Hard decision!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay so I want to buy a MacBook Pro technically I don't need it until July 1st(this is the absolute lastest).

So should I wait for Montevina or should I buy now?

Any input would be helpful

Thank you,

Jooooeee

 

Wait for sure.

I don't need mine until September, so I'm going to wait so I can get the faster, more efficient processor for roughly the same price

 

Seeing as you don't need it until July 1st, I'd definitely wait. You'll get a lot more for about the same price.

 

Its a hard one. But I'd definitely wait at least for the Penryn update. While Montevina is probably out by then, you may also want to factor in that Apple might not immediately implement it and the Montevina update may not make it by July 1st.

 

Thats what I was thinking I am not buying untill they put in penryn but with how long it is taking I am worried about Montevina not coming out in time.

 

Well, there's news of a possible Apple event later this month, so it may be updated with Penryn then. As for Montevina, yeah, if you want to be safe then just get the Penryn MBP, as we don't know if Apple will get the Montevina MBP in time for your deadline.

 

Okay I think I'll just get it when they add penryn processors.

Just for future reference does anyone know what Montevina will add to notebooks?

 

What the heck IS Montevina?

 

I know that it is a new intel chipset but other than that I have no clue.

 

It's the new platform for Intel's processors. A lot like how Santa Rosa was the new platform for Intel's processors last summer.

 

I would wait until the new Macbook Pros with Penryn come out. Montevina may have delays and you won't see it in the MBP until awhile after it's initial release date.

 

Here, let's get this straight first. There's Penryn, the latest processors. That replaced Merom processors, and will be replaced by Nehalem processors.

The current processing platform is Santa Rosa, which replaced Napa and will be replaced by Montevina.

So currently, the MBPs are Merom processors running on Santa Rosa. They will probably be updated to Penryn processors on Santa Rosa soon. And Montevina replaces Santa Rosa.

 

wow sam you are so smart.

 

According to wikipedia...

1066MHz FSB @ 29W
SSE4.1 in Penryn
Intels X4500 Graphics chipset
DDR-3 @ 800 Mhz
Robson 2
DisplayPort
New Wifi chipset
Integrated WiMAX chipset

 

"You must spread some reputation around before giving it to Sam again."

Haha. Thanks Sam You're a genius.

 

Haha, thanks for the compliments, guys . Just happy to help out!

 

Sam wow. Haha I gave up on trying to remember all that stuff. They made google for a reason

 

are there gonna be any updates anytime soon to the normal MB?

 

Here's an article on it. It hints at a May release which is around the corner. I'm really confused as to what makes more sense now for apple as far as new MBPs are concerned. Release now with Penryn only or wait till May for the full monty?

 

im on the same boat.
I need the laptop before march, mid march the latest, and ive been following the mac rumor site.
Rumor is they gonna release it by the end of february, at the apple event.
I can get the current MBP on ebay for $1600 NEW, should i wait a little longer ?
Is this end of february new MBP release pretty reliable ? judging its been more than 6 months since the latest update ?

 

Well, I would definately wait. I've been saying for months prior to MacWorld that there will be an update in March/April of the MacBook Pro, though others have disagreed and their predictions have long passed.

It would have been smart to just wait to update the MBP with Montevina. The Penyrn update will only be about a 5-10% improvement in speed and battery life. Also, I wouldn't expect a redesign of the chassis, but subtle changes to the components (keyboard, trackpad, etc).

So, March/April for next update (probably March) and then September/October for next update.

Whenever you decide to buy...I think you will be very happy. I bought mine in October and I love it.

 

I'm in the same boat. I've been a solid PC user for well over 20 years. Never in my dreams could I ever see myself being a Mac user. After spending a small fortune on a fully loaded Dell XPS M1330, having the build quality horrendous, my motherboard needs to be replaced as I cannot even boot up, coupled with the fun Vista has only just started to cause me, I have decided to make the switch.

I would sell my M1330 right now and cut my losses but I want to wait for the Montevinas. By the time they do arrive, I'll probably get very little for selling my M1330, but what can you do?

My issue is wheter I go MacBook or MacBook Pro. I have a 22" LCD at home where I have hooked up my 13.3 inch M1330 to, so when I'm home, I have the screen real estate. I love the small size and light weight of the M1330, which would make the MacBook the obvious choice, but the MacBook Pro is really not THAT much larger or heavier. The price tag is a big difference though. I am a teacher so I use Office for all my lesson plans, SMARTBoard software. I guess I won't really need the speed or graphics the MacBook Pro would offer me, but I am a Digital SLR user and want to work with video with a family around the corner, so I'm drawn to the dedicated graphics of the MacBook Pros.

