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Feel guilty about buying 1.83Ghz MBP instead of 2Ghz

corywoolf

corywoolf

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 28, 2004
1,352
4
I was originally thinking of getting the 20" iMac Core Duo, but then somehow got pulled back into wanting a laptop. I really like the idea of having a computer that I can take to school with me. I could get so much more done!!! I spend around 8-10 hours a day on computers a day and am sick of my school's eMacs with 256 MB RAM. I am also thinking about when I move to NYC in 3-4 months and it seems like a laptop would be a nice thing to have in the city. I have a budget of $3100 if I sell everything in my thread (about 4 or 5 items) along with the $2000 I am getting from my grandma in 2 weeks. I had everything set and planned for the iMac and then BAM!!! I just got suddenly attracted to the MBP and really want one. A few key things...

-I use Adobe After Effects a bunch
-Also CS2 suite
-FCP Studio

I know the Apple Pro apps wont even run until the universal versions are released. Is that going to be in March or April (sure hope so)?

And finally, is there much of a difference between the two in terms of speed/ graphics? Is the 128 MB graphic card a piece of junk? I want to play World of War Craft on it and would hope it could handle it. I don't see many people in the forums going for the 1.83 Ghz MBP, is there a reason why? Will I be able to upgrade the graphics card down the road? I wish I could afford the 2 Ghz model, but I would have to sacrifice a lot to get that. After adding accessories and a 20" Dell Monitor I come in around $3150 with the 1.83 Ghz model, but with the 2 Ghz model I can't afford the extra monitor or most of the accessories.

Here is the PDF of my shopping list: (keep in mind I get a student discount and the monitor, extra GB of RAM from OWC, and some other stuff isn't on the list.

Edit: title should be "Would feel guilty.."
 

Attachments

  • The Apple Store (U.S.).pdf
    76.8 KB · Views: 161
wait a minute, you feel guilty about buying a 1.83 MBP and but you havent even bought it yet!?

calm down, my friend.
 
MUCKYFINGERS said:
wait a minute, you feel guilty about buying a 1.83 MBP and but you havent even bought it yet!?

calm down, my friend.
Click to expand...

haha, I just don't see anyone else buying this model and would like to hear from some people that are getting the 1.83 Ghz model and what they plan on using it for.
 
I don't think there will be too much of a noticable difference between the 1.83GHz chip and the 2.0GHz chip.

You won't have any problem playing WoW with the 128MB card. Not one. Hell, some people here are playing WoW on their iBooks which only have 32MB of RAM.

Not sure why people are choosing the 2.0GHz model over the 1.83GHz one. Can be many.... Have the money, want the absolute best, can actually use the extra speed, etc.

I personally think the 1.83GHz model is the better value. Don't think the minor speed difference justifys the price, but that's just my opinion. I'd rather use the $500 (price difference between the 1.83GHz and 2.0Ghz model) on upgrades... faster HDD (7200 rpm), max out the RAM (2GB), etc.
 
sw1tcher said:
I don't think there will be too much of a noticable difference between the 1.83GHz chip and the 2.0GHz chip.

You won't have any problem playing WoW with the 128MB card. Not one. Hell, some people here are playing WoW on their iBooks which only have 32MB of RAM.

Not sure why people are choosing the 2.0GHz model over the 1.83GHz one. Can be many.... Have the money, want the absolute best, can actually use the extra speed, etc.

I personally think the 1.83GHz model is the better value. Don't think the minor speed difference justifys the price, but that's just my opinion. I'd rather use the $500 (price difference between the 1.83GHz and 2.0Ghz model) on upgrades... faster HDD (7200 rpm), max out the RAM (2GB), etc.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I am a little more convinced I am making the right choice. The main reason I feel guilty or confused is because I could get a iMac with a 20" screen and 2 Ghz processor for less, but I guess it all comes down to portability. I can't really picture myself lugging around the 20" iMac everyday, I guess they make cases to do it, but it seems kind of crazy. Do you think people would take me seriously if I busted out my 20" iMac in class? If I hook a car battery up to it I could get a few hours of work done right?

