I know I'm not supposed to bump post, but which should I go with? Couldn't i just do this when it becomes outdated in a few years?
http://www.dttservice.com/macbookpro.html
http://www.dttservice.com/macbookpro.html
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MBP and Future Upgrades
- Thread starter aaron.lee2006
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apunkrockmonk said:
I used a laptop as a desktop replacement, the portability was a bonus. I didn't have the space in my room for a desktop (this was before my Mac days). Laptop's about 9 pounds so it rarely goes outside my room though. It's a few years old so I'm looking to get a MBP this fall.
Go for a Macbook Pro if it's the one you really want!
Thanks I probably will seeing as i need a new computer. It will be my sole computer no more desktops for me. Are you a highschool student? What age and what grade?
aaron.lee2006 said:
Actually IMO a MBP is overkill for a high school student. We are talking about kids who are barely out of childhood who can't even wear spectacles with glass lenses and expect them to survive them a sem!
Here's what I foresee. You bring MBP to class. All your friends are like "woah" and everyone tried to have first dibs on it. $2500 machine got pushed to the floor in the scruffle and smashes into pieces OR tons of fingerprint poke marks on the screen OR hell, some other jealous boy who's favourite chick seems to like your MBP decides to level the playing feel a bit and dices your machine when you are in gym.
Hell, you never know.
Consider yourself lucky cos if I were one of your folks I'd never agree to it
aaron.lee2006 said:
The bottom MBP is always a good bet, paying ~ $400 extra for a 0.16Ghz faster processor and 129MB of VRAM doesn't sound especially like good value to me.
PS: I hope you are not thinking about "what do I do when it is outdated?" at this stage, because the only legitimate response really is to just sell it off on eBay and get a new one. Also take not that DTT is not selling you a complete logic board and a CPU stuck on to it for a mere $600 bucks. No way. Not a chance in hell.
If it matters to you that much to keep on the cutting edge, I find the Macbook a better buy since $2 grand can virtually buy that thing 2 times over, not neglecting the fact that you can also put it on eBay when you upgrade and recoup some of its costs.
Also remember i am getting rid of my desktop and I also want portability. I also just found out canadain GST went down so I can keep it below 2000 on a refurb. I am not worried about a broken laptop or it being stolen, my teachers makes us keep all of our stuff with us during gym class and in our eye sight for that specific reason. Oh and I found out you can upgrade the logic board and stuff later which I like so when it goes outdated I can upgrade it without having to buy a new computer!
aaron.lee2006 said:
A laptop is always way harder to upgrade than a PC.. the MBP especially notorious for this. Some here even ruined their machines completely when trying to replace their hard drives or DVD writers.. YMMV.
Bear in mind again that DTT does not sell you a replacement logic board and CPU for the listed prices. You send your busted laptop to them and they fix it up using parts from their cache. So even if you spilt coke all over your machine for instance and shorted out your whole board, odds are they can still salvage your CPU (which they will obviously keep) for resale. Even more likely is they will just send your board off to China or Taiwan and get some $0.10 per hour engineer to repair it.
Besides it is absolutely not worth it and definitely not assured. Logic board layouts may change from revision to revision, and the lastest and greatest Macbook can always be had for a little more than a grand, why would anyone spend so much trying to keep a dinged/scratched machine up to speed... is really a good question to answer economically.
Never rely on the idea of "upgrades" when planning your purchase now. Especially with Santa Rosa chipset coming in next year (together with a new socket), even if you can somehow manage to desolder almost 500 pins and resolder them on again (these are usually done by machine), your options are very limited.
I am pretty sure by next year at the latest there will be a MBP redesign, so again your options are limited if you are willing to buy whole logic board/cpu combos just to upgrade a single cpu.
And that said, I stress again, Apple would most likely change the internals from time to time, so it will probably not be a trivial task for you to try and fit a later board into an earlier casing.
You may not admit it overtly but the real reason you are getting the MBP is the case isn't it? I see little reason to go to such lengths to keep up with tech instead of just shelling out the coin and getting a new one.
