MacBook Pro Help!

[Macdude2010]

So, I will finally be able to afford a BTO 2.3GHz quad i7, w/ 8GB of RAM, 750GB HDD and a hi-res 15 inch screen in Late October. (I can get a student discount), now up until now, I thought to wait until the 2012 re-fresh, but now I am deciding I might want to get the 2011 model. I do have a mid-2009 13 inch base with 4GB of Ram and a 500GB HDD, but it is getting slow to do FCPX and CS5 with (while running multiple tabs in safari). I also do some gaming and would love to run portal 2 in full settings. Will the 2012 edition do all of this better and faster? Will it be worth waiting 3-4 months for the next version with ivy bridge?

 

[KamuiVII]

mid 2009, so your running a Core 2 Duo and only have 256mb of graphics ram, thats the main reason your running slow. 500GB hard drive at 5400rpm, is another problem

for FCPX thats the minimum requirement. Running memory hog Safari will also slow you down.

Get the 15 inch 2.2 GHz MBP and up your Ram to 8GB and this will solve all your problems. But as a tip, I would recommend quitting Safari when your not using it.

 

[Macdude2010]

mid 2009, so your running a Core 2 Duo and only have 256mb of graphics ram, thats the main reason your running slow. 500GB hard drive at 5400rpm, is another problem

for FCPX thats the minimum requirement. Running memory hog Safari will also slow you down.

Get the 15 inch 2.2 GHz MBP and up your Ram to 8GB and this will solve all your problems. But as a tip, I would recommend quitting Safari when your not using it.

Well I am getting the 2.3, but, should I get 2011 or 2012?

 

[Vantage Point]

should I get 2011 or 2012?

Do you want/need one now or in six months? I run CS5 and have used it one a 2.4 C2D 13" MBP with 4gb ram. I sold it in November, along with an iMac (3.06 C2D) for a base model 2010. I then picked up a 15" base model and upped the ram to 8gb myself and added a fast 7200rpm/750Gb drive and I can tell you the difference is huge compared to what I have - at least 50% faster.

You said things are slow so unless you want to live with that for at least six months then buy sooner than later. The new models have quad core and that is another huge performance leap from the 2010 iX CPU's - quad core will make a huge difference with video since it will take advantage of that.

So even if you get a 2011 you can expect a night and day difference in slower tasks. However, I would get the base 2.2 i7 and the base 4GB ram. The difference between the 2.2 and 2.3 will be negligible and you can upgrade the ram yourself for about 40% of the price of Apple (then sell the old ram). In essence you would save about $450 form apple and then take that savings and spend $200 to upgrade the ram and upgrade the slower 5400 rpm drive and replace with a 7200rpm, about 30% faster. These saving will help you feel like you got a better value compared to waiting for the next model.

 

[Airforcekid]

Well I am getting the 2.3, but, should I get 2011 or 2012?

CPU upgrades are not worth it these days all you will mainly see is decreased battery life get an SSD that's the main bottleneck on your current pro.

 

[KamuiVII]

Well I am getting the 2.3, but, should I get 2011 or 2012?

I agree with Vantage Point, if you want to buy now, get current model. Else wait for the next refresh which is probably a 8-12 months away. And a .1 difference in speed is nothing when doing daily tasks and even render times. You might see a 5second decrease in rendering but you'll never know the difference.

And if you did get an SSD, you would see things like booting up and opening files faster, but I would just get the 7400rmp drive instead.