Absolutely BAD TIMING to buy any PRO machines

[zioxide]

The MBP is designed for the pro to use CPU and GPU intensive apps on the road.

This is true. However, there's no way in hell a current laptop would be able to offer the performance of a 8-core workstation. A measly 400mhz bump to 2.8 GHz would give you what, 5 seconds less render time on something that takes a minute to render. 55 seconds vs 60 seconds. Minimal performance gain for a much hotter running machine. No thanks.

So, if you only surf the web, do your itunes, use a bit of ilife with your MBP, you probably do not know what I am talking about. Plus you are not a "Pro" and the plastic macbook was made to suit "consumer" users like you.

Thanks for assuming you know what I do and what my computing needs are. You know what they say when you assume.

For the record, I'm a film student with a photography minor and I use FCS2, AE, and PS for all of my work. So I do know a little something about power and the needs of "pro" users.


The bottom line is that you think that the MBP is designed as a workstation (the MBP is a workstation, not a common desktop) replacement, when there's no way a current laptop could ever offer the power of a workstation.

And back to your assessment that it's a terrible time to buy an MBP, you're completely wrong. It was just updated two months ago to top-of-the-line specs, and there's pretty much nothing more powerful available on the market right now (other than the 2.8GHz which runs way too hot for the MBP).

If you did any research, you would know that there will be no such "Quad Core 2 Extreme" mobile chip coming out with in the next year. That's a desktop chip. You would also know that the next update of the MBP won't be until Intel launches the mobile Penryn processors in Q1 2008. This update will only be an "evolutionary" update because the Penryn chips are just a die-shrink of the current Meroms to 45nm. This will offer a minor speed boost and a minor reduction in heat.

The next revolutionary update to the Macbook Pros will not come until Summer 2008, when Intel launches the Montevina Mobile Platform. So if you want to wait an entire year for the next revolutionary product, then I guess now isn't a good time to buy.

But then again, 10.6 and the Intel Nehalem processors might be getting close by then, so you'll probably just want to wait until them too. The bottom line is that technology is updated fast and you have to time your purchases to get the most of your money. Since the MBP was just recently updated (it was a revolutionary update) to the Santa Rosa platform and LED backlighting, it's a good time to buy.