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Laptop advice

iBookG4user

iBookG4user

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jun 27, 2006
6,595
2
Seattle, WA
I want to get a laptop around the late december/early January range. I should have around $2000 by then. I do heavy encoding, heavy photoshop, watch movies, probably some light/medium gaming (but I don't play games like Doom 3.), I also subscribe to a couple vidcasts and podcasts, email, web browsing and IMing. The latest I could wait is until late March/early April. I was wondering what kind of laptop you think would be out by then and fit in my price range.
 
I'd say some of version of the Mac Book Pro would be appropriate. It will probably still have similar specs with a better processor and graphics card, maybe more RAM.
 
xfiftyfour said:
only steve knows that one for sure.
Click to expand...
Is there a Steve on MacRumors? :D.
But I've heard something about the Santa Rosa core for laptops. I'm not reading the latest in processors so what's that? And how does it compare to merom?
 
iBookG4user said:
Is there a Steve on MacRumors? :D.
But I've heard something about the Santa Rosa core for laptops. I'm not reading the latest in processors so what's that? And how does it compare to merom?
Click to expand...
Exactly what is a Santa Rosa? I'm not sure if you are being serious with that claim. Anyway, I say wait until December and do a re-post of this.
 
Honestly, for what you do, the MB can take it almost as well as a MBP. It'll have one of the better Intel Integrated graphics inside, and the only worry is gaming and what type you plan on doing. Anything 3D is a worry right now, but who knows 5 months from now?

Get the fastest MB and upgrade the RAM to as high as possible, and get the 7200 rpm MB. I'd rather have that than a lowly spec'ed MBP with none of those upgrades.

I don't know US pricing though, so maybe you can afford to have a MBP with 2GB of RAM and a 7200 harddrive. I don't know.
 
Well the only issue with getting a MB instead of a MBP is that I want the fastest CPU I can get. Right now I am encoding on a 1.33GHz iBook G4 that is in my sig and it's very painful. I've also done encoding on an intel pentium D 805 overclocked to 3.6GHz and been unimpressed, and the geekbench results are almost identical to a maxed out MB. Also, I've REALLY wanted a MBP (and powerbook before that) for the longest time :D. So how much faster is merom than the core duo? And probably the highest end gaming I'll do is something similar to Star Wars Battlefront 2.
 
iBookG4user said:
Well the only issue with getting a MB instead of a MBP is that I want the fastest CPU I can get. Right now I am encoding on a 1.33GHz iBook G4 that is in my sig and it's very painful. I've also done encoding on an intel pentium D 805 overclocked to 3.6GHz and been unimpressed, and the geekbench results are almost identical to a maxed out MB. Also, I've REALLY wanted a MBP (and powerbook before that) for the longest time :D. So how much faster is merom than the core duo? And probably the highest end gaming I'll do is something similar to Star Wars Battlefront 2.
Click to expand...

http://guides.macrumors.com/Merom

Merom is Core 2 Duo (just like Pentium, Pentium II, etc.)...Intel claims that it will have 20% more performance at the same clock speed.

I´d say buy the high-end MacBook or a MBP after MWSF 2007 in january.
 
iBookG4user said:
Is there a Steve on MacRumors? :D.
But I've heard something about the Santa Rosa core for laptops. I'm not reading the latest in processors so what's that? And how does it compare to merom?
Click to expand...

GimmeSlack12 said:
Exactly what is a Santa Rosa? I'm not sure if you are being serious with that claim. Anyway, I say wait until December and do a re-post of this.
Click to expand...

Santa Rosa is NOT A CORE

It is a platform- essentially a chipset, socket, etc. that will take the updated version of Merom at that point, which will have an 800MT/S FSB (instead of the current 667MT/S) and be designed for the new socket. It is supposed to have 802.11N wireless, but the ratification of 802.11n was put off as far as I can tell until after Santa Rosa's release.
 
Get MBP, it will suite your needs better than MB. It has larger screen, a graphics card (will help games A LOT) and a much better design! :D
 
I agree - get a MBP. If you are concerned about price, and you have 2k to drop on it. Maybe wait until feb/march and get one of the refurbished ones from the Applestore and then upgrade RAM from there.
 
Well, you've got a while to wait...why dont you post in late December/January....I have a feeling theres going to be great changes in the mac product line. It's good to be excited, though.:cool:
 
I wouldn't wait for Santa Rosa if I am you, now it is only July... that chipset is due out in Q2 2007. That's potentially... at least a 9 month wait!
 
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