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Just my 2cents regarding the 2011 MBP

RiCEADDiCTBOY

RiCEADDiCTBOY

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 26, 2007
699
1
For anyone that is an Apple person heed my own personal advice. I also work at Best Buy as an Apple sales rep. If you have a MacBook Pro and it does what it needs to do - save your money. Why?

- No increase in screen resolution
- Lower batter life
- True i7 Quadcore is nice - but, from the HHD supplied from a data/CPU retrieveal standpoint it's moot.
- Thunderbolt (previously known as LightsPeak) has two immediate flaws - lack of devices (for right now) to utilize it - and there's 10 watts of power available on the bus, up slightly from FireWire's 8 watts. Yes it is 12x faster, but it will be around a year before you see any worthwhile reason to use it. Now, keep in mind however, that Thunderbolt is very impressive. Just not worth buying a MacBook Pro just for that - right now. Whats even more fustrating is that its intergrated with the mini display port. So if you want to use future devices...you will need a spliter to utilize it with mutiple devices. - No physical change (meaning the "major revision" that most wait for)
- Higher prices than 2010 models

Now, if you don't own a Mac and want to buy one you have two choices - buy, the ones now when they get discounted or opt for the new ones. The new ones aren't shabby at all - but, price for price - I would get the current model if the prices are good. I currently own the MBP Core i7 2.66ghz 15" model. I see no real immediate reason for me to trade my MacBook Pro and pay over 500+ for a difference I may not even notice. The GPU upgrade is better than the one currently in the MacBook Pro lineup right now... I have the GeForce Nvdia 330M GT vs the new AMD 6750M. It does have more internal GPU ram however, but for the most part buying again/trading on that alone shouldn't justify the price hike. So what would I do as a consumer? Wait. Let the the new I/O interface be a proven standard first (Thunderbolt) and see what devices come out to actually be worth the price of admission and for that major MacBook Pro revision (meaning body styling and etc). Typically, the major revisions are every three years. So if you can hold off with the current Macs you got untill 2012 - wait.

Now, I know people who argue my points - again, I'm taking it from a realistic approach at adopting every time Apple does something. I could easily jump up and trade up. However, for those that still have a MacBook Pro and it does everything you need it to do and does it well - save your money for the actual revision of the MBP. By then the new I/O will have been given time to hopefully establish itself as an industry standard amongst other things...and better resolution perhaps? Just my 2 cents. :)
 
RiCEADDiCTBOY said:
For anyone that is an Apple person heed my own personal advice. I also work at Best Buy as an Apple sales rep. If you have a MacBook Pro and it does what it needs to do - save your money. Why?

- No increase in screen resolution
- Lower batter life
- True i7 Quadcore is nice - but, from the HHD supplied from a data/CPU retrieveal standpoint it's moot.
- Thunderbolt (previously known as LightsPeak) has two immediate flaws - lack of devices (for right now) to utilize it - and there's 10 watts of power available on the bus, up slightly from FireWire's 8 watts. Yes it is 12x faster, but it will be around a year before you see any worthwhile reason to use it. Now, keep in mind however, that Thunderbolt is very impressive. Just not worth buying a MacBook Pro just for that - right now. Whats even more fustrating is that its intergrated with the mini display port. So if you want to use future devices...you will need a spliter to utilize it with mutiple devices. - No physical change (meaning the "major revision" that most wait for)
- Higher prices than 2010 models

Now, if you don't own a Mac and want to buy one you have two choices - buy, the ones now when they get discounted or opt for the new ones. The new ones aren't shabby at all - but, price for price - I would get the current model if the prices are good. I currently own the MBP Core i7 2.66ghz 15" model. I see no real immediate reason for me to trade my MacBook Pro and pay over 500+ for a difference I may not even notice. The GPU upgrade is better than the one currently in the MacBook Pro lineup right now... I have the GeForce Nvdia 330M GT vs the new AMD 6750M. It does have more internal GPU ram however, but for the most part buying again/trading on that alone shouldn't justify the price hike. So what would I do as a consumer? Wait. Let the the new I/O interface be a proven standard first (Thunderbolt) and see what devices come out to actually be worth the price of admission and for that major MacBook Pro revision (meaning body styling and etc). Typically, the major revisions are every three years. So if you can hold off with the current Macs you got untill 2012 - wait.

