Serious help on getting a new Macbook Pro

[anonymust]

Looking at the specs of the 2011 Macbook Pro's (Intel i7 Core) got me all confused..

The 13inch has the fastest processor (2.7GHz) but its dual-core and not quad-core
Also the 13 inch (Intel i7), doesn't have that extra "AMD Radeon HD" graphics card.

My Questions are:

1)- What are the benifits/difference between dual-core and quad-core? (shouldn't a quad-core be faster than a dual-core?)

2)- What are the benifits of having the "AMD Radeon HD"? (I'm not a gamer, but I do like to watch movies in 720p or 1080p, but watching HighDef movies on a battery powered laptop might suck, [I'd rather watch it on my 42" Plasma at home.] So Is the graphics card worth it for me?) (P.s I currently watch 720p and 1080p on my MacBook 3,1 [Late 2007 model] and it all seems crisp to me)

3)- The Macbook Pro's that come with the "AMD Radeon HD", can the memeory/processor in that grapic card be used to power the laptop and make it go faster? (i forgot the term for this when u make use of the resrouces in the GPU)

4)- Can I buy my own 1TB, 2.5" Harddrive and easily replace it with what ever drive I get with my Macbook? ( I heard that I might have difficulties when installing OS X on a fresh new (unformatted) hard-drive, with the Original OSX install disc)

5)- Are you a MacBook owner? And how long have you had your MacBook for, I bought a second hand one about a year ago, I would like to know what's the average life span of a MacBook... Would like to make this purchase an 4 to 5 year investment.

 

[balamw]

3)- The Macbook Pro's that come with the "AMD Radeon HD", can the memeory/processor in that grapic card be used to power the laptop and make it go faster? (i forgot the term for this when u make use of the resrouces in the GPU)

OpenCL and yes, it should be supported. http://developer.amd.com/zones/openclzone/pages/default.aspx

4)- Can I buy my own 1TB, 2.5" Harddrive and easily replace it with what ever drive I get with my Macbook? ( I heard that I might have difficulties when installing OS X on a fresh new (unformatted) hard-drive, with the Original OSX install disc)

Generally this has not been a problem I am aware of for current shipping Macs. Lion may pose its own issues since it will be download only.

5)- Are you a MacBook owner?

I have a 2008 Macbook and 2009 MBP. Both are in perfect operating conditions. I also have a 2006 iMac that is now beyond its predicted life expectancy.

B

 

[stevemiller]

1 - the quad cores give you overall more power because there are 4 of them instead of 2, even if they are clocked a bit slower. and i believe they'll still turbo boost to over 3ghz for single threaded tasks.

2 - im pretty sure hd video playback even on an external tv would be fine without the radeon, but overall i have no experience with an intel integrated graphics machine so i don't want to say too much either way

3 - i'd be very surprised if the radeon wasn't supported by opencl. that said, opencl has very limited adoption. its not something that is just going to make everything on your computer go faster. software has to be specifically programmed to make use of it, and there are very specific types of tasks that even stand to benefit from it. ironically, the only software i've used that makes use the gpu for that type of stuff uses non-apple implementations (like nvidia cuda). so essentially apple's opencl framework has yet to benefit me.

4 - never swapped my hard drive, seems like many people have done it on here, but i couldn't tell you what the caveats are

5 - i got a macbook pro at the end of 2008. had my optical drive replaced after the first year, battery replaced after the second, both at no charge under applecare (speedy service too, but i live close to an apple store). in general the machine has been good. i will most likely upgrade because of the demanding work i use it for and want something faster, rather than because it wears out. lemons aside, i'm pretty sure it'll last the 4-5 years you're hoping for, provided you aren't tempted with the perpetual "next best thing"

 

[anonymust]

Generally this has not been a problem I am aware of for current shipping Macs. Lion may pose its own issues since it will be download only.

Isnt Lion OSX going to be released also on CD/DVD?

If not that sounds like a FAIL for people who use Mac's that arent connected to the internet.