Anyone besides me hoping the new MBP DOES have an optical drive?

[Wrathwitch]

I am waiting with bated breath for the new MBP refresh and hoping fervently that it has Ivy Bridge and just a few more goodies to it.

I know some people are hoping they come out much slimmer with only SSD, but I REALLY want mine to have a DVD/CD reader/burner...

My reasons for wanting one is that I do bootcamp my machines and therefore end up installing some games from discs that I have bought. I DON'T want to have to drag around an external drive to do this with like I have to do for my MBA. Or if I want to watch a movie that I have on disc all snuggled up in bed, don't want to have to dongle an external drive to do this.

I guess my feeling is that the MBP line is the hybrid between MBA and Mac Pro. As a result it should have the muscle that a desktop replacement needs for heavy lifting (respecting the cooling requirement AND a stand alone video card for heavy graphics use). You should also have the ability to load whatever software that you need to that is not immediately available as downloadable....

Yeah progress is good.

Anyone else feel this way?

WW

 

[Krazy Bill]

Anyone else feel this way?

Your "feelings" (or mine) about this have nothing to do with the outcome. Especially here on MR's where the macbooks are not built.

My advice would be to get more internal storage and install your games once. Leave the external ODD at home.

 

[Adamantoise]

If the new MBP has an optical drive ... Buy it.
If the new MBP lacks an optical drive ... Buy a Late 2011 one.

It may come as a shock to some, but the Late 2011 and Early 2011 MBP are more than capable of handling the computing needs that the majority of us have. Apple releasing a new computer is not going to change that.

I honestly don't see why everyone is up in arms about this.

 

[manticore999]

I just got my first Macbook Pro 2 months ago. I really like it, but if they stop making them with optical drives built in it'll also be my last Macbook!

 

[heisenberg123]

since my MBP is only a year old it will be a few more years before i need to replace it but i also still use my optical drive often and i dont want to drag around a optical external either

i also dont understand the arugement that if you need an optical drive just plug in an external, are these notebooks/laptops or desktops.

----------

Your "feelings" (or mine) about this have nothing to do with the outcome. Especially here on MR's where the macbooks are not built.

My advice would be to get more internal storage and install your games once. Leave the external ODD at home.

its been a while since i played any intensive PC games but dont some still require the dvd in the drive to run the game even once installed?

 

[Krazy Bill]

I just got my first Macbook Pro 2 months ago. I really like it, but if they stop making them with optical drives built in it'll also be my last Macbook!

But by the time you're ready for a new laptop Optical Media will be dead.

 

[trikky]

I just got my first Macbook Pro 2 months ago. I really like it, but if they stop making them with optical drives built in it'll also be my last Macbook!

People were saying that about floppy drives when the iMac came out, too.

 

[Wrathwitch]

since my MBP is only a year old it will be a few more years before i need to replace it but i also still use my optical drive often and i dont want to drag around a optical external either

i also dont understand the arugement that if you need an optical drive just plug in an external, are these notebooks/laptops or desktops.

----------



its been a while since i played any intensive PC games but dont some still require the dvd in the drive to run the game even once installed?

It's not so much the game disc requiring to be in the drive, but I bought like 3 expansions of World of Warcraft and don't feel like buying the digital copy for things I already own.

Also I still don't want to have to have an external attached to watch a movie on it (yes I still watch DVDs).

 

[edk99]

Your best bet is to hope Apple does not redesign the MBP. My feeling is that if they are going to do a major redesign then the ODD is history. Reason being is that these designs last 3-5 years and giving the Mac App store is growing, Apple not selling physical media any more and you can download movies or stream them there is less and less a need for an ODD.

 

[Wrathwitch]

Your best bet is to hope Apple does not redesign the MBP. My feeling is that if they are going to do a major redesign then the ODD is history. Reason being is that these designs last 3-5 years and giving the Mac App store is growing, Apple not selling physical media any more and you can download movies or stream them there is less and less a need for an ODD.

True Dat...

I am really quite torn between the new and upcoming MBP (or if they remove the Optical Drive) the late MBP and the latest and greatest Alienware. Slag Dell if you want (I really do hate Windows) but I have always had excellent gaming performance with their gaming laptops.

Most media IS becoming digital, but we aren't there yet and I don't think that Apple should shut that door quite yet. As you say though, it all depends on whether or if it gets redesigned....

 

[heisenberg123]

Your best bet is to hope Apple does not redesign the MBP. My feeling is that if they are going to do a major redesign then the ODD is history. Reason being is that these designs last 3-5 years and giving the Mac App store is growing, Apple not selling physical media any more and you can download movies or stream them there is less and less a need for an ODD.

your 100% correct, i just dont like this new direction, you can install off a dvd in seconds, now you have to download 2GB files for an hour or more

but your right when you say thats the way everything is going

 

[bdodds1985]

I don't use the optical enough to care, and since I did buy a 2011 MBP with one, I ended up taking the drive out and putting in dual SSD's. As long as whatever they do doesn't drag down the graphics card etc etc, because no optical drive means they will try to make it slimmer. I think I used my optical one time, to install starcraft which I hardly even play because I am stuck on a deployment. Other than that, everything is downloadable now.

