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Going from Blackbook to MBP?

K

kovalchuk71

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 9, 2008
355
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I currently have the last-gen Blackbook with the top specs you could get for it at the time. Its been almost 3 years (can't believe it) and I am considering moving to a 13/15" MBP. I use my Mac for school (Microsoft Office), web-surfing, movie watching, and occasionally (very occasionally) some game play. Is it even worth it for me to step up? One thing that pulls me in is the back-lit keyboard :cool: and the Nvidia graphics card (Wow, A REAL graphics card!). Any help would be great.
 
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If you don't NEED to upgrade now, the conventional wisdom is that it may be best to wait two to three months, especially if you're considering a 13". It seems likely there will be some sort of upgrade in the first quarter of 2011.

See the numerous threads on here if you're curious about the various speculations. No need to repeat them within this thread.
 
While I won't speak to the chance of a hardware line update.. IMO, moving from the MacBook to the Pro line is a good step and you'll never look back and wonder why you did it.
 
As others have said, I'd wait. There will pretty much certainly be a new MBP line sometime in the first few months of 2011, using Sandy Bridge, with AMD GPUs in the 15" and 17" models.

But the biggest things you'll notice upgrading from a MacBook to an MBP are 1) the quality of the unibody enclosure and 2) the much nicer screens. The Pros are a joy to use in a way that the MacBooks never really have been.

You'll also like the glass trackpad.
 
It is suspected that the next mbp will feature an integrated intel gpu. As you can imagine not everyone is thrilled about this.

Would apple use a gpu that offers worse performance than an outgoing model, probably not but who knows. If having an nvidia gpu is important then buy now.
 
Put it this way... If I were to upgrade and needed to sell my old machine I'd be glad it was the "black" macbook. These things still command some resale respect.
 
Common wisdom says that the Pro line will get an update in the first half (first six months of 2011).

If the current gen does everything you need, the release of newer models won't make your Pro's performance go down. I'd say get it if you think it'll do everything you want at the speed you want.
 
Thanks guys. I was just reading about the new MBP's and will wait. Would now be a good time to sell the by BB though since new ones will be released and it will now be 2 generations behind?

I appreciate the help
 
I'll put it like this. Every second you hold on to your blackbook, it loses value. Considering its already kinda old, I'm not sure how much money you'd get off of it by selling it now compared to waiting till your got your new macbook pro.
 
smallnshort247 said:
I'll put it like this. Every second you hold on to your blackbook, it loses value. Considering its already kinda old, I'm not sure how much money you'd get off of it by selling it now compared to waiting till your got your new macbook pro.
Click to expand...

Exactly my thought. :)

I put it on craigslist, but no bites yet. Hopefully I can get into the marketplace eventually.
 
kovalchuk71 said:
Exactly my thought. :)

I put it on craigslist, but no bites yet. Hopefully I can get into the marketplace eventually.
Click to expand...

Just sold my mid 2007 BMP (4GB RAM/300GB HDD) for $600 on Craigslist. Went really fast and I know I could've gotten more. I used that to purchase a new low end 13in MBP.

I was having the same internal dialogue about waiting for the new MBP. Couldn't wait, lol. The differences between the MP and MBP are subtle but the backlit keyboard and battery seem to be the biggest difference.
 
I jumped to a current low-end 13 pro from a 2006 macbook, and before that I had a 15 inch powerbook. I always wished I could combine the power, aesthetics and premium quality of the larger machine with the portability of the smaller one, and with the 13 pro, I got my wish.

The screen alone is worth it. For example, if I was using the old machine to show pictures to people on either side of me on a couch, they couldn't both see at the same time, due to crappy viewing angles.

The new one's display is perfect, the machine runs MUCH cooler than anything before it, even than the previous 13 pro, battery life is unreal and never needs to be plugged in when using it, and it's just a better all around user experience. If any or all of these are important to you, I'd go the craigslist route and upgrade before your current machine depreciates any more.
 
I just did the same thing.

Couldn't be happier. I wanted to wait until the impending update, but it was hard to pass up a basically new, loaded i7 MBP for 2000.

A major consideration for me (may or may not be, for you), is that I wanted something as a 2010 tax write-off.

At any rate, you won't be disappointed!
 
I don't know how much a couple hundred bucks means to you...To me, its totally worth the upgrade, but at the same time, that is a BIG difference to some people and if all you are using your computer for is word processing and surfing, a MacBook is all you need. A pro would be overkill in that instance. I use my Pro for Final Cut, ProTools and my Adobe CS3 Master Suite so that's a LOT of processing power needed. You won't need all that power. You might just wanna save your money...totally up to you though.
 
The stuff I listed above is what I am doing with it now. I am planning on switching majors to graphic design, so I would like all the power I can get.
 
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