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Baseline Macbook Pro

II AndyG33 II

II AndyG33 II

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 8, 2008
123
0
Illinois
Is the baseline macbook pro underpowered?!?
I just wanna make sure i dont experience the amount of freezing and problems that i have with my current computerrr

i do alot of downloading
text reading / writing
browsing
listening to music
casual video editing for shcool
messing around in photoshop (nothing professional)
little bit of gaming... not much
i will be hooking it up to an external screen while doing this btw
1920x1200 25.5"


i don't want to spend 2k on a laptop and realize that i should have just saved up an extra 500 for the 2.5k one :[

i think it should be plenty powerful
heck i think the macbook would be powerful enough
but i want the pro [15" and vid card)

but i dont know that much :[
 
II AndyG33 II said:
i do alot of downloading
text reading / writing
browsing
listening to music
casual video editing for shcool
messing around in photoshop (nothing professional)
little bit of gaming... not much
i will be hooking it up to an external screen while doing this btw
1920x1200 25.5"
Click to expand...

You`ll be fine. Get a fast connection if you are doing a lot of downloading/browsing simultaneously.
 
So get the base model, get the fattest tube you can afford, and get a big external HDD.
 
yeah it'll definitely be fine for your needs. as for gaming don't expect to get max settings (although on a lot of games you can) but for everything else you listed it should handle things quite fine
 
You should be good. I constantly play TF2 and HL2 series on above maximum settings at full resolution with ~30fps (which with motion blurring seems like a lot higher). And I played Crysis at ALMOST full resolution and everything on low, :p but what can you expect from a portable anyway right? BTW, the game sucked anyways. And I play Oblivion on decent settings and get good fps. So it's a good system and is definitely NOT underpowered.
 
The base model will serve you fine. 3D graphics performance (games) is almost always limited by GPU performance, and all you'd get with the more expensive pro's is more video ram, which doesn't make a huge difference.

If you want to experience real performance gains, consider a 7200rpm drive. They now come as large as 320 GB. You can also upgrade to RAM of 4 GB, which is pretty cheap and very easy to install. This will allow you to keep more programs open at once with less HDD thrashing (although this works best with a faster HDD as thrashing/loading will still occur).

Enjoy your purchase!
 
II AndyG33 II said:
Is the baseline macbook pro underpowered?!?
Click to expand...

Oh, yes. Very underpowered. The extra 100 MHz one step up (a whopping 4% increase) makes all the difference

I just wanna make sure i dont experience the amount of freezing and problems that i have with my current computerrr
Click to expand...

Well, that's not related to speed, that's stability.

i do alot of downloading
Click to expand...

Stop right there. A lot of downloading? There's no way a computer that has a processor with two cores each running at two point four billion clock cycles per second could ever, ever keep up with a lot of downloading. I mean, I'm on a Beige G3 with a 500 MHz G4 CPU inside, and even I can only manage to download 10 or 12 GB per week on it. And this thing has a Velocity Engine.

text reading / writing
Click to expand...

Possibly the most strenuous of tasks, particularly if the reader is reading more than 50,000 WPM. Your MBP might have trouble keeping up with the massive scrollrate you'll need to have to keep up with you.

browsing
Click to expand...

You don't say? You must have a pretty powerful machine if you managed to find this site. I hear you have to browse here (I dunno if that's true, I just sat down and it was on this page).

listening to music
Click to expand...

MP3 files are very demanding. They've really only been mainstream on computers for the last 10 years, you might want to wait another decade before you attempt a listen on your Mac. Wait for octo-core 8 GHz Intel-based MBPs. Even Larrabee would struggle with that.

casual video editing for shcool
Click to expand...

Well, as long as it's casual.

messing around in photoshop (nothing professional)
Click to expand...

I don't think the MBP is capable of editing anything larger than a 40x50 sized JPEG, so you might be SOL.

little bit of gaming... not much
Click to expand...

I dunno about that. If you're talking about Quake III, I think perhaps the GeForce 8600 GT *might* be up to the task. But maybe not.
 
II AndyG33 II said:
Ya i totally know that 4gb of RAM is awesome...
wut kind or RAM should i get / where should i get it from?
Click to expand...

Get it from Apple. They use only the best quality memory when you buy it from them. Unscrewing the bottom of your laptop is like lifting up a girls skirt. Feels good but you know its so wrong. :p

[/sarcasm]

NCIX.com also has good prices.
 
