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List: MR Members Waiting To Buy A New MacBook Pro

What's your situation in relation to a MacBook Pro?

  • Total voters
    602
Shua said:
http://www.apple.com/macbook/specs.html
Intel GMA X3100 - In fact it has the same video card.

No it doesn't have a LED backlit. the M1330 does have an Optional LED Backlight Screen an Extra $150.00 USD.

But since no Apple Laptop has been updated its hard to compare the new CPU vs the vs the previous chip.

I'm saying that people are comparing a high end laptop (MBP even with the old CPU) vs a lesser model. We can go back and forth all day long but if you just add the LED Screen you are getting a more expensive laptop. Oh.. and you can't (Legallly run OS x) on the dell. Go with the dell. To each there own.
Click to expand...

The price I quoted includes the LED screen and NVIDIA 8400M 128MB video. I get an EPP discount on Dell.

I am willing to pay a premium for an MBP (all told, it will probably cost me ~$700-800 more than the XPS, even with an EPP/student discount). I've been promising my daughter a laptop (she's been effectively without her own computer for months), and the wait has to stop sometime. The current MBP is just not a good buy.

I'm not going to apologize for being a pragmatist.

P.S.
Their. :rolleyes:
 
akadmon said:
The price I quoted includes the LED screen and NVIDIA 8400M 128MB video. I get an EPP discount on Dell.

I am willing to pay a premium for an MBP (all told, it will probably cost me ~$700-800 more than the XPS, even with an EPP/student discount). I've been promising my daughter a laptop (she's been effectively without her own computer for months), and the wait has to stop sometime. The current MBP is just not a good buy.

I'm not going to apologize for being a pragmatist.

P.S.
Their. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

you're right in this one.. buy the laptop that will give you more value for your money. apple should at least bring down the price of the MBP..
there's such a word as " MAC Fanatics" and apple is clearly capitalizing on it...

some mac fans will buy anything that comes from apple, even if it's overpriced.. ex.. the RAM upgrade.. if you let apple ugrade your RAM.. you're like paying 300-400% for it.
 
It is just hard to see such a huge price difference between the Macbook and the Macbook pro...between the low end MBP and the high end MB there is a 700 dollars different. I am going with the high end white MB because the premium for the black MB is just stupid. I wish the MBP would just lower 200 bucks or so. With the student discount that would be great!
 
akadmon said:
The price I quoted includes the LED screen and NVIDIA 8400M 128MB video. I get an EPP discount on Dell.
Click to expand...

I used to work at Dell and just wanted to point out that everybody gets their EPP discount. There is no verification. If you buy from Dell Home Sales you are getting ripped UNLESS there is a special promo package only for DHS. But 99% of the time, you want to buy from the Small Business/EPP area and you get an automatic 10% or so off.

Apple certainly knows this and it's another reason why Apple is so liberal with their education discount (also around 10%).
 
I'm in the same boat as you, although chances are I will be buying a lenovo t61p thinkpad if nothing comes out by this upcoming tuesday (26th) (unless of course, the m1530 gets updated with penryn as well and features a matte screen.)
 
Ok all,
I've been very wrong in my assumptions that Penyrn and Montevina are two different processors. The reality is that Penryn is a processor and montevina is the chipset after Santa Rosa. In fact its pretty clear now after reading wildwobby's post:

"the giant penryn/santa rosa/merom/montevina misconception
I am posting this to clear everybody up on the diference between some of these terms as it seems 90% of these forums aren't clear.

There are two different things that are named here. Chipset names and Processor names.

CHIPSETS:
-CENTRINO (General name for intel's mobile chipsets)
--Carmel (2003)
--Sonoma (2005)
--Napa (2006) (Used in previous rev. MBP)
--Santa Rosa(2007) (Used in current rev. MBP)
--Montevina(2008) (will be released this summer)
--Capella(Early 2009)

PROCESSORS:
-Core Duo (General name for intel's 1st generations of dual core chips)
--Yonah (Used in first rev MBP)
-Core 2 Duo (General name for intel's 2nd generation chips (current))
--Merom (used in current rev MBP)
--Penryn (to be used in nex-gen MBP)
-Nehalem (General name for intel's next architecture)
--Nehalem/Clarksfield (Processors that will succeed Penryn - late 2008).
--Westmere (2009)
-Sandy Bridge (General name to intel's next micro architecture - 2010)

Alrighty. As you can see Processors are not the same thing as Chipsets. Therfore we are not going from 'Santa Rosa' to 'Penryn' in the next rev MBP. However, we are going from 'Merom' to 'Penryn' and staying with the same Santa Rosa chipset. The update after that, based on apple's previous history will be from 'Santa Rosa' to 'montevina' while staying with the 'Penryn' family of processors (later this year).

