MacBook Pro Questions..

[djmatt]

I am thinking about selling my black macbook and upgrading to a macbook pro. I have a couple of questions, hopefully someone can help me out here.

1. What is the right time to buy, I dont want them to do an update as soon as I buy it.

2. Is there a noticeable difference between 8gb of raam and 4gb? 4gb seems high enough.

3. What would be the difference between buying the top model vs buying the middle and adding raam or a bigger hard drive?

Thanks

 

[spinnerlys]

1. There is no update expected until early 2011, but one never knows. MacRumors Buyer's Guide can give you some extrapolated information.

2. Depends on how you use your Mac, some applications are very RAM hungry, many are not. Browsing the web and writing essays and dabbling in PS or iMovie will be more than fine with 4GB. Just get 8GB if you feel the 4GB is not enough.

3. Depends on how you use your Mac, some applications are very CPU hungry, many are not. Browsing the web and writing essays and dabbling in PS or iMovie will be more than fine with the middle or beginner model. Adding an HDD can be done by yourself for less money and you have a spare HDD for emergencies.


As you can see from some of my answers, 2. & 3., your needs and what you use the Mac for are important for us to properly clarify your setup.

 

[djmatt]

Thank you very much

I have 2gb of raam on my black MacBook, and it seems to crash all the time on doing things as simple as surfing the web. Does it have something to do with the CPU?

The main reason I want to update is for a bigger hd. I literally have 1 gb of space left on my computer, I am constantly having to delete things, and everything on my computer can not just be dumped on an external, I use most of it.

Also, the early 2011 update, what is expected? Is it worth waiting or will there just be something simple done?

 

[spinnerlys]

Thank you very much

I have 2gb of raam on my black MacBook, and it seems to crash all the time on doing things as simple as surfing the web. Does it have something to do with the CPU?

The main reason I want to update is for a bigger hd. I literally have 1 gb of space left on my computer, I am constantly having to delete things, and everything on my computer can not just be dumped on an external, I use most of it.

Also, the early 2011 update, what is expected? Is it worth waiting or will there just be something simple done?

You can replace the HDD in a MacBook quite easily, as 1GB of free space is probably the cause for the crashes. It is recommended to have 10 to 20 percent of the HDD's capacity unused, in other words 12 to 24 GB should be free on a 120GB HDD.
Depending on what exact MacBook you have, you can upgrade it to 4GB too.


If you do a search via MRoogle, you can find plenty of threads about the 2001 update.

 

[BigBeast]

1. The right time to buy is when you need/want one. I can attest that waiting for tech will always leave you waiting. The 2010 MBP is only 5 months old. There could be a spec boost around October but this would be negligible. A refresh likely won't happen until April-July of next year. Intel's new Sandy Bridge architecture doesn't come out until Q1 2011 (if I remember correctly) which could be until the end of march until production is ramped up and then it takes a while for Apple to push them out. My advice is to get one now, or see if there is a minor CPU increase in October. But really, the CPU bump won't have any noticeable bearing on performance.

2. Yes there is a very noticeable difference, especially if you use W7 virtualization. 8GB of RAM will have you running SL and W7 both like butter side by side. Plus, SL commits RAM to programs even after you close them so when you reopen said program, it loads quickly. So the more RAM you have, the less likely you'll have to restart your system to regain RAM. When I had 4GB of RAM, I noticed lag even when I wasn't virtualizing. Since I've upgraded to 8GB, I haven't been able to saturate my RAM even when running VMware Fusion which has 4GB dedicated to it.

3. From what I hear and read, the lowest model is the best price/performance ration. You would think the extra VRAM would be good, but there's little need for the extra space. The middle option is a joke. It's almost like wasting your money. The top tier MBP is great. I love it. It just depends on what your budget is.

The biggest bottleneck in the laptop right now is the HDD. I just bought a SSD that I'll be placing in my MBP as a boot drive. This will complete my power house. I'd say choose either the lowest i5 or the i7, then replace the HHD with a SSD, finally upgrade to 8GB RAM.