I bought a white Macbook with a 1.83 Ghz processor and 60 GB of HD space for college last year, and have been treated pretty well so far. Photoshop runs a little slower than I'd hoped, but that is the only problem I've had. I recently bought all of the adapters and cables to connect to my HDTV, and have noticed a bit of lag here and there, and I'm starting to see my hard drive fill up. I bought a Western Digital 120 GB external, upgraded my RAM from 512 MB to 2 gigs, invested in bluetooth peripherals, and am sort of considering moving up to a MBP. I do some editing in Adobe, and a lot of schoolwork with MS Word for Mac, but my primary reason for possibly upgrading is the superdrive and the excellent video card. I'm not impressively experienced with computers in general, and would like some advice on whether or not to upgrade to the MBP or just stick with my initial investment.
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Considering a Macbook Pro as an upgrade...do or die?
- Thread starter thegreatjesse
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if you can hold off, there are rumors that they're going to update the mbp pretty soon. if that's the case, i'd totally wait and get the new mbp. if you have the spare scratch, go for it. if not, just sit tight and wait for another opp.
(btw not sure if you've been reading about the 8600 card currently being used in the mbp... there's a lot of ruckus about it.. just another thing to consider)
(btw not sure if you've been reading about the 8600 card currently being used in the mbp... there's a lot of ruckus about it.. just another thing to consider)
Ouch, good point. I just read about that. What about upgrading the video card in the Macbook? I read somewhere that its not possible because its soldered to the motherboard. Is that a fact?
The MacBook has integrated graphics. The MacBook Pro has dedicated graphics. Neither are upgradable without changing the motherboard.
yeah, the gpu is soldered onto the logic board. i think i've read that there's a work around but it seems like it'd be pretty intensive with little to no room for error. i'm currently 1 year into my apple care plan so, i'm hoping that my comp dies out before year 3 or they have a fix by then. so far, i've had to replace my board once, but i still love my mbp.
The video card is on the motherboard, so for all practical purposes it's impossible to upgrade it.
On the bright side, it's intel and not one of the bum nVidia cards
On the bright side, it's intel and not one of the bum nVidia cards
Well, for all intensive purposes, I suppose the Macbook will have to go. So, I should basically wait for the update on the MBP and hope that Apple resolves the issues with the NVIDIA card, or appropriately replaces it?
I don't think you're really at risk if you got the updated MBP. Apparently, the GPU doesn't freak out for quite some time, IF it is really defective to begin with. And if you get Apple Care with your purchase, you're covered for 3 years, so you should be fine.
I don't agree with this kind of risk estimate. If everyone faces the same chance of randomly drawing a dud graphics card from a perfectly even distribution over time and geography, the people who use more intensive apps still face a higher risk of failure than those who mostly surf and work in MS Office. If you live in a warm climate, your risk is again a little higher than those who don't. The fact that nVidia made an announcement to its shareholders means that they expect a significant financial hit = significant numbers of defective units. They have already calculated that some of us will not use intensive apps, and some of us live in colder climates.
So to the OP, I'd say judge for yourself whether you might be in the higher risk segment of users. If so, I'd wait for the next revision; it probably won't be longer than a few months at most, and possibly as little as a week. A working macbook is worth more than a macbook pro in the shop, even if Apple is the one footing the repair bill. If you're not at higher risk than anyone else, then buy when it's most convenient for you; enjoy your purchase knowing that Apple will take care of it. Because of nVidia's public admission, I'd say there's a decent chance that all MBPs with graphics issues will be taken care of even if they don't fall under Applecare.
Just wait, 100% sure that by sometime in august that it will be updated to montevina.
Apple uses intel like the rest of the oem companies. No longer do they use a g4/g5 ppc chipset so they cant just decide when to release/update the mbp.
Remember that apple has to move foward and use whatever intel has currently manufacturing and that is montevina since monday.
Apple uses intel like the rest of the oem companies. No longer do they use a g4/g5 ppc chipset so they cant just decide when to release/update the mbp.
Remember that apple has to move foward and use whatever intel has currently manufacturing and that is montevina since monday.