Out of all of the updates, Nehalem and Sandy Bridge are the two biggest things to be excited for. They are much much much more powerful than current processors.

Misconception #2:
"Montevina will be SOOOO good."

Umm, actually the only big diference between Montevina and Santarosa is the bus speed.
800 FSB/667 memory to 1066/800. Montevina also supports integrated WiMAX... but thats an internet access thing, not a speed increase.

Just because it will be branded as Centrino 2 means nothing. Santa Rosa was branded as Centrino Pro...

The upgrade to Penryn is actually a bigger step performance-wise than the upgrade to Montevina will be.
__________________"
Click to expand...

Also after looking at this guy's post and another site I finally get it. The current Macbook Pros have Merom processors on the Santa Rosa chipset. The Penryn will be on the Santa Rosa, then this summer will be on the Montevina. So basically each processor and chipset get used twice and overlap.

I'm sure many of you know this, but for others like me who didn't, whalla! Enjoy wildwobby's post! :D

So when others said earlier that they think Apple will skip penryn, that's not going to happen. Because Penryn will be the first processor for Montevina. It doesn't sound like Montevina's really that big of a deal, so I think I'll just get the Penryn and Santa Rosa one. All the bugs have probably already been worked out of Santa Rosa. I'm just hoping for no bugs with penryn. Does anyone think there will be bugs with it? :confused:

Also, is there an easy way to find the last post you've made besides scrolling through every page? :confused:
 
TimeWaister101 said:
Ok all,
I've been very wrong in my assumptions that Penyrn and Montevina are two different processors. The reality is that Penryn is a processor and montevina is the chipset after Santa Rosa. In fact its pretty clear now after reading wildwobby's post:



Also after looking at this guy's post and another site I finally get it. The current Macbook Pros have Merom processors on the Santa Rosa chipset. The Penryn will be on the Santa Rosa, then this summer will be on the Montevina. So basically each processor and chipset get used twice and overlap.

I'm sure many of you know this, but for others like me who didn't, whalla! Enjoy wildwobby's post! :D

So when others said earlier that they think Apple will skip penryn, that's not going to happen. Because Penryn will be the first processor for Montevina. It doesn't sound like Montevina's really that big of a deal, so I think I'll just get the Penryn and Santa Rosa one. All the bugs have probably already been worked out of Santa Rosa. I'm just hoping for no bugs with penryn. Does anyone think there will be bugs with it? :confused:

Also, is there an easy way to find the last post you've made besides scrolling through every page? :confused:
Click to expand...

Almost, but if you read a little further down on the thread you would see StealthRider's post:
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/4991322/
that Santa Rosa is the platform for the current Merom (and upcoming) Penryn processors. Crestline is the chipset for Santa Rosa. Likewise Montevina is the platform replacing Santa Rosa and Cantiga is the chipset for Montevina.
IMO the best place to research this information is Wikipedia if you want exactly accurate info, not these forums.
So I guess I just nullified my own post!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montevina#Santa_Rosa_platform_.282007.29
 
Mr. Funsocks said:
I sold my old powermac with the intention to buy a new macbook pro immediately, only to come on here and read the rumors. Then I was thrown into the waiting game. I'm using my gross PC box right now which runs none of my software. I had to download the CS3 trials and they all just ran out. I have 3 deadlines approaching (The first one on March 13) So a mac is very much a need thing for me. I guess I'll just wait until the end of February and buy a refurb, so if the new one comes out I can at least know that I didn't pay for a brand new one. (Or do you have a cheaper place I can get one?)
Click to expand...

perhaps "borrow" a copy of CS3 from the internet for time being, and then when you get your mac, buy one :rolleyes:
 
Stridder44 said:
Ya know, I've really been thinking, and I wonder how many others are in the same boat with me, but I'd really be cool with buying a current MBP if the prices were adjusted for todays market.
Click to expand...

I said the same thing on another thread...it would only be fair.
 
Stridder44 said:
Yeah. Whenever I think "Just buy one now?" I remember "Oh, right, $2,000 for July 2007 technology. Wait it is then!"
Click to expand...

Exactly, and with practically all major brands having announced their switch to penryn I just think Apple has to follow soon as well, plus top it with something else being always the best and most competitive product, especially when we talk about Apple'sr flagship pro model.
 
