MacBook vs. MacBook Pro

[smokshwn]

Gonna be ordering a new laptop and was looking for input concerning the MacBook vs. the MacBook Pro.

For the $200 dollar difference is the backlit keyboard and aluminum body justified?

Also any must have accessories/software from the get go?

Thanks, Craig

[Bluetip84]

IMO the Pro is well worth the extra cost. They seem to hold up better and last a little longer.

[markcic]

I'm about to order a pro because of the higher specs. I decided not to get the SSD, the one Apple specs looks to be more durability and less performance oriented. I'd check Mac Rumors buying guide before you buy.

[outerlimits]

Craig-depends...will it be your primary machine? If so, get the pro. Bought one for my daufhter for college last year...wife has a macbook. Me...i got the 27" imac.

[WDB]

Make sure you look here. Depending what you want you could save of to $500-600. Still comes with the standard 1 year warranty and eligible for 3 year Apple Care. It's were I'm getting my son's Pro from next year.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac?mco=MTM3NTA4MzQ

[smokshwn]

Ok it's looking like I will go with the pro.....

Any downsides to buying one of the apple refurbs????

Also what about wireless for the house, go with the apple airport or something else???

Thanks guys

[Nik Habicht]

Buy Apple Care -- the IT and Photo Professionals I know using MacBook Pros have almost all had to replace one or more logic boards, due to excessive heat/inadequate cooling....

[edwin garcia]

+1 on Apple Care.

[outerlimits]

+10 on apple care. Wifi (airport) is built in to all macs. U get what u pay for. Any router will do

[cyburg]

You don't have to buy the apple care when you buy the computer. You have up to one year to buy it. The macbook pro has a seperate video card so it will handle grafics better. I use a wifi other than macair. Any wifi system will work. The only other program you will need is microsoft office.

[raz-0]

IMO the Pro is well worth the extra cost. They seem to hold up better and last a little longer.

No, no they don't. We field a number of macbook pros. Previously, we fielded a number of macbooks. Every one of the little plastic pieces of crap are still running. The mac book pros... not so much.  We are averaging over 3 motherboard swaps per unit on a 3 year refresh cycle. 

My friend is the IT department for a private school. They run macbooks and macbook pros for every teach and administrator. They die.. a lot. He's averaged 4.3 motherboard swaps per macbook pro over a 4 year refresh cycle. 

Buy Apple Care -- the IT and Photo Professionals I know using MacBook Pros have almost all had to replace one or more logic boards, due to excessive heat/inadequate cooling....

Definitely buy the apple care. Unless you are a very occaisional user who doesn't use it lightly, you WILL need it. 

You will notice he is reerring to the same problems I am except he calls them logic boards.  He is also right about the cause. 

Apple has piss poor design when it comes to thermal dissipation in their laptops. This used to only really be a problem with their high end mac book pro in previous designs, and was due to the higher end GPU and faster CPU vs the stock heat sinking system and factory default fan management. However with the new billet designs, it appears to have gotten worse. Part of it is the bathtub design of the case, some of it is where they chose to place vents, some of it is the max flow rate of the vents and fans, some of it is heatsink design, and some of it is moving to higher performance components to keep up with industry peers without improving the cooling design to compensate. 

IF I were going to spend money ona  mac laptop for hevy duty use, I'd look at the smallest macbook pro. Mainly becuase it is essentially cheapie macbook guts in a billet case. Which means better hinges, but also that you are dealing with slightly slower CPUs (maybe, depends on build choices and what else you are considering), and integrated graphics. Which means there's only a single chip to cool for all the northbridge/southbridge/GPU logic instead of 2.  You will also note that the vents on the 13" aren't that much less surface are than the vents on the 15" and 17". 

The down side is that the 13 inch has a screen that dithers, which sucks. 

As for the new plastic macbook... well,  it has some nice parts in it, but the total thermal dissipation does not look good to me given the complete lack of any visible vents. just between teh cpu and gpu, you are talking almost 90 watts to dissipate under load with no visible vents. Best guess is it is vented near the monitor hinge. Which is like the pre-billet macbook pro 17 inches, and those were dying with similar thermal loads.

If you do buy the plastic macbook, the 15" or 17", you want to get one of the apps that lets you boost the fan speed. You also want apple care. With those two things, you might have to get warranty work on it, but you should be able to get 3 years of use out of it. 

[markcic]

Also what about wireless for the house, go with the apple airport or something else???

Go with the airport unless you want to do something spiffy with on of the access points that can run Linux. The best thing about it is that it can run dual band 2.4/5.8Ghz. You can run your Mac with 802.11n in 5.8 and have all existing dev ices in 2.4 .11n and .11g comparability.

[benos]

Ok it's looking like I will go with the pro.....

Any downsides to buying one of the apple refurbs????

I've bought all my machines, for years, from the refurb store. No regrets at all.

be

[smokshwn]

Thanks for all the advice.

Pulled the trigger on a MBP 13" yday. Was going to get a refurb when I checked out the Government rebate and realized I would only be saving $25 which was worth it to just pick it up at the apple store.

I did buy the airport from the refurb shop (more$$$saved than the rebate) though after some advice from Maineshootah.

I am loving it.

[cold]

I use a Mac Book Pro to edit and make all our highlight reels, I am bised as I have always used a mac, but I think they are great, especially if your doing media (video/audio/editing) based projects. If you can spring for the Pro, I say do it.

[outerlimits]

Thanks for all the advice.

Pulled the trigger on a MBP 13" yday. Was going to get a refurb when I checked out the Government rebate and realized I would only be saving $25 which was worth it to just pick it up at the apple store.

I did buy the airport from the refurb shop (more$$$saved than the rebate) though after some advice from Maineshootah.

I am loving it.

welcome to the proper side-you will never go back.

[smokshwn]

Thanks for all the advice.

Pulled the trigger on a MBP 13" yday. Was going to get a refurb when I checked out the Government rebate and realized I would only be saving $25 which was worth it to just pick it up at the apple store.

I did buy the airport from the refurb shop (more$$$saved than the rebate) though after some advice from Maineshootah.

I am loving it.

welcome to the proper side-you will never go back.

Actually Butch, it's more of a welcome back.....I was a Mac user long before they were cool...Had a classic and a 514, but at the time in college I needed something to run class specific software. It's actually taken me this long simply because the PC I have keeps running "good enough" but I don't see changing again.