I Gave In... You Win, Apple...

[Littleodie914]

As a developer, screen space and performance are pretty valuable commodities. I've been developing solely on my 4-year-old Macbook, and it was time for an upgrade.

Sandy Bridge to the rescue! Surely, the 13" Macbook Pros would have the higher screen resolution of the 13" MBA, I said to myself the morning of the keynote, cash in hand.

You all know how that story ends. Poorly. With me as a little ball curled up in the corner questioning the meaning of life and everything. "Not even a BTO option?!", I wailed.

As per user requests, I started on an iPad version of one of my applications, and thought if I was able to do Mac and iPhone programming on this Macbook, surely I could get by! At least long enough to see the next-gen MBPs, hopefully with a better 13" option. Boy was I wrong. The combination of the iPad's large screen size and the newly-integrated Interface Builder, all on my tiny 1280x800 screen, was like forcing your Aunt Ruth through the kitty door. Kicking and screaming.

Alas, I gave in. You win Apple. This time.

 

[kalsta]

Cute story, but seriously… Why would you do serious work with a 13" screen in the first place? I can't imagine how frustrating that would be at any resolution. My 15" MBP is the bare minimum I can cope with when away from work where I use a 30" display.

 

[Littleodie914]

Cute story, but seriously… Why would you do serious work with a 13" screen in the first place? I can't imagine how frustrating that would be at any resolution. My 15" MBP is the bare minimum I can cope with when away from work where I use a 30" display.

I was a student on a budget, and I was taking the laptop back and forth to class every day. I didn't need the extra space or power back then.

Plus, it was the largest laptop I had ever owned for a long period of time, so I got used to it. I'm really looking forward to having it now though, I'm counting down the hours!

 

[ninja2000]

I was in a similar situation struggling with a MBP15's 1440x900 res. In interface builder it was a real pain having to keep shuffling windows around plus not being able to fit the entire ipad sim on my screen. I ended up selling it and getting the 17" and man do I love the 1920x1200
I didnt ever want the 17" due to the size but since getting it I do not struggle at all.

 

[kalsta]

I'm really looking forward to having it now though, I'm counting down the hours!

It'll be a very nice upgrade… Enjoy!

 

[nebulos]

i too feel this pain. i too, it seems, will graduate ($5,000,000 later) to the HR 15, to enjoy the benefits of quad core and the even greater res, but at double the cost i hoped for. SUX.

 

[Littleodie914]

i too feel this pain. i too, it seems, will graduate ($5,000,000 later) to the HR 15, to enjoy the benefits of quad core and the even greater res, but at double the cost i hoped for. SUX.

Yea, it's a pretty crazy jump in price from the 13" to the 15", but these laptops usually last me 3-4 years, so I think it's worth it in the long run.

I was considering getting the one with the 6750 GPU, but I have a desktop that I can game on if needed, and the extra $400 was a bit too much to stomach.

 

[adnoh]

external 22 inch monitor from dell with 1920 x 1080 res would have been MUCH cheaper than a new 15" MBP...10% of the cost in fact.

 

[kjos8035]

external 22 inch monitor from dell with 1920 x 1080 res would have been MUCH cheaper than a new 15" MBP...10% of the cost in fact.

Comprehension ftl.

A 22in monitor /= performance gains.

 

[Littleodie914]

external 22 inch monitor from dell with 1920 x 1080 res would have been MUCH cheaper than a new 15" MBP...10% of the cost in fact.

Sure, but that has its disadvantages.

• I can't take advantage of the screen space when I'm not at my desk
• I'm spending money on something that I don't really need, I have a monitor connected to my desktop PC that I could use if I were looking for an external display solution
• My machine is still just as slow It has a Core 2 Duo, and the X3100. And since it's my main development machine, it'd be nice if it had support for a multi-touch trackpad to take advantage of Lion's features when it's released

 

[Littleodie914]

Woo hoo! The laptop is in town, and is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow morning. I have a few last-minute questions:

• I have an SSD in my current Core 2 Duo Macbook. Do I need to format it and reinstall Snow Leopard, or can I just drop it in? I installed from the retail DVD, but I've heard that it only installs certain drivers based on your hardware configuration.
• How difficult is it to reach the optical drive? I have some Arctic Silver left over from when I built my PC, and I'm looking to install an OptiBay in there while I re-paste the CPU.

Thanks guys, will post pics and benchmarks!

 

[C01E]

Woo hoo! The laptop is in town, and is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow morning. I have a few last-minute questions:

• I have an SSD in my current Core 2 Duo Macbook. Do I need to format it and reinstall Snow Leopard, or can I just drop it in? I installed from the retail DVD, but I've heard that it only installs certain drivers based on your hardware configuration.
• How difficult is it to reach the optical drive? I have some Arctic Silver left over from when I built my PC, and I'm looking to install an OptiBay in there while I re-paste the CPU.

Thanks guys, will post pics and benchmarks!

You will need to reinstall, the 2011 MBP has changed too much hardware to be recognized by an older copy of OSX (by older I mean from another PC, Not an older version, even with 10.6.6 on the other unit, It will still lack the drivers needed for it to run in the new MBP.)

Second question: VERY easy, I found the hardest part was disconnecting the wireless antenni from the bracket/PCB that links them to the motherboard, Then remove the bracket itself, And then you are 3 torx screws and one connector cable away from a removed superdrive.

 

[Littleodie914]

You will need to reinstall, the 2011 MBP has changed too much hardware to be recognized by an older copy of OSX (by older I mean from another PC, Not an older version, even with 10.6.6 on the other unit, It will still lack the drivers needed for it to run in the new MBP.)

Second question: VERY easy, I found the hardest part was disconnecting the wireless antenni from the bracket/PCB that links them to the motherboard, Then remove the bracket itself, And then you are 3 torx screws and one connector cable away from a removed superdrive.

Thanks for the info. This machine is insanely amazing. I don't know how I got by with the 13" screen for so long!

I couldn't find my torx set so I just ended up swapping the HDD for my SSD, and did a clean install, then pulled a couple things onto the drive from my backup. I'm not great at cleaning out my documents/downloads folder, so I figured I'd start from scratch.