Now, I know people who argue my points - again, I'm taking it from a realistic approach at adopting every time Apple does something. I could easily jump up and trade up. However, for those that still have a MacBook Pro and it does everything you need it to do and does it well - save your money for the actual revision of the MBP. By then the new I/O will have been given time to hopefully establish itself as an industry standard amongst other things...and better resolution perhaps? Just my 2 cents. :)
Click to expand...

Everyone's requirements are a little different and subjective. As a consumer you command the power to buy or not to buy :) Does it really matter if everyone or anyone agrees with you? ;) Enjoy your laptop.
 
All the techies are using SSDs anyway, and will just transfer them over to the new MBPs. The CPU alone is worth the upgrade.
 
jamesryanbell said:
All the techies are using SSDs anyway, and will just transfer them over to the new MBPs. The CPU alone is worth the upgrade.
Click to expand...

The question is "the cpu is worth the upgrade for [insert reason and for what do they require the cpu to do]."

Now, I do know there are those that need to have the latest and greatest... but, if you were holding onto your 2010 your MBP in worries and you do everything great...save your hard earned cash till the next major revision. That is my opinion.

Majority of people who buy these laptops could do what they need on an actual Core 2 Duo.

I'm not hating on it - I'm just providing some sound advice to those who are on the fence and may be confused if they need something they may not.

I was waiting too - and decided that this update doesn't warrant the trade/sell of my MBP and will wait for a true revision/update and with an established Thunderbolt market - which again will be shown or proven to become a standard late this year/early 2012.

Don't like my opinion? Not my problem. :cool:
 
Too many on here get sucked in by marketing specs and are easily convinced they need to upgrade all the time. I don't meant to be rude but I doubt many of those who have the time to post on MR all day really need the latest Core i7 technology, 8gb RAM, SSD, Thunderbolt, and the best GPU Apple offers. :)

As a web developer, I use a lot of high-end tools and I can tell you the 1.8 Ghz processor in my 13" MacBook Air is more than adequate for most of my work. I can certainly comfortably get by with the mid-2009 17" MacBook Pro I own with its 2.8 Ghz Core2Duo processor.

Obviously there are situations where people absolutely do need raw processing power and can easily justify upgrading their machines at least once every 12 months. But I can't imagine there are that many of those people on MR posting regularly.
 
RiCEADDiCTBOY said:
\
I was waiting too - and decided that this update doesn't warrant the trade/sell of my MBP and will wait for a true revision/update and with an established Thunderbolt market - which again will be shown or proven to become a standard late this year/early 2012.
Click to expand...

Hypothetically. Consider this. And this really applies to any of the MacBook Pros. It assumes you take care of your crap, of course.

My 17" base model 2010 MBP was around $2500 with tax. When I sell something I never include tax because it isn't practical. I bought that model back when it first came out, around July 2010 or thereabouts. So it's not old by any stretch. By my math, I can reasonably sell it for $1800. That's a loss of $500, plus the tax. Well used but great shape, and the timing is perfect, because people are going to balk at the prices of the new MacBook Pros and go looking for deals and they will be willing to buy at even the slightest deal. If I sell it for $1800 and I buy the newest base 17", that's $2800 with tax. That means my effective cost is $1000 for a machine that's four times as powerful and I can just keep my drive and swap it to the new MBP. When looking at it from a sale-and-buy perspective the cost isn't that high. I can even offer RAM upgrades and larger hard drives or SSDs and increase the price as BTO options; done that before and had good results. Have a lot of Mac parts laying around from previous MacBooks. This marks MacBook #7 that I've owned.

