Switcher but don't now which notebook to buy ... Macbook or MBP

Basically i'm stuck between which notebook to buy. I currently have a 2 year old IBM R32 and I have trouble running certain applications for my MIS major degree at my university. I'm upgrading to mac because ... vista is crap. I still want to run dual boot (or maybe VMware or Parallels) with XP because i use a Zune (itunes hasn't gone subscription yet )

I'm more than likely going to upgrade the ram right away to 4 gigs and the special hard drive that mac uses (5400 rpm that runs more like a 7200 rpm) isn't really an issue.

My question is what would I not be able to do on a Macbook black and i would be able to do on a macbook pro. Is it worth the extra 500 bucks to get it??

Help is appreciated lol.

3d intense games. Any graphic intense software (not photo editing... but ya know, any first person shooter at all really) will run better on MBP. The only difference really is the graphics card, and MBP Multi-touch trackpad, and backlit keyboard, and larger screen. So there are a few plusses. What do you want to do on it?
And I believe Zune isn't compatible with OS X at all, so even iTunes were to be subscription it wouldn't really work...

ogacon said:

And I believe Zune isn't compatible with OS X at all, so even iTunes were to be subscription it wouldn't really work...

Click to expand...

That's why he's going to install XP under parallels...

To the OP: Don't buy your RAM from Apple, the BlackBook should be fine, but as Ocagon said, if you need GPU acceleration, you should get the MBP.

O... I misread him. I thought he meant he would buy songs off of iTunes if it went subscription. But I guess he meant he would buy an iPod if they did that. My bad.

If you're not going to be doing any graphics-intense work or gaming, there's no reason to buy a MBP other than you simply want one. The MB, black or white, will suite your needs nicely.

Sounds like you need to just purchase the MacBook and upgrade the RAM and you should be fine. Best of luck <><

i would hate to just be 3 months in and realize ... oh i need a graphics card. lol.

I've had my MB for 3 months and have no regrets. As long as you're not playing games, you'll never know it doesn't have a dedicated video card.

And don't buy the 4gb of Ram from Apple. You can buy it aftermarket w/ a legitimate lifetime warranty for $200. Then sell the 2gb out of the machine you buy on ebay for $75. Your 4gb upgrade will cost you $125.

Actually, I wouldn't buy it at all unless you really need it. I have 2gb and the MB runs seemlessly. You can add it on at any time in the future. 4gb is overkill for the average user.

Well the macbook is pretty much a computer with a fast processor and awesome extras (minus the graphics card). The new base Macbooks are still very powerful machines.
As Jaygray said, get 2GB Ram as you will want to change to the 4 core laptops coming out in 2009-2010.