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Buy Leopard or sell Merom MBP/Buy Penryn MBP?

K

Kan-O-Z

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 3, 2007
305
2
I'm in a bit of a delemna. I have a 2.2GHz(Merom) 160GB SR MBP, LED running Tiger, flawless condition. I literally bought this computer right when Leopard came out, just missed Leopard by weeks. In a way I'm glad cause I got to experience a rock solid OS and in the meantime Leopard has become more stable.

Now on to my question. I need to get Leopard which will cost $130. Another idea that came to me was what if I was to sell my MBP for around $1500. I looked on ebay and it seems to be about what they are going for. I can get an education discount and buy a new one for $1800. So it would cost me about $300 out of pocket. If I factor in the fact that I won't need to buy Leopard, the net cost of an updated computer will be $170. This will give me the following:
-256 Video instead of 128
-200GB HD(or 250GB for additional $40) instead of 160GB
-45nm Penryn 2.4 instead of 2.2 Merom (should run cooler, faster, better battery life?)
-Mutli touch pad

What do you guys think?

Kan-O-Z
 
assuming it will all work out like that, then yeah, you should do it. I always find I end up eating an extra $200 in a situation like that :)

my $.02

w.
 
Agreed, it's gonna cost a few hundred dollars out of your pocket to upgrade to the newest models from Apple, but you are getting some of your purchase price back when selling it elsewhere like on ebay.
 
No, just buy leopard. If you buy the new penryn you will lose more than $300-400 for a mbp that will pretty much perform identically, if not then penryn 2.4ghz model will just be slightly/very very small in speed increase/faster in real world usage.

If anything just buy leopard now and just wait till next year to update to something much faster, possibly montevina even later this year with a difference in speed such as a 1066MHZ front side bus with 800mhz 4gb RAM, suppose to be made to support bluray as well and Wimax, now that's a worthy upgrade to lose a bit of $$ on.
 
fredrickyoon said:
You would have to do your due diligence on the seller. I've had no issues with any of my purchases on ebay through the many years that I've been there.
Click to expand...

Yeah I actually have a 100% rating on Ebay and have sold dozens of things. This MBP is flawless, especially since I don't really take it outside the house and 90% of the time it's used like a desktop hooked up to a 20" widescreen LCD.

The one thing I am wondering is that would it be easier for me to sell it now since it's 'almost' current? In another year, it'll definitely be more outdated.

Aside from that, I love my MBP. I don't want to see it go :)

Kan-O-Z
 
Kan-O-Z said:
Yeah I actually have a 100% rating on Ebay and have sold dozens of things. This MBP is flawless, especially since I don't really take it outside the house and 90% of the time it's used like a desktop hooked up to a 20" widescreen LCD.

The one thing I am wondering is that would it be easier for me to sell it now since it's 'almost' current? In another year, it'll definitely be more outdated.

Aside from that, I love my MBP. I don't want to see it go :)

Kan-O-Z
Click to expand...

The thing is on ebay (I've been checking out prices I sell alot as well with 100% feedback) that the 2.2ghz SR mbp is going really cheap. I'd say about $1200, even the 2.4ghz SR mbp is going at most $1600 (I considered selling my mbp for a 17" hi res model and pay the difference in $$ but I'm not going to anymore and just wait until the montevina is released).

I guess what I'm saying is that since I do use mostly my mbp with a 23" ACD connected to it, the nice hi res screen on the 17" mbp wont be seen much and I wont see any increase in speed difference for me to spend an extra $1300 and rather wait for something that is substantially faster while getting all the new features.

For you if you sell your 2.2ghz mbp for around $1100-$1200 and you have to pay ebay sell fees and final sell fees, paypal fees and when you buy your new penryn mbp your going to have to pay tax anyways after the student discount so pretty much $2164(2.4ghz version penryn with tax +student discount)-$1100(or even around $1000 after paying off final ebay seller fees/insertion fees/paypal fees). Even if best case scenario you sell it for $1400 (which I doubt) you will still take home probably $1250ish at best to the bank.

Lol one funny thing is that I see alot of buy it now for $1600-$1800 (wow alot of greedy people I say), those people are idiots and it will never end up selling buy it now like that for the 2.2ghz, hell the 2.4ghz SR mbp is going $1650-$1800 buy it now.

So you basically pay an extra $1000 for another machine thats going to feel exactly the same?? Thats just insane.

