 3 days from now they update to 2.33 Ghz. What's your take on this? Please? What should I do?

I am leaning towards buying... but am confused, especially after the 2.33 rumors.
 
true777 said:
I know there have been similar threads, but I need an answer to this ASAP (want to buy today, actually).

I want to upgrade from my PB G4 15" 1.5Ghz to the 17" MacBook Pro.
Speed does matter to me. I am going to Europe for several months on Tuesday, but can only buy the MBP here in the US (where I am right now) due to the academic discount I get here. So I would LOVE to buy the MBP 17" TODAY, but want to make sure it's a good time to buy.

Should I go out and buy a Macbook Pro 17" TODAY?
How likely is it that they will upgrade it to the 2.33Ghz within a few days/weeks? And will the 2.33 just be a built to order option that you'll have to pay for, or will they upgrade the MBP to 2.33 and keep the pricepoint the same? And when would they do that? Any day, or weeks out?

Also, what is a reasonable guess for MBP's to actually be upgraded to Merom, and could someone summarize how large the benefits of Merom will actually be? Like, will I want to shoot myself in the leg if they upgrade to Merom in Sept, or will this just be a slight speed advantage?

Finally, what if I buy today and, say, in 2 weeks they bump to 2.33 Ghz. Can I take the MacBook back and get a 2.33 model for a restock fee if it's been opened, or not? Can I do this in Europe if I purchased the MBP here?

And if I buy now and a Merom one comes out in Sept, would it only cost me a few hundred bucks to sell my current one on Ebay and buy a new one then?

I am basically sick and tired of the PB G4 and dying to get a new one before I leave for Europe -- but I don't want to be mad at myself if 3 days from now they update to 2.33 Ghz. What's your take on this? Please? What should I do?

I am leaning towards buying... but am confused, especially after the 2.33 rumors.
Click to expand...

How about... you buy it in USA where it is cheap first, and then when the Merom version comes out you resell it on eBay for high inflated prices (thanks to the 20% GST you europeans love and enjoy) and buy the new version?

You'd burn up whatever savings you get buying from the US, but generally it is a good option.
 
true777 said:
Please? What should I do?
Click to expand...


Just wait... then you won't have to worry. If you can't wait... then buy and live with your decision.

No one knows for sure what Apple is going to do. The only way to know for sure is to wait. If you can't wait... then your decision has already been made.

One thing I do know for sure, making sudden decisions are usually never a good idea. Same thing with taking advice from strangers. ;)

As for me... I've decided to wait until Merom. A few years ago a bought a brand new blue and white G3 tower a month before Apple announced the G4's. The G4's were waaay faster and a couple hundred bucks cheaper than the G3! I do my best to avoid that happening again by buying with the product cycles. I think the best time to buy is right after revision 2 comes out. For the laptop, that means Merom and September. For the Macpro's, that's probably going to be sometime in 2007.
 
Trouble with the waiting game is you can potentially wait forever.

For instance I don't consider Merom to be Rev 2, since Apple can just plug whatever processor they get from Intel into the new machines without a redesign, meaning whatever issues plaguing Rev 1s now will probably hit that lot as well.

I'd consider the Santa Rosa based MBPs (potentially with Robson caching) as Rev 2s of the Intel MBP line, but in another way those machines will be the first revision of their feature set too!

Ultimately where would you draw the line? :rolleyes:

By the way in response to the OP, the speed advantage of whatever coming out in WWDC is probably not huge compared to the current line, if you want a great bang for your buck it is probably coming only next year when the line has 800Mhz FSB.
 
Well, think of it this way...the 17" is 2.16 and you wont get much of a speed BOOOOOST between that + the 2.33 so....

anyway if u buy it now, u can always sell it on ebay and buy an upgrade ;)

ive have decided to wait also though, because i dont need a new laptop until september, so i am going to see what they bring out...PPPPPLLLLLEEEAAASSEE 13.3 MacPro :D

Its up to u and when u need it...when u leaving?

batman.
 
There is always going to be something better down
the road, so there is no use waiting if you NEED the computer today. You should seperate WANT from NEED. When upgrading, this is my advice:

1) Are the Apps you Need Universal or compatible w/Rosetta?

2) Have you owned your present computer long enough? It's a good habit to get into buying a new computer every 2-3 years, stick to it, and you won't worry yourself over 'should I buy now'.

3) Never buy a machine within the first 2 months of it's release - make sure you read the user forums to make sure there are no problems with the machine you want to buy.

4) Try and buy after known product update cycles - Macworld and WWDC or between 2-6 months after the product was last released. >2mo's to make sure there are no major bugs, <6mo's to avoid buying right before the next upgrade.

5) Only buy if your financial situation allows. Buying on credit is bad news.

That's it. Get into a product cycle, upgrade every 2-3 years, and you won't have to fuss like this ever again.
 
Like some have stated, the First line of Core2Duo's won't realistically gain much as opposed to the current line of Core Duo Chips (incremental Mhz bump). I think the real waiting game is in next year when the FSB gets bumped to 800mhz with the santa rosa chipset along with higher ghz's and most likely greater gpu's.
 
thairs said:
Like some have stated, the First line of Core2Duo's won't realistically gain much as opposed to the current line of Core Duo Chips (incremental Mhz bump). I think the real waiting game is in next year when the FSB gets bumped to 800mhz with the santa rosa chipset along with higher ghz's and most likely greater gpu's.
Click to expand...


perhaps but they are boasting a greater performance at the same clock speed with lower power consumption versus the Yonah Core Duo chips with the merom Core 2.

I say if you can hold out another month and a half or so wait for Merom, the new chips will have somethign of an advantage, may start out at 2.33 for the MBP 17", and support 64-bit.
 
Its a given that intel will announce/ ship merom in august. But...there are no promises that apple will launch an immediate release of the new mbps. I have said in previous posts that intel raodmap=apple roadmap, but with the holiday season around the corner (in september), we might see a release around Halloween. I hope it comes out earlier to leave time for bug fixes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a late august-mid september release.
 
Thanks for all your input.
I actually went out and got it today, and am really happy I did.

Like you said, there's always somethign greater around the corner, and with Intel the update cycles will probably be shorter. The bottom line was that I was tired of my slow 1.5 GHz PB G4, had the money in the bank, and even got a free iPod with the promotion. Plus, I'm not planning on keeping this for mopre than a year, so I will probably catch one of the speedier 2007 models about a year from now.

Thanks again, the comments were really helpful.
 
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