Any suggestions here?

 

Seeing as you are a long time PC user, there have been some that do end up switching back. In your case, it's hard to say. TBH, the Macbook Pro is almost the same weight, and the only real difference is the price & the graphics. There's several questions you'll want to ask yourself before making the final decision,
First and foremost, are you positive you will want to work with video?
Have you tried OS X before?

In your situation, I would probably get a Macbook, just because of being used to the screen size, and the fact that you don't need the dedicated graphics. The thing is, unless you game, you won't really need the dedicated graphics, even with working with video. It would be nice, but it's not necessary. (At least IMO ) Just buy a larger stick of RAM, and I'd think that be okay.

 

Precisely. I went from using my wife's MBP to getting my own Black Macbook and then decided to return it and go MBP for many reasons. You can read a thread I started a little while ago (topic was "MB first thoughts") which has some info especially on the second page of the thread.

If you can afford it, I would definitely recommend the MBP over the MB.

 

I'd say the MacBook sounds right for you, and when you need a larger screen, like you did with your XPS M1330, you can plug it into an external display .

 

I would like the power to game, although in recent years, I've been doing less of the PC gaming and have moved back to the consoles (Xbox 360). I am a huge Civilization fan, but those games do not really require a dedicated card.

I am a Digital SLR owner, I'm actually going to be purchasing the 40D with a few lens tomorrow. I'm upgrading from my Rebel. I also intend to play with video in the near future, once additions to the family start to come. While I've played around on my friends MB, I think I really need to go to the Apple Store and see everything for myself.

Any changes in the body that we could expect for the MB and MBPs? Any clue when we could expect the Montevinas to make their entrance?

ATC, I read your posts and now I feel I may lean to the MBP when I do make the switch.

 

Weight definitely very similar, size is subjective. IMO the size difference is negligible unless you work frequently in very constraint spaces such as airplanes.

I found the size of the keyboard area on the MB to be a little uncomfortable for extended typing. That is just my opinion of course and it didn't help that I have big hands.

Do what I did; buy one from a place that has a good return period so you can try both. Better yet, buy both at the same time and just return the one that didn't suit your needs. We can give you our thoughts/opinions all day long but that doesn't compare to actually using both.

I was convinced that for my use the MB was better until I bought one and used it for a week. You just never know until you actually use them in your environment.

 

How was it making the switch? I hear since Macs do things pretty much the right way, the leaning curve isn't so bad. I know I'll be looking for Alt and F4 to close out my programs!

 

It's been great. OSX turned out to be what I've always hoped Windows would become; stable, secure, intuitive and tightly integrated.

It takes time to get used to OSX if you're a long time windows user like myself. But I was surprised by how in less than two weeks of use I'm now finding many things in windows to be clunky, unintuitive and frustrating.

You just have to be patient and open to new things and you'll love it. I now wish I had switched years ago. And to this day I have yet to hear about someone who had switched and regretted it; that says something.

 

I guess there's very little need to reformat and perform a clean install huh? I felt I would be doing that at least twice a year!

And the installation of programs only installs a file or a folder at most from what I've heard. Meaning, when you uninstall a program, your machine won't get clunky and slow down like Windows?

Keep telling me all the good stuff here!

I've been looking at Office 2008, it really looks different from Office 2007 on the PC. I'm sure I'll get use to it though.

 

I'm a long time Office user and been using Office 2007 quite a bit but so far I'm liking the simplicity and power of iWork. You get a trial (30 days I think) but I already bought the serial from apple ($79). I might get office 2008 but so far I haven't really found anything that I cannot do with iWork.

Defragging HD, reformat and reinstall are things that you definitely won't be doing frequently in OSX. It's funny everything uninstalls easily except for MSFT products, go figure. lol When I installed Office 2004, uninstalling was not as simple as dragging the application to the trash can. God bless MSFT for complicating things even in OSX.

 

There's no registry in Mac OS X, so yes, that helps. And installing/uninstalling is really easy in OS X...its really as simple as dragging an icon to a folder to install, and dragging that icon to the Trash to uninstall. Its...amazing .

 

Okay I just can't wait for penryn to get in an MBP so I can buy one. This thread has made me so excited.

About how long will it take to get used to OS X?

I have only ever used it at school for about 20min at a time at school once or twice a week.

 

Depends on the person, really. I found reading these two guides before getting my Mac helped me get right into it when I got it:

http://www.apple.com/support/switch101
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101

I basically got used to Mac OS X in about a week...I was comfortable after a few hours .

