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Difference between early 2008 MBP and current MBP

uberamd

uberamd

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 26, 2009
2,785
2
Minnesota
I have been debating for a while about selling my current early 2008 (pre-unibody) Macbook Pro and getting a new 15" discrete Macbook Pro. But the more I thought about it today, the less and less it seemed like an 'upgrade' to me.

Current Specs:
  • 2.4GHz Core2Duo
  • 4GB RAM
  • 500GB HD
  • Matte screen 15"
  • Superdrive

Macbook Pro I am considering
  • 2.66GHz
  • 4GB HD
  • 500GB HD
  • Matte 15"
  • Superdrive

Differences:
  • 260MHz processor boost
  • Faster RAM
  • Newer design
  • Longer battery (my current MBP battery has never died on me, I use it for 4 hours in a row before charging at the most so battery life isn't *that* important to me)

I could get around $1,250 for my current Macbook Pro (absolutely pristine condition), so it would run me around $750 to get the newer model. Then I got to thinking, is this even a good upgrade? The LCD will look the same since the matte screen has the same bezel as the classic. Its a tough decision.

What would you do? Money isn't really the issue, but paying $750 for what seems like a negligible upgrade seems a hair silly.

Has anyone here gone from the classic 2.4GHz MBP to the newer Unibody MBP? Any suggestions would be great.

Usually I am a decisive person, but this is a tough one.
 
I have one of the new mid june models and I love it. I didn't need a new computer, either. My Dell Inspiron needed a new power cable, which was between 65 and 100$, but I was ready for a Mac and went for it. If you can, go for it, man.
 
uberamd said:
I have been debating for a while about selling my current early 2008 (pre-unibody) Macbook Pro and getting a new 15" discrete Macbook Pro. But the more I thought about it today, the less and less it seemed like an 'upgrade' to me.

Current Specs:
  • 2.4GHz Core2Duo
  • 4GB RAM
  • 500GB HD
  • Matte screen 15"
  • Superdrive

Macbook Pro I am considering
  • 2.66GHz
  • 4GB HD
  • 500GB HD
  • Matte 15"
  • Superdrive

Differences:
  • 260MHz processor boost
  • Faster RAM
  • Newer design
  • Longer battery (my current MBP battery has never died on me, I use it for 4 hours in a row before charging at the most so battery life isn't *that* important to me)

I could get around $1,250 for my current Macbook Pro (absolutely pristine condition), so it would run me around $750 to get the newer model. Then I got to thinking, is this even a good upgrade? The LCD will look the same since the matte screen has the same bezel as the classic. Its a tough decision.

What would you do? Money isn't really the issue, but paying $750 for what seems like a negligible upgrade seems a hair silly.

Has anyone here gone from the classic 2.4GHz MBP to the newer Unibody MBP? Any suggestions would be great.

Usually I am a decisive person, but this is a tough one.
Click to expand...

Don't do it, save your money for next year.
 
The early '08 model is still plenty powerful. The difference between the newer models isn't big enough to justify an upgrade.
 
I do the same thing, have a 2.4 penryn non unibody.

I don't think its worth it. You lose the expresscard slot and get the MDP port.

Only reasons I would go for it is if you need the battery life and/or want to use the 24" apple display.

I may sell mine, just to get a more portable laptop for school. Possibly the 13" MBP or a MB Air. Just need to see what classes are going to be like.
 
I agree that you should wait. The battery is the most appealing, but it would be worth waiting since there are really not that many other benefits. If you wait till the next revision, you will likely have the nice Arrandale processors that are coming and the graphics card's are also a generation or two behind as well.

The glass trackpad is great too, but I think your model has multi-touch right?
 
There's a refurb on the Apple online store for $1599.

15.4"
Unibody 2.66Ghz
4GB DD3 Ram Expandable to 8GB
1066 Mhz System Bus
Discrete GPU 9400 and 9600 512MB
320GB HDD
 
winninganthem said:
The early '08 model is still plenty powerful. The difference between the newer models isn't big enough to justify an upgrade.
Click to expand...
I agree, especially after reading the other comments.
kellen said:
I do the same thing, have a 2.4 penryn non unibody.

I don't think its worth it. You lose the expresscard slot and get the MDP port.

Only reasons I would go for it is if you need the battery life and/or want to use the 24" apple display.

I may sell mine, just to get a more portable laptop for school. Possibly the 13" MBP or a MB Air. Just need to see what classes are going to be like.
Click to expand...
I have a Macbook Air for work/classes already and I must say I vastly prefer carrying that to classes vs carrying my MBP to class.
zedsdead said:
The glass trackpad is great too, but I think your model has multi-touch right?
Click to expand...
Yeah the one I have has multi-touch. The only gestures I really use are two finger right click, two finger scroll, and three finger forward/backwards. The glass ones are nice, but for whatever reason I don't really love the texture on them, and I kind of like the large physical button my current MBP has. Once I do upgrade, I will be getting a moshi palmguard to cover the trackpad with the textured plastic.
HLdan said:
There's a refurb on the Apple online store for $1599.

15.4"
Unibody 2.66Ghz
4GB DD3 Ram Expandable to 8GB
1066 Mhz System Bus
Discrete GPU 9400 and 9600 512MB
320GB HDD
Click to expand...

Only bad thing about that is no matte. I accidentally got matte on my current MBP (my college campus had 1 MBP left in stock in May 2008, I just said "I'll take it" without looking at the display specs). I must say I love the matte display, especially since I do a lot of coding. For whatever reason it just seems to agree with my eyes more.
 
There's not much difference in computing power, we've all agreed upon that. The only difference is the multi touch, unibody design, battery, SD card slot (for the new models) and higher resale value.
 
One big drawback for me is that there is no way (cheap atleast) to output to s-video from the Unibody MBPs.

The old ones u got a really cheap adapter to output s-video.
 
Definitely don't upgrade. The features on the current unibodies aren't worth it.

The new unibody design does seem nice/sturdier BUT the hinges on the screen is horrible ( I don't care if Apple claims it's supposed to be loose like that, it's horrible engineering.)

Aside from that, the specs aren't worth it. If anything, I'd wait until the Early 2010 upgrade or later.
 
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