Macbook or macbook pro

[jacdem]

I own a macbook early 2009 ( white one)
specifications
cpu: p7350 C2D 2.0 gb
Ram: 2gb
HDD: 120G
Graphic card: Nvidia 9400

A friend is proposing to trade with his Macbook Pro mid 2007
Specifications
cpu: T7500, C2D 2.2 gb
Ram: 2gb
HDD: 120gb
Graphic card: Nvidia Geforce 8600, 128mb

The problem is that I have never own a Macbook Pro before and I know that in this forum many people know apple computers better than me.
My question is: " Is it worth to trade? Will it be a downgrade? what will i gain?"

I must add that I use my computer mostly for internet, word, excel, matlab, CAD with Coreldraw and Illustrator.
Thank for your reply.

 

[iTootyFrooty]

Avoid 8600M GT

If you truly need the bigger screen and slight boost in performance, go for it. But to say that the 8600M GT macbook pros had problems would be the understatement of the year :s

 

[jacdem]

Thanks

Thank for your reply iTootyFrooty. I was just wondering if the 8600 GT can handle graphic tasks and cpu heavy tasks better than the 9400 macbooks.

 

[hellfire88]

Apple has said the 9400m is about 1/2 as powerful as the 8600GT. So it will help a bit I suppose with Illustrator etc.

The only thing is, the 8600GTs in the 2007 - 2008 macbook Pro had a very high failure rate. Is your friends Macbook pro still under Applecare warranty? If not I'd be hesitant to trade.

 

[bunit]

If your happy with your Macbook, and have no need for an upgrade, I would hang on to what you have.

 

[JNickyJJ]

keep what you have

unless you need the extra space, but keep what you have i'd say

 

[Raje]

Keep yours it is newer by 2 years (half a life time of a system for some users). If yours is feeling sluggish just upgrade the ram and HDD. I do not believe there would be any performance change between yours and your friends. Also if you need long battery life the MB has a longer battery life

 

[jacdem]

thanks

Thanks for all your replies. I think I will just keep what I have. I use sometimes Logic express and my computer that it can't run it. I already upgraded the RAM to 4gb and the HDD to 320gb.

 

[J&JPolangin]

I don't know how good a friend you "think" he/she is but if they have a SR MBP with the 8600 card in it they probably know about the failure issue and that's the whole reason they proposed the trade to you...make your own conclusion and good luck...

 

[alphaod]

Even if the MacBook Pro does not have AppleCare, should the motherboard fail due to the graphics card issue, Apple will fix it for free. Therefore if that's the only concern, that should be fine.

Worse case scenario, Apple cannot fix it and will be forced to replace your computer with the latest MacBook Pro