Don't worry about not having money in college, you are living hundred of miles from your folks, and heck, even if they cut you off a couple part times here and there and you can get your blazing new machines in no time
I agree with you on the upgrade thing. eBay would be a better idea to jus tsell it off and buy a new one. And I am not gonna buy an MBP for it's case I know hardware and that is what I want. Graphics and processor power in a laptop. I would also like to get into video editing (Motion 2 mainly) so I need the power.
aaron.lee2006 said:
eBay is always good. Not too sure if the good resale value of Macs are going to carry through into the future though, with release cycles happening so rapidly nowadays. Just hold on a bit until the next refresh to see if you can get it within your budget, and then go for it. The general consensus is that the current MBPs are really interrim models and a case redesign would probably happen soon after, either on the next refresh or (god forbid!) the one after.
aaron.lee2006 said:
My laptop (HP Pavilion) is still functioning fine, even though it's 512MB (384 since it's a 128MB graphics card) and 40GB HD. It's probably 3 years old, I got it when I was in the 10th grade, I believe. And I have an iBook which I use for school (actually taking it to school). I think a MBP will last you a few years, after that you'll be in college and can get a new one. I agree with generik, the bottom level one is probably a better deal, .16Ghz isn't going to be a huge difference, I'm not sure how badly you need the 256MB graphics card.
Me and my roommate (we share this username for some unknown reason, really) are sophomores in college.
generik said:
Hey hey, in high school I was able to keep the glass in my glasses for a year! The only problem is my vision deteriorates each year so I have to get new lenses every 10-14 months.
Where are you living?!
A kid in my class always used to bring some billion-dollar laptop to school and no one really paid attention, but it's different in different places. Everyone in California is too concerned with themselves to bother with anyone else. 
How do you guys afford this stuff?!
I'm 17, and have had a job at Burger King (lol) since I turned 15. I work about 25-30hrs/week during school, and about 35hrs/week during the summer, and I'm having a real tough time saving for a Mac. I currently can afford a MB or 17" iMac, but am waiting until school starts, hoping I have enough for a 15" MBP.
I've always been under the impression I've worked more than most of my peers, but it seems like everyone else can afford a lot more than me. It just seems after insurance, and gas, and bills, my paycheck is all but gone.
/end rant
I'm 17, and have had a job at Burger King (lol) since I turned 15. I work about 25-30hrs/week during school, and about 35hrs/week during the summer, and I'm having a real tough time saving for a Mac. I currently can afford a MB or 17" iMac, but am waiting until school starts, hoping I have enough for a 15" MBP.
I've always been under the impression I've worked more than most of my peers, but it seems like everyone else can afford a lot more than me. It just seems after insurance, and gas, and bills, my paycheck is all but gone.
/end rant
mattcube64 said:
Oh wow, I really admire you for working that much during school. I think that's a considerable amount of time.
Unfortunately (I say unfortunately because everyone seems to look down on us), I'm one of those kids whose parents pay for everything. Most people have jobs and I'd love to have one.. (having never worked a day in my life, I'm under the impression that it just might be "fun") but my parents say, "education comes first, just do well in school and we'll give you whatever you need!" Considering that, I plan to stay in school for a looong time, haha.
Good luck with getting a MBP! (btw, are you a Nintendo fan by any chance?)
I work 24-40 hours a week depending on the work week. I could get a Mac mini safely or maybe a MacBook. I bought an iMac G5 last year and sold it for $950 this year. So I have some money to work with. So say $950 + a paycheck = refurb MacBook Pro.
generik said:Actually IMO a MBP is overkill for a high school student. We are talking about kids who are barely out of childhood who can't even wear spectacles with glass lenses and expect them to survive them a sem!
Here's what I foresee. You bring MBP to class. All your friends are like "woah" and everyone tried to have first dibs on it. $2500 machine got pushed to the floor in the scruffle and smashes into pieces OR tons of fingerprint poke marks on the screen OR hell, some other jealous boy who's favourite chick seems to like your MBP decides to level the playing feel a bit and dices your machine when you are in gym.
Hell, you never know.
Consider yourself lucky cos if I were one of your folks I'd never agree to it
I've owned laptops (all high end) since age 10.5 (no, not Leopard
). The past 2 years i've brought my laptops to school almost every other day. Of course I am a photographer and often need my laptop for school photography related things, but I often do homework on them and print stuff out before class. Not once have I had any fear of damage or theft... of course my 6'3" 240lb. photo/video teacher guards it for me when I don't want to lug it around, but still.And my glasses last perfectly fine thank you! Except the last pair I had, which were absolutely terrible. My prescription changes every 6-9 months though, and gets worse by a larger fraction each time
Theoretically it is possible, but the 2GB DDR2 SDRAM modules involved are not exactly cheapmarkkk! said:
extraextra said:Oh wow, I really admire you for working that much during school. I think that's a considerable amount of time.