Hoopdy said:
Get it from Apple. They use only the best quality memory when you buy it from them. Unscrewing the bottom of your laptop is like lifting up a girls skirt. Feels good but you know its so wrong. :p

[/sarcasm]

NCIX.com also has good prices.
Click to expand...

Erm .... in case you didn't get that, don't buy from Apple, they charge you an arm, a leg and two fingers. Get it from pretty much anywhere else. Just don't buy generic RAM.

Someone posted a Fryy's link for $40 after rebate.
 
Firefly2002 said:
Oh, yes. Very underpowered. The extra 100 MHz one step up (a whopping 4% increase) makes all the difference



Well, that's not related to speed, that's stability.



Stop right there. A lot of downloading? There's no way a computer that has a processor with two cores each running at two point four billion clock cycles per second could ever, ever keep up with a lot of downloading. I mean, I'm on a Beige G3 with a 500 MHz G4 CPU inside, and even I can only manage to download 10 or 12 GB per week on it. And this thing has a Velocity Engine.



Possibly the most strenuous of tasks, particularly if the reader is reading more than 50,000 WPM. Your MBP might have trouble keeping up with the massive scrollrate you'll need to have to keep up with you.



You don't say? You must have a pretty powerful machine if you managed to find this site. I hear you have to browse here (I dunno if that's true, I just sat down and it was on this page).



MP3 files are very demanding. They've really only been mainstream on computers for the last 10 years, you might want to wait another decade before you attempt a listen on your Mac. Wait for octo-core 8 GHz Intel-based MBPs. Even Larrabee would struggle with that.



Well, as long as it's casual.



I don't think the MBP is capable of editing anything larger than a 40x50 sized JPEG, so you might be SOL.



I dunno about that. If you're talking about Quake III, I think perhaps the GeForce 8600 GT *might* be up to the task. But maybe not.
Click to expand...

why are u such a a$$whole???
im just asking a question...

u have absolutely no reason to be mean...
 
Firefly2002 said:
Oh, yes. Very underpowered. The extra 100 MHz one step up (a whopping 4% increase) makes all the difference

Well, that's not related to speed, that's stability.

Stop right there. A lot of downloading? There's no way a computer that has a processor with two cores each running at two point four billion clock cycles per second could ever, ever keep up with a lot of downloading. I mean, I'm on a Beige G3 with a 500 MHz G4 CPU inside, and even I can only manage to download 10 or 12 GB per week on it. And this thing has a Velocity Engine.

Possibly the most strenuous of tasks, particularly if the reader is reading more than 50,000 WPM. Your MBP might have trouble keeping up with the massive scrollrate you'll need to have to keep up with you.

You don't say? You must have a pretty powerful machine if you managed to find this site. I hear you have to browse here (I dunno if that's true, I just sat down and it was on this page).

MP3 files are very demanding. They've really only been mainstream on computers for the last 10 years, you might want to wait another decade before you attempt a listen on your Mac. Wait for octo-core 8 GHz Intel-based MBPs. Even Larrabee would struggle with that.

Well, as long as it's casual.

I don't think the MBP is capable of editing anything larger than a 40x50 sized JPEG, so you might be SOL.

I dunno about that. If you're talking about Quake III, I think perhaps the GeForce 8600 GT *might* be up to the task. But maybe not.
Click to expand...

Ha. Truth and sarcasm mix with excellent results.

@ Andy: In all seriousness though, the big difference between the 2.4Ghz MBP and the 2.5Ghz version is the L3 cache, which is doubled from 3MB to 6MB when you move up to the 2.5Ghz. You're not doing anything remotely strenuous however so it's a moot point.
 
Hey, since this is up I might wanna ask a question!

I am considering to get a Macbook Pro, my 17" Intel iMac can't handle what I do, so I need to upgrade. Basically my Education Course is very demanding and without a computer that fits the requirements, I might just fail because my computer is letting me down.

In my course, I be using all the Adobe Products. Especially Photoshop, Illustrator, AfterEffects, Flash and Premiere. I will be rending alot, because that basically what we do every week.

On top of that, I will also be rending and composing on AutoDesk Maya.
So will it be capable enough to handle all that.

I am not too concern with HDD space, I can always move unneed files to my External HDD.
 
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