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

Performance Comparison Black MB vs 17 MBP

B

bigvb@hotmail.c

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 25, 2006
79
0
So ive got a black MB atm. 2.4ghz, 2gig ram; I was wondering what sort of performance upgrade i can expect from the new 17'' MBP which i am seriously considering purchasing.

I use my laptop for alot of Aperture and some logic pro production aswell. I currently get through my 2gb of ram with 30-40 safari tabs over sometimes 5 windows, itunes, iphoto, msn, ichat, imail, ical, skype, xtorrent; all of these are generally open at once, on a daily basis.

As a result i often get lag as well as prolonged periods of the coloured wheel. Would all lags be eliminated with the new MBP?

Finally is it at all worth the extra money for the CPU upgrade; from 2.66-2.93, i didnt think so as most of my needs are ram related i feel. (BTW, no i cannot afford the 8gb option :( )

cheers c
 
Ever think of upgrading your macbook to 4gb? It can be done for about 40$ and makes a nice difference. Maybe give that shot before 3,000$ on a laptop.
 
No, you don't need to spend the extra money on upgrading the processor. It would only be in vain. Instead, invest the $300 into a SSD. From the sounds of it, a SSD plus 4GBs of RAM would be a huge help, not to mention the addition of a 512MB 9600 graphics chip.

If you don't want a SSD, upgrade the HDD from 5400 to 7200. It makes a big difference.
 
You should definitely get the 17-in if you are using Aperture and Logic Pro.

Just an idea: If you have that many windows open in Safari, you should probably be splitting it up between Safari and another web browser like Firefox. I hate having more than 5 tabs open at once, so I use Safari for some basic internet browsing and Firefox for more advanced stuff that Safari lacks.
 
i considered but i heard that mine will only use 3 of the 4 gb, and the effects arent that great.

Plus im looking to upgrade anywhoo : )
 
Repo said:
No, you don't need to spend the extra money on upgrading the processor. It would only be in vain. Instead, invest the $300 into a SSD. From the sounds of it, a SSD plus 4GBs of RAM would be a huge help, not to mention the addition of a 512MB 9600 graphics chip.
Click to expand...

Can you add another graphics chip? I thought they were built into the logic board and were non-upgradable. I would love to do that in the future.
 
an average response time of round 10 seconds; not bad i guess lol

I need to become more active in this community, it seems very vibrant.

So basically I appear to be a very heavy user of my laptop.

Btw, I almost never turn my macbook off, is this bad?
 
I will let you know Monday or Tuesday, I plan on doing a write when I get my 17" on Monday. I currently have a white macbook that I purchased last summer so it should give you an idea of what kind of boost you will get. I'm guessing it's going to be HUGE though. ;-)
 
alexbates said:
You should definitely get the 17-in if you are using Aperture and Logic Pro.

Just an idea: If you have that many windows open in Safari, you should probably be splitting it up between Safari and another web browser like Firefox. I hate having more than 5 tabs open at once, so I use Safari for some basic internet browsing and Firefox for more advanced stuff that Safari lacks.
Click to expand...

However, if you do that, then you have to keep your bookmarks updated between the two browsers. You can just open as many Firefox windows as you like, and keep as many tabs as you want in each one, and they all have your bookmarks. See. Easy.
 
detz said:
I will let you know Monday or Tuesday, I plan on doing a write when I get my 17" on Monday. I currently have a white macbook that I purchased last summer so it should give you an idea of what kind of boost you will get. I'm guessing it's going to be HUGE though. ;-)
Click to expand...


legend; that would be sweet.

Theres anpther thread about some 500gb 7200 HD, can you buy this and then put this into the 17'' mbp? altho tbh the 320gb 720, certainly isnt bad
 
bigvb@hotmail.c said:
an average response time of round 10 seconds; not bad i guess lol

I need to become more active in this community, it seems very vibrant.

So basically I appear to be a very heavy user of my laptop.

Btw, I almost never turn my macbook off, is this bad?
Click to expand...

Turn it off at least once a week, if not off, at least restart it. It should be able to be on at all times, probably shouldn't be hard pressed at all times. I leave my 6-year-old Windows desktop running day and night, and turn it off once in a while. It runs fine. How have you managed your Black MB (power wise) so far?
 
bigvb@hotmail.c said:
legend; that would be sweet.

Theres anpther thread about some 500gb 7200 HD, can you buy this and then put this into the 17'' mbp? altho tbh the 320gb 720, certainly isnt bad
Click to expand...

Wow, weird...I have the new Seagate 7200 500GB HD right now waiting for the macbook to come in so it seems you'll get your wish.
 
Repo said:
Turn it off at least once a week, if not off, at least restart it. It should be able to be on at all times, probably shouldn't be hard pressed at all times. I leave my 6-year-old Windows desktop running day and night, and turn it off once in a while. It runs fine. How have you managed your Black MB (power wise) so far?
Click to expand...

Im not quite sure what you mean by that, i recharge it at least once a day, often leave it connected to charger.
 
do you use some cloning software to transfer the data from native hd into the seagate.

How would i connect the new hd to the laptop to do this; usb???
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back