Buying a new uMBP 17" now - or wait for possible announcements in October?

[tofagerl]

Honestly, if I feel that the Apple machines are underpowered, I have no qualms about buying a windows PC which is known to be hackintosh-compatible and installing Snow Leopard. I already have a license on Leopard+Snow Leopard for my macbook, so I'll just "move" that over to the hackintosh.

Daddy wants power!

 

[thermodynamic]

Maybe because some people can work on Windows computers without feeling icky or like they are disloyal to Apple. It's just a computer, I think many people forget that. Windows 7 is coming up and it's really good. I regularly work on both platforms and find more and more that they are just so similar that for many people it just doesn't matter. Whatever gives you the best performance and quality for the right price is what people will buy.

If Apple doesn't release an update soon, many people might go to Windows 7.

Given how BAD Vista was (thanks to it, I moved to Mac), I'm skeptical that Win7, which as a built-in XP emulation mode AND requires more disk space than Vista, really will be any better. It still has the registry... and every new OS release has the media frothing "This will make or break microsoft". I got tired of that since 1999 with Windows 2000 Pro... and XP (which was how Windows 2000 Pro should have been so why it wasn't a free upgrade...) And yet people dislike Apple's policies; one needn't be a full tech to figure out Microsoft's no saint...

 

[tofagerl]

The registry is no longer the devil. It's bad drivers now. Didn't you get the memo?

 

[RyanTheGeneral]

I hate all of you!! Lol fighting over which is better and why.. Who's not switching to windows and who is. I have windows xp on my which is matured now and I can't not wait to get any mac!! Which all these talks of a possible mbp coming soon I kind of want to wait. But I do plan on getting my first mac by the end of oct. I barely use my pc because Im afraid any site I go to will give me a virus. I went on a playstation site and got one!

I can not wait to join the mac family and as of now don't care which one I get as long as it's a mbp. I'm no stranger to apple products however as I own a iPod touch(which I am using to write this) and the iPhone.

 

[thermodynamic]

The registry is no longer the devil. It's bad drivers now. Didn't you get the memo?

ROTFLMAO!!

The registry still is the devil; at work when I have to do pc support, I jsut say "Sod this!" and wipe the local profile; letting AD generate a new one when the user logs in. Then I copy back the favorites and documents. After logging in as myself to make sure the problem is with the system registry rather than the local profile registry...

Besides, I thought all the drivers were fixed; now it's the sold-as-"un-fragmentable" NTFS that somehow gets fragmented very quickly... or how the new version is everything that the predecessor should have been, yet it's not free and still costs $200 on up...

Actually, drivers are still a big problem. One of the brands we have rhymes with "hell", is hell, and are shipped with old drivers that often crash. Even when installing a new version, if the driver installer crashes, it corrupts the entire machine (removing things in safe mode did not help) so we have to re-image. It's a joke...

I've NEVER had those problems on a Mac. Not once.

As with all computers, there is a chance of data corruption, but that's usually do to not powering off the computer correctly. (And in Windows' case, another cause is if SP1 hadn't been installed yet... effing Vista...)

 

[thermodynamic]

I hate all of you!! Lol fighting over which is better and why.. Who's not switching to windows and who is. I have windows xp on my which is matured now and I can't not wait to get any mac!! Which all these talks of a possible mbp coming soon I kind of want to wait. But I do plan on getting my first mac by the end of oct. I barely use my pc because Im afraid any site I go to will give me a virus. I went on a playstation site and got one!

I can not wait to join the mac family and as of now don't care which one I get as long as it's a mbp. I'm no stranger to apple products however as I own a iPod touch(which I am using to write this) and the iPhone.

NO platform is immune. And Windows, Mac, and that Linux whateveritis (I used it frequently before going Mac; not worth it as there are no proper workstation apps, but I digress) can ALL be targets. Malware spread by psychological manipulation (e.g. "Click here to go to this site!" or even using a third party coordinator for easier URL distribution ("tinyURL" has people fearing that it would make a great conduit for malware if they get infected)) is easier to accomplish than reverse-engineering an operating system or finding holes to get through... but Windows and Linux do make it easier due to their bloated status. Apple keeping tight drivers thankfully lowers the risk, but they are not immune either.

And if you do get malware protection, Intego is FAR better than Symantec... and Intego's antispam component isn't perfect, either... but their anti malware/firewall ARE worth every penny. It intercepted a few port snooping attempts when I connected to the college's network... glad I don't use Windows there...

The iPhone is GREAT! OS 3.1 update did make connecting to my car's SYNC media system run slower, but after removing a couple of soundtrack albums (that I had no problems with before), speed time improved. A later patch will undoubtedly correct things, and I keep a backup of my whole library on my iphone, in the event the main computer goes out. Always have a backup...

