After vowing that I was going to wait, I now find myself considering Ebaying my 1.67 15" Powerbook (purchased spring of last year) and going for the new MacBook Pro. I do a lot of work with photos and the slightly larger, brighter screen is very appealing...not to mention the notion of dual processors. I realize that I will be running under Rosetta for a while as far as Photoshop is concerned, but this is a trade-off that I am willing to make. I'm just wondering if the $500.00 price difference is really worth going for the top of the line model? I do like the fact that it ships with a 1GB stick of RAM vs a 512 MB stick, but just how significant would the performance gain be with dual 1.83 processors over dual 1.67? Also, keep in mind that if I were to go with the dual 1.67, I would definitely invest another $100.00 or so (this seems to be the going price) and bump up the RAM to 1.5 GB. Would really appreciate input on this...thanks all.
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Which MacBook Pro?
- Thread starter PieMac
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PieMac said:
I was in your same boat. Once I factored in upping the ram on the 1.67 to 1GB, the harddrive up to 100, and the graphics card. Then there was only around 200 difference. I decided that I would probably regret it later and so I went with the 1.83. If you can afford the duo 1.83 then suck it up and pay for it.
nospleen said:I was in your same boat. Once I factored in upping the ram on the 1.67 to 1GB, the harddrive up to 100, and the graphics card. Then there was only around 200 difference. I decided that I would probably regret it later and so I went with the 1.83. If you can afford the duo 1.83 then suck it up and pay for it.
Same thing here. I was debating, and realized that I'd definitely be putting at least $200 into it between RAM and the hard drive. Even then, I still wouldn't have the extra graphics memory, or processor power. Even after that, I still knew there'd be times when I'd just wish I'd have paid the extra money for the top of the line model.
However, if the cost is something you're worried about, and you don't mind having the 80GB hard drive and less powerful graphics card, save yourself the money and get the 1.67GHz model. Just upgrade the ram to 1.5GB. You'll still be getting a great computer that I'm sure will do everything you need it to.
You can always add more RAM later. You can always replace the hard drive with a bigger one. It is difficult to replace the processor at any time other than purchase. Keep this in mind.
grapes911 said:
That's a good point...I guess I'm just trying to justify a purchase here and keeping the price low helps with that
Then again, lately I seem to be Ebaying and upgrading on a yearly basis these last couple of years. I keep hoping that I will settle in to one machine for at least 2-3 years, so perhaps the dual 1.83 would be the smarter purchase.
Part of me says wait for the Rev. B's but, I am also trying to determine when would be the best time to Ebay my current powerbook...I figure that logically, the longer I wait, the more the value will drop...especially once the MacPro's start shipping. Too, I will need to buy Applecare by the end of March for my current Powerbook (I always buy Applecare for my laptops) and I'm thinking I could put that money towards the MacBook Pro instead.
PieMac said:
If you see my sig, I got the whole MacBook Pro set-up (minus the Bluetooth mouse and mousepad) for a little over $2,000 with a student discount. I plan to purchase a 1GB stick of RAM in the coming months ($150?) and some Logitech Z-4i speakers... the whole set-up I'll have here will not cost me more than the base 1.83 Ghz MBP model with Edu. Discount, so that is why I bought the low-end model. Yes, if I had the money, I would have definitely purchased the 1.83 GHz model, but as a student, the .16 GHz difference is something that I can definitely live with if it means that I can enhance my whole computing experience.