It's really hard to justify though. I did buy the 2011 model and I plan to do a video review on it this weekend, comparing it to my 2010 model which has so far surpassed every computer I've sat in front of - and I'm in IT, sitting in front of quite a few laptops and desktops every day - including my high end iMac. If the 2011 without a SSD can blow my 2010 out of the water, it'll be worth the money for the things I do with it. If not, it goes back to the Apple Store, no harm no foul.
 
I agree with you on all of those things. But the thing is, I was hoping to get a macbook right now, my first. I do a lot of live audio/visual stuff and was wondering if there were any major advances in graphics stuff that would be compelling enough to spring for the new ones? I'm not very good at understanding all the different graphics cards etc.
 
You are way off. Pretty much everything you said is wrong.

Every hard drive maker out there announced devices today and they will be on the market shortly. They were waiting for Apple to announce first.
Also adapters work for current devices. So you can use a SATA drive with TB for example. Also Displayport monitors. On and on.
Quad core is a big deal for lots of people.
Proc is much faster. Unless you think ghz is all that matters. It isn't.
The higher end vid card is much faster.
 
aurichie said:
Too many on here get sucked in by marketing specs and are easily convinced they need to upgrade all the time. I don't meant to be rude but I doubt many of those who have the time to post on MR all day really need the latest Core i7 technology, 8gb RAM, SSD, Thunderbolt, and the best GPU Apple offers. :)

As a web developer, I use a lot of high-end tools and I can tell you the 1.8 Ghz processor in my 13" MacBook Air is more than adequate for most of my work. I can certainly comfortably get by with the mid-2009 17" MacBook Pro I own with its 2.8 Ghz Core2Duo processor.

Obviously there are situations where people absolutely do need raw processing power and can easily justify upgrading their machines at least once every 12 months. But I can't imagine there are that many of those people on MR posting regularly.
Click to expand...

Of course. Even though gaming is becoming more "acceptable" on a Mac... I personally don't really do any real gaming on a Mac. My Xbox 360 and iPhone is what I use to get my gaming fix.

My MacBook Pro is for work and money. I use Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Fireworks and etc. I use my Mac for Microsoft Office 2011 and iWorks on occasion. My current Mac is powerful in those regards. Paying more money for what? A new I/O that has yet to establish itself? A CPU upgrade I might see a few seconds of difference? A GPU that will get used in what manner that would make me regret having the one I have? I am that consumer - a realist. Buy when I need and wait when I can for something of a better revision.

In no way am I saying "HEY YOU! DONT BUY IT!" Just trying to throw some common sense out there - and if it makes sense to those then kudos for you. If not, then enjoy the laptop that majority won't even know what they are using it for in the first place. I deal with customers everyday - and at least I'm honest with them and let them know when they are spending way too much on something they won't ever need. Having the latest and greatest is good when you will ACTUALLY use it to the extent of its capabilities. I shake my head every time a customer buys something thats 300-400 bucks more for trivial matters. But, hey it's not my money right?
 
gofightlose said:
I agree with you on all of those things. But the thing is, I was hoping to get a macbook right now, my first. I do a lot of live audio/visual stuff and was wondering if there were any major advances in graphics stuff that would be compelling enough to spring for the new ones? I'm not very good at understanding all the different graphics cards etc.
Click to expand...

IF you don't own a MacBook Pro now... then yes - by all means buy the new ones for the work you do. :apple:
 
It's true that lots of people who "invest" in macbook pros don't really need the processing power they are given.

However, for people who use lots of programs that can actually take advantage of multiple cores (editing programs, graphics programs, etc.), the leap to quadcore this update along with sandy bridge is pretty huge. Wish they had stuck with nvidia GPUs, but maybe more developers will support AMD later this year.

