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13" Future proof?

I like the size/weight/battery of the 13". I game and do heavier tasks than you list on mine daily. The difference is not as great as many here would lead you to believe. I spent 1000 this year and next year when the new 13" come out I will sell this one and get the new one for a couple hundred bucks. I would rather do this every year than buy a top of the line system and keep it 3 years.
 
samk8000 said:
The 15" is more "Future Proof" than the 13" because of the i5, but the 13 is cheaper. If I were you, I would get the 2.66 ghz 13" because it has 2 separate 2.66ghz cores, but the 15" is more powerful (with 4 things open), but for just one the 13" 2.66ghz would be better. Unless you could get the i7 with hyper threading, get the 2.66 ghz 13"
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this is a really strange advice. The 2.66 MBP is the worst of the lot imho. for $300 extra you get a .26 CPU upgrade in the same C2D architecture. this upgrade costs about 30% for a speed bump *no one* will notice.

I am starting to think the MBP13 might be the smartest buy of the lot. I am in the process of buying a base MBP15 but with some upgrades i am now over €2000.

I can buy 2 MBP13's for that amount, so i can use it for two or three years and then buy the sandy-bridge i5 HR AG MBP13 (or something) for the same amount as getting a MBP15 now and using it for 5 years ... by which the arrandale i5 is old too.
 
BBQ BOY said:
Hey guys and gals. I am wanting to get a portable MacBook Pro. Uses will be for taking in the car to work and working on it doing some doucuments(but not many at all), web browsing, sofa web browsing for the wife and emails. Could do some photo/video downloading from cameras if on vacation with the family and emails.
No gaming and no hard core graphics. I have a iMac at home.
Anyway I was speaking witrh a friend of mine yesterday and in his opinion the 13" C2D is not going to be future proof enough as software/hardware conitues to beefed up.
My main reason for the 13" is poratabiity but not as much as price is a factor.
Iv'e read the 13" vs. 15" debate 100 times but I am no better off on that decision.
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not if you're into eye candy, not all of us upgrade solely based on power upgrades....some enjoy exterior updates
 
thejadedmonkey said:
By the time the Core 2 Duo in the 13" MBP is feeling its age, the i5 chips will be, too. The only thing that would possibly be considered future proof anymore is the i7, but spending gobs of money to future proof your computer seems silly when you can save the difference, and buy a whole new computer a few years later.
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stefan1975 said:
this is a really strange advice. The 2.66 MBP is the worst of the lot imho. for $300 extra you get a .26 CPU upgrade in the same C2D architecture. this upgrade costs about 30% for a speed bump *no one* will notice.

I am starting to think the MBP13 might be the smartest buy of the lot. I am in the process of buying a base MBP15 but with some upgrades i am now over €2000.

I can buy 2 MBP13's for that amount, so i can use it for two or three years and then buy the sandy-bridge i5 HR AG MBP13 (or something) for the same amount as getting a MBP15 now and using it for 5 years ... by which the arrandale i5 is old too.
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Both good advice.

Any computer will be "outdated" 3 years from now as it won't be the latest and greatest. So buy the MBP that meets your needs, don't spend more now than you need to just to "future proof" yourself, and just buy your next computer sooner.

And the upgraded model of any MBP is usually a bad deal. (The Core i7 models are likely an exception, but the 13" and 15" models with a slight processor bump and slightly bigger HDD are a terrible value.)
 
Only a Mac Pro can be future proofed - and that is beause you can change the CPU, add lots of RAM, change the GPUs and HDDs, all over time.

Which basically equates to buying a new computer. There's no going around this.
 
motivatore.jpg
 
stefan1975 said:
this is a really strange advice. The 2.66 MBP is the worst of the lot imho. for $300 extra you get a .26 CPU upgrade in the same C2D architecture. this upgrade costs about 30% for a speed bump *no one* will notice.

I am starting to think the MBP13 might be the smartest buy of the lot. I am in the process of buying a base MBP15 but with some upgrades i am now over €2000.

I can buy 2 MBP13's for that amount, so i can use it for two or three years and then buy the sandy-bridge i5 HR AG MBP13 (or something) for the same amount as getting a MBP15 now and using it for 5 years ... by which the arrandale i5 is old too.
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I agree the 2.6ghz 13 is a horrible horrible idea to buy. Get the base model and a Seagate Momentus XT or a SSD. The speed increase from either of those is huge compared to the minimal difference in CPU speed.
 
Haha! Bugger. Yesterday - YESTERDAY! I bought the 2.66 13", and promptly installed the momentus XT. I feel a bit diddled 🙄
 
I finally went down to the local Apple retailer about a month and a half ago and bought the base model 13" MBP. I was really worried for the better part of two years about the screen size and the "glarebook" shine of the 13", but I didn't want to spend the significantly higher amount of cash to get a 15" AG.

