Which will last longer: MacBook or MacBook Pro?

[Mgkwho]

There isn't a snowball's chance in hell you're gonna keep what you buy now for 6 years — no way.

My home PC turned 5 this february; my dad's laptop is almost 5.5. They are both IBM and run fine. Sure, they are not as good as what's out there today. But they still run perfectly fine. And neither one has had a major problem or the OS reinstalled. (PC is NetVista x41, the laptop is some high end thinkpad)

-=|Mgkwho

 

[antonwalker]

I agree with getting a macbook now and a macbook in 3 years. Cause with a mbp you will getting same performance for 6 years, but with a mb you get an upgraded performance in 3 years. Then the new mb will run faster, much faster than the 6 year old mbp.

 

[e12a]

well prior to purchasing the MBP I have now, I was using my old 1.7 P4 system i built...i mean this thing's using PC133 RAM and uses socket 478. When's the last time you heard that? I've had it for 7 years (which means i was in 7th grade when i built it...i am now a first year in college) and its still going strong (after 2 bad WD drives). Would i call it incapable? Hardly. Sure it cant play the latest games, but I can fold@home at a decent speed. So its not impossible to have a computer that old and still use it.

Oh and my dad's a mechanical engineer with a custom Dell P4 1.8 system with 512mb of RDRAM (never hear that anymore) that he purchased a few months after I built my system. He still uses it to this day...in fact he's on it right now working a project on Matlab through a VPN session. So i wouldn't speak for everyone, multimedia.

to the OP: read my paragraph just above. My dad uses his old p4 for Matlab...its not like Matlab is suddenly going to change and become all fancy dancy...engineering is engineering...you're not doing intensive 3d graphics design. Though i try to persuade him to let me build him a new, obviously more powerful Core 2 Duo system, he says he can make do with his p4...a Pentium 4 at 1.8 GHz equipped with a blazing 64mb Geforce 3 Ti(forgot which #). But this was the latest hardware available, back in 2001.

but yeah, the MBP was a HUGE upgrade. Thats why i like waiting 7 years to get my next one.

 

[schmintan]

depends on what you do with it. i had my last dell laptop for 5 + years and it still runs excellently, and my girlfriend uses it all the time. i upgraded as:

1. i wanted to give something other than windows a go
2. i needed something that could also run vista

The macbook pro fills both these needs.
The Dell when i got it all those years ago was very expensive, but i feel it was worth it as rather than upgrade every 2 years it lasted over 5 years ( and is still flying along as i said) on XP Pro.

I would go with the highest spec you can afford and that will last you the longest. Im hoping to get a good 4-5 years out of my MBP, and thats how i justified the expense. its up to you and what you do though. if you just surf the web, have a chat, burn dvds ,listen to music and do a bit of word processing, a reg MacBook will do you for years also.

 

[Colesyph]

a MB is a great product, but I think if you want it to last that long (which isn't to realistic) I'd go with the MBP. It is definetly a faster and more powerful machine.

 

[MacbookSwitcher]

There's very little performance difference between the MB and the MBP, certainly not enough to justify the large price difference.

Unless:
1) You intend to play games (the MBP has a better graphics card)
2) You have a perhipheral that requires the ExpressCard slot (MB has no ExpressCard slot)
3) You need to hook up a 30" monitor (MB can only do a 24", still looks beautiful)

If none of those apply, then def. go for the MB. I'm sure they'll both last equally as long.

 

[e12a]

There's very little performance difference between the MB and the MBP, certainly not enough to justify the large price difference.

Unless:
1) You intend to play games (the MBP has a better graphics card)
2) You have a perhipheral that requires the ExpressCard slot (MB has no ExpressCard slot)
3) You need to hook up a 30" monitor (MB can only do a 24", still looks beautiful)

If none of those apply, then def. go for the MB. I'm sure they'll both last equally as long.

I'm not going to go into details, but the price difference is not solely based on performance.

 

[jotadeo]

Interesting question...

While patiently waiting out "spring 2007" I've been going back and forth btw buying a MB and buying a MBP. This thread helps a bit...I'm leaning back towards my original plan: the middle-of-the-road MB (=white 2.0 ghz).

My question regarding MBs is: does anyone really think that it's worth it to pay $200 more for the blacbook over the $1299 white MB just for 40 gb more and a black case? I like the look of the thing, but 200 smackers??? Also, I've heard that the black case shows a lot more smudges, prints, etc. than the white one.

Just curious...
jdo

----------------------------------------------------------
Leopard within 82 1/2 days

 

[iW00t]

Oh and my dad's a mechanical engineer with a custom Dell P4 1.8 system with 512mb of RDRAM (never hear that anymore) that he purchased a few months after I built my system. He still uses it to this day...in fact he's on it right now working a project on Matlab through a VPN session. So i wouldn't speak for everyone, multimedia.

Multimedia beats out most of us in terms of age and wisdom, he is perfectly entitled to speak for all of us

 

[e12a]

Multimedia beats out most of us in terms of age and wisdom, he is perfectly entitled to speak for all of us

well he cant speak for my dad who probably rivals him in age. He knows nothing of macs, but is interested, so he has a different wisdom.

edit: i correct myself, he did use an old power mac (the beige ones, that looked like your everyday PC). That was back in the day i came for "bring your son/daughter to work day" and played with the jig-saw puzzle game. His company since was purchased by a much larger company and switched to Windows based PCs...i liked his old company much better..especially the open house day (brought out heavy weapons, APCs, helicopters, missile displays, etc.)...yes he has a very different kind of wisdom.

