Thinking of a MacBook Pro

I am pretty much decided that I will be buying a Mac book Pro to replace my Dell PC laptop, I will use Boot camp for XP Pro, but I have some questions..

If I install Boot Camp and XP Pro can parallels find/use the Boot camp XP Pro partition? I think there will time when I want just XP or be able to access XP via OS X


Should I wait for the Santa Rosa?

I am not a gamer but want to possibly do some video editing and play DVD on it at times. is it worth the extra $$ for the 256M video? (I can always add Ram to it later with the lower version)

So I am torn at the cost difference $500 between the 2.16Gig and 2.33Gig MBP. I would also add the 160Gig HD when I buy it, I don't want void warranty..

so.. 128M or 256M video and do i wait for Santa Rosa or Leopard

 

Parallels now supports using your Boot Camp partition, so you should be fine there (although I've heard there were some issues where it sometimes requires reactivation when you switch back and forth).

For video editing and DVD playing, you should be just fine with the 2.16GHz/128MB X1600 version.

At this point, with Santa Rosa coming so soon, I would say that unless you need to get it right now, it is probably not a bad idea to wait. A lot of people expect a MacBook Pro refresh in June or around that timeframe.

Aside from Santa Rosa itself, the new MPB's will also probably feature other new hardware, including possibly upgraded video cards, LED-backlit screens, other design changes and improvements, etc. (such as the magnetic latch and user replaceable hard drive designs from the MacBook).

And yeah, getting Leopard included would be nice as well so you didn't have to pay extra for it.

Having said that, the current MBP is also really nice, so if you do want to get something now, you'll still be just fine I think.

 

When you say June, do you think that wil be when Apple announces something? or when it is released?

I would like something now, but I Might be able to wait. Imy old dell I cannot charge the battery and i cannot keep it where I use to. (we have a puppy and the puppy knocked it off of its resting place, the reason for replacement)

It would be nice to know details of the newer rumer MBP, but I know that isn't going to happen

 

June is just speculation. There's no guarantee that Apple would have the new MBP available by then or even announced by then. It could be a situation like the Core 2 Duo stuff where Apple took a couple extra months to add C2D to the MBP line.

However, I think June is likely; it would coincide with the release of Leopard, and it is a reasonable timeframe given that the Santa Rosa platform itself is becoming available in May, and laptop manufacturers are expected to start releasing Santa Rosa laptops near the end of May.

I would say that in your case, it's probably fine to get a MBP now then. It's hard to say at this point what changes the MBP line will see, so the big question is, do you like the MBP as it is right now? If you do, I don't see any harm in getting one now; there are plenty of people around with MBP's and they aren't going to magically become irrelevant once the line is updated.

-Zadillo

 

Yes I do actually, my Bro-in-law has the G4? Power book, same case no intel, I like the size of it..

Another friend has a 15.4" MBP he got last year, Core Duo I believe, it is nice, the hardest thing for me to adopt to will be the right mouse click when using the touchpad. Now if they make a BT trackball then I am all set.

Other wise I was demo'ed Parallels and Boot camp at the Apple store (on an iMAC) but I got to see it. I need to install XP Pro for a few of my apps which are not avail, for OS X, btu at leat this way I can learn the OS X as well.

the older laptop is a Dell 600M, I even priced out some Dells but nothing looks as good as the MBP IMHO

 

Is the Macbook going to get new hardware also?

 

Cool, I think you should be fine then.

One thing about the right-clicking; one of the things you can enable is two-finger right clicking. Essentially, what you do is hold two fingers down on the touchpad, and then when you click the mousebutton, it acts as a right-click. Personally I really like this solution, and have found it to actually even be a little easier for me to use than a standard right click (since I don't have to readjust my thumb to click the right mouse button under the trackpad).

I'm not sure if I've seen a bluetooth trackball mouse; heck, there don't seem to be that many trackball mice in general.

 

I am sure eventually, although it's possible the MacBook might not see an update for Santa Rosa until a few months later. I'm also not sure that it will get a significant design overhaul.

 

Yeah I know, My hand started to feel uncomfortable with the mouse so had bought a Wired Track ball for work.. currently it is on my home system along with a regular mouse for my wife too use. I am very comfortable with the trackball and just bought an RF trackball for my laptop before the motherboard charger broke. so I can use that for now

 

Hrmm, I see that MacMice actually makes a bluetooth trackball:

http://www.macmice.ca/itoolkit.asp?pg=products&specific=jnlncpg0

Not sure how suitable it will be (only has two buttons), but might be worth looking at.

