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Did You Buy A HIGH Spec MBP?

I

iphone3048

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 13, 2009
71
0
What specs did you get?
Are you happy with it?
Was it worth the money for you?
How does it compare to your last or other previous laptop?

I got the 15 with the i7 2.8 and high resolution matt screen. I upgraded to 8gb of ram and a ocz agility ssd(which I like very much).

I'm pretty much VERY VERY happy with this thing!

I'm not sure if it was worth the 2,700 that I paid for it though. that's alot of cash to pay for a laptop. But it looks great and does EVERYTHING FAST! And I'm sure it will last me a long time, so in the long run I'm sure it will be worth it.

My last laptop I owned was actually a 2010 MBP 13". It was good for regular things and was fast at that. But to do other things it was just to slow. Even with the ssd and 8gb of ram, it would run very slow using imovie and other apps.

Also the screen gave me a headache when using it for a few hours. I got to use both the 13 and 15 at the same time. Let me tell you the difference when comparing both at the same time was night and day!

Don't mean to bash the 13, but that WAS my last laptop. So had to mention how it compared to my 15 with it's specs.

One thing i don't like about the MBP'S is that I have a hard time with the CAPS LOCK key. I hit the thing and most of the time it don't LOCK. Other than that, I love everything else so far!
 
I have a 2.53 C2D and I love it, but I've placed a 'Core i7' sticker on it and have called it 'custom'. Hopefully the my 13 will actually have an i7; but when that happens I'll put another Intel sticker on it which shows I am thinking different. Somewhere around here I have a bunch of those 'Pentium II Inside" stickers.

Edit: So to answer the question, no, but I've compensated with this awesome sticker which adds an extra 2 cores.
 
NickZac said:
I have a 2.53 C2D and I love it, but I've placed a 'Core i7' sticker on it and have called it 'custom'. Hopefully the my 13 will actually have an i7; but when that happens I'll put another Intel sticker on it which shows I am thinking different. Somewhere around here I have a bunch of those 'Pentium II Inside" stickers.

Edit: So to answer the question, no, but I've compensated with this awesome sticker which adds an extra 2 cores.
Click to expand...

I can't tell if there is sarcasm here.
 
15" 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7
8GB RAM
256 SSD
Matte High Resolution Screen

(I installed the extra 4GB RAM)

It probably was not worth spending the extra money....but I'm glad I did!
 
I started with the 15" i7 and picked the popular choice listed on top of the configuration page called "MacBook Pro 15-inch with faster hard drive and Hi-Res Glossy Widescreen Display"

So my upgrades from the base 15" MBP:
  • Intel Core i5 2.4GHz -> Intel Core i7 2.66 (I did not think the i7 2.8 upgrade was worth the extra $180 with)
  • 320GB 5400 rpm HDD -> 500GB 7200 rpm HDD (SSD way too expensive, I need the space. 256GB would not work)
  • 1440x900 glossy display-> 1680x1050 glossy (AG is great but I love the glossy and rarely use a computer outdoors)
  • NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with 256MB -> NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with 512MB

I will upgrade the memory and storage myself at some point. SSD prices will come down so I can maintain at least a 1/2 TB of built-in storage for much less than $1,170!
 
Last edited:
17" Matte display, 2.66 i7 processor here.

Only reason I picked this one was the luck of the draw on eBay -- I was bidding on NIB i5's and i7's pretty indiscriminately, but I really wanted the matte screen, this one happened to have it, and fit my price range.

Never before has a processor had to wait so patiently while I try and write... :rolleyes:
 
Nope, I didn't buy a high spec MBP.

I got the base level 13" MBP and I couldn't be happier. I got a great deal at Microcenter (999) and an unexpected bonus from work which funded the purchase. Anything higher would have cost me money and that was not feasible.

Plus the need for a higher performing machine wasn't there, my main machine is a core i7 running at 3.36Ghz, no laptop can compete with the performance of that machine.
 
Bought the basic 13" and love it. Best laptop I have ever had and so happy I went with Apple this time. Also its cheaper to upgrade the ram and hard drive on my own then spec out the laptop from Apple.
 
The way things are moving, even if I can say my MacBook is "high spec" on Dec 23 2010, I have a feeling it won't be very high spec a couple of weeks from now.

:)

From the Refurb Store: 15" i7 2.66, 8 GB RAM, OCZ Vertex 2 (added), 1680x1050.

It wasn't the cheapest thing by far, but it starts up instantly, is easy to carry and light for its size, and is (it seems to me) a logical compromise between power and portability.

Yup. I still like it.
 
Well it seems a few people like the high resolution matt screen. At the store while trying to make up my mind with matt or glossy. I didn't like the matt so much, but the more I played with the more I liked it. Where I use the laptop there's windows and strong light. I'm glad I went with the matt because I can now actually see the screen.