 

Same here. At first, I thought it was going to be impossible to learn how to navigate my new mac. After a couple hours, I had most things figured out. Three weeks later, it all seems like 'old hat'.

 

I just picked up my 40D with one of those new Lexar compact flash card readers for the 300X cards. Of course, the model I purchase has issues, it allows me to copy my images off the card but not delete or copy to the card. My older reader works perfectly. I'm wondering if it's Vista. Maybe I'm blaming everything on Vista now, will check it out on the XP machines at work. I'm just looking for another reason to the many to make the switch!

Alright Montevina, where are you? When are you coming?

 

Ok, I can't blame Vista on this one, the reader didn't work on XP either. Shucks.

As far as hard drives on the Mac, I know you can use them interchangably between the Mac and PC, but they must be formatted via FAT32, not NTFS right?

 

That is right, because Mac OS X can only read NTFS, and can't write to, while Windows cannot read or write to HFS+ (Mac OS X). So for both to work without having to purchase third-party software, format for FAT32.

 

If I were to be only Mac, with HFS+ be better to use, or is FAT32 just as good?

 

Well, HFS+ and NTFS have benefits over FAT32, so if you don't need it, go for HFS+.

 

Ok, I had my motherboard replaced on my M1330, which took the Dell tech quite some time to do. He messed up a few times, the trackpad and fingerprint reader weren't even connected, so he had to open it up again to fix it. Well now, the wireless on/off switch and Wi-Fi catcher do not work and I'm having issues with my internet connection. Dell won't send a replacement system, only another tech to "clean up" what the last tech did. Then and only then will they send a replacement system to me.

I think I've had enough and will not wait any longer. I think I'm going to make the switch to Mac's much sooner than the Montevina chipsets. I will wait until the Penthryns make their appearances. Any clue when this will happen? I'm sure even when the Montevina's do come out, a Penthryn MBP wouldn't be anything to scoff at...

Any suggestions would be great, I'm almost ready to do this, with a broken unsold M1330!

 

Its probably soon, SirWells. Keep an eye on the Mac rumours sites such as MacRumors and stuff, they'll keep you updated.

And Montevina and Penryn aren't competitors anyway . Penryn is a processor, Montevina is a platform. Penryn will eventually be on Montevina.

 

I know that Montevina is a platform, I was just mentioning how a Penryn now won't be THAT much slower than a Penryn on a Montevina in the future. I'm trying to make myself feel better about purchasing in the short term rather than waiting, lol...

 

So reading the Mac rumors sites, any opinions if the new MBPs, whenever they come out, will be updated in look (keyboard, etc.) rather than just the processor? I would hate to get a new MBP when in a few months they completely overhaul it. It would be like buying a new car and two months later, the new version of it is completely different...

I know nobody knows, but figured I'd ask...

 

Well, I don't think there's going to be any redesign of the MBP for the Penryn update, but possible for Montevina. Its been in need of one for a long time now. I mean, its a great design, still the best in the industry in my opinion, but it does need some refreshing.

 

Looks like I'm going to miss out on that update. I couldn't wait THAT long for a new machine... Oh well... Montevina's aren't until the Fall, the earliest, right?

 

Ok, new idea. Does anybody forsee any updates on the Macbooks anytime soon? From the buyers guide, it's in midcycle, so maybe CPU will be updated, but nothing much as far as design and other specs "under the hood."

My thought was, get the Macbook now, when the MacBook Pro's come out all revised with their new models, get one of them, give the MacBook to the wife, then sell our terrible Dells. Then we both have Macs.

I think I really want to make the switch and I'm itching to do this, can't wait...

Let me know if you think I'm being very stupid here...

 

That's not a bad idea. The question is; can you or your wife do with a macbook long term? If yes then go ahead. If maybe/no then you should look into getting a MBP now and give that to your wife when the new one comes out. If your wife is anything like mine, you'll get hell when you give her your MB and buy yourself a MBP.

 

She was actually down with the idea. Now I love the size of the MB even for myself, but that MBP isn't THAT much bigger or heavier. I know based on the things I would be doing, I would need the muscle of the MBP.

Any suggestions on a way to sync our data to both laptops, so if we grabbed one of the two machines we'd always have our music, photos, etc. on them? This is a Mac, so I know it's probably built into Leopard rather than some third party software that'll crash my machine, lol...

 

You should look into time capsule for that. It is esentially a router with a large harddrive so your data will be back up to it and you can probably sync all your macs with that same info if you wanted to. I am not sure about details though.