Questions for MBP owners

[IVIission]

I'm looking to buy a MBP and like everybody else I'm deciding whether to wait or buy. However, I go back to school Feb. 7, and absolutely need one by then. So I was thinking, maybe I should bite the bullet now. So I'm asking anyone that owns the current base MBP 13" model how well it would handle these things:

-I plan on playing games such as World of Warcraft on it, how are the fps in these type of games and does it run at high temperatures?

-Do you ever find you wish you had a bigger HD?

-Does the MBP ever run slow doing every day things, such as the internet or watching videos?

-If you were in my shoes, would you wait?

 

[thegoldenmackid]

I wish my hard drive was bigger, but I'm surviving. Mine runs fast enough for me with the 7200. I would wait.

 

[appleguy123]

I wish I had a bigger HD but they(being Apple) do not sell a larger one.

 

[psingh01]

I think the new ones will be out by Feb 7. I upgraded the HD in my MBP to 500GB and still wish it was bigger!

I have a 100GB bootcamp partition which I wish was bigger for games. For the most part, a lot of my data is on a NAS. So I just keep the essentials on the laptop but still...I wish it was bigger lol

 

[Gabriel GR]

At first I thought 160gb was plenty. Then I got 320GB. Then I replicated some databases on my machine and yesterday I ordered a 640gb WD drive.

never had a problem with daily tasks. The only time it slows down is sometimes in facebook when I have too many windows open and a message window pops in all of them.

 

[caravanpikey]

I bought a 13" MBP about 5 weeks ago and it works great for everything I do. I upgraded the RAM to 4 GB and it runs Adobe's Master Collection flawlessly. I am glad I went ahead and bought it instead of waiting.

 

[kny3twalker]

I bought a 13" MBP about 5 weeks ago and it works great for everything I do. I upgraded the RAM to 4 GB and it runs Adobe's Master Collection flawlessly. I am glad I went ahead and bought it instead of waiting.

Where did you buy your ram? Apparently ddr3 prices have risen over the past year: where last spring you could buy a 4 gb kit for $50 and now it's closer to $90 or $100. I too have looking around to upgrade but prices are terrible.

 

[AppleNewton]

i picked up a 13" MBP basemodel a couple weeks ago.
im upgrading it to a 640GB WD HDD and 4GB of memory; i'd go for 8 but i dont see it absolutely necessary and the price is a bit out there for me.

(im curious if i can throw the 2GB from the 13" MBP into the 27" iMac )

I'd say give it a couple of weeks if your really concerned about a Jan update for the MBP's, if nothing is announced go ahead and pick one up.
They have them in the refurb section alot for a good deal $999.

theyre great little machines and I enjoy it alot.

 

[maflynn]

-I plan on playing games such as World of Warcraft on it, how are the fps in these type of games and does it run at high temperatures?

Are you sure the integrated GPU is sufficient for the games you wish to play?

-Do you ever find you wish you had a bigger HD?

Yes of course and when I ran out of space, I upgraded the drive. I have a 500gig drive in my MBP right now and its sufficient for my needs

-Does the MBP ever run slow doing every day things, such as the internet or watching videos?

My MBP runs about the same speed through out the day - I'm not quite sure I understand your question. I'm happy with the performance regardless of what task I do on it.

-If you were in my shoes, would you wait?

Yes but not too long, while apple may release a new model, it may not be unveiled until its after February or not ready to be shipped after you need it.

 

[shambo]

15 incher has dedicated graphics card. For gaming this is the smart choice.

 

[Dan73]

-I plan on playing games such as World of Warcraft on it, how are the fps in these type of games and does it run at high temperatures?

Of course gaming will increase temps. If you don't use a fan control program then they will get quite high, 80c+. As for WoW on all low settings at native resolution you'll get a nice steady 60FPS with vsync on... You can raise a few of the settings and keep the FPS but if you start to go higher they will quickly drop. In the end the 9400m is an integrated chip and will not be good as a discrete option

-Do you ever find you wish you had a bigger HD?

Nope, but I don't store all my photos, music, movies, ect on my MBP. I plan on getting rid of my 160GB HD and throwing in a 80GB SSD soon.

-Does the MBP ever run slow doing every day things, such as the internet or watching videos?

