My next Mac

[*DAMN Mauti]

Hi,

as you may have read my powerbooks graphic card is broken, and I have to run in software renderer mode, and also with some other annoying resistrictions. Well tomorrow is keynote, and in 2 days I'm once again 1 year older, which means I probably get enough support to afford me a new Mac!

So finally I also switch to the dark side, ehm I mean an Intel Mac. Before my powerbook was broken my plans were to buy myself a Mac Pro for home(someday in late 2008) and still use my powerbook for presentations at university and to test games and apps on PPC Macs. Unfortunaly now I need to replace my powerbook, because I can't mirror or extend my screen anymore without graphics card, which means no keynote presentations =(

A 15' powerbook/Macbook Pro was always too large for myself. I think my 12' powerbook had the perfect size. It's about the size of a A4 sheet of paper. So I hope Apple gonna introduce a new small Macbook Pro with decent graphics that can handle most games fine tomorrow. If not, I at least hope some new 15' MBPs will be released.

On the other side a single Quad Core 2.8 Mac Pro with a NVidia 8800 would be also a very nice machine. Arg it's a difficult decision:

Being mobile vs. processing power
ok graphics vs. graphic power horse
working outside and at university inbetween lectures vs. doing nothing/surfing on university Linux PCs
low electricity costs vs. high electricity bill
everything I need in 1 package vs. a Mac Pro also needs a fine 23/24' display with 1920*1200 resolution(for the moment my external 19' display will do it also, but you know…)
once I'm done with university I probably don't need to do presentations anymore
Mac Pro should be upgradeable(if you ignore the current aftermarket graphic card issue)
My powerbook is still doing a fine job if you only browse the web, do some word processing and some programming.

Alright, I think to fell a decision will be easier after the keynote tomorrow. However do you own a Mac Pro or a MBP?

What is your experience with them? Any troubles with the hardware quality? Any troubles playing modern games? Just post a note please.

Bye,

Mauti

[BFG]

Mauti most importantly, what are you going to be using this mac for? and really how important is mobility?

[*DAMN Mauti]

@ BFG: I used my powerbook a lot at university, especially for team meetings and to fill the time gaps inbetween lectures. Also during vacations when I spend a lot of time at my grandmom's house I can work on projects. The processing power is ok, and if I'm not doing some Maya stuff 2 cores should be enough and with a new laptop I could even work outside. The powerbook's screen was always too dark for such tasks. I also used it to join easily a LAN party at Elandrions place.

On the other side my powerbook isn't completely dead. The graphics card, sleep mode and the screen mirror/extend functionality is broken. I still can use it to work in XCode or Eclipse, and write stuff whereever I'm just limited.

It's a difficult decision. I always wanted a strong and upgradeable desktop machine, but on the otherside a MBP is cheaper and probably suits my requirements and everyday use best.

A MBP would be more reasonable, thanks BFG. Due your post I realized there is a difference between what I want and what I need 

Mauti

[*DAMN Mauti]

I gonna buy me my new MBP, no matter if a new one was released or not, between 25th february and 23th march. The reason is that the university of vienna, where I can enrolle at no additional costs as co-student, offers a new u-book program, that is similiar to the swizz Nepthun program(http://www.neptun.ethz.ch/). Twice a year you have the chance to buy Apple laptops, beside Lenovo and HP), at special conditions:

.) between -15%(MB) and -17%(MBP) of the Apple Store price
.) 3 year Apple Care included
.) some models even include free harddisk and ram upgrades

At these conditions I think it's a no brainer to finally replace my broken Powerbook. Nevertheless I of course hope to see a new MBP released. I can't wait anymore, 'cos I'm so tired of my powerbook suddenly switching of the screen and do all work on this tiny screen while my 19inch flatscreen gets dusty.

[BFG]

sounds great mate. Yeah i was going to saw from what you wrote you want a MBP (id go with the 15" ) and no doubt about it - as much as maya is going to love the processing power on a mac pro it sounds like you just really need that movability!!

[*DAMN Mauti]

Finally the wait is over. The new MBPs have been released and even the price has been reduced significantly in Austria.

