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Help With MBP decision

M

marioblackman23

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 2, 2008
32
0
:confused:Hi, I would be buying my first mac shortly and am trying to decide which one is right for me. All options would be bought from amazon.com i would be using the computer for very basic task web browsing, word processing, watching and listening to media, garageband to create beats, as well as im clients. I have ruled out macbooks only because of the cracking that seems to appear in most of them. these are my options:

1. Santa rosa memron macbook pro 2.2ghz 2gig ram 120gig hdd 128vram glossy screen- $1694

2. Santa rosa memron macbook pro 2.4 ghz 2 gig ram 160 gig hdd 256 vram
glossy screen- $1894

3. Santa rosa Penryn macbook pro 2.4 ghz 2 gig ram 200 gig hdd 256 vram
glossy screen- $1968

in each the ram would be upgraded to 4gb and im also buying a external 500gb hard disk drive. under these circumstance which would be the best buy? Am i good with option 1 or should i go with 3 so i could have the latest processor? thank you in advance for your input.

p.s. money is an option as i dont want to waste it on unneccesary specs.
 
hold the boat here. why would you think that a macbook wouldn't be right for you. first thing you need to realize is that people who bitch come here, that's why you only hear all the bad stories. i think its safe to say that macbooks that crack are few and far between. i have about a dozen friends who have macbooks and none have any problems. so if i were you i would get a macbook and safe a lot of money and get the middle option and use your saved money for maxing out the ram and a nice big external for Time Machine.
 
I've got to say its definitely the macbook you should be looking at. Your a crazy man if you spend that kind of money on a computer just for that. And most of them don't crack, and if it did then just take out the Apple care 3 year warranty with it.

Get yourself a nice new blackbook of the Apple store, $1748 with Apple care, and $1-200 cheaper if your a student, which you can't do off Amazon.
 
ok. if you are intent on getting a mbp, get the first one. no need to spend more money on either of the others.

but get a macbook! if "most of them were cracking", there would be a huge media fiasco. in fact, only very few of them are. you should have 3 year applecare anyway. Also, i wouldn't get a blackbook. if you're going to spend that much money, get the 1st mbp. i'd just go simple with a regular white macbook; it's processing power will more than meet your needs. The only advantage of the 15" screen for what you're doing is being able to comfortably view side by side word documents.
 
Use the Amazon Gold Box trick to bring the 2.2 MBP to $1430 AR or the 2.4 Penryn to $1720 AR.

I was able to get the 2.4 T8300 MBP for $1692 AR shipped (includes 1.5% cashback).

(I was not able to get the previous gen 2.4 to work with the gold box trick).
 
thanks for the replies and input, im pretty actually happy to know cracking isnt that much of a issue in the macbooks as i think it is, however i live in the caribbean with no apple store anywhere in sight xcept maybe puerto rico (maybe) and while i can take sending it up for a hardware malfunction a issue like that arising would be a bit too much, as i would not want to send it away for 2-3 months. and while i still think about the mb it would be my main computer and 13.3 inches is just a bit too small to use all the time. As Well the alumnium of the mbp (to me) looks far better and less destructible .i.e unless dropped. also i planned to purchase a mbp in 3 years when im finished school. now i can keep it and buy a Mac Pro
 
phungy said:
Use the Amazon Gold Box trick to bring the 2.2 MBP to $1430 AR or the 2.4 Penryn to $1720 AR.

I was able to get the 2.4 T8300 MBP for $1692 AR shipped (includes 1.5% cashback).

(I was not able to get the previous gen 2.4 to work with the gold box trick).
Click to expand...

sounds intriguing what exactly is it?
 
thanks alot to everyone who offered advice, thanks for that golden box tip: looks like ill be saving a extra $100. greatly apreciated:D
 
matte?

Are you sure any of those that are sold through Amazon have glossy screens? All the ones I have seen sold by Amazon and not a third party are matte only. Unless there is somewhere you can choose glossy that I'm not seeing, they explicitly say matte and anti-glare finish.

You should double check just to be sure, plus I'd be interested to know. Wouldn't want you to get matte if you really prefer glossy. It's an important preference that has spurred countless debates here! :)
 
Mbp

Yeah, I highly recommend the aluminum casing. An apple tech once told me "Most of my business comes from the ibook and it's plastic casing. When plastic heats up, it expands much greater than aluminum, and parts move more freely." He hopes the issues are solved with the macbooks, but him and I have seen many an ibook go in for repair.

Anywho, I would persuade you from upping the RAM to 4 GB. If the most intense thing you're doing is garageband, rejoice! I have a mbp, 2.4, 2 Gigs, and I ran garageband (and now Logic Pro, as well as Photoshop, FCP, AfterEffects, etc) into the ground! Specifically, I run 10 tracks (with custom built beats + live recordings) fine. 4 Gigs ram is a lot of money. If you're going to do it, don't get it from Apple- they charge way too much for the upgrade. Memoryx.com sells same ram and you can install or pay for install and save bundles.

Hope that helps :)
Good luck
 
well to answer those questions yeah im pretty sure it is glossy at least it says so, at first i was under the impression that i only had a choice of matte but once you look a lil closer and longer you would see one that says glossy or you can just search macbook pro glossy.

as for not upping the ram: As i was originally going to purchase a SR macbook memrom that came standard with 1 gb ram i already purchased 4gb ram from OWC, something im now regretting doing as i know 2gb would be enough, but as i was buying figured for $50 why not.

Also thanx for the info on the plastic casing as i constantly go from the sun to the cold quite frequently
 
Yeah i know imagine how i felt after realizing i dint have to buy it from apple!

Also how hot would the bottom of the mbp get while using it for the basic task listed above??
 
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