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Upgrade MBP or buy MBA

S

shamrock1213

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 29, 2008
9
0
I will be headded off to Law school in two months and I need to do something about my 15" MBP 2.4 C2D. At a minimum I need to replace the battery as it has been giving me warnings for the past few months and the power cords as the sheeting around the MagSafe connector is coming loose. I also have yet to upgrade the machine from the stock 2gb of ram and have designs on a ssd drive.

Do people think I will be better off making these upgrades on my 3 year old machine, or should I wait and get the new 13" MBA? I am leaning towards the MBA because of the weight, size, and battery life, but any weight savings are likely to be mitigated by my textbooks. I could not find any benchmarks on the likely candidates for the new processors. Will there still be a large difference in performance with the LV and ULV chips as there was with the normal power i5s?

Also, does anyone remember what this generation really got for battery life when new (4 hours?).

Thanks for any suggestions.
 
13" MBA refresh would be great for law school....but a acklit keyboard would sure be helpful when you are up all hours finishing work.
 
You have to figure out how much it would cost to upgrade RAM, get a new battery, and new power cord. Maybe take it to the Apple store and see how much they will charge for replacing the battery. Cost wise it may not make sense to put lot of money on 3 yr old machine unless you want to keep it for a while.

As far as MBA is concerned, you will love the portability and power of this machine. Actually it would be perfect for what you would be doing. When I was a student, I would've loved to own a MBA. I used to carry around 8lbs laptop with books.

If I were you, I would just replace the power adaptor and sell the MBP and pick up the upcomming MBA.
 
Power adapter will run you $79
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC556LL/B?fnode=MTY1NDEwMQ&mco=MTc0NzA0MjY

The battery is about $129.00 on Apples website, although if you go in to the genius bar and get it from them it may be cheaper.

Memory would be about $70

Your looking at a total of $280 before the SSD, which will cost you at least another $100.

All of this is a lot of money to put into a computer that is out of applecare.
 
h00ligan said:
13" MBA refresh would be great for law school....but a acklit keyboard would sure be helpful when you are up all hours finishing work.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this is the biggest thing I would miss from my MBP. Hopefully Apple hears the people clamoring for it and decides to add the feature. I wonder if there is a size issue with it as I can't believe they would hold back on the feature for market segmentation.
 
I've never understood why people are so psyched on the backlit keyboard. Do people actually look at their keyboards??? :confused:

Anyhow, I think if you need to buy all that stuff for your old computer, your money would be much better spent on the MBA. When my old 2008 aluminum MB dies, it's going to be replaced by a MBA.
 
digitize your books. Read on ipad or kindle dx. get a refreshed maba 11 in a few days when it comes out. you are all set! given your needs, an mbp seems like a waste of money and weight.
 
bozz2006 said:
I've never understood why people are so psyched on the backlit keyboard. Do people actually look at their keyboards??? :confused:

Anyhow, I think if you need to buy all that stuff for your old computer, your money would be much better spent on the MBA. When my old 2008 aluminum MB dies, it's going to be replaced by a MBA.
Click to expand...

the backlit keyboard is cool to look at. surprisingly, i am keen on it as well, even though i usually don't go for such things or do my work in caves. also, when using shortcuts (all the time) i tend to look at the keyboard.
 
It is cool to look at. But the screen most certainly illuminates the keys enough to see them in the dark. I'm sorry for hijacking; I just have a chuckle every time somebody's on here sweating the illuminated keyboard as a make it or break it feature. Not saying the OP is doing that, by the way.
 
bozz2006 said:
It is cool to look at. But the screen most certainly illuminates the keys enough to see them in the dark. I'm sorry for hijacking; I just have a chuckle every time somebody's on here sweating the illuminated keyboard as a make it or break it feature. Not saying the OP is doing that, by the way.
Click to expand...

yeah. i like it and all, but i could live without it :)
 
It's not make or break, but not having the backlit keyboard will definately seem like a step backwards.
 
bozz2006 said:
I've never understood why people are so psyched on the backlit keyboard. Do people actually look at their keyboards??? :confused:

Anyhow, I think if you need to buy all that stuff for your old computer, your money would be much better spent on the MBA. When my old 2008 aluminum MB dies, it's going to be replaced by a MBA.
Click to expand...

One isn't always sitting at a desk with hands on home keys...and even in the dark it can be difficult tofund home with no visual cue.

I'm a 80wpm touch typist and still used blkb to get oriented.
 
shamrock1213 said:
Yeah, this is the biggest thing I would miss from my MBP. Hopefully Apple hears the people clamoring for it and decides to add the feature. I wonder if there is a size issue with it as I can't believe they would hold back on the feature for market segmentation.
Click to expand...

ive helped a good amount of my friends with their law school briefs; etc. IMO, why would you need a backlit keyboard when your up late finishing work late for law school? In my experience you need other lights on anyways since your consulting your textbooks, court case; etc, while your writing on your computer. It's only nice when your late night browsing doing nothing. Don't worry you wont have too much time for that in law school ;)
 
bozz2006 said:
I've never understood why people are so psyched on the backlit keyboard. Do people actually look at their keyboards??? :confused:

Anyhow, I think if you need to buy all that stuff for your old computer, your money would be much better spent on the MBA. When my old 2008 aluminum MB dies, it's going to be replaced by a MBA.
Click to expand...


yeah sometimes you can see the top row. If you have more than one Mac, and each one has a different layout, then yes you need to see the keyboard.



OP I would go with MBP because you don't have to spend extra $$ for accessories. Not having a disc drive would bug me.
 
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Forget backlight keyboard. This is why we invented desktop lamps?
 
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