 

[luminosity]

MBP, if you can afford it.

 

[Nitromaster]

what ever you buy will last that length,
its not like apple are going to change type of cpu (i mean powerpc to intel,etc)
I was using a windows 98 pc,bought in july 99, until last may,
Specsentium 166mhz,32mb ram,4 gb hard drive,dial up, etc
not really mine,it was a family pc, it was fine for web browsing,word etc,
Only thing i wish i had done during those 7 years is reinstall windows

You may want to sell what you buy in 3 years and buy a new one.
If you need the graphics card buy the pro, if not,dont.

they will both basically be the same apart from graphics card in 5 years

 

[thejadedmonkey]

If all you care about is specs (excluding the screen), and not the looks, the MBP is a waste of money.

If you're not going to play games, the extra 2 inches and a backlit keyboard are hardly worth the 800 or so difference.

 

[iW00t]

I like the MBP but I am siding with the MB here.

It is just a wiser use of your money.

Think of it this way, you save $800 upfront, money that can be put towards a new machine at a sooner time, whereas you'd still be stuck with the same MBP over 5-6 years.

Over that span of time the presence of a discrete GPU or 300 extra Mhz in clock speed is not going to make much of a difference!

 

[luminosity]

Just because you don't play games or use graphics-intensive programs right now doesn't mean you won't down the line at some point. Also, the 15 inch screen is beautiful, and puts the 13 inch glossy screen to shame. Of course, I can't stand glossy screens in general, but that's just me.

At any rate, I think the MBP is a laptop for the long haul, and Merom helps make that possible. The MBP feels more well put together overall, and I believe that in 2-3 years, I'll still be using it.

 

[MacDann]

While I think the argument relative to the timeline (6 years) is irrelevant when it comes to the choice between a MB and MBP, consider that you can get a really good deal on a refurb MBP for the price of a new MB and get a better machine in the process.

I just moved from a 15" 1.67Mhz G4 PB to a 15" CD MBP and can tell little difference in performance except in some processsor and video intensive apps. Most of the native Apple apps and stuff like MS Word run as quickly, from what I can tell.

Since I do a lot of video work in the field the speed difference (after adding a 100G 7200 rpm HD, too) was a plus for me over the PowerBook.

MD

 

[LeviG]

From personal experience - for 2d engineering (autocad) work I would personally say that 6 years is possible, assuming the system is fully maxed out with ram and cpu etc and hardware allowing - you don't have to upgrade to the newest and greatest of everything in the software to do the work, a v7 will still do 90% of a v9 in most cases.

However if the engineering work involves 3d work (3ds max, 3d viz) then I would say that 4 years is probably the most you will get before you start needing to think of an upgrade. Its more to do with the time you want to sit around waiting rather than the need to upgrade to make it run. I would also say get a desktop for this due to the graphics cards in macbook/pro not really being suited to this work (quadro is better option) although they can run it.

During my university years (uk and a few years back) I started with a p3 500mhz 512mb ram etc which had lasted me since my A levels. Second year of uni, the work (3ds max/solidworks) required a faster system (well the old system fried itself due to the rendering ). So I buy a new system which was top of the range and overkill according to the rest of my mates which lasted me 4 years before I was forced to replace it due to hardware failure. I did start to feel I needed an upgrade around the 3rd year of ownership because it was just taking so long to do the work which it was used for.

Now my recommendation - if the work is 2d buy a maxed out macbook pro, it should really last you baring damage etc.
If you are doing any heavy 3D work and there is no renderfarm etc at the college/uni I would buy a cheap macbook for portability and then look into a cheap mid range windows pc (assuming the software is windows based), £1000-1500 (or similar values depending on country) should buy you a system that would be more suited to the 3D work.

 

[ironring2006]

Bump!
A little late to reply to this, but if you haven't made a decision yet, I think I can offer some advice (Engineering Master's student).

The first bit of advice is more related to engineering rather than the computers. Engineering is a difficult program and perhaps the one in which sees the largest drop between the number that start out, and the number that actually graduate. It's not to say that you aren't capable or committed, it's just that it isn't for everyone, especially planning for a Master's degree at this point. Also, I've seen many people come to school with a maxed out top of the line computer which they justify because they "need it for school". A lot of them end up wasting time playing games because they have a computer capable of doing it.

As others have said here, expecting 6 years out of a computer is pushing it, especially when your computing needs are going to ramp up the further you go.

Starting out, you're going to be doing a lot of pencil and paper work, getting the fundamentals down. This will pretty much be your first 2 years. You won't need much more than Word and Excel for this. Anything else is going to be expensive site license software that you'll have to work on in the labs. Therefore, my suggestion is to go with the MacBook (especially if they update in June/July), save some money and put it towards a good calculator (TI-83, TI-89, or HP), and maybe an extra monitor for dual displays.

Once you get to third/fourth year, you'll probably start doing more complex stuff that requires heavier computing. At the end of your third year, you should have a better idea if you're going to stick around for a Master's or not, and whether or not you need the extra computing power.