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The unofficial "I'm NOT waiting for arrandale!" thread...
- Thread starter Druean
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Thanks matestudents think alike I guess!
I'm also a student, and although the current MBP really tempts me to buy it and I will probably never use it up to its max capacity anyways, I hate buying something that is so overpriced for its value. And will likely cause me to regret my purchase. So I guess I'll just have to rough it out till then.
Actually, there's a power saver mode that increases battery life for "lighter" tasks. Even in that power saver mode, it's more powerful than the current MBP. That Alienware doesn't get that hot actually. It has a great cooling system that dissipates heat easily and the fans are not more annoying than the ones on the MBP. Maybe CPU wise, I'm not getting exactly twice the power of a 3.08 GHz Core 2 Duo. But graphics wise, I do get more than twice the performance. Your 9600m GT can barely achieve 5500 3DMarks 2006. My stock (non overclocked) Alienware, with a single GTX 260m scores around 12,000 3DMarks 2006. In real life, that allows me to play any game with maximum settings at native resolution. Even music and video editors would benefit from an Alienware setup. A core i7 helps encode music faster. You may use more Cubase plugins, etc. Video rendering is faster, etc.
Fair one. You get student discount yeah? I'm from the UK and get NUS extra discount on laptops in the apple store.
Power saver mode on an Alienware is still less than 1/3 the battery life of a Macbook Pro... plus, Alienware laptops are hideous, huge, and heavy.
I don't really see any use in comparing gaming desktop replacement machines with a Macbook Pro. They're aimed at completely different segments.
Alienware can get 3 hours of actual battery life. My 13" MBP can barely get 5 hours of actual battery life.
Alienware laptops hideous? I think it's a matter of taste. Many people like their design. And, showing an Alienware at an airport will probably drag more attention than an "Alu" Mac (Mac laptops look alike and are widely spread). True, BMP and Alienware are geared at different markets, but the lack of power of the MBP is simply not justified, given its high price tag. Since Apple wants to keep the same form factor, they need to put components that have similar thermal envelopes than the current ones. Maybe an i5 with a Geforce GTS 250m/GT 240m or ATI Mobility 5830 would be a balanced compromised. Still, that setup blows away any current MBP. My two cents...
You have to remember there are more than one reason for why a person might want to either buy now or wait for upgrade.
but to keep it simple i go by the this simple rule; if you need buy now if you want then wait.
Right now i have a small underpowered netbook thats suits my needs for taking notes in class and checking the net when laying on the couch. Then i Got a big noisy tower pc with a good monitor to take care of stuff thats require more power or just a bigger screen. So this works for me right now.
however when the summer come i am moving to my own appartment in the city where im going to study for the next 7 years. There i wont have my big pc so i will need a laptop that does it all for me and i figured that a mbp would be great here. Though as i would like to have it now ill wait as i will first be in need of it in 6 months or so.
a mate of mine called geoffrey said he's got his macbook pro arrandale ordered in the post and he said that was an evil occasion with no consent
As the well known saying goes...
"There's enough RAM in the Geoff Leonard to go around for everyone."
Basically what I'm saying is, RAM isn't everything these days, it's how you use it.
And another thing has anyone else heard that their planning to fit Dells new ARC 2900se chip, into the new new line of Amstrad powered celluar mobile core processor that the mbps have been rumoured to hold.
Thanks.
Quincy.
I'm waiting for the slight chance that there will be an upgrade other than CPU, and since I really don't need one any time before August (although i've wanted one since around october).
Loving the response and hellish attitude towards my posts, really thought you guys on here were for a quick ****, but obviously im on the wrong forum.
I like the other thread better...
I'd like to start off by saying I like the general message behind this thread, that we shouldn't always be waiting around for the next biggest thing, but it is either too early or too late for this thread.
It would have been relevant months ago, as I don't believe it's worth waiting months for the next upgrade, but come on guys, we're SO close to upgrade time it doesn't make sense to spend the same amount of money now as you would in a few weeks' time only to get inferior hardware because you couldn't wait. If you are content with current hardware, get a refurb after the new ones come out and save yourself a couple hundred bucks.