So is there still a MBP shortage? Or was just this a hiccup in production? Man...I really need a Mac right now for my project...Steve...do a kid a favor...please update the MBP, for your follower's sake.:(

-Cheers Comrades
 
Paix247 said:
Wow! Thats the lowest number I've heard yet! It seems like the performance boost from Penryn keeps getting lower and lower the longer we wait for it. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Here are some exact figures for you from actual testing, but in summary:

1. Penryn improves battery life by 16% -- very nice.
2. Penryn improves "productivity" in day to day use by 6%
3. In SSID applications performance is 30%. -- very few apps use SSID now.

___________________________________________
The test results:
http://www.appleinsider.com/article..._offer_marginal_battery_and_speed_boosts.html
___________________________________________

In effect, the Productivity 2007 test emulates a SYSMark 2007 Productivity test, but does so with a focus on how long the battery will last, not how fast the system can perform. In this test, the Penryn-based notebbok lasted an extra 55 minutes, or an increase of almost 16.5 percent in battery life over the identically configured Merom system.

The results of the Reader 2007 test, which simulates mostly idle time when a notebook user would be reading a digital document, were similar but more marginal. In this test, battery performance improved 5.6 percent or a total of 23 minutes on the Penryn notebook compared to the older Merom-based system.


Mobile Penryn vs. mobile Merom battery tests | Source: AnandTech.


Again, and as would be expected, the Penryn notebook outperformed the Merom system in a DVD playback test, offering up to 18 minutes longer battery life for an approximate 7 percent increase in battery performance.

As noted by AnandTech, these increases in battery life will come at no additional charge to the end user, as Intel has priced the new mobile Penryn chips in line the the Merom-based models they replace. PC manufacturers like Dell and Apple are expected to adopt the chips as part of their mid-winter notebook refreshes, which will similarly arrive at price points that are either in line or cheaper than the price points of the systems they replace.

In general processor performance, the Penryn-based notebook was also marginally faster than the Merom-based system, boasting a MobileMark Productivity 2007 score that was 6.4 percent higher. Results of several SYSMark 2007 tests yielded similar results, with the Penryn system besting the Merom system by a range of 1 to 8 percent depending on the test.

Where the mobile Penryn really outshines its predecessor is in support for applications written to take advantage of Intel's Supplemental Streaming SIMD Extension 4 (SSE4) instruction set, which is making its debut as part of Intel's broader Penryn platform.


Mobile Penryn vs. mobile Merom battery tests | Source: AnandTech.


Running Intel's TMPEGEnc benchmark, which does take advantage of SSE4 during a movie transcode, AnandTech was able to witness a wide performance gap. The Penryn-based system, because of its SSE4 support, completed the encoding test in 31 percent less time than the Merom system that lacked such support.
 
agojes: bought SR MBP

Couldn't wait anymore and I cave in. Bought myself a 2.4GHz 15" MBP yesterday.
The day I wait is the day I have to spend with my current laptop which I shouldn't have gotten it in the first place. Sony Vaio TX57GN/B:(:mad:

FYI: I bought it for $2,400. Maybe it is an indication for people waiting for the next gen MBP? It was pretty hard to get a hold of the current MBP nowadays down in Indonesia. So, I checked yesterday and the reseller had one stock left and I bought it.

I'm enjoying it so far. In process of updating all the necessary update now.
 
dante@sisna.com said:
Here are some exact figures for you from actual testing, but in summary:

1. Penryn improves battery life by 16% -- very nice.
2. Penryn improves "productivity" in day to day use by 6%
3. In SSID applications performance is 30%. -- very few apps use SSID now.
Click to expand...


I'm confident that will change.
 
rezonat0r said:
Erm, I think you mean SSE4.

SSID is the technical term for the name of a wireless network.
Click to expand...

Beat me to it, I was just about to say that ;)

Non-SSE4 apps will see a 0-7% increase in speed, where as SSE4 apps will see a 30-40% increase (supposedly).
 
rezonat0r said:
Erm, I think you mean SSE4.

SSID is the technical term for the name of a wireless network.
Click to expand...

Thanks for catching me on that -- I have been up coding for like 20 hours now and am just wiped out.

I was talking with an IT guy earlier about SSID and my brain locked up.
 
Stridder44 said:
Yeah. Whenever I think "Just buy one now?" I remember "Oh, right, $2,000 for July 2007 technology. Wait it is then!"
Click to expand...

it's worse - when they did the little speed bump in October I expected they would just shift processor speed up across the line at the same cost, ie the top of the line would go 2.4 --> 2.6 for free, the base model would become 2.4 GHz at the same cost. I think processor and memory price drops in the months after July made that a fair trade but ... no ... 2.6 became an extra charge option and it still is. If you bought one in July last year, you got a much better deal than now, they could trim quite a bit off the price of that box and make the same profit.
 
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