Is it worth the $700? MB - MBP?

I have been posting about a MB vs MBP purchase lately:

Is it worth paying the $700 for the:
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
New Santa Rosa Chip
LED Backlit display

??

Im not going to be gaming on this machine, just Photoshop, Word and maybe some website design. However the MacBook has great specs but I feel is bottlenecked by the GMA950. What would you buy?

 

If you aren't gaming, then the GMA950 should be absolutely perfect for your needs. It handles things like Photoshop (a CPU and RAM dependent application) and web design very well.

If you are really that nervous, I think the Macbooks are up for a refresh pretty soon, you could just wait till then. You are almost assured there will be a new graphics chip. I'd guess X3100 or something similar if they stick with integrated.

Otherwise, LED backlit display is pretty, but has no impact on performance other than increasing battery life by about 30 minutes if you tweak the brightness. The Santa Rosa chip isn't much faster than the previous chip and the front side bus increase has little impact considering the memory speeds were not increased along with it. The 8600m GT is a fantastic notebook videocard for the 15.4" market, but if you are not playing games it is almost a complete waste of horsepower.

Seriously, say CS:S or Crysis or C&C3 or any other 3D game and I will instantly recommend the MBP, otherwise it just doesn't seem worth the increase in price.

Heck, even say you have to encode files as fast as possible and I'll recommend the MBP.

I'm getting a MBP soon, but I game quite a bit.

 

Well who knows what i'll end up doing on this machine... I'll just kick myself if I can't do something that I want to...

I also don't want to wait it out for another 3 months and they don't end up upgrading the macbooks...

 

Uh, what Apple store are you shopping at? Last time I checked the MacBook was $1099.

Edit: Oops nevermind, didn't read it right.

 

Check out this site for advice on when to buy, MacRumors.

After looking at their site, I'd recommend against waiting for the Macbook refresh.

And as a sort of addendum to my previous post, if you need raw CPU power and lots of ram, then go with the MBP. In other words, if you are a Photoshop poweruser working with large files constantly then getting a MBP and purchasing 2 x 2 GB ram sticks totaling 4 GB from crucial or OCZ is what you'd want to do. RAM pricing from Apple is ridiculous.

Macbooks are medium multi use. MBP is more of the power user machine.

 

I'm in the exact same boat. Same uses, same decision.

 

I had read that it's the MBP getting an update (of sorts). The rumor is a smaller MBP will be released.

Power user being key. I'm pretty sure they'd have to be huge files to notice a big difference.

 

There's almost a guaranteed update coming to the line of Mac Mini, iMac, MB, and MBP come this October when Leopard launches. For the MBP, it may just be a sofware update, but for the rest, I imagine it'll be new hardware as well. The MacBook received a really small update and by October, they'll definitely need to move over to Santa Rosa, if only to please Intel/reduce a set of components Intel needs to continue producing.

 

Software update? What could the MacBook Pro update with a firmware update?

An iMac will most likely be upgraded this summer, late July or early August is what rumour sites are saying. Mac Mini is undecided, some sites are saying it will "die off" like the 12-inch Powerbook, others say they're still working on it. MacBook might be upgraded in October, might not. They could skip Santa Rosa altogether and jump on to Penryn.

 

Don't forget size. Some people prefer the footprint of the MB while some prefer the screen size of the MBP. Also consider that the MBP does not weigh much more and is thinner while still having more power and a larger screen, so you are paying for that as well.

 

This is why I'm hoping for a 13.3" MBP. With a matte screen, thank you.

 

I think the MB would probably do me just fine, but I want that graphics card, LED backlit display and keyboard that lights up

 

Again... This is why I'm hoping for a 13.3" MBP.

 

If the main purpose for the new machine were graphics/photo editing, I'd want the machine with the larger screen. I owned a MB for about six months and liked it a lot. However, the screen size was just too small (for me) to edit photos. To be honest, though I now have a MBP, I almost always use a MacPro and large monitor when editing photos. Detail on a bigger screen is much easier to see clearly.

 

Gotta agree with this one. I found my 12.1" screen fine for most things, but not for photo editing in Photoshop. So I got a 20" external monitor, and all is well.

Interesting. I'm torn between a MB and MBP, and this is one of the things I've wondered about: would I still use the external monitor for things like editing photos? If so, getting the MBP just to have a larger screen might be a waste.

Thanks for posting that, bmwrob!

 

Black MacBook 2.2ghz(Santa Rosa), 2gb ram, Gefore 8600GT, LED backlit display DAMN why don't they let US customize! :/

 

....because your design would be a heat disaster

 

SoundsGood, I appreciate your comments. If you would otherwise be happy with the smaller machine, the MB would work well for you, IMO, because you've already got the external monitor for the occasions you want to edit photos.

Geez, the cash you'll save will allow for a lot of Starbucks visits!

 

Thanks, you're probably right.

Now if the MB came with a matte screen option -- and weighed less than 4 lbs -- I'd be really, really happy.