 

Might work.. I use this one (very comfortable with using my thumb)


this is a 3 button (scroll wheel is a button)

 

1) You don't really game, so the amount of video memory isn't a huge factor.
2) The difference between 2.16Ghz and 2.33Ghz isn't enough to spend more money on it. You say you might do some video editing, but you'd know if you needed more speed than the 2.16Ghz can give you if it was truly necessary (and worth spending money on)
3) Waiting for Santa Rosa is one of the things I really don't understand. Unless Apple is going to announce new MBPs in 2 weeks (and I doubt they will), it's not worth waiting for. Again, it really goes back to the "do I really need more power?" question. You will never have the best unless you are willing to spend the highest amount possible. If you don't want to do that, then compromise and be glad with what you get because I'm certain there are people encoding video on 1.83Ghz Core Duos (1st gen MBP) and are doing just fine when they bought it as soon as the MBP came out last year.

4) If you really need more HDD space, go get a eSATA ExpressCard 34 module and a External Hard Drive that supports eSATA and you've solved the HDD problem. Total cost is about $200, and you can get a 500GB HDD with that. No need to spend so much upgrading the internal drive if you rarely need all your data on the go (most don't).

Any other questions?

 

^^^dittooooo

 

Nope, you summed EVERYTHING up very nice for me!! that was the I was looking for.

THANKS

Now to pull the trigger and buy one.. LOL

 

Some rep would be nice.

 

i rep'd you dagamer

 

Added some for you, I did not know what it was sorry

 

I'd say the $1999 model is the smart buy right now.

I just got one, and for +$500, the slight speed bump and 128MB of VRAM was not worth it, so I got the 2.16GHz one and it's been great. Runs Vista very very well so far.

I got an extra 1GB of ram for $60, and for once, Apple was cool and put a single 1GB in the MacBook so you don't have to waste 2 sticks of good ram.

So, for $2060 you only give up a few MHz and 128VRAM compared to the $2500 model.

 

Count,

I see in you sig you have/had a Dell E1505, how doe sthat one compare to the MBP. That was one of the PC Models I was looking at.

But I am pretty certain I will buy a MBP, I will be goign to the Apple store tomorrow to check them out again.

 

At least on the Mac side of things, I think generally what you'll find is that people who are holding out for the next revision don't care so much about Santa Rosa itself, as much as that they are anticipating more significant hardware changes. At a bare minimum, some people are hoping for Apple to add some of the things that the MacBook line already has, like the magnetic latch and easily user replaceable hard drive.

On a larger note, some people (myself included) are hoping for Apple to adopt LED-backlit screens, like the premium Sony SZ models.

Outside of that, the expectation is that Apple is ready to unveil a more significant design change. As Apple had explained last year, they intentionally avoided major redesigns for any of the existing products, because they wanted to emphasize the idea that even though they were switching to Intel processors, they were still "Macs". Now that this transition is complete, and people are generally comfortable with the idea, Apple has a bit more freedom to more radically change the design.

So, these are some of the elements that some people are waiting for. It doesn't have so much to do with Santa Rosa itself, as much as other changes that people are hoping to see to coincide with it.

It's sort of like the anticipation of the Core 2 Duo MBP's; generally speaking, people didn't really care all that much about the adoption of C2D CPU's in and of itself. But there was a hope that the C2D MBP's would address some of the problems of the Core Duo MacBook Pros; and although it wasn't everything people were expecting (I recall people hoping back then for the magnetic latch and user replaceable hard drive stuff), it did include a better vent design and cooling system, allowing for less heat problems and a GPU that wasn't so dramatically underclocked.

 

zadillo i repped you too, everytime it seems you have really good info and i totally agree with you.

count, i have the exact same model as you and its been great. did you buy home premium?

 

Yeah, I got Home Premium. It seems to be pretty complete. Based on the "compare edition" charts I've seen, the couple of missing features are things I'd probably never use, like backup and so forth.

Vista is growing on me. I was not that wild about the last RC I used, but the final release strikes me as pretty solid. Apple people need to remember how crappy the first OS X was. It was not until 10.1 or 10.2 that it was even usable, really. The GUI was stuck in glue.

On my E1505, I like it. For the money (ie ~ 1/2 the price of a MacBook Pro) it's a great laptop. I just had a specific problem with it driving the external monitor and that causing the screen to flicker for 1 sec every 10 minutes or so. Shame really, it's a great laptop otherwise.

 

I bought one!! LOL

I went to the Apple store to look at them, was talking a rep there, I said that the $500 was too much for the upper model 15.4" for what was added, she then checked for a refreshed model, they had one at 2250..

Then I checked using their Strore MBP and looked for a refurbished model and got the better version VIA the web for $1999, so I ended up getting the 2.33GHz, 2G ram and 256M video, with glossy screen just as I wanted..

Now once I getit I will add boot camp and Parallels

 

niiiiiiiiiiiiice

 

Right on. Sounds like a good deal.

Now alls you gotta do is wait!