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BikerDocR6

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 8, 2006
9
0
after much hair-pulling dilemma skipping back & forth b/w the 15" and the 17", i finally decided that the 17" would indeed be ok to carry around as well as serve as a desktop replacement. but before i march over, any issues i should know about with this machine?
 

ricgnzlzcr

macrumors 6502a
Jun 7, 2005
802
0
No, it seems not many 17 inch mbp owners have had issues with their laptop. The only thing some people are going to mention is the impending release of the merom chip but if you need it and want it now, you should get it.

Also, I envy you very much because I have always wanted a 17 inch screen! Good luck
 

ImNoSuperMan

macrumors 65816
Dec 1, 2005
1,221
64
Like the above poster said, 17 inchers had very few problems compared to the 15 inch ones. But why are you buying it now. Merom can be announced anytime now. If you can wait for 5-6 weeks then definitely wait. MBP is not a cheap notebook. You spend a lot of money for it. So why get one which`ll be updated with a new(supposedly faster, cooler, better) CPU very soon.

Get it only if you really need it now and cant do without it for a few more weeks.
 

LoveMacMini

macrumors regular
Jul 30, 2006
155
0
don't listen to these people

macbook pros won't be updated until intel launches they're new chipset to accompany merom.

santa rosa is supposed to launch sometime in the first half of 2007

buy that macbook pro right now and enjoy it, otherwise you'll be playing the waiting game forever.

quad core centrino is supposed to come out by the end of 2007, are you going to wait until then? exactly.
 

ImNoSuperMan

macrumors 65816
Dec 1, 2005
1,221
64
LoveMacMini said:
don't listen to these people

macbook pros won't be updated until intel launches they're new chipset to accompany merom.

santa rosa is supposed to launch sometime in the first half of 2007

Thats BS. There`s no way in world Apple keeps selling Yonah MBPs while Dell n HP offer Merom ones for 6 months:eek: . They can upgrade the MB whenever they wish to but MBPs will definitely get the update as soon as Apple gets it`s hands on enough Meroms.

The current Yonah MBP is pretty fast and Merom wont be exceptionally better than this. But still if you are getting a new cpu with atleast 10-15% better performance, 5 weeks us definitely worth the wait.

SO get the current one only if you absolutely need it right now and cant wait for the meroms.
 

Sesshi

macrumors G3
Jun 3, 2006
8,113
1
One Nation Under Gordon
BikerDocR6 said:
after much hair-pulling dilemma skipping back & forth b/w the 15" and the 17", i finally decided that the 17" would indeed be ok to carry around as well as serve as a desktop replacement. but before i march over, any issues i should know about with this machine?

I bought the 17" MBP very shortly after release. Mine has started to change shape slightly. There's a droop on one side, and the screen has began to assume a very minor U profile. I pooh-poohed a similar post not so long ago, but now it's happened to me I'm a little concerned. Not a major issue, but not something I expected.

The weight is noticeable. I was debating the pros and cons of the 15" or the 17" myself, but since I expected to be stationary with the MBP for the vast majority of time I opted for the 17" as a desktop replacement. On the occasions that I have carried it, it has been pretty weighty. I would hate to carry that every day. The difference between the MBP17 and the Macbook which I also use (and carry far more often) is apparently only something like 700g but you do really notice that extra weight. The difference between the MBP17 and the MBP15 is like 500g, so I would imagine you would notice that too.

The heat is also an issue, especially in summer. The strip on top of the keyboard gets to burn-capable temperatures of in excess of 50C+, and the bottom is in the sustained-exposure low-temperature burn range that people who wear stick-on 'hot packs' can experience. (I doubt however that people will remain with their MBP's glued to their laps for 6+ hours). As an example, I run Handbrake on the MBP sitting on a wooden desk. After it finished I took the laptop off the desk. About a minute later I measured the desk's temp after it had time to cool down and it was still 40C. For the most part I had the MBP sat on an iCurve with a fan going behind it, so it was always frosty - but when I turned the fan off, case temps would rocket. I may hate my comparatively clunky, almost identically-configured Dell 9400 in comparison to the MBP as machine but I can tell you that in no situation I've felt that I cannot 'lap' it for heat reasons.

For some reason, I've had two power bricks die on the trot. And in this case, unless you have an Apple store handy you can expect to be out of action for the better part of 4 days while Apple sends you a new one. To replace it this way they'll take your credit card details and once in my case, charge it despite the fact that they have the faulty unit.

Apart from that, it's been a beautiful machine. There are definite reservations over the build quality, but this is definitely one of the - if not the - most productive laptops I've ever owned. It is svelte and although heavy is nominally portable, the screen is large and everything works so smoothly.
 
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