Looking to buy Macbook pro but when is it being updated again??

I heard from some sites that Apple is going to be doing another rework very soon and I should wait to by my macbook, any opinions would be greatly appreciated thanks!

 

If I had to guess, I think they'll try to coincide with the release of Lion.

So, June/July would be my guess. But remember, no one really knows save those that work at Apple.

 

The MBP was last updated in April of 2010. I'm not sure about any major changes in the next refresh, other than newer processors and (hopefully) an option for a high-resolution and Matte-style screen on the MBP13. If you can wait until spring-time or early summer the picture might be much clearer. If not, the current crop of MBP's is awesome none-the-less.

 

Yeah but they also stop stocking the current gen in most locations and have ordered their new CPUs from intel already. Just speculations but I think it may be a lot sooner. Also if you look at the the last release, it was around 300 days from the release before it and 300 days is this month.

 

From what I can tell the CPUs arent even going to be faster just A LOT more power saving, so a lot better battery life. The new cpus use half the power, it wont give double the battery life because a lot of more components still suck power but we could see another hour added on.

Also quick question, the anti reflection screen, worth it?

 

If you look at MacRumors site under Buyers Guide ( link) you'll see the recommendation been given to both the MBP and MBs as a "Don't Buy - Updates soon". IMO, only buy now if you have to but otherwise a short wait might be well worth it. Just a guess, I think we'll see an update early Spring. I'm waiting as I'm not in a dire need of a notebook till sometime in May.

 

Aye, I think I'm going to hang on as well for a bit.

I need to do it before my mates leave Uni though to abuse the HE discount. Here's hoping for an update between March and June .

 

Do we think its this month? If so I'll wait I might wait one more month but I need it for UNI work. Does anyone also know what happened to the free ipod with purchase of computer for college kids or if its ever coming back?

EDIT:

Is it also possible to purchase a macbook pro now and then trade it up in a sense if they do a rework of the laptop?

 

Almost certainly not. If apple was planning to use any of the SB chips they are delayed until march/april minimum, that part is out of their hands. I'd guess May is more accurate.

 

Ok well I guess Ill be buying a 17" Macbook Pro then, thanks for the info everyone, I really appreciate it!

 

Sandy Bridge laptops use the Huron River line of chipsets, so there is no issue. The SATA problem is limited to H67 and P67 desktop chipsets. I would expect the new Macbooks sooner rather than later.

 

Regardless intels recall messed things up pretty bad. It includes both laptops and desktops while they test and build new boards for every sandy bridge unit. Assuming apple plans to use sandy bridge this year (they still sell c2d units after all) we won't see them until April at the earliest but probably
Later in order to do quality control and testing.

 

wait wait, I'm confused. So Intel recalled their laptop hardware along for no real reason? We know the desktop chipsets have issues...but all manufacturers that I'm aware of have also postponed or requested return of their SB laptops as well.

so what's really going on?

I agree with all of that. It seems like if we're going to get SB in 2011, it will be for the Fall refresh or not at all. I certainly wouldn't recommend waiting around for it, if I were a prospective Mac buyer...but as with all things tech, if you can squeeze out another 8-10 months out of your current system, something better is always off on the horizon.

 

Thanks for the info I think I will pick it up this week. Question though, how do you have a SSD and a HD in your pro?

 

Which system are you going to pick up?

 

I removed the DVD drive and installed an SSD.

It's fairly uncomplicated to do, and doesn't void the warranty of your MBP (but it does void the warranty for the disc drive, as far as I know). You'd just need an SSD drive and a hard drive caddy ($10-$50). we can walk you through that process if you decide to do something like that.

 

Any Idea of what type of changes/upgrades the 17" Macbook Pro will have?

 

Or get a Hybrid drive like those Seagate Momentus XT ones.

 

Just wanted to ask,

do you guys think Apple will also delay the MBP refresh accordingly to the SB chipset recalls?

 

If you can wait until summer then you really should. Nothing is worse than spending $2k on a laptop only to see its predecessor come out two months later.

 

yes, but I really hope not

summer is 4 months away

 

When I bought my original macbook it was refreshed 2 months after so yeah, Im used to it by now.

And besides, they aren't using nVidea anymore and I'm somewhat brand loyal to them. Also, with the new chips all were getting is less power consumption not much power improvements, pending on which chips they use, and for a laptop that already gets such good battery life I think ill be ok but I do appreciate the advice.

Not planning on installing anything or did you make the CD rom drive external?

 

Enjoy the new computer
I'm planning on getting one this week, after I return my sager. 15" MBP. I'm too impatient to wait for summer and be disappointed by the updates

 

Ok quick question and opinion area, I could upgrade (through apple when I order) to a 128 SSD for only 130 which isn't to bad because SSD's are very pricey, and then install a 750 gig HD for storage with the double drive thing but i have three questions.

1) Never had a SSD before because of price, would it drastically increase speeds and boot time? Also worth it for the 130$?

