Old MBP 15 inch vs. Unibody MBP 13 inch

Hey everyone, I just got my sisters old macbook pro which is a late 2007 model with the following specs:

15.4 inch LED screen (1440 x 900)
160 gb 5400 rpm HD
2 gb of ram (the standard that it came with) - 667 mhz ddr2 sdram
GPU: nVidia Geforce 8600M GT with 256mb
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 ghz (T7700)
Superdrive: 4x DVD+R DL writes, 8x DVD+/-R read/write, 4x DVD+/-RW writes, 24x CD-R, and 10x CD-RW recording
No applecare left on it
Condition: Very minor wear and tear, but its in excellent condition because its been in a speck plastic case from day one with all the protective casing features below and kept in a neoprene sleeve when on the go
Battery: there are two, one is absolute shot (as in it lasts about 1 minute before i get a low battery warning), the other is brand new and hasnt been opened yet
Accessories: it also came with a brand new (not even opened) battery, a full body speck plastic case, rubber keyboard cover, trackpad film cover, and rubbery/felt like cover for the part below the keyboard and trackpad buttons, oh and a 15 inch neoprene sleeve...my sister is sort of a freak about protecting it

anyway I am really trying to decide whether or not to sell this guy and use the money to get the new unibody 13 inch MBP (the base model), here are a few notes to consider

1. i dont game much if at all, but i do want to do some video editing now that i have a decent digi camcorder
2. i'm a student so basically i use my computer everywhere...but the 15 inch is not "too heavy" for me as it was for my sister, but battery is important to me
3. i do like the screens on the new MBP's but the matte screen on the 15 inch is pretty sweet and i like the resolution
4. i'm a pretty big media junkie (isnt every techie?)
5. i just switched to mac about a week ago...but i dont think this has much bearing on which one to choose

any advice about whether I should sell and get the new MBP (plus and ipod and printer i guess) or keep this mbp (I did already get a free ipod when my sister got her 13 inch mbp recently) would be much appreciated

im loving the os though! and i said id never switch...guess im on the dark side now

 

performance will be on same level if you don't game...so you have to decide whether you want to go 13" or not...

 

thanks xirurg, the shortest answer seems to have cleared up the biggest lingering questions, the biggest decision now seems to be the screens which falls in my hands really
thanks again

 

no problem. And it might be worth to point other minor pro's of 13" mbp-
1) big,glass touchpad
2) battery
3) unibody

Also, you can get Snow Leopard for 10$, instead of 30$ for your old machine

 

yea those are the things that are making the decision quite difficult, im leaning towards keeping the 15 inch because i really do like the screen size, but if i were to sell it do you think there is a market for it on these forums at least, ill probably consider putting it up on craigslist as well and maybe ebay
thanks again

 

That MBP does not have multitouch which IMO by itself is worth the upgrade.

 

Unless you are going to be hooking up to a monitor most of the time then it does not really matter. And the only thing you are really missing are the 4 finger gestures. The regular MBP has the 2 finger up down, and the 3 finger to go back and forward. I guess all you are missing is the 4 finger gestures and the rotate picture thing.

 

...

That is the 2007 MBP which does not have MultiTouch. Much less 4 fingers. No non-Unibody have 4 fingers. You can hack the 2008 MBP to have 4 fingers, but it is not enabled by default.

 

Keep the "old" computer. If you do video and graphics the nVidia 8600 will beat the integrated chip in the 13" like a red-headed stepchild. I used to own that exact machine and can testify to it being a very capable performer; I "upgraded" to the 9600GT in the new 15" unibody only to see video performance drop because of heat issues. If, on the other hand, size and battery life are more important than performance buy the new 13, you'll love it.

 

Since you want to edit videos and would actually watch plenty of multimedia stuff on your notebook, then I suggest the old MBP because its screen is superior --not just higher resolution but better blacks.

 

Obviously keep the old one.
The 8600GT is much better than the integrated 9400M G
It has twice the number of Streaming Processors 32 vs 16.
This is coming from a PC Spec POV, which most mac users don't care about.
Keep in mind the 13" MBP is actually the old Macbook Unibody rebranded as
the specs are almost identical.
Don't give TS wrong recommendation.
If size is a major concern then you should't be asking this in the first place.

 

Sort of not: the older model had the removable battery with about half the battery life of the new ones, also the color gamut of the new screens is said to be much improved. Other specs are indeed close, except CPU, memory, and bus speed, also all MBPs now have backlit keyboards which you used to get only on the top model unibody alum MacBook; the older model had no Firewire port or memory card slot, so in fact quite a few changes.