 

[Freyqq]

I'd only be fine with it if they included an external dvd drive for free or dropped the price appropriately so one could be purchased to make the total value the same as it is currently.

 

[416049]

I think its a good thing to have but not 100% necessary and sadly this won't influence the decision apple is going to make.

 

[macuser2134]

Your best bet is to hope Apple does not redesign the MBP. My feeling is that if they are going to do a major redesign then the ODD is history. Reason being is that these designs last 3-5 years and giving the Mac App store is growing, Apple not selling physical media any more and you can download movies or stream them there is less and less a need for an ODD.

I agree with this 100%. If there is no chasis redesign - then it makes little sense to remove the ODD just on its own. However if they DO change the chassis then it makes perfect sense to ditch the ODD entirely. Most people can get already by just fine without them. And if thats being disputed, then arguably certainly sometime during the expected lifetime of the next chassis revision.

The recommended solution of having an external (pluggable) ODD seems reasonable. The portability aspect is maintained when the software allows simply ripping the DVD disk onto your hard drive for use later. Be that either a movie or a game. Similarly the situation for DVD creation (home movies etc) is equally met by a pluggable DVD drive and at times when you *arent* on the move.

To make Ripped file(s) which obviously you can take with you on the internal hard disk is not terribly hard or inconceivable. Its admittedly a little less convenient for those (few) people who still have to do it. For a while... however only until the inevitable weening off of said optical media (like most others we have already got past this by now...). And you will find you can live pretty comfortably without DVDs.

 

[cube]

If it doesn't have an optical drive it is not an MBP.

 

[rockyroad55]

If they drop the price of that damn SuperDrive, then I may be fine without the ODD.

 

[fabian9]

My feeling is that if they are going to do a major redesign then the ODD is history.

Apple like to be in the driving seat when technology is changing. If they don't have an ODD anymore, developers who are clinging on to distributing their mac software by optical media will have no choice but to use soft software distribution channels.

you're 100% correct, i just dont like this new direction, you can install off a dvd in seconds, now you have to download 2GB files for an hour or more.

How long does it take you to buy a physical media? Order online, wait until the next day at least - so that's around 24hrs. Go to town/mall to buy whatever software you're after, 30 mins at least.

Downloading 2GB on a 8Mb connection (pretty standard in today's world?) from a fast server (like Apple's), probably 30-60 mins?

 

[odinsride]

It's not so much the game disc requiring to be in the drive, but I bought like 3 expansions of World of Warcraft and don't feel like buying the digital copy for things I already own.

The discs for WoW are not necessary at all. You can download the client free of charge from your battle.net account page. In fact, you can download any Blizzard game from your battle.net account page as long as you've registered the keys for each game through battle.net

 

[macuser2134]

If they drop the price of that damn SuperDrive, then I may be fine without the ODD.

Are there really no reasonable (and cheaper) alternatives than the official Apple SuperDrive?

I was under an illusion that you could plug pretty much any kind of compatible external 3rd party DVD drive into a Mac. Either a USB one or a Firewire one. Ivy Bridge will add USB 3.0 to the connectivity options so if USB 3 DVD and BlueRay writers exist for PC... they aught to exist aswell for the Mac going forward.

For a solution thats BOTH $$ cheap and reasonably fast. Perhaps there are fewer devices available for the Mac due to a requirement to write Mac drivers? Or are they mostly all just plain regular SATA devices? And hence require no special driver support to be written for OS X? (and Linux too presumably).

Sorry not being au-fais with these technicalities - can someone please fill us in?

 

[maflynn]

I'm ambivalent on this subject. I've had an optibay installed in my MBP for sometime, but have needed the optical drive, so I pulled that and put the optical drive back in. I could live with one in there, if apple doesn't drop it, or I'll adjust my habits if they do.

One thing is sure, its not a question of when we'll lose the optical drive but when. If its not this iteration it will be sooner then later. There's less and less need for it at this stage (imo)

 

[Wrathwitch]

The discs for WoW are not necessary at all. You can download the client free of charge from your battle.net account page. In fact, you can download any Blizzard game from your battle.net account page as long as you've registered the keys for each game through battle.net

that IS good to know. Thanks!

 

[srshaw]

MBP should have optical drive.

If they should make an Air Pro for a better specced laptop with no optical drive.

 

[SDAVE]

I have a feeling it will look like an Air and they will definitely take out the optical drive and leave it out with an external accessory. Maybe only the 17" will have one, like it does with the express card...and maybe this time they will put in a Bluray drive.

 

[gr8tfly]

The Pros should have an optical drive, IMO. At worst, leave it in the 17" (as they do with the ExpressCard slot).