Should I buy the MBP 15" now or wait for Merom? Poll

Hey gang,

I'm going into university and have my mind set on the MBP 2.0GHz 128MB X1600(Lowest model) but upgrading to 2GB(not from apple ofcourse). Now my dilemma is that I was hoping that Apple would have announced the merom MBP at WWDC but that was not the case. And now reports are coming in that the MBP won't be coming until Oct/Nov. As a student it's $2000 Canadian for the MBP and as well I want to cash in on a cheap Ipod 5G for the discounted student price.

But on the other hand, I also want this Mac because I'm looking forward to using Final Cut Studio software to edit some movies that I look forward to shooting. Mind you, I'm not a professional so I won't be using this stuff to make $$$ but I just want to polish up my skills that I already have and do some stuff for fun. I know FCStudio excels with 64 bit processing...but would Merom really make THAT much of a difference?(To give up the cheap Ipod deal that I want that is)

I'm also hoping that the new merom mbp would update to a FW800 port(because FW400 is so slow for external HDDs)...but I doubt it so I'm asking for help.

Any comments are welcome and please vote.

 

Acutally I never found an external drive that can get up to that speed, in retail stores that is. I forget what that website is that has them all.

Anyways, we can't really say much, its just a matter of how badly you need it, and I can bet your anxious to get one now, like I have said in the merom thread, 32bit is going to be fine for the next few years, and yes your going to fetch a nice resale value on that MBP so updating to the newest revision should be cheaper.

Far as I'm concerned only the 17" model will have the FW800.

 

I'm in the same position as you are, but I'll wait til Sept 15 to get MBP with free ipod just in case the merom MBP came out before the deal ends, which is kind of unlikely, but still

 

I was in a similar position to you. And I bought my MBP (same model as you) this past monday.

My only regret? Not getting it a whole lot earlier!

so you know my vote =)

-c

 

hahaha i've been waiting on this for about 2 months now.....now thinking back...maybe i should have got it earlier but i'm now thinking of getting it this weekend along with a discounted ipod

 

I couldn't wait any longer, as I needed mine for the beginning of school. I ordered mine last week through the ADC Hardware discount program. For a 99$ membership I got my MBP for 1749 cdn (same model as yours), and on a plus I'm pretty sure I get a free copy of Leopard when it comes out and lots of other software.

 

fenix how do you get a free copy o leopard and other software? I just ordered a macbook so is there anyway for me to get in on this deal?

 

I highly dout it will be out by the 15th

 

Actually, unfortunately this isn't the case with the student Apple Developer Connection membership. The $99 membership does not actually include the software that you get with the normal $500 ADC Select membership. The main thing you get is the various developer tools and documentation, etc, as well as the one lifetime use of the hardware discount.

http://developer.apple.com/faq/students.html

 

I was just going by what members at macrumors.com had said. You can read through the thread and various others at that site that confirm that ADC student members recieve a full copy of any OS that is released during their membership period.


http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=180230&highlight=adc+student


Unless these people were complete liars, I am going on the assumption that I will recieve a copy of Leopard after it is released. (I don't recieve pre-release software).

If someone has actually bought the membership here and wants to verify that would be great.

 

It wouldn't have really benefited you with the purchase of a MacBook. I bought an Apple Developer Connection Student membership that entitles me to a once in a lifetime hardware discount (around 20% i think). The membership cost 99 bucks usd, so you would actually be better off just buying through the edu store.

I was under the assumption I would be recieving a copy of Leopard when it is released.....not so sure anymore, but not a big deal....just wait and see I suppose.

 

ok so the poll is almost even

heres something i ask...if you vote, please post a reason why you voted.

 

I see. Yeah, it's definitely possible. It isn't specifically listed as being a benefit of an ADC Student membership, but it doesn't surprise me that Apple would send out the final versions at least of major OS upgrades.

Actually, from reading through the thread, that definitely makes sense then that you do get access to the final version of a major OS release.

So that is definitely a nice perk.

 

ProfessorChaos, it really doesn't matter ALL that much. It's not like you're going to notice a radical performance increase, and it's not likely you'll be doing much with it that the 64-bit chip would matter all that much.

It really comes down to this; do you absolutely need a new laptop now, or can you wait a month or two (or possibly even three)? If you need one now or relatively soon, go ahead and get a MBP and be happy with it. It's going to be a very high performance machine no matter what, and the difference between the Yonah and Merom isn't so great that you'd be kicking yourself for not having it.

