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Buying a MacBook Pro

I

imotox

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 20, 2009
15
0
I currently have a 17" HP (which blows) and I am going to be buying a new computer for college 2010. I can't wait to buy a computer because this one the charger port is messed up, and won't charge without supporting the charger cord. I was looking at the lower end MBP 13" with upgrading the RAM to 4Gb. I was going to put in a 3rd party hard drive, though I've read the EFI 1.7 makes it un usable with 3rd party.

I was wondering if getting the MacBook Pro 13" with the 2.53Ghz processor would be worth the extra money. Also, does anyone know if Apple has fixed the EFI update (I plan on upgrading the drive with a non-apple drive).
 
Are you not going to be buying a computer for a year? If so, I am pretty sure the responses are going to be worthless as the product line is likely to change sometime in the next 10 months.
 
No, I plan on buying a computer in a couple of months (hopefully in time for a free iTouch). I just don't know which one to buy, the lower end or the upper end 13".
 
There is no way for me to wait, my computer only has about 30mins tops battery at fully charged and the charger keeps coming out and HP wants me to pay $300 to solder another Powerjack in (can't send me one so my brother can do it either).
 
I'd get a cheap alternative for the short term... You will love your MacBook Pro, but if there are no needs for the power now, you might as well wait IMO.
 
Yeah, if you don't start until fall 2010, WAIT! You will kick yourself after the refreshes before you head to school.

New chips are coming, and I can promise you they'll be in the MBP come the next refresh or 2.
 
Man for 300 bucks you could probably find an old powerbook on ebay just to get you by. But I know the whole wanting something new cause I am the same way. So to put it simple no its not worth the extra money.
 
If you want to buy a computer now then buy it now. It doesn't have to be for a particular purpose or event. The low-end 13" with the 2.26GHz is a better buy. Upgrade the RAM to 4GB and it's worthy of most any task.
 
Bill Gates said:
If you want to buy a computer now then buy it now. It doesn't have to be for a particular purpose or event. The low-end 13" with the 2.26GHz is a better buy. Upgrade the RAM to 4GB and it's worthy of most any task.
Click to expand...

OMG! BILL GATES TOLD ME TO BUY A MAC!!!!!!

Ok, now I was just wondering if the 2.26Ghz MBP would have any problems running any programs with 4Gb of RAM. I don't know if I would have to run any programs besides word processors and stuff (asking on a physics forum).
 
I know that, but I don't know if I'm only going to be doing word processing. Anyone know if you need any special programs when getting your bachelors in Nuclear Physics?
 
imotox said:
OMG! BILL GATES TOLD ME TO BUY A MAC!!!!!!

Ok, now I was just wondering if the 2.26Ghz MBP would have any problems running any programs with 4Gb of RAM. I don't know if I would have to run any programs besides word processors and stuff (asking on a physics forum).
Click to expand...
It should be able to run just about anything with 4GB, which appears to be the sweet spot as far as $/GB. 2GB should be fine too, but you would notice a significant speed-up going to 4GB which is why I highly recommend it. I really don't recommend buying a used notebook or a "temporary" notebook as others are saying because who is to say that it will be any better (or even worse) than the HP that you are so unhappy with? It's my experience that low-end PC's are generally unsatisfying if you're in the market for a Mac. There's also the fact that the amount you would spend on any just-to-get-you-by laptop could be the same or more than the hit in resale that you would take selling any prospective MacBook at the next update, invalidating any potential gains. I stand by my earlier recommendation.
 
The only risk with buying the $300 notebook for a year is that it breaks and therefore you have:
A. No Computer
B. Something you cannot sale

But then again, your computer can get ran over by a car or stolen...
 
So what about the EFI 1.7 update for 3rd party drives, did apple fix this yet? Also, how much battery time will I lose if I upgrade the drive to a 7200rpm drive?
 
The power consumption for 7200 rpm drives is nearly the same as the 5400 so battery life is nearly if not exactly identical.

As for the EFI update, I have no idea, what type of issues have you heard about with apple's current version of EFI that you want resolved?
 
imotox said:
I know that, but I don't know if I'm only going to be doing word processing. Anyone know if you need any special programs when getting your bachelors in Nuclear Physics?
Click to expand...

Uh, yes, you need to do a lot more than just word processing. And a lot of those programs are windows-only.
 
That's weird how they're only for windows, oh well I guess I'll be using VMWare or Parallels when I need it. I guess 450gb for Mac OSX and 50gb for Windows 7 beta (the only version of windows that doesn't 100% suck).
 
Bill Gates said:
It should be able to run just about anything with 4GB, which appears to be the sweet spot as far as $/GB. 2GB should be fine too, but you would notice a significant speed-up going to 4GB which is why I highly recommend it.
Click to expand...

That's not correct at all. That's a big misconception. Ram does not speed up your computer by any means. What it does is help to prevent it from slowing down. If you're using 2GB ram and the activity you're doing causes the system to run out of available ram then it will access the hard disk for a memory swap, that's what causes it to slow down. With more ram there's less chances of running out and requiring the system to access the hard disk.
 
HLdan said:
That's not correct at all. That's a big misconception. Ram does not speed up your computer by any means. What it does is help to prevent it from slowing down. If you're using 2GB ram and the activity you're doing causes the system to run out of available ram then it will access the hard disk for a memory swap, that's what causes it to slow down. With more ram there's less chances of running out and requiring the system to access the hard disk.
Click to expand...
I know how RAM works. From my experience, it's quite easy to go over 2GB of RAM in-use by just opening a few applications. If he intends to run a VM 4GB to run Windows then 4GB will be an absolute necessity because he would not have enough memory to allocate enough the VM and leave enough for OS X to avoid page outs with 2GB of RAM. That's why I suggest upgrading to 4GB, to prevent page outs.
 
Bill Gates said:
I know how RAM works. From my experience, it's quite easy to go over 2GB of RAM in-use by just opening a few applications. If he intends to run a VM 4GB to run Windows then 4GB will be an absolute necessity because he would not have enough memory to allocate enough the VM and leave enough for OS X to avoid page outs with 2GB of RAM. That's why I suggest upgrading to 4GB, to prevent page outs.
Click to expand...

Okay, that's how you should've explained it from jump street. You were telling the OP that his machine would get a speed increase just by adding more ram and that's wrong.
 
Technically it does speed up your computer because the computer accesses fast memory instead of a slow HD
 
HLdan said:
Okay, that's how you should've explained it from jump street. You were telling the OP that his machine would get a speed increase just by adding more ram and that's wrong.
Click to expand...
No, it was correct, because from my experience almost anyone using a few programs and OS X 10.5 will go over 2GB of RAM in-use. Don't tell me what I should have said. My words were clear to anyone who knows the basics of computing.
 
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