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Macbook Pro...Upgrade or not?

JasonR

JasonR

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 11, 2008
958
2
Currently, I have a Macbook Pro.

Specs:
Macbook Pro bought mid July 2008
2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB 800 MHz Ram
GeForce 8600M GT
200 GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive
Mac OS X
EVERYTHING that came with the Mac will be included. Box, install discs, packaging, cloth, etc.
The Macbook Pro is in excellent condition with a couple light scrapes on the corner. Great battery life.

Will the new Macbook Pro Unibody be much of an upgrade in terms of speed? I like the design better, and I'd much rather sell my current MBP if can get more money for it now than later. I thought about buying the 17" but I think it's just too big to lug around.

One a side note, is Apple still having problems with the Mini Display Port to Dual Link DVI connector?
 
You won't see any valuable boost in performance with a unibody. You'll only spend for look.
 
JasonR said:
Currently, I have a Macbook Pro.

Specs:
Macbook Pro bought mid July 2008
2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB 800 MHz Ram
GeForce 8600M GT
200 GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive
Mac OS X
EVERYTHING that came with the Mac will be included. Box, install discs, packaging, cloth, etc.
The Macbook Pro is in excellent condition with a couple light scrapes on the corner. Great battery life.

Will the new Macbook Pro Unibody be much of an upgrade in terms of speed? I like the design better, and I'd much rather sell my current MBP if can get more money for it now than later. I thought about buying the 17" but I think it's just too big to lug around.

One a side note, is Apple still having problems with the Mini Display Port to Dual Link DVI connector?
Click to expand...
Couldn't you have just asked this in the same thread you started here? https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=7507702&posted=1#post7507702

To answer your question, no it won't be much of an ugprade, even if you get the 15" and upgrade to 2.93 GHz. There is really no reason for you to upgrade unless you're in dire need of a better graphics card or you really like the unibody design. Functionally for most tasks, your current macbook pro will do everything the unibody can do with little noticeable difference.
 
The thread was closed, I didnt' realize you couldn't ask pricing information. I may sell this one as the resale value is better now than it would be in a few months, and Apple Care runs out in July which seems to be a big selling point.
 
The new 15" MBP at 2.66 GHz is not going to be much faster at all. Sure, faster RAM. Barely faster CPU. Minor speed bump upgrade as far as speed. HOWEVER, the new MBP is built really solid. The unibody case is a true technological breakthrough in my opinion. Also, you get dual graphics. Most importantly, and only available on the high end MBP is the 8 GB RAM possibility.

However, if I were you, I would hold off until WWDC in June. Many rumors circulating the Mac notebooks will get upgrades. Not much to upgrade in terms of CPUs... but I think the battery technology used in the 17" could be making its way to the MBP. Maybe a video RAM upgrade??? Maybe, although really doubtful, an anti glare 15" MBP???

But I think the battery technology would be an excellent benefit worth waiting for... I think you should hold your current MBP and wait for the next upgrade of the 15" MBP to see if the battery tech makes it there.

Good luck whenever you buy.
 
santos79 said:
Sorry, but that's a load of crap. I know this is MacRumors, but rumors are not facts.
Click to expand...

People are installing 8 GB RAM right now on the slight speed bump high end 15" MBP since bumped to 2.66 GHz. The 2.53 is NOT working with more than 6 GB. I think this is a more important reason to buy the new high-end 15" MBP, than the extra video RAM or HDD or whatever. Being able to install 8 GB in a year or two for a few hundred bucks will extend the life of the computer for an extra year or two.

Go do some research on which current MBPs accept 8 GB RAM. The 17" with the 2.66 and 2.93 logic board. And the 15" MBP with 2.66 or 2.93 GHz logic board.

Read about it several weeks ago. You don't think that is true????
 
no difference

you won't notice.
Your good with not even upgrading.
I am actually on my girl's last generation MBP 2.4GHZ and I have the new macbook pro 2.4
I enjoy the keyboard on the last generation, feels so much more comfortable.
 
ajohnson253 said:
you won't notice.
Your good with not even upgrading.
I am actually on my girl's last generation MBP 2.4GHZ and I have the new macbook pro 2.4
I enjoy the keyboard on the last generation, feels so much more comfortable.
Click to expand...

Ditto with everything he said, except I gave my fiancee my 2.4 uni mpb and got a 2.33 15" mbp on the cheap.

