There's a lot of conjecture, wondering, griping, etc going on about the new MBP's here in the forums. Sometimes people are disappointed, sometimes people get lemons, and those people are usually the ones to post the most. So this post is a "My macbook is working great post" for those of you who want a random sampling from someone who is happy and having no problems.
I have the following specs:
First - Speed. This machine is smoking fast. My geekbench score is over 10,000. But I'm not just talking scores - It boots in about 15 seconds - about 3 times faster than my old machine. I recently installed Unity3D (v. 3.3). The install dialog informed me it would take "about 4 minutes". It finished in less than 15 seconds. Seriously. I can boot a Windows 7 VM (fusion) in about 15 seconds (to the desktop), and have Visual Studio 2010 completely loaded and running in another 10 seconds. Anyone who has ever booted windows and used Visual Studio knows that this is amazing.
Second - Temperature. My machine does not run hot. Not even when I'm running a VM with windows (notorious for using a lot of CPU). My friend, who has the high end late 2010 MBP has remarked how much cooler mine is to the touch. His is literally uncomfortable to rest your hand on while typing when under heavy load. Mine can get warm, but never uncomfortable. Both of my friends with Late 2010 MBP's are jealous of how cool it is comparatively.
Third - Graphics. The graphics on this machine are almost as fast as my nVidia 9800GT. Yes, thats a few years older. But it's also a desktop card. I have not played any game that has had any problem at 1650x1080 in high settings with multiple light sources and full shadows everywhere. (Usually I do not play at this high of resolution - I prefer 1280x800)
Fourth - Noise. This mbp is quieter in general. The DVD is around the same noise level, but the fans are quieter than my old C2D mbp. Unless the fans are on, you can't hear a thing. And when the fan does come on, it's a low hum as opposed to the jet engine noise my old MBP ( and my work thinkpad) makes.
Fifth - The glossy screen. The colors look great, they're deep and rich, the contrast is amazing. I prefer glossy screens over matte screens (they used to be the premium option!). You may not like it if you work outside, or sit with your back to a southern facing window. For most people, you may get some reflections in some cases - but it's the same as a window, you just look through them and don't notice it. Matte is OK too, so this is really a subjective call.
So how is the general feel?
Snappy. Things load fast. And when they're loaded, they run fast. The previous version did not seem like a very big step up from the C2D mbps. This version is literally 3 times faster (yes, just by geekbench score alone, 3400 vs 10100)
Win 7 in VMWare fusion runs faster than it did on my old C2D mac booted natively. I'm not trying to sell people on fusion, but it is extremely usable on this box. Way faster than my work thinkpad runs natively. I dedicated 4GB to fusion, and left 4GB for my Mac.
Am I happy and would I change anything?
Yes indeed I'm happy. I probably wouldn't change anything, unless money was no object. If that were the case, I would upgrade to the 512gb SSD and get the 2.3 Ghz CPU. But I had to keep everything under a certain budget.
There you go.
I have the following specs:
- 15" 2.2Ghz Sandy Bridge
- HD 6750 GPU
- 256 GB SSD
- Glossy 1680x1050 Screen
- 8GB RAM (I upgraded this myself)
First - Speed. This machine is smoking fast. My geekbench score is over 10,000. But I'm not just talking scores - It boots in about 15 seconds - about 3 times faster than my old machine. I recently installed Unity3D (v. 3.3). The install dialog informed me it would take "about 4 minutes". It finished in less than 15 seconds. Seriously. I can boot a Windows 7 VM (fusion) in about 15 seconds (to the desktop), and have Visual Studio 2010 completely loaded and running in another 10 seconds. Anyone who has ever booted windows and used Visual Studio knows that this is amazing.
Second - Temperature. My machine does not run hot. Not even when I'm running a VM with windows (notorious for using a lot of CPU). My friend, who has the high end late 2010 MBP has remarked how much cooler mine is to the touch. His is literally uncomfortable to rest your hand on while typing when under heavy load. Mine can get warm, but never uncomfortable. Both of my friends with Late 2010 MBP's are jealous of how cool it is comparatively.
Third - Graphics. The graphics on this machine are almost as fast as my nVidia 9800GT. Yes, thats a few years older. But it's also a desktop card. I have not played any game that has had any problem at 1650x1080 in high settings with multiple light sources and full shadows everywhere. (Usually I do not play at this high of resolution - I prefer 1280x800)
Fourth - Noise. This mbp is quieter in general. The DVD is around the same noise level, but the fans are quieter than my old C2D mbp. Unless the fans are on, you can't hear a thing. And when the fan does come on, it's a low hum as opposed to the jet engine noise my old MBP ( and my work thinkpad) makes.
Fifth - The glossy screen. The colors look great, they're deep and rich, the contrast is amazing. I prefer glossy screens over matte screens (they used to be the premium option!). You may not like it if you work outside, or sit with your back to a southern facing window. For most people, you may get some reflections in some cases - but it's the same as a window, you just look through them and don't notice it. Matte is OK too, so this is really a subjective call.
So how is the general feel?
Snappy. Things load fast. And when they're loaded, they run fast. The previous version did not seem like a very big step up from the C2D mbps. This version is literally 3 times faster (yes, just by geekbench score alone, 3400 vs 10100)
Win 7 in VMWare fusion runs faster than it did on my old C2D mac booted natively. I'm not trying to sell people on fusion, but it is extremely usable on this box. Way faster than my work thinkpad runs natively. I dedicated 4GB to fusion, and left 4GB for my Mac.
Am I happy and would I change anything?
Yes indeed I'm happy. I probably wouldn't change anything, unless money was no object. If that were the case, I would upgrade to the 512gb SSD and get the 2.3 Ghz CPU. But I had to keep everything under a certain budget.
There you go.