2) Would this HD fit: Seagate ST9750420AS Momentus Mobile Hard Drive - 750GB, 2.5, 7200RPM, 16MB, SATA at TigerDirect.com

3) How good and big is the external enclosure for the SuperDrive in the kit that is sold because the only reason I don't pick up a good external drive is because they are large and cumbersome to carry around. I have a 500 gig external at the moment but I would not carry that around with my laptop because its a 3.5" and obviously heavy.

Thanks

EDIT: http://store.mcetech.com/Merchant2/...t_Code=OBSXGB-UNB&Category_Code=STORHDOPTIBAY

Thats the link to the catty and enclosure, is there a cheaper place to get them? There it is 100$ for the DVD drive enclosure and the catty.

 

Hi Talimore,

The optional MceTech superdrive enclosure that comes "free" with the catty is shown below. The enclosure is slim and light, not much to it really. I carry it along in my backpack just incase I should need it. It comes with a usb Y cable with a single mini usb at one end and two USB connectors at the other... one for data and power and the other usb for extra power which is only really needed when burning discs.

It also comes with a CD containing installation instruction documents. Also included on the CD is their DVD "activator" software explained here...

Apple's DVD Player application will not launch or play DVD movies from an externally
connected SuperDrive while an internal SuperDrive is not present in the system.

MCE Technologies' DVD Player Activator was created to enable Apple's DVD Player application
to launch and play DVD movies from an externally connected SuperDrive when no
internal SuperDrive is present.​

There are other ways, without having to use MCE's "activator" software, to enable the use of an external DVD drive, but it is nice that they included this simple software allowing it to work without having to figure it out on your own.

*note: the $100 DVD drive and enclosure that MCE Tech is also selling is a different beast altogether than the superdrive enclosure that comes with the kit.

 

Wow thanks for the info, my only other question then is, will that HD I choose fit because according to the MCE Tech site you can't put a 1 TB drive in the pro because they are slightly larger. Will that 750 I linked work? and also is the SSD good for the 130 and the speeds good on it?

EDIT: Also where is the best place to buy the HD attachment/enclosure thing.

 

Any 2.5" 9.5cm SATA drive will work regardless of capacity. The drive that you linked to will work.

$130 for a 128GB SSD sounds like a deal to me. I'd probably want to be sure it has idle garbage collection built into the drives firmware though (samsung). Otherwise, once or twice a year, you may want to recondition your SSD. Below is a link describing what that means:

MPG - Solid State Drives (SSD) - Reconditioning a solid state drive (SSD)

And for a cady, you can either use MCE Tech's optibay that comes with the superdrive external housing and DVD activation software. Or just do a google search for a Macbook Pro Optibay. You'll want a SATA to SATA optibay like the one in the following link. If you use the caddy in the link below instead of buying through MCE then you'll need to find yourself an external superdrive case or buy an external DVD drive.

Buy.com - 2nd SATA Hard Disk Drive HDD Caddy For Apple Unibody MacBook Pro 17 inch

 

It's 2011, my friend. If you need a DVD drive to install things, you're doing it wrong

Seriously though, most hardware has software that can be downloaded off company websites. This is preferred, as the drivers will be the most up to date. Most of my regular software is stuff that is sold / comes free online. For software that I have a CD/DVD for (rare for me now), I simply hook up an external DVD drive and install. USB-powered DVD drives are in the $30-$50 range, so it's really chump change.

Alternatively, I can rip my software to ISO format using my desktop computer, transfer the ISO from the desktop to the laptop via networking or external HDD... then mount the ISO in OSX and install that way.

For perspective, I've needed a DVD drive approximately 4 times in the 8 months I've owned this computer. I use my desktop to burn DVDs and CDs...and because almost all my software is downloaded and stored on my desktop, getting it onto my Mac is a trivial copy and install process. For someone new to such a system, it can take some getting used to. I've been functioning like this for 4 or 5 years now because it is more convenient to me than trying to keep up with discs. ymmv.

 

It would be the mac drive, the SSD. I mean the one apple sells but I followed the link you had and DISK Utility has a recondition setting for fixing that problem.

So I think I will go with the apple SSD and another HD from Tiger Direct. Thanks for the info, to both of you.

 

So just ordered the laptop, 17" no adjustments from the base unit on apple site except I added the 128 SSD instead of the 500 gig HD and Im going to throw in a 750 gig second HD.

 

Do you really need it for now?
the current speculation is that the new mbps will be released very soon (a rumor is March 1st).

 

IMO, since I dont know exactly what kind of SSD is offered from Apple, I would just upgrade to 500GB 7200 rpm for $50 and buy a Vertex 2 or Crucial or Intel 128GB SSD from Newegg. I know they support TRIM. Much better than what you just did.

 

Soooo Good news LOVE my laptop but apple is actually letting me return it and order the 2011. It will cost me 10 dollars to upgrade overall but if I want the SSD i need to pay 100 more for a total of 110 more for the new model, im good!

 

TRIM isn't such a big deal in OSX according to a few users here. Didn't really read into the details but you can probably find it if you search around.