Which Macbook to choose?

Hello everyone,

I was hoping I could kindly get some advice on which Macbook to choose. I'm a long time advanced PC user, but always had an interest in macs. I was recently made aware of bootcamp and how well it runs now, as well as VMware's new upgrades and usefulness running osx and windows simultaneously.

Anyhow, I'm leaning towards the 15' Mackbook Pro (2.4ghz). Not too sure how much of a benefit the 2.53ghz will provide given it's cost? Also looking to get the 4gig ram upgrade. I'm not into any graphic design or rendering, I would be using it for typical, browsing, word processing, media, also for work which would require bootcamp to remote login to my pc in the office (not too happy about the lack of ports, 2 usb, no hdmi, dvi dongle required, no e-sata etc.) as I'm sure many of you are as well. Some might say just get the macbook, personally I don't like the 13 inch display, I also read quite a few reviews that say the display is not as good as it's 15 mpb big brother. I find a 15 is perfect. However, if they offered a macbook in 15' it'd be an easy decision. I also was curious about what make/model mac uses when you upgrade to a 7200RPM 250 or 320hd? I read a few good threads here about upgrading on your own with a WD or a seagate both 7200pms and I think thats a great idea if the stock 7200 (Hitatchi it might be?) is not any good.

I've been sitting on the fence for some time now, to upgrade from an old Asus W3V but i've been pretty content with the reviews I've read. The price is a bit high and like others have said if the Vaio Z was 15.4 it would be a difficult decision. However, I think it's more about just plain wanting to try something new now that there is a safety net of a more functional version of bootcamp and VMware. Any feedback anyone has would be much appreciated.

Thanks everyone.

 

Well my needs are about the same as yours + a little gaming on the side and I mainly chose it over the Macbook cause of the graphics card and the larger screen + being faster I suppose. I chose the base model cause that's all I could afford, but now that I've had it for about a week I wish I had the higher-end model just because of the RAM and bigger hard drive. I do use vmware with my boot camp partition and its pretty smooth, but would probably work better if I had more RAM I guess.

 

I think the High end MacBook would be perfect for your needs because it has many of the same things that you can upgrade that the MBP has except for the NVIDIA 9600 GX M and a 15 inch screen. Thats what I would chose IMO.

 

Thanks for the responses guys. Did anyone opt to upgrade the hard drive on their own, or know what make/model the stock 7200 rpm upgrade hard drive is?

Chargerbaseball 25, I agree the high end macbook would be perfect even though I have 22inch matte Samsung, however my eyes have got worse over the years and I find they get strained on smaller screens. Also, my career path has changed where I am not on airplanes requiring a laptop anymore - it will be fairly stationary.

Appreciate the feedback guys keep it coming.

 

I was in your position the other day wondering which laptop to get. I already had a 17" mbp that I was selling and needed to make a choice. Unfortunately, I didn't have the luxury of waiting for the refresh of the 17"

I pulled the trigger yesterday and picked up the 2.53ghz mbp and I have yet to have a bit of buyer's remorse. I thought I would have issues with the glossy screen (I do graphics) but so far, I find it easier to focus through the reflections on the glossy screen rather than the haze one gets on the matte screens. If you're going to game, I would just purchase an external monitor and play games on that.

Hopefully Apple/nVidia will work out whatever issues there is with running the 2 graphics cores together and also be able to upgrade the memory. I won't miss fire-wire, and a $30 adapter from mini-display to DVI isn't that bad when you set it next to a $2500 price tag.

I pulled my new mbp out in the store and booted it up just to test everything out before I left. Nice bright screen, no pixel problems, track pad is aligned correctly, no lose screen hinges, battery/hard drive cover is tight-- no play, speakers are loud (balanced), and all of my keys were there. After I got it home... an hour and a half of file transfers during the initial set-up, 30 minutes of updates, and it was as if I never even changed computers. So far everything has transferred over flawlessly.

I may upgrade the 5200 rpm drive to 7200 in the near future, but I'm not sure it will be necessary yet.

Good luck with whatever decision you make. I read tons of reviews, including WilliamG's here in the forum and I feel like I made the right choice.

Randy-

 

Like you, I consider myself an advance PC user (since the DOS days) and have recently purchased the MBP (which is sitting on a FedEx truck and I can't get it until 6:30 pm when the driver returns). I went with the 2.8, 4g RAM and with the 250g 7200 drive. The reason for the latter is I am following the 500g laptop drive development and want to see how the MBP handles the heat. I am a casual gamer (now) and pretty much only play stand alone RPGs or on-line MMORPGs (Vanguard ATM), so I will be using bootcamp to fire up Windows when I want to game. Outside of gaming I am going to give iWorks an honest try since I read it is compatible with MS Office products. Anyway, to answer your question, I always try to get the high end when I buy computers because in the past I would try to cut corners and always kick myself when I couldn't run something because I skimped on processing power or RAM. I now would rather always have power I don't use as opposed to not enough power to run what I want!