But still... the vast majority of people don't need it. Not that it stops them from having the latest and greatest.

EDIT: Note, this is from the perspective of someone who doesn't own a macbook pro yet, but will in a few weeks (getting the 17"). If I had purchased a 2010 model last april... I probably wouldn't buy one of the new ones.
 
DarwinOSX said:
You are way off. Pretty much everything you said is wrong.

Every hard drive maker out there announced devices today and they will be on the market shortly. They were waiting for Apple to announce first.
Also adapters work for current devices. So you can use a SATA drive with TB for example. Also Displayport monitors. On and on.
Quad core is a big deal for lots of people.
Proc is much faster. Unless you think ghz is all that matters. It isn't.
The higher end vid card is much faster.
Click to expand...

Blah blah blah. Thats all I heard. I'm sorry. :p

Quad core has been around for a while. So have high end GPU's. The real question my dear friend is who actually utilizes the computer it is capable of being that buy them?

You are a prime example of a person who knows little, but attempts to talk for the sake of being heard. What you stated is the obvious. Thanks, but try brining something a bit more relevant to the thread. GG NO RE.
 
RiCEADDiCTBOY said:
The question is "the cpu is worth the upgrade for [insert reason and for what do they require the cpu to do]."

Now, I do know there are those that need to have the latest and greatest... but, if you were holding onto your 2010 your MBP in worries and you do everything great...save your hard earned cash till the next major revision. That is my opinion.

Majority of people who buy these laptops could do what they need on an actual Core 2 Duo.

I'm not hating on it - I'm just providing some sound advice to those who are on the fence and may be confused if they need something they may not.

I was waiting too - and decided that this update doesn't warrant the trade/sell of my MBP and will wait for a true revision/update and with an established Thunderbolt market - which again will be shown or proven to become a standard late this year/early 2012.

Don't like my opinion? Not my problem. :cool:
Click to expand...
Ehh, so you know what the majority of users use their laptop for? where did you find this information?

I DO and will use all the power of the new macbook, and thus i upgraded. cost me a whole 400 to go from last years to this year after selling...
 
Beige Panda said:
It's true that lots of people who "invest" in macbook pros don't really need the processing power they are given.

However, for people who use lots of programs that can actually take advantage of multiple cores (editing programs, graphics programs, etc.), the leap to quadcore this update along with sandy bridge is pretty huge. Wish they had stuck with nvidia GPUs, but maybe more developers will support AMD later this year.

But still... the vast majority of people don't need it. Not that it stops them from having the latest and greatest.

EDIT: Note, this is from the perspective of someone who doesn't own a macbook pro yet, but will in a few weeks (getting the 17"). If I had purchased a 2010 model last april... I probably wouldn't buy one of the new ones.
Click to expand...

I agree with you - those who actually utilize the programs that can take advantage of the extra power. Yes. Especially, if it is your source of income.
 
RiCEADDiCTBOY said:
- Thunderbolt (previously known as LightsPeak) has two immediate flaws - lack of devices (for right now) to utilize it - and there's 10 watts of power available on the bus, up slightly from FireWire's 8 watts. Yes it is 12x faster, but it will be around a year before you see any worthwhile reason to use it. Now, keep in mind however, that Thunderbolt is very impressive. Just not worth buying a MacBook Pro just for that - right now. Whats even more fustrating is that its intergrated with the mini display port. So if you want to use future devices...you will need a spliter to utilize it with mutiple devices. - No physical change (meaning the "major revision" that most wait for)
- Higher prices than 2010 models)
Click to expand...

Actually, that's wrong about the Thunderbolt. It's capable of daisy chaining 6 devices. Therefore, you don't need a splitter. You just need to make sure that the display is the end of the chain (at least until adapters come out).

I think making it use the DisplayPort was a good idea. It doesn't use up "extra" port space since it can still be used to drive the display while we wait for Thunderbolt devices to appear. It's a new industry standard, and Apple isn't the only one who is going to support this port, so hopefully devices appear later this year.