I have to say that the 13" screen has "grown" on me and that the glare is not a problem. The 13" is heavy enough too.

If the glare was really a problem, I'd probably have gone with the 13" whitebook because that unit's screen isn't as glarebookie. However, I wanted to try the the backlit keys and I also wanted to use my Apple Remote and I still needed Firewire. This means I would have probably moved up to the 15".....

The 15" wows me with its big screen and better speakers, but newly purchased 13" is good enough, especially since I can hook it up to a really big external screen and even better speakers. Well, the speakers in the 13 are only "ok", to be honest. Also, the screen on the 13" MBP is way better than the one that was on the original 13" MB Aluminum. BUT, I still think the 15" screen is better yet.

BTW. I hooked my 13" up to my Samsung LCD TV with the MDP to HDMI converter and it output 1080P straight out of the box, WITH sound!

I'm sure the 15 will be more capable in the long run, but how likely are you to actually need all the future proofing it supplies?
 
lewis82 said:
Only a Mac Pro can be future proofed - and that is beause you can change the CPU, add lots of RAM, change the GPUs and HDDs, all over time.

Which basically equates to buying a new computer. There's no going around this.
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Except with Intel constantly changing CPU sockets that upgrade path becomes impossible too. Not to mention the support for the latest graphics cards is often very much behind their actual release unless you decide to use hacked drivers. I'm starting to think that there is not many reasons to buy a proper desktop box these days when by the time it's underpowered you have to upgrade the whole thing anyway.
 
Tonsko said:
Haha! Bugger. Yesterday - YESTERDAY! I bought the 2.66 13", and promptly installed the momentus XT. I feel a bit diddled 🙄
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well you would be in your 14 day return period, right? So i guess you could bring it back - no questions asked and buy the base 13" and add $300 worth of goodies to it that wíll make a difference, an incase shell + moshi clearguard + 8gb aftermarket ram + aftermarket SSD would be good investments.....
 
It depends on how you define future proof. The C2D is not a bad processor, and it's going to continue to work just fine for years to come. When I think of "future proof" I tend to think more about how my own computer use might change. Am I going to be getting into video editing at some point? Can I envision anything new I'd like to do on my computer in the next few years that might require a better processor?

Granted, this is not an easy thing to do. But it helps.
 
I'd give it four years. Five at most. Personally I'm going to use my 13" into the ground or until I can't use what I use (mainly web browsing) very well anymore.
 
stefan1975 said:
well you would be in your 14 day return period, right? So i guess you could bring it back - no questions asked and buy the base 13" and add $300 worth of goodies to it that wíll make a difference, an incase shell + moshi clearguard + 8gb aftermarket ram + aftermarket SSD would be good investments.....
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Well, I bought it from a shop. will that still hold?
 
BBQ,

I still have my C2D 2.0 13" MacBook that I bought in January of 2008. Not only is it good for massive document creation/editing (I'm a graduate student), but I do light web development (using Photoshop/Dreamweaver/Illustrate/Fireworks/Flash) and video editing. For the most part, it chugs along just fine, with the sole exception lack of hard drive space. I'm planning on picking up a 13" or 15" MBP within the next 6 months, but not because the MB is in need of replacement, but because I want the all-aluminum body.
 
Tonsko said:
Well, I bought it from a shop. will that still hold?
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don't know but if it is an apple store it should be no problem, if it is a different store i guess it depends on the store rules or something.

Over here in NL i believe you can return any product within 7 days in the original state and packaging and they have to give you your money back or a coupon, which wouldnt be a problem if you buy another MBP at the same store.

you could just enjoy it though, i am sure the 2.66 is a fine machine too ...
 
gianly1985 said:
http://gabe.newell.usesthis.com/


Now, that's a bit extreme and is gaming-oriented, but the same principle applies to non-gamers in my opinion. (just swap "6 months" with "2-3 years")

I mean, today I can buy a 1000€ 13" MBP or a 2000€ 15" Core i7 512mb MBP. If future-proofing my buy means spending 1000€ more, well I could as well save those 1000€ and 2 years later buy a Quad-core USB 3.0 Lightpeak SATA 6gbps IPS Snow Lion Liquidmetal Macbook Pro 13" with that money.

OR I could spend those 1000€ so I can get the i7 and GT 330M 512mb whose power I *****SO****** need for reading emails, watching TV shows, browsing the web and doing light office work. Or not.

My 2 cents on "future proofing at any cost".
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Yep money in hand is more future proof than a computer.
 
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