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New MacBook Pro 2.53ghz or "old" 2,8ghz MacBook Pro

G

grosado78

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 16, 2009
6
0
San Juan, pR
Guys I need to replace my 6 yrs old Powerbook G4 and need to decide between the new entry level 2.53ghz advertised at $1578 after rebate at Club Mac or the refurbished 2,8ghz from apple.com at $1699 plus tax and shipping ($1780) total

I usually do lots of photoshop and now I got a high def Canon camcorder and want to get into Final Cut Pro.

Whats my best option? the new one with lower price and less features or the refurbished one with more power and 2 video chips.

Both computers are at my price range, they seem so cheap compared with the $3200 I payed for this Powerbook G4 6 yrs ago!!

Thanks for your advise!
 
Go 2,8

Photoshop has almost ZERO multi-core support (except for gaussian blur and few other select filters.. haha), that being said, I would go for the maximum Ghz if photoshop was in my workflow .. (it is, and i've ordered a 3.06Ghz MBP)

I've also had issues with 13" unibody macbook and connecting to a 30" ACD.. the NVIDIA 9400m is nice, but has a hard time keeping up with the 30" ACD @ 2560x1600 resolution. So if you are considering connecting to a large external display, I would be cautious with the low-end 15" MBP.

I mean, really the only advantage of the newer model is longer battery life. The refurb has all the same specs, better CPU, better graphics card, slightly worse battery (but still very good).. plus is not effected by the SATA 1.5Gbps vs 3.0Gbps issue seeming to effect the newest 13"/15" MBP pros [thread]718516[/thread]
 
grosado78 said:
Guys I need to replace my 6 yrs old Powerbook G4 and need to decide between the new entry level 2.53ghz advertised at $1578 after rebate at Club Mac or the refurbished 2,8ghz from apple.com at $1699 plus tax and shipping ($1780) total

I usually do lots of photoshop and now I got a high def Canon camcorder and want to get into Final Cut Pro.

Whats my best option? the new one with lower price and less features or the refurbished one with more power and 2 video chips.

Both computers are at my price range, they seem so cheap compared with the $3200 I payed for this Powerbook G4 6 yrs ago!!

Thanks for your advise!
Click to expand...

Go with the 2.53 GHz model. It will support the latest advances from Snow Leopard. GPGPU using OpenCL will only be available on MacBooks using nVidia 9400M or 9600M GT.

So, you'd be better off buying newer technology. That from aside of the fact of the other benefits of 3Gb/s SATA, 1066MHz FSB and DDR3 Ram.

Also, like I say, if you are going to buy technology, buy the latest and baddest you can, because if you skim and/or be cheap, it will come back later to bite you in the arse.
 
jav6454 said:
Go with the 2.53 GHz model. It will support the latest advances from Snow Leopard. GPGPU using OpenCL will only be available on MacBooks using nVidia 9400M or 9600M GT.

So, you'd be better off buying newer technology. That from aside of the fact of the other benefits of 3Gb/s SATA, 1066MHz FSB and DDR3 Ram.

Also, like I say, if you are going to buy technology, buy the latest and baddest you can, because if you skim and/or be cheap, it will come back later to bite you in the arse.
Click to expand...

im in the same dilemma 2.66 vs. the old 2.8..

woulnt the 3 vs. 1.5 sata effect performace?
ddr 3 is faster form what ive hear?
old model is 6gb ram expandable only?


but the older model looks much more bad ass
 
jav6454 said:
Go with the 2.53 GHz model. It will support the latest advances from Snow Leopard. GPGPU using OpenCL will only be available on MacBooks using nVidia 9400M or 9600M GT.
Click to expand...

15 inch 2.53 doesn't have 9600gt.
 
djarpit said:
im in the same dilemma 2.66 vs. the old 2.8..

woulnt the 3 vs. 1.5 sata effect performace?
ddr 3 is faster form what ive hear?
old model is 6gb ram expandable only?


but the older model looks much more bad ass
Click to expand...

If you are planning on updating your HDD to an SSD, then go with the 2.66GHz model. New SSDs can easily clog up and read over 1.5Gb/s. So, going 3Gb/s SATA connection is highly recommended.