Also, the 13" costs the same as it did before.
 
aimbdd said:
Ehh, so you know what the majority of users use their laptop for? where did you find this information?

I DO and will use all the power of the new macbook, and thus i upgraded. cost me a whole 400 to go from last years to this year after selling...
Click to expand...

Good for you. Want a cookie? And, yes after having 20+ years of computer building, graphic designing, network security, receiving constant Apple/Intel/AMD/Microsoft sales and data information on consumers, selling for Apple and etc etc.... I would LOVE to believe I have maybe just a tiny bit of insight into what I'm talking about.

However, congrats on using 100% of your laptop power. Want a cookie?
 
The new quadcores ARE a big upgrade. They are hitting same Geekbench scores as some 2010 quad Mac pros'. That has never happened before.

For people who do KNOW what they need and want, this is a big upgrade in that respect. They are definitely more PRO now.
 
KPOM said:
Actually, that's wrong about the Thunderbolt. It's capable of daisy chaining 6 devices. Therefore, you don't need a splitter. You just need to make sure that the display is the end of the chain (at least until adapters come out).

I think making it use the DisplayPort was a good idea. It doesn't use up "extra" port space since it can still be used to drive the display while we wait for Thunderbolt devices to appear. It's a new industry standard, and Apple isn't the only one who is going to support this port, so hopefully devices appear later this year.

Also, the 13" costs the same as it did before.
Click to expand...

Ah, got me. In my head meant to say multiple cords. :D Not a deal breaker.

I agree with you - just in the future expect the I/O interface replace USB ports in the future or at the very least just another Thunderbolt interface on the Macs.

What I don't agree with you on is that being "new" and from Apple and Intel does not automatically make it an industry standard. The market is split at the current moment USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt in my eyes. Just like Bluray vs HD DVD. Apple and Intel have fallen before - not saying Thunderbolt is THE industry standard is a bit premature of a statement to make at this time. Give it a year and the cloud will fade and clarity on what is the standard will become more clear. Nothing worse than a split "emerging standard" for consumers.
 
I owned the 17 i5 and was imrpessed as to the power of the i5 (I have a Vertex SSD for it of course)

This new quad chip must be insane :eek:

I'm going for it. I'm going unload some junk and do the spend thing.

3K....ouch :D
 
fewture said:
The new quadcores ARE a big upgrade. They are hitting same Geekbench scores as some 2010 quad Mac pros'. That has never happened before.

For people who do KNOW what they need and want, this is a big upgrade in that respect. They are definitely more PRO now.
Click to expand...

The Pro moniker is something I hate. But, thats me. The user who knows what he has and what he does with it - thats the "Pro." But, each to his own.

Again, I'm not saying the updates are OMGWTFBQQ THIS SUCKS! I'm saying that the updates for those who own the current crop of MacBook Pros and have ZERO issues with performance - it would behoove oneself to save that hard earned cold cash and spend it in 2012 if you are wanting a bigger revision and bang for the buck.

Geekbench scores are trivial in my opinion. Just like dyno tests on a car. Those scores/results are what its capable of - pushed to the limit or used at the potential it has. Majority will never see or need it. Some buy because they are persuaded into believing they will need it. There is no such thing as "future proofing" and yet, we have those constantly buying update after update to stay on top - and yet realistically the perception that it's new gives them the comfort that it's great. I call it the Linus Effect (ya know Peanuts)... the blanket does nothing, but it brings comfort. Same like owning a newer and better computer - but, still doing the same things the other computer was doing without any hiccups.
 
mac jones said:
I owned the 17 i5 and was imrpessed as to the power of the i5 (I have a Vertex SSD for it of course)

This new quad chip must be insane :eek:

I'm going for it. I'm going unload some junk and do the spend thing.

3K....ouch :D
Click to expand...

:apple:
 
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