Few Questions before i go off and get the MBP??

I am basically a college student need a light laptop with decent battery life. So with the 13" MBP i just have some few questions. I would be wathcing movies, some what editing, and some gaming:

The 2.26 - 2.53 ghz gap from what i read here isn't that noticeable of a change? I would be doing a lot of multitasking but i don't know if i should opt for the better processor?

The ram i think i will check around 2 x2g i think costs around 60 on newegg maybe cheaper on ebay but again not sure bout the mac OS i know vista needed at least 2gb to run and 3+ to run smoother if someone can clarify this..

Lastly, i have been hearing about the new SSD drives is that more so for intense application use or does it generally help improve data seeking from folders and files overall on the laptop itself? if i opt for it and get a smaller size and just store excess data on an external HDD would that defeat the purpose of an SSD?

thanks

 

for basic work I wouldnt bother with the better processor

Definatly go with the ram from newegg, you can never go wrong with RAM

SSD's will improve performance and battery life overall but the cost per MB is much higher. But some SSD drives are having problems in the MBP 13 and 15". operating in a dual drive situation ( SSD and External ) works quite well as your OS and most software will be on the SSD and occasional data on the external

 

I don't think you'll notice a difference between the two processors.

It doesn't really defeat the purpose of an ssd if you have your programs in it while you have personal files in an external, but this would be really inconvenient. At least for me it would be.

The only SSD's worth looking at are intels and ocz summit/vertex, but they cost quite a bit.

For now I would just go with the ram upgrade, or maybe pick up a hard drive too.

 

what are you going to do on it?

 

I know for general work, my 2GB of RAM is plenty. I was running MS Word, Power Point, Safari, and iChat and used about 1.1GB of my RAM. The only time I max out my RAM is when I run Windows XP on VMWare Fusion. With that said, I always like the piece of mind of having more and will probably upgrade mine to 4GB soon.

 

Thanks for the quick responses.

I think i will go with the lower processor and just upgrade the ram i guess SSD's are still relatively new and expensive i will wait on that im not quite sure what problems they are having with the 13" MBP so i guess won't risk buying an expensive part that won't work right?

um well for the most part it will be used alot for school work, i do need a lot of space for school work, some gaming though i dont think the base graphic card does high end gaming so i guess light gaming, some apps in photoshop the rest would be browsing and watching movies...

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Hey just a quick question the SSD with the battery life boost is still intriguing for me, wouldn't the apple SSD installed run smoothly if they are selling it thru their site or there's a manufacturer fault with the SSD compatibilities with the MBP? im confused on that part

 

the 9400m is currently the most powerful igp. it has a lot of potential. it may not run the games on the highest settings but most games should play fairly well.

 

I'm not sure what kind of problems SSD's are having that people are mentioning, so I would take it with a grain of salt, unless they can offer up some proof. They might be referring to the 1.5gbps cap, but that has been fixed.

I'm assuming that the apple ssd is no different than an ssd that you would buy from newegg or something, so I don't think this should matter.

Look up some benchies, but as far as I know, ssd does use less power, but the battery life boost is only miniscule. SSD's are usually wanted for their speed.

 

Corsair P128 CMFSSD-128GBG2D 2.5" 128GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid state disk (SSD)

is this compatible with the MBP?

 

sata II hdd is backwards compatible with sata I. so i guess it should be compatible.

 

Oh okie.. Sounds good than i guess thanks!!

 

Yeah, I agree with the others. Either the 2.26GHz or 2.53GHz CPU is fine for your needs. Good luck.

 

Since you only say "some" photoshop I'd just go with the slowest processor to save money. All of the mobile core 2 dues are pretty fast and unless you use them at 100% constantly you won't notice much difference. Although if your budget allows it I'd highly recommend the 15.4inch version over ssd/cpu upgrade. Since you need to multi-task and want a lot of screen space, a 1280x800 res 13inch screen isn't going to cut it. You'll notice a lot more space with the 15.4inch, and it really helps with movies. 15.4 is still very portable. And if it is your only computer then it sucks to have a 13inch screen, its so small. If you don't have a desktop or some larger pc, I'd highly recommend the 15.4inch. It gets the same battery life and is 1lbs heavier (5.5lbs) which is nothing. I carry around an 8.5lbs computer and its no problem. Also the $1700 15.4 inch has 4gigs ram, but just the 9400. However that's all you'll be using, the 9400 gets better battery life than the 9600m gt, and the 9600 isn't really that powerful so it won't do much more than turn your computer into an oven anyway.

 

Or you can do what I do and hook my 13" to an external monitor at my apartment (which is an 32" Samsung HD TV, used for movies). I came from an 15.4" Dell E1505 to my uMB at 13" and you can notice a difference when multitasking but I haven't had a hard time adjusting though.

 

wow, thts a huge decrease in screen size.

 

Idk but to me a 13inch screen makes it hard to even type in a word document while reading another document. On a 15.4inch 1440x900 res screen its possible to re-size the windows so its way more convenient on the go. I have a 13inch mac and the resolution even makes certain websites hard to read. However I have a larger computer and a monitor. I'd say the extra $200 for the 15.4inch mac is worth it if its your only computer.

 

see for me I don't really mind the 13" size. I prefer it being portable and if I need more real estate when I'm doing actual work, I just hook it up to my nice 24" lcd.

 

there's not such a huge difference in portability between the 13" and the 15". I have used a dell xps m1330 at our local retailer. the screen was so small that my head began to ache. i guess that's the side effect of having poor eyes. i wear specs.

 

I wear contacts. lol.

Text on the 13" and on the 15" should be about the same because the 13", although a smaller screen, has a lower resolution than the 15".

I have a 15" dell with 1680 x 1050, type on that was pretty small.