New Macbook Pros with Core 2 Duo

[srwatters]

Come and get em while they're hot!

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/

[evil4blue]

Ugh! I like everything I see but the price. I'll have to wait a little bit before I finally dive in.

[d2creative]

Still only 3gb max of ram? damn, i was hoping they'd up that figure by now.

[srwatters]

I don't seem to ever use up all 1.5GB in my PowerBook, but I'm only editing a single image at a time and don't use more than two or three layers at a time.

What applications are you using that require that much RAM?

[d2creative]

300+mb layered photoshop files, mulitple open at the same time, and several other apps running at the same time like lightroom or aperture, safari, mail, itunes, Illustrator.... The more ram and hd space the better. 3gb is the minimum I'll run in my systems. File sizes like that aren't an all the time thing, but being a designer it happens often enough. Plus Aperture won't even run smooth on my standard dual 2.3 G5 tower with 3gb ram. I need to up the ram and maybe get the newer better vid card.

[srwatters]

I don't doubt you need that much if you have all that running at once. I just question the need even more so on a laptop.

If you get a chance, do a window grab of the activity monitor, System Memory sorted by real memory usage. I'd love to see just how much of a memory hog some of those apps are. Attached is one of my PowerBook with mail, firefox, photoshop, & photomechanic running. That's my real world usage. I understand yours is different, but not the average usage IMHO.

[d2creative]

Ok, here's mine...



This is from my office computer. Dual 2.7 G5 with 5gb ram. Nothing was saving, opening or processing at the time. In my line of work (macs have always been the industry standards for graphics work) this is "average use". More and more, especially with people switching from pc's, the average user is changing and maybe not needing the extra power but that's what the mac book is for.

I know we've been through this before but all our macs get plenty of ram because it's been shown over and over again that for us they just run faster and more stable with more ram. Doesn't matter what a system profiler says. What did suprise me though is the amount of ram Safari is using. Yeesh! I gues it doesn't help that I always seem to have at least half a dozen tabs open. So many forums so little time... for work!

[Spec A!]

I will say that on the Aperture side of things, I just upgraded my MacBook to a Macbook Pro here at work. Aperture was okay (sometimes slow) on the Macbook, but with the MBP and the 256grfx card it screams! I'd totally upgrade your grfx card first on that G5, see if that helps.

[AndrewCCM]

Looks nice...

I just bought my wife and sister-in-law a Core2Duo Dell notebook for $850ish each.
One of these days, I'll get a Macbook for myself though.

[Clayton Wallace]

Ok, I know this sounds trite, but...I had a post on this on the 12th. http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum...ht=macbook+pro

I went to Fry's, Micro Center, and the Apple Store this Saturday with the strong possiblility of buying (even had the wife onboard).

My friend Jeff who works at Microcenter advised waiting a few weeks. Man am I glad I listened! Plus, I actually wasn't all that impressed with its speed. Coming from dual 1.25 G4 I expected snappier performance in Apple's own apps (even at the Apple Store...I pretty much discounted Fry's as a comparison as they let those get trashed).

[srwatters]

Which dell has a Core 2 duo for that price? I can't find any core 2 for under $1500. Are you sure it isn't a core duo?

[AndrewCCM]

Originally Posted by srwatters

Which dell has a Core 2 duo for that price? I can't find any core 2 for under $1500. Are you sure it isn't a core duo?

Yep.

Inspiron 1505...then applied the 20% off coupon for notebooks over $999. I upgraded the video and the processor from core duo to the Core2Duo.

Details:

E1505 Dual Core
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T5500 (2MB Cache/1.66GHz/667MHz FSB), Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 $1,118.00 1 $1,118.00 Inspiron E1505 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T5500 (2MB Cache/1.66GHz/667MHz FSB)
[222-4671]
LCD Panel 15.4 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen SXGA+ Display with TrueLife™
[320-4652]
Memory 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm
[311-5776]
Video Card Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950
[320-4653]
Hard Drive 80GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
[341-3108]
[420-5449]
Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005
[310-7149]
[412-0689]
[412-0911]
[420-4928]
[420-5460]
[420-5476]
[420-5755]
[420-5769]
[420-5924]
[463-2282]
Network Card and Modem Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
[430-0493]
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.0
[412-0917]
Combo or DVD+RW Drive 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
[313-3959]
[420-5775]
[420-5901]
Sound Options Integrated Audio
[313-4217]
Wireless Networking Cards Dell Wireless 1390b/g (54Mbps)
[430-1913]
Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed) No productivity suite- Includes Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD
[412-0915]
Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-installed) No Security Subscription
[412-0850]
Primary Battery 53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
[312-0404]
Warranty and Service 1Yr Ltd Warranty and At-Home Service
[412-0360]
[950-3337]
[950-9797]
[960-2780]
[980-2870]
[985-3588]
Internet Access Service 6 Months America Online Internet Access Included
[412-0787]
[412-0934]
[412-0935]
[412-0938]
[420-3224]
Miscellaneous Award Winning Service, Support
[465-1181]
Dell Digital Entertainment Starter pack- Basic and trial products from Corel and Yahoo
[412-0865]
Processor Branding Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
[310-8319]


Inspiron affiliate offer 20% off $999 (before tax, restocking fees, shipping and handling) - $223.60 Subtotal: $894.40 Shipping and Handling: $19.99
Shipping Discount: -$19.99
Tax Total: $73.77 Total: $968.17

[AlexMorse]

Thank you Apple! I was getting ready to order a macbook or MBP next month and was going to go with the macbook given the spec differences were not that much.

Now they most certainly are!

[srwatters]

Originally Posted by AndrewCCM

Yep.

Inspiron 1505...then applied the 20% off coupon for notebooks over $999. I upgraded the video and the processor from core duo to the Core2Duo.

Well you can get a core 2 duo from dell for under $1K, but it's not much of a machine. 1.66GHz with only 2MB cache. It's a bare bones system. When configured even close to the standard Mac Pro it's $1808. Typical Dell marketing. Loss leader towards the build your own system which costs twice as much.

I'm sticking with Apple. YMMV.

[AlexMorse]

Dell's have gotten much better quality wise over the past 3 years, and the price isn't bad. But I'd have to run windows and that's a deal breaker.