At least in a year or two later even if the price drops on the 2.2 mbp to say about $700 at least you put real good use to it and will be buying a laptop thats going to be fast as today's mac pro or at least 2-3x faster than the current penryn =D

I predict in june-Aug (more probable in august) apple will release the penryn/montevina and the current penryn people will make threads about should I switch, does a 1066mhz front side bus make a huge difference and others will make threads about I just bought my penryn non montevina mbp just last week!! And the famous who cares if its updated because something better will be around the corner and just enjoy your mbp (but to these people I say are idiots only to the ones that skipped SR mbp and waited a full year to buy the current penryn, because if you waited that long might as well wait for montevina (the more fully equipped true penryn machine that should have been what today's penryn update is today)).

And yes 1066mhz frontside bus will be hugely felt and huge difference as to the SR/Penryn mbp. Maybe later this year we could pick up the current penryn at the same price as what the current SR mbp are going for basically.


So yes love your mbp and love that extra $1000 your not wasting and hell you still got the led screen =D
 
One thing to mention is that I am 100% positive the montevina is coming later this year. Remember Apple isnt the same company that it was 3 years ago with g4/g5 chipsets where they could take their time to upgrade anytime they want.

Since the transition to intel they have to keep up in updates whether they like it or not to keep up with the pc counterparts especially with dell or else they will lose alot of $ales.
 
jjahshik32 said:
you put real good use to it and will be buying a laptop thats going to be fast as today's mac pro
Click to expand...

I'm sorry... I just had to say something. That's so not even in the remote world of possibilities that I can't even BEGIN to stress how untrue that statement is.

EVEN if you find that you have a quad core mobile chip being put in there... the current mac Pro still has 2x the cores, 2x the cache, will have 600MHZ fsb advantage (1600mhz), will have 2x the fsb throughput (dual 1600mhz fsbs), amazing video in the 8800GT, and hard drives 3-4x as fast.

In NO WAY in ANY scenario will ANY laptop be as fast as a current MAC Pro for a looooong, looooong, looooong time.
;)
 
GotPro said:
I'm sorry... I just had to say something. That's so not even in the remote world of possibilities that I can't even BEGIN to stress how untrue that statement is.

EVEN if you find that you have a quad core mobile chip being put in there... the current mac Pro still has 2x the cores, 2x the cache, will have 600MHZ fsb advantage (1600mhz), will have 2x the fsb throughput (dual 1600mhz fsbs), amazing video in the 8800GT, and hard drives 3-4x as fast.

In NO WAY in ANY scenario will ANY laptop be as fast as a current MAC Pro for a looooong, looooong, looooong time.
;)
Click to expand...


How can that not be a possibility?? All you need are ssd drives and quad core mbp and the gpu will be in a laptop for that is far superior than today's 8800gt in 2 years and its pretty much same speed as like say a 2.66ghz mac pro if not a bit faster. Just how laptop these days are faster than pentium 4's by a long shot ;)

But I'm comparing a laptop to today's mac pro, of course if a laptop that powerful is around in 2 years imagine what that time's mac pro would be like, a behemoth.
 
jjahshik32 said:
How can that not be a possibility?? All you need are ssd drives and quad core mbp and the gpu will be in a laptop for that is far superior than today's 8800gt in 2 years and its pretty much same speed as like say a 2.66ghz mac pro if not a bit faster. Just how laptop these days are faster than pentium 4's by a long shot ;)

But I'm comparing a laptop to today's mac pro, of course if a laptop that powerful is around in 2 years imagine what that time's mac pro would be like, a behemoth.
Click to expand...

A 2.66 Mac pro is NOT today's Mac Pro. Today's Mac Pro is 8 Cores of 3.2Ghz Madness... with an available graphics card that has 1.5 GIGABYTES of RAM on it right from apple.

In 2 years...Even if they start shipping 200GB SSD Drives... I'm willing to be that there won't be video cards with 1.5GBs of Ram on them (as the Mac Pro has today), NOR will they have dual 1600MHZ front side busses (as the Mac Pro has today), NOR will they have 24 Megs of CPU CACHE (as the Mac Pro has today), NOR will they have 8 cores (as the Mac Pro has today), NOR will the CPUs be high end server XEON CPUS (as the Mac Pro has today), NOR will the CPUs even reach 3.2Ghz... the mobile CPUs (even Nahalem) are all tracking UNDER 3.0Ghz (as you can see from the attached roadmap chart)... even for the 2nd Generation Nahalem scheduled for the middle of 2009. And even if that ends up being 12 Megs of Cache (I'm not betting it will...) that will STILL be 1/2 the L2 cache of today's 24 Megs :D

So... if you REALLY wanna take the bet that in 2 years ANY LAPTOP will beat TODAY'S MAC PRO (not yesterdays)... "I'm your huckleberry" :D
 

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GotPro said:
A 2.66 Mac pro is NOT today's Mac Pro. Today's Mac Pro is 8 Cores of 3.2Ghz Madness... with an available graphics card that has 1.5 GIGABYTES of RAM on it right from apple.