Secondly, this only praises Apple's current behavior of being inexcusably late in introducing the new line of intel processors, and charging premium prices for what are certainly NOT premium pieces of hardware at this given time. Technology is constantly advancing and production costs are continually dropping. People who are buying now are only giving Apple MORE money than when they first introduced this generation of Macbook Pro, and if Apple is making money they have no incentive to upgrade, meaning Apple computers will drop further and further behind. When you finally need a performance upgrade it won't be there.
Thirdly, I think this thread would be fun if it were in good humor. Instead OP seems to just be bashing left and right anyone who expresses the sense to wait if they don't urgently need a new Macbook Pro. Whether it's trying to justify his purchase just before a major processor update and his 2 weeks are up, or he's just angry at the world I don't know. But remember guys, each to their own, some people, like me, just see more sense in waiting than going out and spending more money than I otherwise would in a couple weeks time for the same hardware.
I'd like to start off by saying I like the general message behind this thread, that we shouldn't always be waiting around for the next biggest thing, but it is either too early or too late for this thread.
It would have been relevant months ago, as I don't believe it's worth waiting months for the next upgrade, but come on guys, we're SO close to upgrade time it doesn't make sense to spend the same amount of money now as you would in a few weeks' time only to get inferior hardware because you couldn't wait. If you are content with current hardware, get a refurb after the new ones come out and save yourself a couple hundred bucks.
Secondly, this only praises Apple's current behavior of being inexcusably late in introducing the new line of intel processors, and charging premium prices for what are certainly NOT premium pieces of hardware at this given time. Technology is constantly advancing and production costs are continually dropping. People who are buying now are only giving Apple MORE money than when they first introduced this generation of Macbook Pro, and if Apple is making money they have no incentive to upgrade, meaning Apple computers will drop further and further behind. When you finally need a performance upgrade it won't be there.
Thirdly, I think this thread would be fun if it were in good humor. Instead OP seems to just be bashing left and right anyone who expresses the sense to wait if they don't urgently need a new Macbook Pro. Whether it's trying to justify his purchase just before a major processor update and his 2 weeks are up, or he's just angry at the world I don't know. But remember guys, each to their own, some people, like me, just see more sense in waiting than going out and spending more money than I otherwise would in a couple weeks time for the same hardware.
WTF!!! you are talking *****, this thread is for non-waiters so stop talking crap and go to bed, you massive crease on society. PS. Macs are worth **** all too slow in my opinion. I like my laptops to run hard and fast, like Geoff...
As the old saying goes..
"Follow Steve Jobs into the cradle of life and come out arse end hurting."
Basically what I'm saying is, Steve Jobs likes his job, and his job is jobbing a good lot. eh
That is perhaps the single best quote I've seen through all of this I'm waiting / not waiting flame war non-sense.
It probably goes without saying, but perhaps it needs to be. For any of you that have been on the "bleeding" edge of purchasing new tech, you have gotten burned by bugs at some point. My most recent experience was my HP laptop I picked up before I got fed up and sold it and purchased my MBP. Three BIOS revisions later, and their power management still couldn't figure out how to implement correctly with the "new" Intel chipset that they used on the MB. Random sleeping and not correctly stepping up out of speed step controlled slow downs.
While god knows Apple is not exempt from bugs, they do tend to have far less of them upon release than other manufactures. So you can argue they are slow to adopt, but they error on the side of quality. I can deal with that. If someone can't, then there are plenty of manufacturers willing to sell you machines with less quality control and testing in exchange for the absolute latest and greatest tech.
I couldn't wait, but I really, really wanted to. I was hoping it would have been announced within 14 days of me buying this, but sadly it wasn't. I work full time, and started a 23 credit semester a couple weeks back...I needed something at that point.
Will I be jealous when the new ones come out? Big time!
Will I still enjoy this? Big time!
