Buy Macbook pro now or wait

I am intrested in buying a mac book pro, but I have seen rumours that apple might update their macbook pro's with Core Duo processors.

When is mac os leopard coming out, and would it be better to wait for that? Also is is likely that Apple will update other aspects of the macbook pro other than the processor?

I do not need the laptop now, and would be prepared to wait until mid January, if there was a high chance of Apple bringing out an updated version.

 

I would say there is a high chance that Apple will update the pro-line until January, probably sooner. The sooner it is released, less probable there will be deep modifications to the present project. There are lots of arguments here that support both waiting for a newer version and buying it right now; read some of them and try to decide what's best for you.

 

I bet we'll see the C2D upgrade in November. The thing is... Santa Rose will probably be out around March or so. So... that gives you another chance to play the waiting game.
Of course, the Santa Rose will be a much bigger update and possible bring a new chassis to the game.

 

Well, the question is, do you really need the core 2 duo? I mean it won't do any better than the core duo unless you are doing some real professional work. Merom will probably mean that you will need more ram to run it. That will cost you more and more.

That being said, I am almost sure that the core 2 duo will be here very soon. I am thinking more like 2-3 weeks from now. There is an article on appleinsider that the core 2 duo might be shipping soon.

 

The only reason you'd want a core 2 duo is if you plan on keeping your laptop for 4 years. It'll be about 3 years or so before all programs will require a 64 bit processor. If you buy a new one every two years, you'll be fine.

 

Considering the rate at which people upgrade, I have a hard time believing that in only 3 years all programs will require a 64-bit processor. On the Mac side, there will still be plenty of apps that will be universal binaries supporting both PowerPC and Intel; there will be plenty of people writing software that will be compatible with 32-bit Windows and 32-bit OS X for quite a while I think.

 

Please search the apple portion of this forum for more information, many of the questions we get here are repeats.