One year later...

Right now the MacBook Pro is at the top of my list for a new notebook, but the soldered CPU is really putting me off. However I really don't think the Core 2 Duo's will be possibly in the MacBook Pro's until late August/September, around the time I would be able to buy a notebook at latest. Assuming they aren't out by the time I need to purchase this notebook, how much do you think I could sell a 32bit MacBook Pro for about about a year after purchase so I could buy a 64bit one. Please save me the "you don't need 64bit" speech since I want it to future proof and thats reason enough for me. After seeing what the powerbooks are going for, I'm a little scared.

 

It's purely speculative but I think they will hold their price better than the PowerBooks, mostly because Apple is staying with the Intel architecture for the next couple of years.

 

I think the reason the PowerBooks lost value was the switch to Intel. So the MBP should retain its value fairly well, IMO.

 

If you're going to unload your notebook in a year, I would go for a MacBook, not a MBP. The MacBook will depreciate much less than a MBP will in one year.

 

More likely, the MacBook did have a bit of pros and cons. They are making up for mistake they made for the cons. There will be improvements coming up!

 

I agree .

 

I agree with that too. The macbook should depreciate less because it is newer. Also, if both depreciate to 70% of their original value, then you'll lose less with the macbook. They are so close in what technology they offer that you really wouldn't be losing too much by just going with a MB.

You want to future proof, eh? Make sure you get the 10 year full coverage Applecare Super++ warranty. j/k, I'd wait for merom because it offers much more than just 64-bit (which itself is almost reason enough)

 

good points all around.

I still think I'd go withthe pro because 13.3 is just too small and I still want a pretty powerful machine in the mean time. My scenario is that I'm going to college and I could wait to pick up a notebook until Mid-August, but there is nothing that I know will come out between then that I can plan on waiting for I want to pick up a notebook for use over the summer. So largely its, why wait if nothing will come out in time?

Next summer I'd probably make the switch to the Merom macbook and I have a desktop at home to get by on during the transition.

I can get a 20% Student Discount through the developer connection, so that should also help battle loss in value since I'll have a smaller investment in it.

 

Lost Cause, I'm not asking this to be confrontational, I am asking this because, despite all the articles, I still possess no clear answers (check my few posts as I've been asking around about the Merom as relates to Apple)...what improvements, exactly, does the Merom offer, besides the obvious 64 bit jump?

 

I'm not LC, but this is why I'm looking forward to the Merom. 64bit, more performance per watt (So runs cooler and more battery efficient at same performance as the Duo, or same power consumption but more performance), when the updated Merom comes out first quarter next (actually dubbed "Santa Rosa") it'll have a 800mhz FSB, also some faster clock speeds as well.

Also by then you can be sure the MBPs will have some other hardware updates as well.

 

Nice, thanks! Now the only question is waiting it out for the Merom in August/Sept for my theoretical new Apple, or enduring the agonizing wait for Santa Rosa come March/April '07...Not sure, but I did state in another thread that I mistakenly expected more from the initial Meroms. I think I expected them to be what the Santa Rosa will be in actuality....Doubt I can hold out that long though.

 

Santa Rosa, as I understand it will be the platform, not the chip. It will still use Merom. Napa is the current platform. Merom on its own may not be a huge jump, but coupled with Santa Rosa it should be significant. Oh and 64-bit does not necessarily mean more performance per watt. AMD has been 64-bit for a long time, but noone would claim that they have more performance per watt than Intel. More performance yes, but performance per watt, no. All 64-bit really means is that it can address more at once, which believe it or not does not always mean more performance. Here is a link to the wikipedia article. HTH

 

Merom is the huge jump, not the chipset.

 

I didn't mean to necessarily imply that 64bit architecture means more performance per watt, just simply that it can handle the same workload under less power. Less power (watts) means cooler temperatures and longer battery life.

 

Ok, so the logical continuation of this is an explaination of what "Santa Rosa" offers as a platform in conjunction with the Merom processor? The more research I do, the more I'm finding that some delineation is necessary here.