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Any other high end 2010 model owners feel this way?

murdercitydevil

murdercitydevil

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Feb 23, 2010
1,561
0
california
So I was actually pretty impressed with Apple's new MBP specs (sans 13") with today's upgrade, but the more I thought about it the less I cared enough about the upgrade to justify going through the hassle of selling my current machine and spending more money to get the latest and greatest. Here's why -

CPU - I really don't think SB quad cores are going to be enough of a difference from my 2.66 i7 Arrandale, especially because the horrible 5400 RPM hard drive which is stock in both models is a huge bottleneck for normal work related tasks, keeping the CPU from really being able to work to its fullest. With an SSD that changes, but honestly I think I'd rather just get an SSD for my 2010 MBP and enjoy the performance upgrade that brings by itself. If SSDs came standard (even just to house the OS) I would completely change my mind about this...but not this time.

GPU - IMO, looking at the upgraded GPUs from a wider perspective than just a comparison between last year's refresh, I still feel like Apple does not care about gaming or anything graphic intensive. Yes, the 6750 is great compared to the 330M, but that's REALLY not saying much outside of Apple's lineup. In some ways I feel graphics are a moot point because Apple always under delivers in this area.

Thunderbolt - this is the only one I may be really excited about...but the problem is it's not ready yet. I think by next year, it will have either proven itself or it will have failed. Either way I feel it may be better to wait?

So, tl;dr - I just can't get excited enough about this upgrade, even though it is pretty significant, to justify selling my mid-2010 MBP and paying more Apple tax. Maybe next year when SSDs are standard and the goddamn ODD can finally die, it will be time to upgrade.

EDIT: Another thing, I was really really hoping for high-res becoming standard on the 15". Jesus Christ Apple come on, it's pathetically obvious that you care about milking this amazing "high-res" option as long as possible. It's STANDARD.
 
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Put me in the same boat.

CPU: my current MBP 6,2 does everything I throw at it with ease (mainly Office, some Aperture) and with a recent SSD upgrade, it is now extremely responsive and fast.

GPU: Tried some Steam gaming and I would rather game on my PS3 than the MBP, thus the GPU changes are not significant for me.

Thunderbolt: Probably the only thing that fascinates at the moment, but am wary of first-gen implementations plus coupled with the availability of enabled devices. Am definitely keen on the possibility of a dual external monitor setup with Thunderbolt further down the line.

So ... I believe that my MBP6,2 (with SSD) and perhaps another upgrade to 8GB of memory would serve me very well until 2012.

Now, moving on to the iPad 2 .... ;)
 
Most techies are running SSDs already, and most of my friends would merely transfer the drive to their new MBP from their 2009 or 2010 machine (who cares if they're stock equipment or not...you gotta be running something fast...just make it happen).

In that case, the processor upgrade is a very, very big deal, and it's worth the upgrade to some. I'll be upgrading in a few months myself.
 
Yep...also some more thoughts on the GPU (as well as the upgrade in general):

I built myself a gaming PC in late 2007, using what was then pretty much the highest end hardware at that time, with future-proofing in mind. Today, in 2011, that desktop (which also duals as a perfectly functional hackintosh) is STILL more powerful in every area INCLUDING the hard drive (10k raptor vs stock 5400 Apple drive) than the newest MBP except the CPU (I'm not sure about this, the desktop has a Q6600 quad-core, overclocked to 3.6 Ghz, I'd be pretty stupefied if a 2.3 SB quad couldn't beat that).

Now I'm interested in running Geekbench on my desktop in OS X and see how it compares to the 10k scores from these new MBPs.
 
Im surprised with the amount of people that seem to update their mac hardware yearly...why would anyone consider getting the new mbp if they had the 2010 version....i currently have a 1st gen macbook that is in need of an upgrade which is why im getting a 15" mbp
 
andrewface said:
Im surprised with the amount of people that seem to update their mac hardware yearly...why would anyone consider getting the new mbp if they had the 2010 version....i currently have a 1st gen macbook that is in need of an upgrade which is why im getting a 15" mbp
Click to expand...

It all depends on how much you can sell it for.

I'll use iPad 1 as an example. I was offered $740 YESTERDAY for my iPad 1. I paid $829 plus tax. Divide that over the last 8 months. It ended up being dirt cheap to effectively "rent" it. Same goes for a lot of people I know in the music industry, and in graphic design. It's WORTH a few hundred bucks to upgrade each year because the MBPs hold their value so well.

Also, for those doubting the resale value, check out eBay. Some of those completed auctions have VERY good prices for C2D machines.
 
Same feelings here. I have a 15" i5 (2.53) MBP with a high res display that I've bumped to 8GB RAM. I've also swapped out the optical drive for a MCE adaptor and SSD. The SSD houses my OS; all my data is on a 500 GB 7200 RPM drive (not Apple OEM) in the main bay. To sum up, it's a pretty sick machine that boots to a workable desktop in about 12 seconds and launches most applications with one or two bounces.