Will I figure out some way to sell this off, take a bit of a loss, and buy a new one? You can bet I will be thinking about it for sure.
I hope you two weren't being serious and making fun of Shambo!
So you don't call it that? I thought everyone did
Exactly. I thought about getting the matte 15" for about half a minute and then decided against it. It's just not worth the money. Now I guess some people do have money to spend and all that, but even if I did, I would rather spend the extra $750 or so on something worthwhile.
;-)
Yes
The first group would be the group who will install Windows on their machines. These are the people who are used to getting the latest tech when it comes out and who are probably quite surprised at how long it is taking Apple to catch up. They are power users and they need every bit of performance they can squeeze out of their kits. These people could basically care less about the Apple brand, don't appreciate all the hoopla (non standard port politics, under powering 13.3 vs 15 to make then stand apart etc) and are looking at the quality of the hardware and design. They buy Apple because there aren't that many choices out there that offer beauty, performance and features combined.
The second would be the group who will use MacOs and don't really have a choice about what to buy anyway. They are used to Apple's prima donna behaviour and are confident that at the end of the day, they will have cool tech. And hey! What's a 20% performance loss between friends, right?
I'm in the first group. I won't be waiting for Arrandale not because I'm buying obsolete Core2duo tech but because I'll buy another brand that can actually keep up. The biggest challenge is not whether to buy a MBP core2duo now or waiting for Arrandale, the biggest challenge is finding another laptop maker that has the same level of design, performance and features based on Arrandale. And since they (Dell Adamo, HP Envy) have also been sleeping they don't have the kits available right now to take advantage of Apple's slow response to Arrandale. They'd making a killing right now with 13.3 Arrandales. There are awesome 13.3 arrandales out there right now. They're just dog on ugly (e.g. Sony Vaio S11V9E/B Core i5/13.3) So Apple will probably lose quite a number of customers but won't be bleeding too badly.
My 2 cents.
Cheers,
marc
The first group would be the group who will install Windows on their machines. These are the people who are used to getting the latest tech when it comes out and who are probably quite surprised at how long it is taking Apple to catch up. They are power users and they need every bit of performance they can squeeze out of their kits. These people could basically care less about the Apple brand, don't appreciate all the hoopla (non standard port politics, under powering 13.3 vs 15 to make then stand apart etc) and are looking at the quality of the hardware and design. They buy Apple because there aren't that many choices out there that offer beauty, performance and features combined.
The second would be the group who will use MacOs and don't really have a choice about what to buy anyway. They are used to Apple's prima donna behaviour and are confident that at the end of the day, they will have cool tech. And hey! What's a 20% performance loss between friends, right?
I'm in the first group. I won't be waiting for Arrandale not because I'm buying obsolete Core2duo tech but because I'll buy another brand that can actually keep up. The biggest challenge is not whether to buy a MBP core2duo now or waiting for Arrandale, the biggest challenge is finding another laptop maker that has the same level of design, performance and features based on Arrandale. And since they (Dell Adamo, HP Envy) have also been sleeping they don't have the kits available right now to take advantage of Apple's slow response to Arrandale. They'd making a killing right now with 13.3 Arrandales. There are awesome 13.3 arrandales out there right now. They're just dog on ugly (e.g. Sony Vaio S11V9E/B Core i5/13.3) So Apple will probably lose quite a number of customers but won't be bleeding too badly.
My 2 cents.
Cheers,
marc
I agree with your theory here. The people who favor this thread, are the ones only using Safari, Mail, and maybe some of the Office/iWork suite here and there. These people do not need more power.
The other group, either needs more power because their job requires it, or because they are computer enthusiasts. These people will be playing games via boot camp, or loading multiple virtual machines, VPN, an oracle database, several excel spreadsheets (all at once) for work purposes. Either that, or they're rendering images/videos where computing horsepower is a requirement.
I'm happy for the people that went and purchased the current model.. I guarantee these machines will prove to be more than powerful enough to carry you a few years. As for myself, I will be waiting, mainly because my job/work will benefit from having the extra "juice." ;-)
