Anyone upgrade from C2D to SR?

Hello everyone,

I've got one of the 15" 2.33 C2D models...about 6 months old...and it's a great system, no doubt about it, but I've been cringing over some of the upgrades in the new Santa Rosa models.

First of all, I am a gamer, Not a hardcore gamer, but a gamer nontheless, and I am going crazy over these new DirectX 10 cards in the new MBPs. A lot of games I'm looking forward to in the next year or so will require DX10, and having the hardware support would be awesome.

The new screen...I'm not in dire need of, but it would be nice. The .7 ghz increase in processor speed would be nice I suppose.

But the problem is reselling the MBP. Looking at maybe 2000 tops, and considering it feels like yesterday that I paid 2850 for the notebook + apple care, I'm not sure if it's worth taking the ~850 dollar hit to get the newer model.

So did anyone sell their MBP for the newer models? Was it worth it?

I don't think many are selling C2D's for them. I certainly am not. It's just not worth it in terms of dollars, as you mentioned.

To be honest, if I were you and gaming was a really important issue, I'd just put that $850 towards buying a Windows desktop for gaming. You can get even better specs than an MBP (eventually with extra $$) for better performance and upgrade whenever you need to for individual components.

I love my MBP and play Counter Strike all the time, but Windows boxes are just better for hard core gaming.

if money isnt an issue, im sure a lot of people would be selling C2D and buying the SR's. I for one am working on a deal right now to dump my C2D, but for other reasons. My office has given me a replacement machine, so i simply dont need my MBP. Im trying to make a happy buyer on here thatll use the MBP, and get a great price.

Looks like I bought mine a couple of weeks after you.
Yep, I'm a hardcore hardware guy, but will not look at trading up just yet. Will wait until I hear about people actually using and playing DX10 games in their Boot Camp partition.

While the card supports DX10, I have not heard anything related to it's use on our Mac's. Will be giving it a hard look when I do. Depending on the reports, I may be willing to take the hit to upgrade mine at that time.

i try to skip gens between upgrading. so ill skip the first version of SantaRosa, and buy the next.

Good points everyone.

I'll wait and see how the DX10 games work out. I'm mostly just looking forward to Hellgate: London, http://www.hellgatelondon.com which is by the guys who made Diablo and Diablo II

I guess my main concern was the resell value of the MBP. I figure that if I wanted until the next gen after this one, the C2D might be worth about 1500...if it's in great condition. Seems like their value goes down 500 with each new gen, which stays in proportion to the Apple retail values I suppose.

I had purchased my MBP like 6 days before they upgraded them to the SR model. So lucky for me I was under the 14 day no questions return policy. All I had to do was pay the 10% restocking fee which was something around $200 and then I got the new SR model. I also got a free iPod Nano which is worth like $150 so it was a good decision on my part. I just couldn't accept that my laptop was 5 days old and was already 2nd generation!

Do you need it yet anyway? Wait until you really need it, you may end up with a better system. My next MBP is Blu Ray, but thats a way off anyway.

my next MBP is SSD

SSD? Whats that?

solid state disk ....like flash only much more GB

Sweet but I guess thats way off.

not as far as you would think

I dont see any point in ugrading for a graphics card unless you really need it. I will upgrade next year again. Maybe when the SSD drives arrive on the sences.

SSD is so expensive right now and not really that big. Look at Panasonic's P2 SSD. $900 for 16 GB? I think this will take a while to become a viable consumer product.

I did, I had a good opportunity to sell my old one for what I paid. I wanted to wait a week before I made any comments, so I could give you all some sort of feedback:

The Good:

The laptop's display is absolutley gorgeous!!! When I put the 2 side by side it was much brighter, which made the darker colors appear much more vivid. I have the full 4 gigs in mine, and there is a slight difference in this when using final cut pro, but the difference as I have found it is truly marginal. Other than that, this laptop just seems to carry on the fine features of the older models.

The Bad:

Everyone is saying that the SR is much cooler.... I have found this to not be the case for me. When I am using Handbrake to rip a movie the temperatures are up around 179 farenheit! The graphics diode is always warm, and will jack up around 179 as well when ripping a movie. This may just be my machine, or it may be a more general issue.

Anyway, there is my opinion of this machine. Hope this helps.

81c is not bad. its about the same as my 2.16 C2d it gets to about 85 tops. from what i read, SR should be cooler at idle cause it can clock itself down, and ramp the FSB down as well when idle

I have both the c2d and the SM here right now, and the only advantage i see is the 4gb max, and the video, but im a gamer, so its totally worth it