With all this power, all I use the computer for is basic productivity (email, word processing, and the like)--I don't game, I don't do heavy video editing/encoding, and I do only minimal photo work. I doubt I'd see any advantage from the new processor or slightly faster RAM (which I'd have to pay for again to get up to 8GB), and my computer runs on the integrated graphics most of the time anyway. I'd get the Thunderbolt port...into which I have precisely nothing that I can plug that I can't already plug into my current machine! Plus I'd have to monkey around with the optibay adaptor (hoping they haven't reconfigured the innards to the extent that it no longer fits).

I toyed briefly with the idea of a new 13" MBP, but the resolution is a showstopper for me. Guess I'll sit this round out. Unless anybody wants to pay me $1500 for the machine. :)
 
I bought my 15" last fall knowing that it was likely an update would be made early this year. At least it didn't happen in January :)

New ones are i7 vs my i5. And have the future thunderbolt expansion. But you can't just wait and wait.

I have to go at least 3 years on a computer. I went 4 years on my last Windows laptop.
 
In May 2010 I placed a BTO for a 15" 2010 MBP, my selection included hi-res, anti-glare, with a Core i7 processor which was a must have for the work I do.

Once it arrived I upgraded to 8GB, and a 256GB SSD. Now I'm all set, it's been a great performer and (cross my fingers) totally trouble free.

I have no desire to comment on the latest rev, but to say that I am _very_ disappointed in Apple regarding the high pricing on the 15" & 17" MBP's. MacBook Pro's are great laptops that I would truly like to see more people be able to afford. In my mind, there is a huge difference between charging a fair premium and an obscene amount of money for a 15" laptop no matter how good it is. Especially when the cold hard facts are I use _both_ PC and Mac laptops, upgrade at each release (except this one) and find that MBP's are simply far too expensive to be truly competitive.

Frankly I don't give a flip how many they sell, they are still a niche computer.

Cheers... :)
 
I just purchased a i7 2.8 last month on the 22nd, so I went ahead and called in to return mine. I'll be replacing it with a 15" 2.2 quad. It's actually cheaper than I paid for the 2.8 highres so I'm happy.

Apple really stepped up here and let me return outside of the 14 day period.
 
jamesryanbell said:
It all depends on how much you can sell it for.

I'll use iPad 1 as an example. I was offered $740 YESTERDAY for my iPad 1. I paid $829 plus tax. Divide that over the last 8 months. It ended up being dirt cheap to effectively "rent" it. Same goes for a lot of people I know in the music industry, and in graphic design. It's WORTH a few hundred bucks to upgrade each year because the MBPs hold their value so well.

Also, for those doubting the resale value, check out eBay. Some of those completed auctions have VERY good prices for C2D machines.
Click to expand...

This^ If you are willing to deal with the sell and data swap, annual upgrades are cheap.


Cheers,
 
Same feelings OP

The i7 processor I have now is more than enough to get me by. I am patiently waiting for the price of SSD's to come down.

GPU- Totally agree. It's never been a priority for Apple.

Thunderbolt- This is going to be awesome. The test at the intel event was doing 723 mb/s.

My sig say's waiting for Rockwell, but if a redesign comes for Haswell I may be tempted to upgrade.

All in all, I am still in love with my 2.66 i7 2010 MBP. It's my baby and handles everything I throw at it.
 
doofoo said:
I just purchased a i7 2.8 last month on the 22nd, so I went ahead and called in to return mine. I'll be replacing it with a 15" 2.2 quad. It's actually cheaper than I paid for the 2.8 highres so I'm happy.

Apple really stepped up here and let me return outside of the 14 day period.
Click to expand...

I purchased mine 2 weeks ago Monday, my return date was February 21st (I am two days outside the return date). Do you think they would do that for me?
 
murdercitydevil said:
So I was actually pretty impressed with Apple's new MBP specs (sans 13") with today's upgrade, but the more I thought about it the less I cared enough about the upgrade to justify going through the hassle of selling my current machine and spending more money to get the latest and greatest. Here's why -

CPU - I really don't think SB quad cores are going to be enough of a difference from my 2.66 i7 Arrandale, especially because the horrible 5400 RPM hard drive which is stock in both models is a huge bottleneck for normal work related tasks, keeping the CPU from really being able to work to its fullest. With an SSD that changes, but honestly I think I'd rather just get an SSD for my 2010 MBP and enjoy the performance upgrade that brings by itself. If SSDs came standard (even just to house the OS) I would completely change my mind about this...but not this time.

GPU - IMO, looking at the upgraded GPUs from a wider perspective than just a comparison between last year's refresh, I still feel like Apple does not care about gaming or anything graphic intensive. Yes, the 6750 is great compared to the 330M, but that's REALLY not saying much outside of Apple's lineup. In some ways I feel graphics are a moot point because Apple always under delivers in this area.

Thunderbolt - this is the only one I may be really excited about...but the problem is it's not ready yet. I think by next year, it will have either proven itself or it will have failed. Either way I feel it may be better to wait?