You may be able to find a couple of threads about how to squeeze the fullest out of every last processor cycle on your machine.

Unless you need 8 gigs for fcp, vm's, etc., keep your machine and use it until it no longer serves your needs.
 
Scottsdale said:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/675191/

here you go mr full of crap... i guess you must have a late 2008 MBP with 2.53 or 2.8 ghz cpus? Those support 4 officially and 6 actually. The new high end MBP with 2.66 or 2.93 ghz cpus support 8 gb ram.
Click to expand...

The part I took offense to is your assumption that only the 2.66 and 2.93 MBP's will support 8GB and that the other models with Nvidia chipset will never.
There's a reason why Apple doesn't officially support 8GB for any 15-inch MBPs, don't you think? All the newer models use the same chipset, so I think they all eventually will (even the unibody Macbooks). Snow Leopard is all about 64-bit computing and a fix for the 6GB+ problems is just a firmware fix away.
I'm sure Apple doesn't mind consumers spending more money based on rumors in the meantime, though.
 
@ JasonR:

I have an identical MBP to yours, other than my 250GB 5400RPM HDD. I just got a new 17" 2.93GHz MBP, but I only got it because I needed a higher res screen. The laptop is marginally faster as compared to the older one, but unless you really stress your machine, you are unlikely to notice much difference (if any). If I were you, I would keep your existing MBP and replace it only once Apple offers Nehalem-based MBPs.
 
santos79 said:
The part I took offense to is your assumption that only the 2.66 and 2.93 MBP's will support 8GB and that the other models with Nvidia chipset will never.
There's a reason why Apple doesn't officially support 8GB for any 15-inch MBPs, don't you think? All the newer models use the same chipset, so I think they all eventually will (even the unibody Macbooks). Snow Leopard is all about 64-bit computing and a fix for the 6GB+ problems is just a firmware fix away.
I'm sure Apple doesn't mind consumers spending more money based on rumors in the meantime, though.
Click to expand...

Doesn't matter if you think the 2.53 and 2.8 will support in future. Right now, the 2.66 and 2.93 DO SUPPORT 8 GB RAM.

I would be one pissed off MBP owner since the new CONSUMER iMacs all support 8 GB of RAM and the $2499 MBP DIDN'T! The 2.4 GHz MBP should support it too.

I would be pissed knowing that someone could buy a CONSUMER grade iMac and use 8 GB RAM and my MB PRO doesn't.

I don't know why there is no outrage over this issue personally. To me, seems like if the MBP logic boards were capable, Apple would be allowing it to happen with the new iMac supporting 8 GB.

What do all of you MBP owners think? How about unibody owners 2.4 and 2.53 and 2.8??? Aren't you all ticked off?
 
Scottsdale said:
Doesn't matter if you think the 2.53 and 2.8 will support in future. Right now, the 2.66 and 2.93 DO SUPPORT 8 GB RAM.

I would be one pissed off MBP owner since the new CONSUMER iMacs all support 8 GB of RAM and the $2499 MBP DIDN'T! The 2.4 GHz MBP should support it too.

I would be pissed knowing that someone could buy a CONSUMER grade iMac and use 8 GB RAM and my MB PRO doesn't.

I don't know why there is no outrage over this issue personally. To me, seems like if the MBP logic boards were capable, Apple would be allowing it to happen with the new iMac supporting 8 GB.

What do all of you MBP owners think? How about unibody owners 2.4 and 2.53 and 2.8??? Aren't you all ticked off?
Click to expand...

I'm a 2.4 MBP owner and I sure as hell am pissed that 8gb is not supported especially when a lot of lower end PC's are, albeit with 64 bit structure. Then again I don't see the need to throw $1200 for only a slight speed increase as I'm not a power user. In a few years, yeah I'll want 8gb of ram but by that time I'll have a new MBP that can support it.
 
Scottsdale said:
Doesn't matter if you think the 2.53 and 2.8 will support in future. Right now, the 2.66 and 2.93 DO SUPPORT 8 GB RAM.

I would be one pissed off MBP owner since the new CONSUMER iMacs all support 8 GB of RAM and the $2499 MBP DIDN'T! The 2.4 GHz MBP should support it too.

I would be pissed knowing that someone could buy a CONSUMER grade iMac and use 8 GB RAM and my MB PRO doesn't.

I don't know why there is no outrage over this issue personally. To me, seems like if the MBP logic boards were capable, Apple would be allowing it to happen with the new iMac supporting 8 GB.