Not to many with the 2.8 MHz, I didn't know if it would make a huge or little difference compared to the 2.6. But I figured since I'm going to max everything else why not.

And to the guy thinking about penises, no it's not.
I just wanted to know if anyone else bought a high spec machine and if they regretted it. Cause sometimes I do and sometimes I don't.

Nice to know most everyone is happy with their purchase.
 
15" MBP with

2.66 i7
8GB RAM (factory installed)
128GB SSD (factory installed)
HR AG display


I have never spent so much on a computer. This thing flies. Storage is not really an issue since this is used for tasks and not for storage. Still have half the SSD left to use. This thing better last me quite a few years.
 
Nope, I got the 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro but I'm happy with it. It's much better than my old laptop which was a Dell Inspiron E1550 (something like that?) with a Core Duo 1.73Ghz, 2GB RAM, 120GB HDD, ATi x1400 with Windows Vista. I got it right when Vista came out in 2007. Not only was it slow and not have a webcam or any other nifty features, the battery was shot. My MacBook Pro was worth every penny to me though. I think the weight, thinness, backlight keyboard, auto sensor for dimming the screen and a bunch of other stuff like the 1000 cycle battery are just amazing. I've always wanted a Mac, but this generation of MacBooks was worth every penny.
 
I stuck to the basic configuration but upgraded the display to the hr ag. I knew for my uses that the i5 would be plenty. My work relies on having a large res and my previous 13 mbp was painful to use. ram and hd were generous from the factory IMO and easily changeable should the need arise.
 
If your going to buy high grade your way better off aiming for CPU power only. Everything else like ram and storage it is soooo much cheaper to upgrade that yourself. Upgrading a CPU on the other hand on a MBP on your own would cost as much as what you would pay for the whoke damn mbp.

Sent from my SGS-T959 running on Obsidian v5 / DoW 1.3ghz / OCLF
 
I have the i7 2.8! Love it!! Of course... i didn't pay for it so i guess i have nothing to regret? (Replacement) It flies!! Love it. I got my macbook pro before they lowered all the prices so i ended up getting a higher end model then I actually bought.
 
I needed the AG upgrade but other than that I saw no reason to go any higher then the cheapest 15". It is just not worth it if you have to worry about money.

Also what I really want is probably the next 15" being released and the lowest spec looses the least value. After a few months a 2,66 or 2,4Ghz both makes no difference and is equally bad but I didn't pay the extra 500 bucks for the higher specs.

If you are looking for value you get only the upgrades you really need. e.g. AG screen or more RAM although you'd upgrade that yourself. If you earn enough you can just get any spec you want. Compared to a more expensive racing bike it is still going to be cheap. I have a friend with one mountain bike and a racing bike that are both much more expensive than even the highest specced 15" (without SSD) and he isn't even rich. All people always worry so much not to spend to much on PCs but compared to how much you use those, even the expensive ones give a lot of value for their money compared to other things. As it is winter just take a look at skiing equipment that is used by some people for one holiday or a little less and they spend hundreds of dollars on it. Considering a one day pass in a ski ressort in europe is about 30+ € that simply is an expensive sport (one week 250€ and you still need a place to sleep, eat, equipment and money for aprés ski). Still I wouldn't want to miss it and save the money for a higher specced MBP. Most people I know wouldn't but it still is odd how much some people worry about the price of a notebook that they use a few hours a day and can't really be considered a luxury item like an ipad could.
 
My first Mac was a 2008 13' Aluminum MacBook Unibody. I upgraded the ram on that thing from 2GB to 4GB but I still wasn't satisfied with performance and screen size.

8 months ago I bought a 15 inch 2010 i5 MacBook Pro 2.4 (base model). I would of loved to get the highest end MBP Apple sold but I already threw down $1,788.99 on this MBP so I didn't have much more money at the time. Since then I've made two upgrades to my MBP. First, I upgraded from 4GB to 8GB of Crucial RAM. My second upgrade that I just made last week was upgrading from the stock 320GB 5400rpm hdd to a 640GB 7200rpm hdd. With those two simple upgrades, my MacBook Pro has increased in speed and I think I'm happier with buying the base model and upgrading things myself rather than buying the next model up and not having enough cash to upgrade those two things.

But yeah, my MBP blows that 2008 MacBook out of the water, and that's all I can really ask for. I plan on holding on to my MBP for a good while as long as its working fine. My next Apple computer will probably be a MacPro.
 
i'm totally satisfied with my 17" i7...but i do feel like i bought a more high tech model then necessary, a 17" i5 would have sufficed.
 
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