In 2 years...Even if they start shipping 200GB SSD Drives... I'm willing to be that there won't be video cards with 1.5GBs of Ram on them (as the Mac Pro has today), NOR will they have dual 1600MHZ front side busses (as the Mac Pro has today), NOR will they have 24 Megs of CPU CACHE (as the Mac Pro has today), NOR will they have 8 cores (as the Mac Pro has today), NOR will the CPUs be high end server XEON CPUS (as the Mac Pro has today), NOR will the CPUs even reach 3.2Ghz... the mobile CPUs (even Nahalem) are all tracking UNDER 3.0Ghz (as you can see from the attached roadmap chart)... even for the 2nd Generation Nahalem scheduled for the middle of 2009. And even if that ends up being 12 Megs of Cache (I'm not betting it will...) that will STILL be 1/2 the L2 cache of today's 24 Megs :D

So... if you REALLY wanna take the bet that in 2 years ANY LAPTOP will beat TODAY'S MAC PRO (not yesterdays)... "I'm your huckleberry" :D
Click to expand...


Well if not faster, probably on par or just a bit under powered as to today's mac pro. Anything is possible gentlemen. I'm sure there were people saying there is no way a laptop could be faster than a p4 ht. I read an article about the later intel chipsets are going to utilize gpu and cpu on the same die or something like that to conserve more power to have more power kinda deal. I thought that was pretty cool.

Unless thats only for the desktop then I guess the laptops will always be behind falling in place to today's mac pro speed while the future mac pros having amazing speeds far and beyond.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/26/intel_cpu_integrated_gpus_in_09/
 
Kan-O-Z said:
I'm in a bit of a delemna. I have a 2.2GHz(Merom) 160GB SR MBP, LED running Tiger, flawless condition. I literally bought this computer right when Leopard came out, just missed Leopard by weeks. In a way I'm glad cause I got to experience a rock solid OS and in the meantime Leopard has become more stable.

Now on to my question. I need to get Leopard which will cost $130. Another idea that came to me was what if I was to sell my MBP for around $1500. I looked on ebay and it seems to be about what they are going for. I can get an education discount and buy a new one for $1800. So it would cost me about $300 out of pocket. If I factor in the fact that I won't need to buy Leopard, the net cost of an updated computer will be $170. This will give me the following:
-256 Video instead of 128
-200GB HD(or 250GB for additional $40) instead of 160GB
-45nm Penryn 2.4 instead of 2.2 Merom (should run cooler, faster, better battery life?)
-Mutli touch pad

What do you guys think?

Kan-O-Z
Click to expand...

I'm in almost the EXACT same situation OP. Honestly, I just want better battery life and Leopard. I could buy Leopard for $100 and Applecare for $200, OR I could simply sell this one for $1400 shipped (I'd rather sell on CL and avoid shipping). I brought it brand new for about $1800 so that's taking a $400 hit already. If I sell, I'd like to sell it before a new model is released and before my initial 1 year is up. As far as I'm concerned-when a new notebook is released these will depreciate even lower. I'm not really into buying anymore brand new macs.

I'd just like to pick up a refurb notebook exactly like mine with Leopard on it instead...perhaps a 2.4ghz depending on when they hit the refurb store...the more I think about this though the more I think it's probably easier and less hassle to just purchase leopard and applecare on my current computer....of course there's the new battery to factor in too. All of which just cost me an extra $400...which means things are about even unless I upgraded models.

More than likely I'll wait until May or June to see what comes out and how low the refurbs will go, but then again it'll be harder to sell for more when the new ones come out unless the timing is right. If nothing new comes out before June 7 then I'll just buy applecare for my current one and replace it in 2 years.
 
FWIW, I don't think that you would be able to sell your MBP for $1500. That being said, even if you could, I don't think there would be a significant speed advantage. The only adv. I see is the graphics card, and that is only if you will be doing stuff that will utilize it. Also, if you get edu discount on the MBP, then should should also get it on the Leopard (I think it is $79?), so that would skew your figures a bit more toward it not being worth-it. Since you have a great system now, I would not change. We are not even considering if you get a MBP with problems (not that you would, because that is the minority, but still), that will add a lot of headache. I would wait until there is a significant change in the MBP, maybe montevina, but I would even say wait for WWDC '09 - your comp will last...
 