:p ;)
 
Kingsly said:
I bought the 1.83 MBP with the 120 Gbyte HDD for $2,150 (includes tax, $168:eek: )
I plan on using it for Final Cut studio. It will be my only computer for at least three years.
Click to expand...
Sweet, at least someone else got it too. I saw the thread on 120 GB 5400 vs. 100 GB 7200 and see you chose the capacity advantage. Will 5400 speed be fast enough for any realtime FCP/Motion? I would like the extra 20 GB but am worried about video editing on a slow HD.
 
I'm in a similar situation. I bought a Power Mac 2 years ago and while I'm convinced that it was the right choice at the time (a PowerBook wouldn't have been able to do what I still do with my G5 today) I'm starting to think seriously about replacing it, especially in the interest of mobility.

I'm moving across the country to Ottawa and I'd rather not have to ship a computer out there, and it would also be very nice to take stuff to school and such. a similar-specced Power Mac just sold on eBay for $1500 US, and considering a MBP would probably be a speed bump in all regards... I'm having trouble finding reasons not to buy.

any insights, especially on laptop-only life?

(and apologies if this qualifies as thread jacking, I didn't mean to, I swear :) )
 
BlueRevolution said:
I'm in a similar situation. I bought a Power Mac 2 years ago and while I'm convinced that it was the right choice at the time (a PowerBook wouldn't have been able to do what I still do with my G5 today) I'm starting to think seriously about replacing it, especially in the interest of mobility.

I'm moving across the country to Ottawa and I'd rather not have to ship a computer out there, and it would also be very nice to take stuff to school and such. a similar-specced Power Mac just sold on eBay for $1500 US, and considering a MBP would probably be a speed bump in all regards... I'm having trouble finding reasons not to buy.

any insights, especially on laptop-only life?

(and apologies if this qualifies as thread jacking, I didn't mean to, I swear :) )
Click to expand...

Permission granted.:p
 
This is my first Mac and I went for the 1.83 with a 100 gig HD. I do a lot of photo editing on large 8 MP images, and I hope the new PC will be fine, and I am sure it will. I am currently using a Gateway laptop with a Celeron, so I'm sure it will be a huge increase in speed. I think the HD in this thing is even 4200! How slow! I don't think you would notice a huge difference, however by specs along I can see the upgrade being worthwhile. You get a larger HD, twice the RAM and still an open slot and twice the V-RAM. The processor difference is nothing really. Doubt youd notice.
 
Um...

A few tips...

First of all, if you are going to be doing more than casual video editing, you should be using an external drive as a scratch disk, so I would opt for the extra capacity rather than the speed on the internal drive.

Second...is it REALLY necessary to buy an external monitor right away? I would rather have a better speced laptop than a bigger screen, but....I guess that's up to you.
 
appleretailguy said:
A few tips...

First of all, if you are going to be doing more than casual video editing, you should be using an external drive as a scratch disk, so I would opt for the extra capacity rather than the speed on the internal drive.

Second...is it REALLY necessary to buy an external monitor right away? I would rather have a better speced laptop than a bigger screen, but....I guess that's up to you.
Click to expand...
Thats exactly where I am coming from, I opted for only the 80 gig so I can just keep all my music on an external in my apartment, I mean if I am at college, I will most likely have my iPod with me anyways, so why crowd my MBP HD with 10 gigs of music if I dont have to.
 
Did you consider joining the Student ADC, for $100? Then you could get the 2.0GHZ MacBook for $2000 even, before tax.
 
corywoolf said:
Sweet, at least someone else got it too. I saw the thread on 120 GB 5400 vs. 100 GB 7200 and see you chose the capacity advantage. Will 5400 speed be fast enough for any realtime FCP/Motion? I would like the extra 20 GB but am worried about video editing on a slow HD.
Click to expand...

