Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

seong

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 11, 2010
1,031
28
Ok, here is the story:
I have tried to choose between iPad and Macbook, but according to most of the people in MacRumors:Forums, I have chosen to buy a Macbook.
However, it seems like that I would like to have a Macbook Pro now.
The only difference I know between is
1.Macbook is made out of polycarbonate and Macbook Pro aluminum
2.Macbook has glossy and scratchy surface and Macbook Pros are sleek.
3.Macbook has more storage for now: Macbook 250 GB and Macbook Pro 160GB.
4. There are no difference if you take out the aluminum, polycarbonate, and storage. They are perfectly same.

Now, my question is:
1.Should I wait for Core i5 and i7, and why are they good?
2.Will someday Macbooks have SD Card slot?
3.Will one of the product's price go down?
 
1. How should we know. What are your intentions on doing + what with that computer?
i7 will be not in the 13" MBP, maybe i5, which has 4
4 cores, compared to the 2 cores in the current generation of MBPs. i7 has 4 cores and can hyper-thread, making it like 8 cores.
- look at the post below, or any of the many threads about upcoming releases.
Why are they good? Make some processes that can multi-thread faster, like processor intensive calculations, the most prominent example being video encoding. But there are already lots of threads about this, the most notorious one with the name Arrandale in its title.

2. Probably not. But we don't know, only Apple does.

3. Probably not.


And the MB has no Firewire, no SD card slot, no backlit keyboard and a not so good display compared with the MBPs.
 
1. How should we know. What are your intentions on doing + what with that computer?
i7 will be not in the 13" MBP, maybe i5, which has 4 cores, compared to the 2 cores in the current generation of MBPs. i7 has 4 cores and can hyper-thread, making it like 8 cores.
Why are they good? Make some processes that can multi-thread faster, like processor intensive calculations, the most prominent example being video encoding. But there are already lots of threads about this, the most notorious one with the name Arrandale in its title.

2. Probably not. But we don't know, only Apple does.

3. Probably not.


And the MB has no Firewire, no SD card slot, no backlit keyboard and a not so good display compared with the MBPs.

Just a head's up...but in the mobile versions, both the i5 and i7 are dual core (35W). The quad core models are for desktop use only (or laptops that are okay with 65-80W CPUs I guess)
 
Thanks guys

Well, one question down, Core i5 and i7.
Thanks to spinnerlys about telling me what they are.
If that happens, I am definitely waiting for that since I hated having only two cores.
Well, the problem is, Apple is doing some weird things here.
Macbook costs $999, which is perfect for me, and has better storage but polycarbonate and no backlit keyboard.
However, the Macbook Pro is about $1299, and they lowered the storage (wtf?), aluminum unibody, and backlit keyboard.
I have 80GB storage with two partitions, one for normal usage and one for emergency or fix, such as Drive Genius 2.
Both have same graphic, and that is why I am asking people.
All I do is:
-Type my essays
-Do some tweaks for my Mac
-Some video editing
-Games, and definitely Starcraft 2 when then beta comes out
-Any usual stuff, such as web surfing, blah, blah, blah

I have my Macbook right now, and it is SLOW at launching Pages, exporting movies, launching applications (including some heavy ones, but it DOES open), and even moving between spaces it lags a few seconds.
I DO a lot of multitasking, such as making my Keynote as I am exporting the movie for it and search on Safari for information, which makes the RAM at 13MB available (right now as I am typing: All I am doing is typing on Safari and Vuze [no torrents. only legal stuff]).

They seem to be same for me.
I don't care about design. What is ACTUALLY DOES is what matters for me.
 
I DO a lot of multitasking, such as making my Keynote as I am exporting the movie for it and search on Safari for information, which makes the RAM at 13MB available (right now as I am typing: All I am doing is typing on Safari and Vuze [no torrents. only legal stuff]).

You pointed to the problem yourself: RAM. You need more RAM. If you had a laptop with 100 cores running at 100GHz your stuff would still be just about as sluggish because you don't have enough physical memory to hold enough so you're swapping to the slow disk constantly. Invest in 2x2GB ram for your macbook and you will be fine.
 