PowerBookRelic said:
FWIW, I don't think that you would be able to sell your MBP for $1500. That being said, even if you could, I don't think there would be a significant speed advantage. The only adv. I see is the graphics card, and that is only if you will be doing stuff that will utilize it. Also, if you get edu discount on the MBP, then should should also get it on the Leopard (I think it is $79?), so that would skew your figures a bit more toward it not being worth-it. Since you have a great system now, I would not change. We are not even considering if you get a MBP with problems (not that you would, because that is the minority, but still), that will add a lot of headache. I would wait until there is a significant change in the MBP, maybe montevina, but I would even say wait for WWDC '09 - your comp will last...
Click to expand...

This is great advice and I completely forgot about the leopard student discount. ...the .edu discount is only $119 though. Where do you get $79 from?

Anyway, I think I'm just going to get Applecare and maybe leopard and call it a day.
 
jayeskreezy said:
This is great advice and I completely forgot about the leopard student discount. ...the .edu discount is only $119 though. Where do you get $79 from?

Anyway, I think I'm just going to get Applecare and maybe leopard and call it a day.
Click to expand...

Sorry about that price quote. When I go to the APPLE education store for my school (University @ Buffalo), the price shows as 116. The price I mentioned was through my school computer store (UB MICRO), and it is 89 dollars...I mixed them up in my head.
 
Thanks for all the advice. One thing that is fairly downplayed is the multi-touch. I'm not so crazy about the speed improvements as my 2.2GHz seems to be very fast. I feel the multi-touch is a 'new' feature that I just can't have on my MBP. I do think that Apple will continue adding more hand gestures and more and more things to support the multi-touch which should work on todays Penryn MBP.

Some things I would like to see are 2 finger click(I know this is already supported on mine and it's the equivalent to a right click). 3 finger click (this would be nice for say dashboard). 4 finger click (this would be nice to expose). There will be a lot of other things as well.

I'm guessing that the new Penryn multitouch is really different from the Merom touch. I am assuming no backwards compatibility? Having a Penryn may be nice since it'll probably be supported for at least a few years until something drastically better than the current multitouch comes out.

Kan-O-Z
 
Kan-O-Z said:
Thanks for all the advice. One thing that is fairly downplayed is the multi-touch. I'm not so crazy about the speed improvements as my 2.2GHz seems to be very fast. I feel the multi-touch is a 'new' feature that I just can't have on my MBP. I do think that Apple will continue adding more hand gestures and more and more things to support the multi-touch which should work on todays Penryn MBP.

Some things I would like to see are 2 finger click(I know this is already supported on mine and it's the equivalent to a right click). 3 finger click (this would be nice for say dashboard). 4 finger click (this would be nice to expose). There will be a lot of other things as well.

I'm guessing that the new Penryn multitouch is really different from the Merom touch. I am assuming no backwards compatibility? Having a Penryn may be nice since it'll probably be supported for at least a few years until something drastically better than the current multitouch comes out.

Kan-O-Z
Click to expand...

Dont even sweat it about the multitouch, I've used on the penryn mbp and while the only one I like is the 3 finger swipe for back and foward under safari, the macbook air trackpad was alot better since it was bigger. Maybe the next iteration of mbp will have the bigger trackpad for the multitouch + it will have the 1066mhz frontside bus with the 800mhz 4-6gb ram (which imo is a million times better reasons for upgrading than the multitouch alone).
 
Kan-O-Z said:
This will give me the following:
-256 Video instead of 128
-200GB HD(or 250GB for additional $40) instead of 160GB
-45nm Penryn 2.4 instead of 2.2 Merom (should run cooler, faster, better battery life?)
-Mutli touch pad
Click to expand...

You forgot a few things:
- Five free Genius Bar appointments for exchanges or repairs.
- Three or more yellow screens at no additional charge.
- Free membership to the MBP Defect Club.

Sorry; I shouldn't feel that way. But after having gone through tons of defective MacBook Pros in a year, to FINALLY find one that had no serious problems, I just can't understand why anyone would sell a flawless MBP for the chance to play the lottery again.
 
if you ca sell it for that much than yeah buy a new one, but I've seen 2.4 SR MBPs going for much cheaper
 
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