Well... yes and no. I would suggest editing off external HDD's (7200 RPM) unless its a dire emergency. I have been editing off my 4200 RPM drive lately, because my eMac seems to be boycotting firewire. FCE works fine off the slower drive. Good luck, sounds like you are getting a cool setup.
 
Go for the 120Gb 5400.

Final Cut works better when you filter out the system drive for editing, so I guess you'd be using an external drive at 7200rpm anyways.

Remember also that Final Cut Studio is a BIG BIG BIG install. Including the templates etc, it get's close to 30GB.... That's a massive alotment of space on a laptop drive, so the extra 20gb would be handy, more so than the 5400-7200 speed difference.

I think more people went for the faster processor in the macbookpro simply because they pre-ordered the 1.83 rather than the 1.67

1.83 seems so much nicer than 1.67, but seeing as though Apple has bumped those up, I'd be very happy with the 1.83 and the 500 price differential...
 
With all the Adobe stuff you're going to be running under rosetta for AT LEAST 6 months, and you've got to play the waiting game with Final Cut as well.

You might want to consider a refurb Powerbook G4.
 
powerbook911 said:
Did you consider joining the Student ADC, for $100? Then you could get the 2.0GHZ MacBook for $2000 even, before tax.
Click to expand...

Is it possible to see the Student ADC prices on all products from Apple's website BEFORE subscribing for 100$? I didn't know about that and it is very interesting for me right now. ;)

Thank you for the info!

Bruno
 
To look at student prices, go to the education section on the Apple website, and click through to the student section (it's a t shirt), then click Student Discounts, and then click the Apple store for education, and select an arbitrary school (prices are the same across the board for schools). Then you'll be in the student version of the Apple store. Drool over the prices! :p
 
soybean said:
To look at student prices, go to the education section on the Apple website, and click through to the student section (it's a t shirt), then click Student Discounts, and then click the Apple store for education, and select an arbitrary school (prices are the same across the board for schools). Then you'll be in the student version of the Apple store. Drool over the prices! :p
Click to expand...
The apple developer discounts are much different than student discounts, please read before you answer the question incorrectly
 
Hey corywoolf,

I've sold my 1.33GHz 12" pBook to buy a new MBP. I went for the 1.83 GHz stock setup, no upgrade at all (at least not from Apple). I'll sell the included 512MB RAM DIMM and get 2x1024MB Kingston RAM at a local Apple reseller. I'll also get an external 7,200 RPM HDD for multimedia/editing.

I'll use the MBP primarly as a software development machine, using occasionaly Adobe CS2 and Aperture (have yet to try it). I hope of being able to use it as a gaming laptop too, WoW will be the first game I'll want to play on it.

In the end, I think that the stock 1.83 GHz setup w/ 2Gb of RAM is excellent, as long as you have a big external HDD for video/editing stuff. 2GHz vs 1.83GHz won't make much of a difference, and the price difference between 80-100-120Gb internal HDDs is huge imo and alone is about the same price as buying a brand-new external HDD.

Also, for gaming that's the video chipset that matters most, in this case the ATI X1600, and 128MB of VRAM is enough for WoW or UT2004. The only thing I would have liked is being able to put a 2.0 GHz CPU as a BTO option in the stock setup, keeping everything else intact. Oh well! ;)
 
Yes buryyourbrideau is right, I already ordered a MBP using the "normal" student discount. That's why I'm interested in the ADC one-time discount, I've never used it and didn't remember about it.. ;)

Thanks!
 
macit said:
I add only the suggestion that you upgrade your ram once it arrives :)
... Crucial ...
Click to expand...

Is Crucial memory better than Kingston's? I bought a Kingston DIMM for my pBook 2 years ago and it worked flawlessly so I wonder if there's any difference between the two? Thanks.
 
Kingston has just as good memory as Crucial, cept crucial is tremendously over priced.

try here for a lot better pricing on just as good memory for your MBP.
 
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