Yes I get the lovely rainbow beach ball occasionally, but thats going to almost always be because of my 5400RPM HD. Mechanical HDs are the biggest bottle neck on computers today.

-If you were in my shoes, would you wait?

Yup I would... I don't know your situation but even if school started for me I could live a while without it a laptop while waiting for something better to come.

 

[Dan73]

15 incher has dedicated graphics card. For gaming this is the smart choice.

For gaming OS X isn't a smart choice.

 

[caravanpikey]

Where did you buy your ram? Apparently ddr3 prices have risen over the past year: where last spring you could buy a 4 gb kit for $50 and now it's closer to $90 or $100. I too have looking around to upgrade but prices are terrible.

I upgraded the ram when I bought the computer. Apple did it for an extra $90. It's well worth the price to me.

 

[maflynn]

I upgraded the ram when I bought the computer. Apple did it for an extra $90. It's well worth the price to me.

I'd recommend not going with apple ram because you're paying a lot of money for something that you can find on the net much cheaper and do yourself very easily.

 

[Ludaru]

If you're gonna use it for gaming, I'd wait to see if Apple updates the GPU. If i'm not mistaken, WoW is more picky now, then it was at release. Not sure if the current GPU will run everything at high. Quite crappy spending all that cash if the MBP doesn't perform "all that" ...

 

[looman9635]

I recently got a base 13" MBP so i thought id answer your questions.

1, I have never played world of warcraft so i couldn't tell you.

2, I have not filled my HD but when it starts to fill up I will probably upgrade to a 500GB.

3, 2GB of ram has been fine with me, I usually have mail, safari, spotify, iTunes, ichat, tweetie, skype, tinygrab, rfly, syncopy and shovebox open all the time and that uses around 1.2GB of ram. None of this lags so this will be fine.

4, I would wait until after the 17th as their is a apple event scheduled and revisions or a new model.


Lewis.

 

[tommy8884]

Of course gaming will increase temps. If you don't use a fan control program then they will get quite high, 80c+. As for WoW on all low settings at native resolution you'll get a nice steady 60FPS with vsync on... You can raise a few of the settings and keep the FPS but if you start to go higher they will quickly drop. In the end the 9400m is an integrated chip and will not be good as a discrete option

I don't own a mac, but will be getting one after the next refresh. Do you really have to adjust the fan speeds yourself? That's a joke! Surely it should be automatic, like every other PC (unless custom built like my current machine).

 

[Dan73]

I don't own a mac, but will be getting one after the next refresh. Do you really have to adjust the fan speeds yourself? That's a joke! Surely it should be automatic, like every other PC (unless custom built like my current machine).

Uhm no... they speed up by themselves but they're just really slow to do so. I use Fan Control and just set the temps and it does it by itself better than Apple does.

Also you should check your BIOS settings, mine has settings for auto fan control. Though I just leave mine on the slowest speeds.

 

[kellen]

WoW runs fine on my 2.4 early 2008 15" with the 8600 GT. I don't think you will have a problem with a newer model with the 9600.

I have a 7200rpm 320GB HD. Enough for me. If not enough for you there are 1terabyte 2.5" HD now, although I am not sure if they fit the newer MBPs.

You can always take the optical drive out and raid two smaller HD's together for increased space.

All said, I really like my MBP and am glad I bought it. It runs everything I throw at it and is the perfect size to carry around.

I have applecare until late 2011 on it and do not see myself getting rid of it, unless an awesome deal pops up or I really need a more portable laptop when I start clinicals later this year.

 

[ABG]

I'm looking to buy a MBP and like everybody else I'm deciding whether to wait or buy. However, I go back to school Feb. 7, and absolutely need one by then. So I was thinking, maybe I should bite the bullet now. So I'm asking anyone that owns the current base MBP 13" model how well it would handle these things:

-I plan on playing games such as World of Warcraft on it, how are the fps in these type of games and does it run at high temperatures?

-Do you ever find you wish you had a bigger HD?

-Does the MBP ever run slow doing every day things, such as the internet or watching videos?

-If you were in my shoes, would you wait?

I got a base 13" MBP in August - upgraded the RAM to 4Gb (£47) and swapped the HDD for a 500Gb unit (£65) on the first day. Very easy to upgrade and a joy to use. If I were you I'd wait until the end of January for updates and then order the base MBP (13" or 15") knowing you can upgrade easily