So, tl;dr - I just can't get excited enough about this upgrade, even though it is pretty significant, to justify selling my mid-2010 MBP and paying more Apple tax. Maybe next year when SSDs are standard and the goddamn ODD can finally die, it will be time to upgrade.

EDIT: Another thing, I was really really hoping for high-res becoming standard on the 15". Jesus Christ Apple come on, it's pathetically obvious that you care about milking this amazing "high-res" option as long as possible. It's STANDARD.
Click to expand...

Coudlnt agre more, people are getting worked up about sandy bridge and fancy words use by marketing people. They believe the cpu makes the os faster, when it in theory the hdd is bottlenecking the system. Hard. Doesnt matter if you have a i7 quad core if you have 5400rpm drive. opening apps will still be slow. And the air will still feel faster doing light stuff in osx etc.

The biggest letdown for me though, is the gpu option for the base 15". I mean, the 2010 modell had a tiny bump in gpu peformance from base 15" to high end 15", the gpu in the base 15" 2011 modell is underwhelming. And that saddens me. Im not going to mention the 13", cause thats just crapware now.

Also yes yes yes, i agree, apple have used the same resolution for years now. They define the air as the future of macbooks, then the pro come, and they got the same crap resolution before, and still supossed to be marked as pro.

Thunderbolt is as you say not ready, it could be a hit or a huge fail, there has to be products that supports it first, but its not, first products come q2 2011 if i remember.
 
Honestly, I am perfectly happy with my system that is in my signature...

I figure that to upgrade my 2010 MBP to a 2011 (Sell my 2010 and buy a 2011) would cost me around 300 to 400 dollars. I would see a much bigger boost in speed by spending 300 bucks on a high quality SSD.
 
vbman213 said:
Honestly, I am perfectly happy with my system that is in my signature...

I figure that to upgrade my 2010 MBP to a 2011 (Sell my 2010 and buy a 2011) would cost me around 300 to 400 dollars. I would see a much bigger boost in speed by spending 300 bucks on a high quality SSD.
Click to expand...

This was one of the main things that made the decision for me as well...I'd much rather spend 300 bucks on a great SSD than to get a new machine with hardware that's still limited by a 5400 RPM drive, and then pay even more money to get an SSD.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Lacie, and Promise both just made press releases an hour or two ago detailing there new products coming out for Thunderbolt. I think it's going to take off a lot faster then people think. Give it 2 more weeks and you'll start hearing about a lot more I'd wager.
 
jamesryanbell said:
It all depends on how much you can sell it for.

I'll use iPad 1 as an example. I was offered $740 YESTERDAY for my iPad 1. I paid $829 plus tax. Divide that over the last 8 months. It ended up being dirt cheap to effectively "rent" it. Same goes for a lot of people I know in the music industry, and in graphic design. It's WORTH a few hundred bucks to upgrade each year because the MBPs hold their value so well.

Also, for those doubting the resale value, check out eBay. Some of those completed auctions have VERY good prices for C2D machines.
Click to expand...

You're still losing money. I could understand if people did this every 3 or years but it seems like everybody on MacRumors does this yearly.

My graphic design professor still uses a PowerMac g4 as his workstation. Infact most of the Mac users I know keep their machines for years and years.
 
You guys do realize that the 750 GB 5400 rpm and the 500 GB 7200 rpm are equal in price? Apple has them as equivalent, so you can select a 500 GB 7200 rpm drive for the same money as the 750 GB 5400 rpm drive. Just thought I'd point that out as no one has said anything about it yet.

EDIT: I was describing the situation for the high end 15". Just saw they're charging 100 bucks for a 7200 rpm 500 GB over the 5400 rpm 500 GB in the low end 15". Kind of a crappy move by Apple in my opinion. Understand where you guys are coming from now.
 
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I think I'll definitely wait for a redesigned model before I try to sell mine and upgrade. 2012 makes sense given Lion, but doesn't make sense in terms of hardware evolution, particularly port and disc changes. I think they might wait until 2013.

I could see a new Pro in 2013 with no ethernet, no Superdrive, no Firewire, and two Thunderbolt and two USB slots (plus SD card and the others).
 
murdercitydevil said:
Never had it. I bought this machine on launch day back in April so I'm obviously content with my purchase.
Click to expand...

That's good to hear then. I don't think anyone should feel "buyers remorse" because their laptop got a spec bump. It's not like once there's a spec bump their laptop no longer fits their needs. :cool:
 
I will be selling my 2010 MBP (see sig) to get a 17 MBP. IMO, the upgrade is really worth.
My main reasons are:
-Bigger and matte screen.
-Quad Core CPU.
-Thunderbolt
-Better GPU.
 
I think while the new upgrades are interesting, next year could bring some really great things for the MBP...This aluminum style is due for redesign...I will definitely upgrade in 2012, by then Thunderbolt should be in full force and possibly some software up to date with 4 core usage...
 
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