Unfortunately (I say unfortunately because everyone seems to look down on us), I'm one of those kids whose parents pay for everything. Most people have jobs and I'd love to have one.. (having never worked a day in my life, I'm under the impression that it just might be "fun") but my parents say, "education comes first, just do well in school and we'll give you whatever you need!" Considering that, I plan to stay in school for a looong time, haha.
Good luck with getting a MBP! (btw, are you a Nintendo fan by any chance?)
See, in a way, I can admire people like you. Atleast your willing to admit you have it pretty well-off, and are lucky to have parents who are both capable and willing to get you nice things. I just frown upon those who are 14 or so and feel they are entitled to nice things, all while doing poorly in school and have little motivation to get anything accomplished.
As for the MBP, I'm still debating on it. While I should definitely be able to afford a MB or iMac, it is the MBP that has always been my "dream computer." However, I really don't *need* a MBP, and if I do buy it, I'll be going into the school year absolutely broke, lol. But I appreciate the kind words nonetheless.
Oh, and yes, I'm a HUGE Nintendo fanboy! How did you know? I'm assuming you deciphered my username? Or do you recognize me from another message board?
extraextra said:Where are you living?!
Is Orange County really an actual place? I thought it only exists on TV!
Well, considering everyone and their mom lives in a giant mansion filed with gold lines swimming pools and marble greek statues, I'd say some guys probably go to college, drives a "beemer", owns an AppleCentre, all without having to ever lift a finger.
generik said:Is Orange County really an actual place? I thought it only exists on TV!
Well, considering everyone and their mom lives in a giant mansion filed with gold lines swimming pools and marble greek statues, I'd say some guys probably go to college, drives a "beemer", owns an AppleCentre, all without having to ever lift a finger.
I grew up in Long Beach however! I only live here now for school, since I go to UCI. Long Beach isn't exactly a swanky city, you probably could get knifed if you wandered into the wrong part of town, with all the gangs and whatnot (Snoop Dogg is from here, to help you get a better picture
). My school was alright though, there were riots occasionally and things like that. I was in the "gifted" class, I don't think kids in the regular classes ever brought laptops. (not like I'm better than them, but we had some really challenged people at our school)You're not too far off about Orange County though.
mattcube64 said:See, in a way, I can admire people like you. Atleast your willing to admit you have it pretty well-off, and are lucky to have parents who are both capable and willing to get you nice things. I just frown upon those who are 14 or so and feel they are entitled to nice things, all while doing poorly in school and have little motivation to get anything accomplished.
As for the MBP, I'm still debating on it. While I should definitely be able to afford a MB or iMac, it is the MBP that has always been my "dream computer." However, I really don't *need* a MBP, and if I do buy it, I'll be going into the school year absolutely broke, lol. But I appreciate the kind words nonetheless.
Oh, and yes, I'm a HUGE Nintendo fanboy! How did you know? I'm assuming you deciphered my username? Or do you recognize me from another message board?
It's a tough choice. Generally, I go with what I really want and stay broke for a few months (while my parents give me a lot, they don't exactly let me spend tons of money in short amounts of time). Do you REALLY need it before school? You could wait a few months, till October or so and then buy it? However, if you don't need really need a MBP, go with the MB or iMac (I'd personally go with the iMac if you don't need portability), it could turn out to be just as good of a computer as the MBP would've been.
edit: Well ok, I semi-stalked you and found your post about MBvsiMac, and I'd definitely go with the iMac. I never took my laptop out of my room while in high school, I don't think many kids do. You can buy the iMac now, and then next year for college, buy a brand new sexy MBP. I briefly considered buying an iMac instead of a MBP (which I'll buy in December or so, as a gift to myself lol) but having laptops for so many years.. I can't go back to a desktop, even if it is an iMac. Plus, they just released an education version for $899, if you don't need Bluetooth, a DVD burner, remote and bigger HD.
I deciphered your username! I'm still rockin my N64. I'm something of a Nintendo fan myself.