Desktop died, trying to decide on MacBook Pro 17" now or in 12-18 months

[thomar2k1]

The situation I'm in is this, I had planned on replacing my Core 2 Duo Vista desktop and 13" MacBook (late 2007) with a MacBook Pro 17" when Arrandale/Clarksfield dropped, but the desktop is no longer a viable machine.

The desktop has been used for the heavy lifting, as the MacBook (first ever Mac) isn't powerful enough for big transcoding jobs and the display isn't big enough to do the photo work I do (limited - post processing on SLR RAW images - amateur stuff).

I do some gaming - but not tons - World of Warcraft and the Command and Conquer/Red Alert series.

All of that builds to this: my current choices are buy the 17" 2.8GHz MBP now, or build a new desktop rig with Windows 7 (boo I know) and wait 12-18 months to rebuild the MBP budget.

My heart wants the MBP, but my head tells me I'm going to be angry when the new MBPs drop in the next 90ish days.

Anyone have a voice of reason for me?

 

[adder7712]

How about an iMac?

 

[palmerc2]

How about an iMac?

wow yeah there you go, the 21.5 with the 4670 should suffice
and the resale value will hold up par too

 

[Gabriel GR]

What is broken in that desktop? Computers don't break entirelly... Find out which part failed, replace it and call it a day.

The imac is nice. Good looking, space saving etc. But it won't be noticeably faster than the desktop it will replace (Desktop vs Laptop hardware...).

I think with 100-200 bucks you can fix whatever is broken in your pc and you can still go for your 17 down the road.

 

[thomar2k1]

The power supply is starting to give up the ghost. It took the mobo/proc/RAM with it, and since it's Conroe based (E6300 w/8800GTS video) I'd be looking at buying basically a new machine.

I've kind of dismissed the iMac because I really only want 1 machine for daily computing. If I build a new desktop - it will be with server duty in mind, so I can use that for the home server (iTunes, movies, etc) once I get the MBP.

I guess my biggest question is will there be an appreciable performance increase from the MacBook to the MacBook Pro to make me not want to kick myself when the Arrandale/Clarksfield MBPs come out?

 

[Gabriel GR]

The power supply is starting to give up the ghost. It took the mobo/proc/RAM with it, and since it's Conroe based (E6300 w/8800GTS video) I'd be looking at buying basically a new machine.

I've kind of dismissed the iMac because I really only want 1 machine for daily computing. If I build a new desktop - it will be with server duty in mind, so I can use that for the home server (iTunes, movies, etc) once I get the MBP.

I guess my biggest question is will there be an appreciable performance increase from the MacBook to the MacBook Pro to make me not want to kick myself when the Arrandale/Clarksfield MBPs come out?

The T9600 of the 2.8 is much faster than your E6300. Ram is the same (I assume you had 4gb) and the only thing slower is hard disks. So even now, the 17" will probably be faster than your desktop, except for gaming. Both the 9400M and 9600M GT are slower than your 8800.

I doubt the new platform will offer more than the 15-20% boost. And no, I don't have any facts.

Still with new i7's out, etc with half the 17" money you will build a hell of a desktop much faster than anything apple offers under 3k...

If you need cheap power, build a nice PC desktop and get a laptop down the road. Unless you don't mind paying for a Mac Pro (I do)
If portability and OSX are your priorities get the mac.

 

[adder7712]

About hard drive speed, if you order online, you can opt for a 7200RPM hard drive. About the GPU though, like the above poster said, the 8800 is faster than the 9600M and the 9400M.

With the iMac however, you get a 7200RPM HDD and a 4850 if you opt for the high end model. The Mobility 4850 is faster than the top-of-the line 8000-series card.

But if you want a pretty good gaming machine, build yourself a PC.