If you don't need anything right now, you might as well wait though, as at least theoretically you might get some more life out of a Merom-based MBP, and more specifically it might hold on to its value for a longer period of time.

 

I don't NEED anything right now as I can bring my brother's Compaq Centrino 1.5GHz into university with me for the time being...but it definately would be great to have the MBP and Ipod before school. The fact that the MBP w/ Merom won't be radically faster is something that I have to consider if I wait for it. I don't intend to sell and upgrade the MBP for a while...maybe 3 years or 4(and by then it would be close to worthless and I'd just get another) so the faster merom would be nice in the future...although the 5-10% difference wouldn't make much of a difference.

 

I voted that you should get it now, because with technology, it is always changing and someone also can one up you the next day, I mean if you buy it now and use it for like 2 years, you will be able to resell it at a high value and then get the new one with a 64bit proscessor. Any decision will be right, if your going to wait, I would wait until september 15, the last day before the ipod thing expires. Best of luck!
~Arman

 

Yeah...... honestly, if you're looking at 3 or 4 years, it doesn't matter that much. The difference between a Yonah-based MBP and a Merom-based MBP will be almost indistinguishable at that point (the 64-bit stuff isn't likely to make a huge difference even that far down the road, given the limitations of the rest of the platform).

Honestly, yeah, I'd say go ahead and get an MBP now if you do want one now. The only caveat is that there is some speculation that there might be some modifications at least to the hardware (i.e. addition of the magnetic latch from the MB line), and those might be nice perks to wait for.

-Zadillo

 

I would wait (even if I didn't wait myself, but that was in the beginning of July) basically because of 64-bit support in Leopard. While I might be wrong, I think Apple will do very interesting things with true 64bit apps in Leopard (man, imagine a superfat binary - PPC, Intel32 and Intel64 in one package lol) and the present 32bit CPUs won't benefit from those. Perhaps if you plan to upgrade in 2-3 years it won't matter much, but since the price is supposed to be the same, and it might be only about a month away... plus, the new MB/MBPs will have a higher resale value.

 

I would usually say theres no point in waiting. But it seems that Merom is just around the corner, and be it the performance increase will not be THAT noticable, its nice to have the newest thing. Unless you need it for use this week, I would just wait, because I feel you will not be waiting long.

 

do you think there will be a merom on Macbook before 2007?

 

To be honest, no one knows. There is a theory that Apple will want to differentiate the MacBook and MBP more and that they will do it by upgrading the MBP right away and wait on the MB. Then in January they would upgrade both. The MB to Merom running on Napa, and the MBP to Merom runnning on Santa Rosa. Or they could release both quietly through the website at the same time tomorrow. Sorry, but that is the life of Apple.

 

I saw many various sources telling that the upgraded macbook (pro) will be available in september. One site said the first week of september...

 

Yeah, more than likely we'll see Merom in MBP by the 15th or 16th and probably new ipods right after that (when the student purchase special stops).

Yes, if you don't have a MBP now, and you don't need it yesterday, then just wait. Nothing to loose and there is anywhere from 10-20% increase in performance in some apps (plenty of benchmarks). Plus being 64 bit should make resale value increase.

In addition, as a few others have also said, possible slight changes to the internal design may help some of the MBP issues. I vote for wait (as I'm going to wait myself).

 

I think it's better to wait.
I plan on buying my Macbook on Summer of 2007 by which the Leopard OS should be out by Spring of 2007.
Then the 64 bit processor of the Merom should be fully utilized by that OS.
I dont mind waiting since Good things comes to those who wait XD.

 

The danger in that is by next summer there will be a new processor on the horizon, and you will want to wait longer.

 

yeah.. keep waiting..

 

someone told me that if you own a mac, you can upgrade your os to the newest version for free. So, Leopard is free for all mac-users. I actually can't believe that. Can someone confirm or deny that?

 

Merom on MBP will be introduced really soon. Definitely wait. You'll be glad you did...

 

I wish. AFAIK, only Macs bought close to, or after the release of a new version are (or had been in the past) elegible to receive a free OS update.

 

The best thing to do is to wait for merom to be released, buy that macbook or macbookpro and then never look for news about newer processors until you need to buy a new computer.

 

Well I know of many people who bought Apple software the day before a new version was released were denied a free upgrade even with such a close purchase date. I also heard that in the past it was like that, but I don't hear about it anymore.