Now I only have to wait until the university Apple online Store opens… I hope tomorrow.

Beside that I have to decide if the smallest MBP is well enough or the 2.5MBP?

The difference between the 2.4 and 2.5 is 240bucks.
For this price you get a 4% faster CPU with 6MB L2 cache(so the real difference is about 10%  and in games up to 20% if you can believe some reviews). Beside that you get 50gigs more HD space and 512MB VRAM, which probably doesn't make a big difference except you create apps that use a lot of CUDA code.

I'm not sure if this price tag is it worth. The 2.4 version is probably more than enough. Living with a 1.33 powerbook was alright until today ;-)

Well no matter what MBP I get I gonna upgrade it to 4gigs of RAM for 80bucks.

Civic if you are still working at an Apple Store it would be great if you could post some impressions about the differences between the 2.4 and 2.5 MBP.

[Civrock]

The processor speed is insignificant, the big factor is the videocard. The 512MB VRAM are a huge difference compared to the crappy 256MB version. Benchmarks will proove this as soon as they're done and released. The faster memory throughput is also big, bigger HD is always good since you can't just replace it in a laptop.

Go with the 2.5Ghz modell, especially for the low upcharge.

[BFG]

Im with Civic on this one mate, for that price its worth spending that little bit more for the GPU Ram and the extra HDspace - the processor bump is all very well but hardly going to be noticeable in day to day life - but your going to want every gig of RAM for that Graphics card

[*DAMN Mauti]

Thanks Civic and BFG for your advise.

Well if you follow this review http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Intel-Core-2-Duo-Penryn-CPUs.7876.0.html between 2.1, 2.4, 2.5, 2.5 Penryn chips and the old 2.6 Menrom chip the difference between the 2.4 and 2.5 version should be noticeable in games. Games like Doom3 and Fear depending on the used settings run with 10 - 20 frames faster. In Fear at medium settings the difference was even 70frames(however I think that was a mistake). For the review they used a 17laptop with a built in 8800M GTX graphic so the shown fps are much higher than what I can expect from the medium fast 8600GT. Nevertheless I was surprised.

On the other side I would have said 512 MB to 256MB would make no difference at all, but it seems from your word that my knowledge is already outdated and is wrong for the current gen games with huge textures.

This damn Apple u:book Store still isn't online due technical issues with Apple europe but it won't be online tomorrow I gonna order the 2.5 MBP by phone.

Thanks and yeah I hope to get it shipped next week =))))

[*DAMN Mauti]

I just ordered it =))))))))

Should arrive in 7 - 10 days.

[*DAMN Mauti]

Well they just postboned the shipping date. On the other side it was shipped today, 3 days earlier than  originally posted. However I still don't have a tracking ID, as a few other students too.

Nevertheless I can't wait. I always have to read reviews, and can't sit still on my chair.

[BTs_GhostSniper]

In Desktop news...GhostSniper just bought a shiny new 24" iMac with the 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme Processor...runs nice and fast.  Upgraded the Hard Drive to 1TB and the RAM to 4GB.  Then I found out they shaft you with a 5,400-rpm drive when you opt for the 1TB so I immediately downgraded to the 7,200-rpm 750GB Hard Drive...much happier now.

By the way, I use my iMacs as "portable" computers, complete with an iLugger tote bag (I kept my 20" iMac too).  I only use them in hotel rooms and other places where I can set everything up and not in the traditional sense of "in my lap" somewhere like on an airplane, in the car, etc., so they work perfectly for my needs.

-GhostSniper

[*DAMN Mauti]

Nice one GS. Nevertheless I guess with your uncompressed AIF Audio Files or even Apple Lossless format your 750GB will be filled up in a second

Btw hope you are fine.

Bye,

Mauti

[BTs_GhostSniper]

Yeah...I won't be putting my music archive on the internal hard drive (I just keep MP3's on the internal hard drive for iTunes).  I put all the AIFF files on four external hard drives...500GB each.

One thing is for sure...Adobe Photoshop CS3 screams on this new iMac...much faster than CS2 on the old iMac.

I am doing well, thanks!

-GhostSniper