Possible upgrades:
8GB RAM ($180)
128 SSD ($90)
Core I7 2.3 ($225)
all with student discount..
Are these worth it?
If you can live without the capacity the SSD is a good investment. Buy ram separately, 8 GB can be bought for less then 100 USD in other places. For me an additional 100 MHZ and a probably imperceivable 5-10% performance gain is not worth $225, I suggest you buy other stuff instead like a Applecare extended warranty or a nice sleeve and bag.
i went for CTO 500GB 7200rpm drive - arrived Apr 4th
8gb crucial RAM £62
120gb SSD $304 from OWC - dirt cheap IMO
Why not just get the 128 GB SSD from Apple for $90 (with student discount)? It's 1/3 the price. Are the SSDs Apple uses inferior?
Shouldn't Apple be offering more options with the high end 17"?
Possible upgrades:
8GB RAM ($180)
128 SSD ($90)
Core I7 2.3 ($225)
all with student discount..
Possible upgrades:
8GB RAM ($180)
128 SSD ($90)
Core I7 2.3 ($225)
all with student discount..
Are these worth it?
I don't do much graphic design, but I do output a lot of photos for my friend's business. If color reproduction is important, always calibrate your monitor before outputting. Heck, even if they are IPS based panels, I'd still calibrate before making outputs.
As for the original topic, I think 1920x1200 should be at least optional for both 15 and 17. The only reason I got my 17" was because of the resolution. When all other manufacturers have 1920x1200 screens on their 15" and apple still only offers 1680x1050 as "option" is simply unacceptable.
If you are used to the iPhone 4 Retina display, you'll love the 17" display on the MacBook Pro, it has quite a high DPI.
I am having some display issues though with the backlighting. It seems that whenever the system switches from integrated graphics to discrete, it gets hotter and after a while two black vertical stripes appear (like the opposite of backlight bleeding..) what should I do about this? :/
Sounds like a hardware issue. Take it to an ASP or Genius bar.