 

Anomalyi and The Shirt, very informative feedback. The consesus seems to be towards the higher powered mpb with 4 gigs and 7200 rpm. Do you guys feel the price difference warrants the faster 2.53 vs the 2.4?

With respect to applecare I was reading on this forum and on apple's site that you can defer it before a year after your purchase. I was thinking to purchase it after the new year for cash flow - or is it recomended just to purchase it right away because you'll neglect purchasing it when you dont have any issues down the road?

I think the 2.53, 4gig is likely the route I will take with what I believe is a $40 7200RPM upgrade. For those running bootcamp and VMware have you had any issues thus far? I would likely not be running Vista it would be XP which I find to run faster and with more stability.

Last question would be if I wanted to customize my machine, 4gb, 7200 do you think the apple store would have these available or would I have to wait the 3-5 days because I think I'm ready to pull the trigger.

 

I think you're better off saving the money and going with the 2.4 GHz MBP actually, antoine! You can get 4 GB of RAM yourself from third parties such as Newegg and it'll be cheaper that way. The minor increase in processor speed isn't worth the price difference between the two MBPs.

There definitely isn't a need to get AppleCare right away, your MBP will have an automatic one-year warranty from Apple and you can add two years to it by purchasing AppleCare anytime in the first year.

 

Sam, I think you make a valid point. I'm not too familiar with the ram on newegg, I would only need one stick of 2gb, I believe even with the student discount it's $140.00 CAD through appple so there is some savings there - I'm just not familiar with which ram is a good choice.

Also valid with the applecare I think I'll defer it for a while and go from there. I figured a 2.8 vs 2.4 would make a difference but 2.53 surely can't make all that much of a difference. Any advice for the hd upgrade? Or just go with apples 250 or 320 7200rpm upgrade.

Thanks guys.

 

Sam do you know if you could buy your own RAM then have someone install it for you at the apple store for free? Or will there be a fee? Would they even do it at all?

 

That was one of the questions I was going to ask, in terms of warranty issues for installing ram and the HD. From what I remember with PCs installing RAM does not void a warranty it's a standard upgrade - however, I'd would be pretty cool if I could hand someone in an overly bright tshirt in the store some ram and a hd and they would install it into my new machine with no additional cost or warranty issues

 

I agree w/Sam. I love my 2.4 MBP and I am awfully glad that I dropped an extra $138 to upgrade to the 4 gigs of ram. Plus, the money you save going with the 2.4 (which is very VERY fast) can buy you more ram and apple care. Good luck...

 

It seems as though 2.4 and 4gb and 7200 might be the better choice. I'm pretty convinced you can defer apple care for a while. If you take a look at apples annual report they make a killing on applecare.. it'd be interesting to see what % of their applecare revenue is attributed to customers utilizing the warranty - interesting statistic. Nevertheless, warranty on an expensive notebook is useful, likely at some point next year I would pick up the additional two years.

Anyone have any idea with respect to purchasing an extra 2gigs on newegg, is it worth waiting and getting the ram on your own? I think the savings is $40max.. might just be worth getting it fully loaded out of the shop.

 

I am still of the mind of buying as fast as processor as you can afford so you don't regret it later. Sure, if money is limited, go with what you can afford. If you can afford the best processor however, why wouldn't you?

 

That was my thought exactly. I just don't have the time (or the patience) to upgrade on my own, so I ordered it online w/4 gigs and 5 days later it was at my front door. Best $138 I ever spent!!

 

The Shirt you do make a valid point, once you're that deep into it whats another hundred or so.. I agree. I realized there is only two options when it comes to upgrades over the years (not a ground breaking discovery of course) either go full out and upload every few years and get the high. end equipment, or upgrade frequently with medium end equipment. I choose the previous!

 

Upgrading frequently with medium end equipment clearly. new medium equipment usually preforms as well if not better than high end new equipment (generally speaking).

 

I think they will charge a fee, but you could always try, considering you did just spend over $1000 on an Apple notebook. But really, it is very easy to change RAM, there are lots of guides and videos on YouTube showing you how!

 

I just saw the videos and checked some guides...it looks like a very scary project.

 

It really isn't that bad, I wouldn't worry at all! But go ahead and try the Apple Store, they might be nice about it!

 

I saw a video of it as well it doesnt look too bad.

Does anyone have any links to a 2.4 vs 2.53 direct performance comparison ?
Also, did the right click issue with bootcamp or vmware for win xp/vista become resolved or do you have to use an external mouse ?

Thanks!