4GB Macbook or 2GB Macbook pro?

I am an illustration student and WoW player and wondering which notebook to buy. I dont really have a budget but i've been really confused about DDR2 vs. DDR3 memory in the current selection of notebooks. At the moment im looking at either buying a Macbook pro with 2GB DDR3 or Macbook with 4GB DDR2. The difference between these two is roughly £60 abut im not sure if i should spend the extra cash on the macbook pro? I have a 2 year old imac with 2GB DDR2 and this runs all my programs quickly and without much trouble. I mainly run Photoshop CS3, Illustrator, World of Warcraft and the usual internet apps. My last powerbook G4 was unable to run World of Warcraft efficiently after 2 years or so and i dont really want the same happening with my next notebook. So if anyone can help me choose, it would be awesome! thanks.

Xenus said:

I am an illustration student and WoW player and wondering which notebook to buy. I dont really have a budget but i've been really confused about DDR2 vs. DDR3 memory in the current selection of notebooks. At the moment im looking at either buying a Macbook pro with 2GB DDR3 or Macbook with 4GB DDR2. The difference between these two is roughly £60 abut im not sure if i should spend the extra cash on the macbook pro? I have a 2 year old imac with 2GB DDR2 and this runs all my programs quickly and without much trouble. I mainly run Photoshop CS3, Illustrator, World of Warcraft and the usual internet apps. My last powerbook G4 was unable to run World of Warcraft efficiently after 2 years or so and i dont really want the same happening with my next notebook. So if anyone can help me choose, it would be awesome! thanks.

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It would help if you posted the specs of the two computers you're considering purchasing.

There are computer specs other than ram that could be much more important to consider.

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

It would help if you posted the specs of the two computers you're considering purchasing.

There are computer specs other than ram that could be much more important to consider.

- Nick

Click to expand...

Macbook Pro specs

2.26GHz or 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB on-chip shared L2 cache running 1:1 with processor speed
1066MHz frontside bus
2GB (two 1GB SO-DIMMs) two SO-DIMM slots support up to 8GB

Macbook

2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB on-chip shared L2 cache running 1:1 with processor speed
1066MHz frontside bus
4GB (two 2GB
SO-DIMMs) of 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; two SO-DIMM slots support up to 4GB

these are the processor and memory specs.

How about the graphics hardware specs, hard drive size, and display size?

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

How about the graphics hardware specs, hard drive size, and display size?

- Nick

Click to expand...

macbook pro

Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors

macbook

Extended desktop and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 1920 by 1200 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors.

i think the storage specs are pretty much the same and the screen size is the same...13.3" i think. thanks

The macbook pro is better than the macbook (hence the pro).

You can easily upgrade to 4 GB of RAM in the MBP.

If the difference is only 60, I would go with the better machine (the MBP) unless you are not a fan of the design of the MBP.

The MBP has a slightly faster processor and uses DDR3 RAM. You can upgrade the RAM to 4 GB DDR3 for around 50 (if needed).

Not to mention the longer battery life with the MBP...

Overall it is your decision, but for 60 difference, I would go with the better machine.

Not to mention, in the future (years) you could have to have 8 GB of RAM to run a certain program smoothly and with the MBP you could upgrade.

Xenus said:

macbook pro

Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors

macbook

Extended desktop and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 1920 by 1200 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors.

Click to expand...

These aren't the graphics hardware specs. They should be something like 9400M, 9600M or both.

- Nick

I am guessing that he is looking at the base model of the macbook and macbook pro. Which they both are going to have 9400m graphics cards. They are both going to have 160GB hard drives (which to the OP you can always upgrade later)

The other main point which I think has been touched on is that since you are doing some graphic intensive programs I would probably upgrade to the faster processor as you can and don't worry about the 2gb of memory on the MBP it is 1066mhz which operates fast and like someone else said you can upgrade it later.

Again with the macbook you are using slower ram, and also you can only expand up to 4gb of ram. With the MBP 8gb of ram. Might not be usable now but for the future yess it will be helpful. Again I am with everyone saying to get the MBP and you will love it. Wish you could afford the 15" with the 4gb of ram, 320gb HD, 9400m and 9600m GT graphics card. Now that would be nice!

I did the 2gb Macbook pro thing, found that it was slower with this than my Macbook with 3gb, lived with it until I bought a 4gb upgrade for $50 to make it faster than my Macbook was and this one's a pro. Also with a pro one has the option (if they take out a second mortgage on their kids or sell a kidney) of going to up to 8 gig. Macbook you get 4gb and that's it. Can't even sell the kidney too get it up to 8 gig. Well, I suppose you could still do that but what's the point? You might need both of them.

Anyway, there are other advantages of the pro over the regular that outweigh even the memory capacity and they're all totally worth the extra $200.