Aluminum Macbook good upgrade from original 2Ghz MBP?

[vaderhater245]

As posted in my sig. I was one of the geniuses/ early adopters of the first generation macbook pro. I am a design student in college and primarily work with Adobe CS3. Obviously times are tuff these days but unfortunately my MBP is starting to die i think. hard drive skips, renders take longer, and now WoW is slowing down more and more. What I'm getting at is the current(new) $1600 Macbook model a worthy upgrade for me? i wouldnt mind the smaller size. my main tasks would be for design work in CS3 and eventually CS4, and as a portable WoW computer. With me graduating from college in 2-3 years and entering the workforce as a designer. Is the new Macbook up for the Job? Or should i just try to wait it out a bit and save twice the money for the up and coming 17"?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Lexoticstylez02]

As posted in my sig. I was one of the geniuses/ early adopters of the first generation macbook pro. I am a design student in college and primarily work with Adobe CS3. Obviously times are tuff these days but unfortunately my MBP is starting to die i think. hard drive skips, renders take longer, and now WoW is slowing down more and more. What I'm getting at is the current(new) $1600 Macbook model a worthy upgrade for me? i wouldnt mind the smaller size. my main tasks would be for design work in CS3 and eventually CS4, and as a portable WoW computer. With me graduating from college in 2-3 years and entering the workforce as a designer. Is the new Macbook up for the Job? Or should i just try to wait it out a bit and save twice the money for the up and coming 17"?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

I'd either get another 15" or wait for the 17" if portability is not an issue. Doing a lot of graphic design will probably be tough on a 13" screen, besides that it's a great computer and I haven't had one complaint about it. It will run WoW just fine, I haven't had problems with gaming yet on my new MB.

 

[vaderhater245]

If i could i would love to get another 15" right away but unfortunately with all the money i'll get from christmas and work I'll be amazed if i can even get the 2.4Ghz Macbook model. lol

 

[melchior]

well.. it's hard to say when you feel like it's dying. but i would personally be inclined to swap out the drive for something faster and more reliable and max out the ram.

i had a quick look to see what machine you actually have, are you sure it's not the 2.16 MBP? i can't see a 2.0 MBP. the original was 1.67 and 1.83 which had the ATI x1600 which is admittedly quite pitiful but i just couldn't justify it to move up to the macbook with the 8400m.

your render and WoW performance increase just won't be that noticeable IMO... stick it out for the 15" if money is tight. people say you can get them in the states with educational discount for $1500...

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

How about buying a refurb last generation? The penryn models are cheaper ( 1300-1400) and better than the MB.