Previous gen models of MacBook Pros (2.66GHz models) are capable of 6GB also, you can even buy the RAM from Apple and upgrade it to 8GB unofficially.

DDR3 is not faster than DDR2 if both are clocked at 800MHz, but since these new models start at 1066MHz, there will be some performance increases, not noticeable for average user, but they are there. The higher the memory clock, the more performance increase you'll notice.
 
jav6454 said:
If you are planning on updating your HDD to an SSD, then go with the 2.66GHz model. New SSDs can easily clog up and read over 1.5Gb/s. So, going 3Gb/s SATA connection is highly recommended.

Previous gen models of MacBook Pros (2.66GHz models) are capable of 6GB also, you can even buy the RAM from Apple and upgrade it to 8GB unofficially.

DDR3 is not faster than DDR2 if both are clocked at 800MHz, but since these new models start at 1066MHz, there will be some performance increases, not noticeable for average user, but they are there. The higher the memory clock, the more performance increase you'll notice.
Click to expand...

OMG.
thank you.
i needed this explaination.. but i need some more info

so lets say i get the new model. basic hard drive it comes with.. i do lots of audio sampling.. HD reads will be clooged

my option is to upgrade it to teh SSD? How do i go about doing that? and doing that will give me 3mbps on the new one?

thank you in advance,
arpit
 
djarpit said:
OMG.
thank you.
i needed this explaination.. but i need some more info

so lets say i get the new model. basic hard drive it comes with.. i do lots of audio sampling.. HD reads will be clooged

my option is to upgrade it to teh SSD? How do i go about doing that? and doing that will give me 3mbps on the new one?

thank you in advance,
arpit
Click to expand...

Not even close. HDDs that run at 5400 or 7200 rpm will never clog up a 1.5Gb/s SATA connection. They rarely go up to 80 MB/s while a 1.5Gb/s SATA connection has a theoretical ~180 MB/s bandwidth.

If you want higher performance, then an SSD will be good for you, although you can still be productive with a regular HDD. However, new MacBook Pro models (13" and 15") are capped at 1.5Gb/s. So buying an SSD, isn't a good choice, as its performance will be slowed down to the SATA's connection speed. You will see a performance drop of the SSD of ~50%.
 
jav6454 said:
Not even close. HDDs that run at 5400 or 7200 rpm will never clog up a 1.5Gb/s SATA connection. They rarely go up to 80 MB/s while a 1.5Gb/s SATA connection has a theoretical ~180 MB/s bandwidth.

If you want higher performance, then an SSD will be good for you, although you can still be productive with a regular HDD. However, new MacBook Pro models (13" and 15") are capped at 1.5Gb/s. So buying an SSD, isn't a good choice, as its performance will be slowed down to the SATA's connection speed. You will see a performance drop of the SSD of ~50%.
Click to expand...

Hmm.. so you're saying it wouldnt make a diff if I get the new one.. and the speeds will still be sufficient enough for me to work my audio work.

because quite frankly that was the only thing stopping me form going to a mac store and picking the mid lev 15"
 
djarpit said:
Hmm.. so you're saying it wouldnt make a diff if I get the new one.. and the speeds will still be sufficient enough for me to work my audio work.

because quite frankly that was the only thing stopping me form going to a mac store and picking the mid lev 15"
Click to expand...

An HDD will slow you down if you plan to do heavy computing stuff and/or many multi tasking jobs. Audio will be fine. Why? When you edit a track it is read and transfered to RAM memory and that process takes a small read. Also, the processing/editing/etc of sound/audio clip is done at the CPU, which is *very* fast in these new machines.
 
jav6454 said:
An HDD will slow you down if you plan to do heavy computing stuff and/or many multi tasking jobs. Audio will be fine. Why? When you edit a track it is read and transfered to RAM memory and that process takes a small read. Also, the processing/editing/etc of sound/audio clip is done at the CPU, which is *very* fast in these new machines.
Click to expand...

thank you.

LOL in that case the L2 cache is lower in these new machines..
 
Thanks

Thanks for your help, I ended up getting the 2.8 refurb for $1699
Will get it tommorow, can't wait to have it here and retire this 6 yrs old Powerbook G4 !!!!!!!
 
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