I am about to buy my first mac from Amazon using Goldbox. I can get the last gen 2.2/120gb model for $1440 AR or the current gen 2.4/200gb for $1740 AR. Is the new gen worth the 300 difference. Or am I better off using the $300 to upgrade the old model to 4GB ($100) and for other accessories.
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Old or New Macbook Pro
- Thread starter vramd
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You'll get both sides of the fence with this one. I'd get the new machine if it was me. That 120gb drive will fill up fast. Depending on what you use your machine for 2GB of memory might be plenty and the 4GB might not give you any additional boost. The new machine has more cache memory which you will see a nice boost from when running certain apps.
Remember, you can always get more memory to put in the machine if you find out that you need it.
Remember, you can always get more memory to put in the machine if you find out that you need it.
Yeah, boils down to what you use it for and how long you keep your computers. If you're editing video, go newer; if you're emailing and surfing, go older.
If you keep a computer for 5 years, go with newer. If you turn them over once a year, go with older.
If you keep a computer for 5 years, go with newer. If you turn them over once a year, go with older.
I would also add that the 120 GB should be good for me for now. Im justing using this for pictures, word processing, internet, and Ill probably need to use bootcamp or Fusion for windows use. Im not sure what the cache memory is? What is that and how does it make a difference between the two units?
Cache memory is memory that sits right on the CPU. It is very very small, is in ingrained into the chip. This memory allows the CPU to store data close at hand for easy access. The more it has there, the faster it can work certain kinds of tasks.
The equivalent my CS prof gave was this
Onboard chip memory = accessing your brains memory
RAM = accessing data that takes a 3 hour plane trip to get to
Hard Drive = accessing data on the planet* Pluto
That is why you want more RAM, and don't want your computer using the HD to store "temporary" data, and you want to onboard cache to be storing information, and not your RAM.
But, all of these are task depended. No reason to have a formula one car if all you do is drive around the wal-mart parking lot
I'm here for followup questions!
~Tyler
*yes, it's a planet, and it always will be a planet, B**ch!
The problem is that it's hard to test the cache specifically. However, barefeats.com looks to have done a number of tests among the macbook Pros in recent times. I'm not going to read the details, I'll leave that to you, but they do make special note of the cache difference between the machines.
This one pops up near the top, but go looking around the site:
http://barefeats.com/mbpp02.html
I agree. Pimp out an old (but still good) one rather than getting an average new one.
Yup. Once you spend a few months with a computer, you realize it doesn't make much of a difference whether its top speed is +/- a few hundred megahertz; the bulk of work one does won't require more than the minimal speed of the machine.
I'm going to change my suggestion from new machine to old machine. The main reason I picked the new was because you specified the disk size of the old as 120GB and of the new as 200GB.
Based on your post where you told us how you plan to use the machine I would go with the old machine and get the biggest disk drive you can. I would hold off on the memory because I still think that 2GB will be plenty for you. You can always get more memory and put it in at a future date.
Based on your post where you told us how you plan to use the machine I would go with the old machine and get the biggest disk drive you can. I would hold off on the memory because I still think that 2GB will be plenty for you. You can always get more memory and put it in at a future date.