I will say this in Windows' favor: XP is mature. But Vista NEVER will be, and for Win7 the fact they had to put in a special XP emulation mode helps render it pointless. Linux and Mac can emulate XP too. Faster, as the bloated Windows codebase isn't the host OS...

 

[silentnite]

With October sitting on the border & all these rumors flying around. It really wouldn't hurt to just wait till end of month. I myself would love to own an Imac, however I'm waiting to see if prices will go down on the current line if a new one is released. Also we have black Friday coming up which will bring in some well deserved sales. If for some reason a refresh does not happen by end of October, it would be safe to say it won't happen until the new year. Happy waiting, with the other millions.

 

[sth]

Maybe because some people can work on Windows computers without feeling icky or like they are disloyal to Apple. It's just a computer, I think many people forget that.

I didn't mean to start an OS war and it's definitely not about feeling "disloyal" to Apple.

I'm "at home" with any operating system. I have windows machines, two linux servers (all hand-built) and my MBP. I'm also a system administrator for a company network which is completely windows-based (including servers).

I gave the Mac a try in 2006 because I would still have the opportunity to install Linux oder Windows if I didn't like OSX. However, I've become accustomed to it since I (coming from several years of linux desktop usage) really like the combination of a unix-system and the availability of commercial software. I know that I could do everything I do for work on a windows PC as well (with the exception of iPhone development) but I have my software and my workflows on OSX now, so a faster processor in some PC notebook isn't enough to make me switch away from Apple at this time.

 

[ortuno2k]

You would NEVER catch me buying an non-Apple laptop.
Something has to go very wrong at Apple for me to switch, or something very extremely good in the Windows world.
<3

 

[Xylian]

I hope they will release new MacBook Pros with the core i7 mobile CPUs this month.... I'd like to jump in the MBPro world, but not with the current technology, which I already have on my Santech X3620 laptop... Buying a MBP 17" is a big investment (with the same amount of money you can buy a Santech laptop with the latest technology, from the CPU, to the HDDs ecc), but I feel it's the time to try to jump into the "mac world".. It would be the time also to upgrade the GPUs of the MBPros, since they are quite old, but it is not a priority for me.. With technologies like GCD, a 4-core CPU with HyperThreading (8 logical CPUs) will be a very good thing, as soon as developers starts using it in their programs... so, let's wait and hope for an upgrade, even if we are only in the middle of the usual production cycle

 

[tempusfugit]

I hope they will release new MacBook Pros with the core i7 mobile CPUs this month.... I'd like to jump in the MBPro world, but not with the current technology, which I already have on my Santech X3620 laptop... Buying a MBP 17" is a big investment (with the same amount of money you can buy a Santech laptop with the latest technology, from the CPU, to the HDDs ecc), but I feel it's the time to try to jump into the "mac world".. It would be the time also to upgrade the GPUs of the MBPros, since they are quite old, but it is not a priority for me.. With technologies like GCD, a 4-core CPU with HyperThreading (8 logical CPUs) will be a very good thing, as soon as developers starts using it in their programs... so, let's wait and hope for an upgrade, even if we are only in the middle of the usual production cycle

this month?

Steven Tyler once said "dream on, dream on, dream on, dream until your dream come true"

Giapetto from Pinnochio once said "when you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are, when you wish upon star your dream comes true"

Thomas E. Lawrence once said "All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible. "

 

[Xylian]

this month?

Steven Tyler once said "dream on, dream on, dream on, dream until your dream come true"

Giapetto from Pinnochio once said "when you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are, when you wish upon star your dream comes true"

Thomas E. Lawrence once said "All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible. "

I'm not in a hurry to change my laptop, so I will wait... and dream
In the meanwhile I'm documenting myself on the technologies on which I'll put my hands as soon as I have a MBP with Snow Leopard... there's a lot of interesting technical stuff about GCD, OpenCL ecc on the Apple developers' site

 

[superlatic]

Current MBP Processors

Intel T9900 3.06ghz 6MB L2 Cache. Max TDP = 35W
Intel T9600 2.8ghz 6MB L2 Cache. Max TDP = 35W
Intel P8800 2.66ghz 3MB L2 Cache. Max TDP = 25W
Intel P8700 2.53ghz 3MB L2 Cache. Max TDP = 25W
Intel P8400 2.26ghz 3MB L2 Cache. Max TDP = 25W

New Clarksfield Processors

Intel i7-720QM 1.6ghz up to 2.80ghz 6MB Cache. Max TDP = 45W
Intel i7-820QM 1.8ghz up to 3.06ghz 6MB Cache. Max TDP = 45W

Hence unless Apple is willing to let the MBP's take a hit in battery life (which I doubt highly), I think the chances are slim we will see these in the MBP, and would have originally doubted that we would have seen these in an iMac. Although if rumours are to be believed re the pending iMac update, then either we will be seeing Clarksfield processors in the iMac or Apple are getting Arrandale early.