What do all of you MBP owners think? How about unibody owners 2.4 and 2.53 and 2.8??? Aren't you all ticked off?
Click to expand...

UniPro said:
I'm a 2.4 MBP owner and I sure as hell am pissed that 8gb is not supported especially when a lot of lower end PC's are, albeit with 64 bit structure. Then again I don't see the need to throw $1200 for only a slight speed increase as I'm not a power user. In a few years, yeah I'll want 8gb of ram but by that time I'll have a new MBP that can support it.
Click to expand...

I think there would be a lot more pissed off users out there if 8GB were actually affordable at the moment. But at between 700 and 1200 dollars, it's ridiculously expensive right now - not to mention that 99% of the MB/MBP users won't even notice the difference between 2GB and 4GB.

I think Apple would have a lot of explaining to do if it decided not to fix the problem with more than 6GB of RAM for the unibody Macbooks. In particular, I can't image that the company would alienate the users that paid a premium for the 2.8 Ghz model at the time.
 
santos79 said:
I think there would be a lot more pissed off users out there if 8GB were actually affordable at the moment. But at between 700 and 1200 dollars, it's ridiculously expensive right now - not to mention that 99% of the MB/MBP users won't even notice the difference between 2GB and 4GB.

I think Apple would have a lot of explaining to do if it decided not to fix the problem with more than 6GB of RAM for the unibody Macbooks. In particular, I can't image that the company would alienate the users that paid a premium for the 2.8 Ghz model at the time.
Click to expand...

That is just the thing though. A year or two from now, adding two new 4 GB sticks of RAM would give your computer a BIG speed boost and make it feel like new and probably last a few extra years.

Instead of just paying $200 for RAM, you will have to buy a completely new MBP. I guess maybe that was Apple's strategy. I think if it were capable of accepting 8 GB of RAM, Apple would already put out the firmware upgrade to make it happen.

Seriously though on the issue of RAM... when I read that the new iMac was supporting 8 GB of RAM, I instantly thought there were going to be a bunch of pissed of MBP buyers. In my opinion, Apple should have given PRO buyers 8 GB of RAM capabilities before the CONSUMER iMac.

In fact, the RAM was the only real upgrade in the new iMacs... I guess I just figured would see outrage all over the place over the RAM issue for PRO buyers. And am very surprised it hasn't been a big deal.

Sure, it's expensive now, but within a year it will probably be $250 and two years under $200. And then will be the time to upgrade the RAM not now while is expensive.

Just my two cents.
 
Just looked at system profiler and I have the dreaded 8600m GT card. Should I sell because of that card?

I'm frustrated after reading about all the problems people are having on this forum. maybe I should go back to a PC.... :\
 
JasonR said:
Just looked at system profiler and I have the dreaded 8600m GT card. Should I sell because of that card?

I'm frustrated after reading about all the problems people are having on this forum. maybe I should go back to a PC.... :\
Click to expand...

You're frustrated because other people are having problems? And that's making you consider a PC? Seriously? Are you having any problems with YOUR machine?
 
clyde2801 said:
1. Buy applecare.

2. Game the crap out of your machine in bootcamp. Have that sucker running 100% for 24 hours a day if you can.

3. Wait for machine's video card to melt.

4. Repeat-until you get a new model macbook pro.
Click to expand...

Haha, has anyone actually done that?

My screen flickers occasionally and has some random issues, but I haven't been compelled to get a new video card / machine. This is the only computer I have right now, and it's what I work off of.

It seems that many new Apple PCs, including the Unibody MBPs and iMacs are having issues. I need something reliable, and I really don't want to go back to a Windows machine!
 
JasonR said:
Haha, has anyone actually done that?

My screen flickers occasionally and has some random issues, but I haven't been compelled to get a new video card / machine. This is the only computer I have right now, and it's what I work off of.

It seems that many new Apple PCs, including the Unibody MBPs and iMacs are having issues. I need something reliable, and I really don't want to go back to a Windows machine!
Click to expand...

I would go tell Apple it is flickering. This will force them to swap the logic board with a new one. That will solve the problem and fix your MBP for the long run. I think that is a really nice machine, but if you are looking for an excuse to upgrade to unibody just do it. Nobody here needs to give you approval. Do what you want, it's your money. If it were me, I would have Apple fix the logic board which fixes the 8600 GT card.

Good luck.
 
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