Upgrade from first gen MBP to SR MBP?

[Portsider]

Hello all,

A few months ago, I purchased my first Mac; a refurbished 15 inch, 2.16, Mac Book Pro with 256MB ATI card. Aside from how hot the machine runs and the smallish 100GB hard drive, the machine has worked perfectly for me.

However, with the release of the Santa Rosa chipset and LED screens, I've been wondering if I should sell my current machine and purchase the bottom end Santa Rosa Macbook Pro. I'm a student, so I would take advantage of the discount and free ipod offer.

What do you think? Are the new updates worth the expense and hassle?

Thanks

 

[fongyuen]

i would venture to say that it's not worth the hassle. given the problems of the 15" highlighted in many of the threads in this forum, it'll probably make more sense to wait it out till the next update. i don't think there's such a huge performance diff. that'll warrant the upgrade.

that said, however, i did sell my 15" c2d 2.33 mbp to upgrade to my 17" 2.4 mbp, but i did it primarily for the hi-res screen, which i love.

 

[Megatron]

I think it's important to remember that the problems highlighted in this forum are here because people visit the forum for support - everyone that has a MBP that works fine doesn't necessarily post here to tell us that.

First, I would see how much your MBP is worth. The new 2.2 with edu discount is $1800, so then figure out the difference and see if that is worth it to you. My MBP has a great screen, no dead pixels, runs acceptably cool most of the time and doesn't have any issues turning the fans on to the correct speed when it gets hot. On a full charge I get ~4.5 hours battery with airport on, surfing the web and ichat etc.

So the upgrades would be: 64 bit (important for leopard?), better nvidia graphics card, 2gb ram, LED screen (really sweet), and better heat management than the first generation mbp.

I'd make a thread in the marketplace and ask how much people think your machine is worth.

Good luck!

 

[AceOfBass]

I think it's important to remember that the problems highlighted in this forum are here because people visit the forum for support - everyone that has a MBP that works fine doesn't necessarily post here to tell us that.

this is the main thing to keep in mind IMO- the people posting problems are here for support are the outspoken minority. I was really concerned about taking the dive and getting a SR MBP myself before I pulled the trigger 2 weeks ago. I have had absolutely no problems with my SR MBP and I'm not sure if this is normal, but mine actually runs quite cool for the most part. (NOTE: that's even with a red Speck see-thru case on too which looks pretty killer btw ) what I'm getting at is that while it seems that the new MBP's are total crap, the truth is that the majority are extremely well built machines. I'm never going back to a PC after this! but more on topic- it depends on what you're doing with it. If you don't need the new graphics card, slightly bigger hard drive, and slightly faster processor, then I think you'll be fine for college. but if you're going into something in the graphics design field, just the brighter, crisper display and updated graphics are worth the upgrade IMO, I compared mine to my friend's and the difference between the displays is pretty crazy. he gave me crap for waiting for the update, I give him crap for having a slightly inferior computer

 

[Portsider]

Thank you all for the info. After reading your responses and doing a little more research, I think my MBP meets my needs. The extra space, larger hard drive, better screen, and speed bump sound nice, but probably aren't worth the hassle, especially since I'll mostly be using the machine for writing, surfing, and research.

Thanks again.

 

[alex.vm]

i would venture to say that it's not worth the hassle. given the problems of the 15" highlighted in many of the threads in this forum, it'll probably make more sense to wait it out till the next update. i don't think there's such a huge performance diff. that'll warrant the upgrade.

that said, however, i did sell my 15" c2d 2.33 mbp to upgrade to my 17" 2.4 mbp, but i did it primarily for the hi-res screen, which i love.

People [mostly] post issues, "My MBP works perfectly-thought Id share!" posts are not very common regardless of the percentage of affected MBPs.

I say go for the SR MBP. I have one of the seemingly few perfect ones ha. And the odds of you getting a "perfect" one are greater IMO than the forum shows. if not you can always get an exchange or refund within 20 days if it doesnt work out, so there is nothing to loose.

 

[iBookG4user]

I also own a first gen MacBook Pro and I was heavily considering upgrading to the Santa rosa MacBook Pro. Although after weighing all of my options I decided that it was too much of a hassle to upgrade and there weren't enough benefits from it. And this is from someone who has the need to stay on the cutting edge of technology.

 

[alex.vm]

I think it's important to remember that the problems highlighted in this forum are here because people visit the forum for support - everyone that has a MBP that works fine doesn't necessarily post here to tell us that.

Haha you put my thoughts in writting much better than myself

 

[dom7]

People [mostly] post issues, "My MBP works perfectly-thought Id share!" posts are not very common regardless of the percentage of affected MBPs.

I say go for the SR MBP. I have one of the seemingly few perfect ones ha. And the odds of you getting a "perfect" one are greater IMO than the forum shows. if not you can always get an exchange or refund within 20 days if it doesnt work out, so there is nothing to loose.

I agree totally. My MBP is PERFECT. Not one flaw. The chance of you getting one with even a minor flaw is still slim.