If your on the fence about upgrading to the i5/i7 MBPs, JUST DO IT!!

[jjahshik32]

If your on the fence about upgrading to the i5/i7 mbp, all I have to say is JUST DO IT(sorry I'm not trying to get sued by NIKE or anything!).

Its one of the best upgrades I've done in a LONG time. I can honestly say you will be very happy that you did, its finally a TRUE desktop replacement machine.

I've owned all the mbp 13", 15", 17" ever since its first switch to intel (also owned the last gen 17" 1.67ghz powerbook g4) and owned all the Mac Pro desktops since the 4 core 2.66GHz, 2.8GHz 8 core and the 2.26GHz Nehalem and I have to say this machine feels like a real desktop!

To give you the best description, I have my 17" i7 plugged into my 24" LED ACD and while its tucked away to the side, I forget at times that its not connected a Mac Pro!

I know the SSD is helpful there but I've had this SSD for a while and it does not feel the same as it did on my 2.8ghz core 2 duo machine.

Finally a macbook pro that feels like a legit desktop replacement!

 

[Jaro65]

Well, it obviously depends on what you do. But your previous MBP had to smoke with your SSD anyway.

 

[Echnin]

Edited: Nevermind, I didn't read your post carefully enough. I'm curious about whether the SSDs Apple are using are now up to speed with the aftermarket drives everyone seems to be buying.

 

[eskachig]

This is interesting to read, as I have an about a month old MBP 17", 2.8Ghz C2D. I knew it was outdated when I bought it, but I needed a new computer for my freelance work, and in general follow a policy not waiting for hardware releases.

However, the combination of a dropped price for the 17 and just how close it came out to my purchase is making me mull over options.

The thing is, I don't do video/sound/photo work, I am a software developer. I like having a mac because I like working on some things in OS X (iphone, ruby on rails, anything web related, etc), and others in Windows (.NET dev work, Silverlight). I like having a 17" because for my needs screen real estate is more important than portability, and I don't like to plug into a screen all the time. At least for the next year, the existing machine will run the software I need fairly well. Where I could use a boost is with virtualization, VMs run pretty slow on my MBP, but then again they tend to run slow everywhere.

Do you think someone with my usage pattern will notice a difference from this refresh? In terms of resale value, does it make more sense to try to sell my machine now, or wait for the next refresh/bump/quads and sell then? How fast to macs depreciate anyhow? I ran my first into the ground, and the second one is still bumming around as a couch internet station. On Craigslist people are trying to sell my model for about what I paid for it, but I don't know how successful they are.