 

Data ?
As I said spec wise almost identical.
A computer is meant to be used hence to me it is as good as it components.
Stuff like memory card is a joke if you mentioned because practically almost all laptop comes with it, it is something that should have been there long ago and firewire is really not needed as you can have USB converters.

 

You should take your own advice about giving "wrong recommendation."

Since "most Mac users don't care" about "PC Spec," then why are you giving a MAC USER advice that he supposedly doesn't care about?

The specs between the old uMB and the new 13" MBP are not "identical." In fact, almost nothing about them is the same except the RAM and FSB speed. The CPU speeds, keyboard, screen, FW800, battery, etc. are all different.

Please stop spreading misinformation.

 

Performance can't be less on 9600gt-something is wrong with your notebook

ORLY?Why should someone who does not game care about GPU?

A joke you might say, but still a difference... FW adapter...what about speed of FW 800 brings?And don't forget that USB uses CPU power.

 

First how many devices (besides Apple Stuff) actually use FW?
Secondly how many seconds of speed difference?
Thirdly most important parts of the laptop are
Processor
Graphics Adapter
RAM
Harddisk
The rest are simply peripherals.

 

Actually, most people probably consider the display to be one of the, if not the most, important component, and the new MBP has a clearly better screen than the old uMB.

Battery life should also be in the top 3 of importance, and the new MBP has a substantially better battery, although some don't like its being integrated. You can't argue with 1,000 charge cycles and actual 5-hours of life.

Of course, you do know about the 8600m problems, right?

I can recommend for the OP to keep the old MBP too but for actually GOOD reasons --like the superior display.

 

Lots of-sound cards,HDDs,Video Cameras and tons of professional equipment-why do you think everyone started to whine when apple ditched FW on macbook?
A lot-speed difference between FW 800 and usb 2.0 is nearly 2x!
Nope,for me-
Screen
HDD
Keyboard
GPU
CPU
RAM

On notebook, I don't care about raw power,since
a)I have powerful desktop for that staff
b)Spec are often overestimated-I do heavy FLASH/Flex development on my dads rev. a air w/o any problems...

 

Because a lot of Apple users also bought Apple Products which uses FireWire (IPOD?)?
It is hypocritical to first release a connect standard then drop it before anyone else did?
The universability of USB has made FireWire redundant.
Sure it maybe faster but not to the extent that speed made it the choice.
The professional devices you mentioned are probably Apple Products.
New Products now usually comes with USB not FireWire.

 

Obviously you have not tried to send massive data through a USB port? When you do you will understand the significance between USB and 400-800 Firewire.

 

Obviously you don't know how to manage your time.
When data is transferring you stand up make a drink and come back 5min later.
You don't sit there and wait.
If you are need time you shouldn't use either method, you should plug in directly to the harddisk controller assuming it is a harddisk tranfer.

 

not to be rude, but you either
a)don't know much about tech staff
b)hate apple
c)have nothing to do and decided to troll

Go to google and search FW VS USB.and since when apple started to make camcorders,HDD,Cameras,Sound Cards,DJ equipment,etc.? and FW on iPod was replaced with usb ~5 years ago...And most of todays notebooks include FW port. And if working with big files is part of your job, every minute counts!

 

I don't know what year you are stuck in but its 2009 here.

Oh and yes E-sata is a firewire. You missed that.

 

Since when?

 

which proves my point #1. Look carefully

And deleting posts is not cool...

 

TROLL. The guy comes here just to bash Apple...and to disseminate false information.

 

I don't argue with people who believe E-SATA is Firewire
E-SATA is External Serial ATA not Firewire

 

Comes from someone who thinks that all FW devices are apple

 

There are many advantages to using firewire over usb 2.0, which cannot be overcome due to limitations to USB standard.

You can deliver more power over firewire negating the need to carry an additional bulky transformer with your peripheral.

My number 1 preference of using firewire over usb is audio latency.

The firewire standard uses less host resources and one of the main benefits is audio latency.

I prefer firewire mixers/soundcards over usb audio mixers/soundcards.

In any discussion of which peripheral standard is better than the other it is important to keep into perspective what peripherals are used and why. Simply spewing out maximum bandwidth numbers and such is misleading and does not tell the person reading how "useful" the standard is.

USB 3.0 indicates that USB is becoming more like firewire with every generation.

 

but FW gets forward with FW 3200

 

Back to the original topic at hand. Just keep the "old" MBP. It may not have all the fancy features of the new Unibody macs, but you can max the RAM and get a larger hard drive for it as well. Since you have a brand new battery as well, just recycle the one that is shot and use the new one. This computer could last you a really long time depending on what you do.