 

[L0s7man]

I still don't get how people can decide on a system change so lightly. For me there's no way of buying a non-apple laptop, no matter how good it is.


Not much difference, but I'd get a new (2.8ghz) one.

What he meant with "downgrade" was: The price of the components has dropped significantly and even though Apple updated the specs and lowered the price a bit, they're still making more money on the new models than they did on the old ones.

sth: your choice of system is probably Windows or OS X. I can simply use Linux and laugh at the other two. That said, I like OS X very much (the most actually).

As for the downgrade; maybe it's a bad word, but it wasn't an upgrade. The price dropped a bit, but apple chopped some hardware, that's it. You can't call it upgrade. It was cheaper, not better. (minor CPU bump is hardly worth to be called an upgrade). So, as far I see it, the new uMBP wasn't any better. And since the world moved on, I consider "not being any better than before" being "simply worse" ;-)

 

[Xylian]

Current MBP Processors

Intel T9900 3.06ghz 6MB L2 Cache. Max TDP = 35W
Intel T9600 2.8ghz 6MB L2 Cache. Max TDP = 35W
Intel P8800 2.66ghz 3MB L2 Cache. Max TDP = 25W
Intel P8700 2.53ghz 3MB L2 Cache. Max TDP = 25W
Intel P8400 2.26ghz 3MB L2 Cache. Max TDP = 25W

New Clarksfield Processors

Intel i7-720QM 1.6ghz up to 2.80ghz 6MB Cache. Max TDP = 45W
Intel i7-820QM 1.8ghz up to 3.06ghz 6MB Cache. Max TDP = 45W

Hence unless Apple is willing to let the MBP's take a hit in battery life (which I doubt highly), I think the chances are slim we will see these in the MBP, and would have originally doubted that we would have seen these in an iMac. Although if rumours are to be believed re the pending iMac update, then either we will be seeing Clarksfield processors in the iMac or Apple are getting Arrandale early.

I don't think 10 watts more will lower so much the battery life... But they would give a considerable boost in CPU performance, which will become greater as GCD enabled applications will make intelligent use of all the available cores.. Don't you think so...? I would give away a small amount of battery life for such an enhancement of the CPU..but this is just my honest opinion

 

[L0s7man]

Don't forget it's MAX TDP. MAX. Intel claims that inactive cores in i7 use almost no power.

If anything, i7 should BOOS battery life. You get the power when you need it and when you don't, most cores simply shut down.

 

[superlatic]

I don't think 10 watts more will lower so much the battery life... But they would give a considerable boost in CPU performance, which will become greater as GCD enabled applications will make intelligent use of all the available cores.. Don't you think so...? I would give away a small amount of battery life for such an enhancement of the CPU..but this is just my honest opinion

Fully agree with you, I dont think it would be the end of the world.....

But this is Apple we are talking about remember, do you think Mr Jobs would think like that?

 

[thermodynamic]

With October sitting on the border & all these rumors flying around. It really wouldn't hurt to just wait till end of month. I myself would love to own an Imac, however I'm waiting to see if prices will go down on the current line if a new one is released. Also we have black Friday coming up which will bring in some well deserved sales. If for some reason a refresh does not happen by end of October, it would be safe to say it won't happen until the new year. Happy waiting, with the other millions.

I read an article yesterday; someone replaced the CPU in a Mac Pro and it worked; the Apple EFI firmware usually recognizing only certain processors. So the guy who did all that either reverse-engineered the EFI firmware... or it may have been a hoax...

Mac pros might get a couple more features and a small CPU bump, but the prices won't change. That's my guess. I'm still leaving my new Pro boxed until I feel certain there won't be anything of benefit by not waiting...

 

[The SpinDoctor]

Don't forget it's MAX TDP. MAX. Intel claims that inactive cores in i7 use almost no power.

If anything, i7 should BOOS battery life. You get the power when you need it and when you don't, most cores simply shut down.

Is this 100% confirmed??

If it is; all our hopes have been confirmed.

 

[L0s7man]

Hmm... Apple store is down and it is Tuesday and everyone else already did their "we're gonna do i7" announcements ;-)

But it's 2am here and it might be a simple maintenance...

 

[relativist]

Comparing the cpu power isn't enough, you have to look at the entire design since the new cpu's have integrated functions that the old one doesn't, specifically the memory controller.

 

[Xylian]

Comparing the cpu power isn't enough, you have to look at the entire design since the new cpu's have integrated functions that the old one doesn't, specifically the memory controller.

Yes, it's a new technology... Personally I'll wait untill the MBPs are shipped with these new CPUs before spending 2700 Euros (I live in Italy, so I must spend the equivalent of 3900 Dollars to have the better 17"...) for a "not new" technology (I've said "not new" because it is not really "old")...

 

[kngelv]

I say wait till mid November