Just a head's up...but in the mobile versions, both the i5 and i7 are dual core (35W). The quad core models are for desktop use only (or laptops that are okay with 65-80W CPUs I guess)

while I agree that the new arrendale chips are dual core CPUs, I believe since they all can do hyperthreading, the chips should actually have four logical processors.
 
Yeah, I've been wondering if I should get the Mabook or the Macbook Pro, too. I've done comparisons at stores, and I like the Macbook's trackpad feel A LOT better than the Macbook Pro's. They say they're the same trackpad, but the Macbook's trackpad feels so much smoother, and I feel like I have more control over it compared to the Macbook Pro's. Also, the Macbook feels a bit cooler than the Macbook Pro. But the Macbook Pro looks so much sexier, has a backlit keyboard, and can be upgraded to 8GB RAM. So...yeah...tough choices.
 
Well, one question down, Core i5 and i7.
Thanks to spinnerlys about telling me what they are.
If that happens, I am definitely waiting for that since I hated having only two cores.
Well, the problem is, Apple is doing some weird things here.
Macbook costs $999, which is perfect for me, and has better storage but polycarbonate and no backlit keyboard.
However, the Macbook Pro is about $1299, and they lowered the storage (wtf?), aluminum unibody, and backlit keyboard.
I have 80GB storage with two partitions, one for normal usage and one for emergency or fix, such as Drive Genius 2.
Both have same graphic, and that is why I am asking people.
All I do is:
-Type my essays
-Do some tweaks for my Mac
-Some video editing
-Games, and definitely Starcraft 2 when then beta comes out
-Any usual stuff, such as web surfing, blah, blah, blah

I have my Macbook right now, and it is SLOW at launching Pages, exporting movies, launching applications (including some heavy ones, but it DOES open), and even moving between spaces it lags a few seconds.
I DO a lot of multitasking, such as making my Keynote as I am exporting the movie for it and search on Safari for information, which makes the RAM at 13MB available (right now as I am typing: All I am doing is typing on Safari and Vuze [no torrents. only legal stuff]).

They seem to be same for me.
I don't care about design. What is ACTUALLY DOES is what matters for me.

How much RAM does it have?
 
while I agree that the new arrendale chips are dual core CPUs, I believe since they all can do hyperthreading, the chips should actually have four logical processors.

Right, but what I was correcting was Spinner's statement that they're 4 core with 8 due to hyperthreading.
 
First, wait for the MBP Update

Second, I think the Alu MBP is better than the White MBP, because It has a better quality, even if you don't care about the way it looks, it won't gets ugly because scratches anytime soon, and for 200$ more you get, Firewire (which even if you don't use it you might want it for an external Firewire Hard-drive for time machine, or getting data in target mode), A battery indicator, which will become very handy in time, Backlit keyboard which looks awesome and works very well in the dark, and SD card slot which can be handy, 60% better color gamut display, And a neat Aluminium body

So the MBP is a better longterm choice

The MacBook Pro will make the MacBook look cheaper, they will probably keep Core2Duos on it for a while, while the MBP gets the i5's, and it will have a better storage once they update it, you could expect something like this:
320GB (at least 250GB)
4GB Ram
Core i5
and the MBP advantages

vs

250GB
2GB Ram
Core2Duo

That will really make the difference, and they will do it
 
Oh, thanks. Should read more of those "new MBP when???????" threads then.

I'll make a note in my first post.

So...I just stumbled across some Core i7 data in mobiles, but there's a 45W version (i7-820QM) that's 4 cores running at 1.73ghz/core (boost to 3.06ghz)...so yeah, just figured I'd put that out there that you weren't totally off! :)
 
Wow, so much information

Okay, thanks guys, I learned more from you.
I read that I might neet 2x2GB of RAM, but from Crucial, my model can only hold up to 2GB, which was sad.
My Macbook is 32 month old, 80GB of storage, 1GB of RAM, and 2.16GHz.
It ran fine for first 12 month.
After the Leopard update, it kind of got sluggish.
RAM or Macbook or Macbook Pro?
I would love to see i5 at WWDC 2010.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.