Advice on a trade

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A Trade has been proposed to me for my black macbook mid 2007, 13" 2.16ghz core 2 duo, 190gb hard drive and 2gb of ram. For a early 2007 17" macbook pro 2.16ghz core duo 120gb hard drive 1gb of ram. What should i do?? the guy wants to meet tonight, i will be using the laptop for dj'ing. Any help will be greatly appreciated
 

pigoo3

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What should you do?...who the heck knows!

Other than "DJing"...you really haven't told us any info why you want to do the trade in the first place!

You can DJ fine with either computer...so there's really no need to trade.

- Nick
 
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What im asking is... should i trade or not?....is one better than the other??
 

pigoo3

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What im asking is... should i trade or not?....is one better than the other??

Better is a relative term. It depends what you think is better.

- a 17" Macbook Pro may be better if you need more screen real estate
- a 13" Macbook could be better if you prefer something that's smaller, lighter. and more portable

- the 13" Macbook is newer
- the 17" Macbook Pro is older

- the 13" Macbook has a higher max. ram limit
- the 17" Macbook Pro has a lower max. ram limit

- the 13" Macbook has a more modern Core 2 Duo processor
- the 17" Macbook Pro has a less modern Core Duo processor

- the 17" Macbook Pro has better graphics hardware

By the way...the 17" 2.16ghz Core Duo is not a 2007 model...but a 2006 model.

Basically you need to decide what is important to you...and then make the appropriate choice.

- Nick
 
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I need it to run serato itch,which mine does well right now, the screen real estate would be a advantage. i was told that my max ram is 2gb which is what its at now, and the mbp is the same.
 

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I need it to run serato itch,which mine does well right now, the screen real estate would be a advantage. i was told that my max ram is 2gb which is what its at now, and the mbp is the same.

Yes..officially according to Apple...your Macbook has a maximum ram limit of 2 gig. But users have been successful at installing 4 gig of ram into your Macbook model...of which 3 gig is actually usable.

2gig of ram is the actual max. ram for the 17" MBP.

So when it comes to max. ram...you're comparing 3 gig for the Macbook vs. 2 gig for the MBP.

- Nick
 
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That is good to know, maybe il sell the black one and buy a faster mbp
 

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That is good to know, maybe il sell the black one and buy a faster mbp

Probably a really good idea!:)

The 17" MBP you mentioned has advantages & disadvantages. The 17" display is both it's biggest advantage & disadvantage. The bigger screen is nice...but then a 17" laptop can be much more bulky/heavy than a 13" Macbook.

If you don't have a problem with the 17'' MBP's size & size & weight...then it might be the "better" computer for you. But if it is sort of big...then the 13" Macbook you already have is better.

One things for sure...the 17" MBP is not going to be a faster computer...other than it does have better graphics hardware...but then the 17" is older, has the less modern Core Duo processor, and less max. ram.

If the 17" MBP was a slightly newer model...with more things better or the same as your 13" Macbook...then the "better" computer would be easier to identify.

- Nick
 
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So it would run about the same speed? or slower, first thing i will do is max out the ram if i decide to do it.
 

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So it would run about the same speed? or slower, first thing i will do is max out the ram if i decide to do it.

Your 13" Macbook already has 2 gig of ram. If you maxed the ram on the 17"...that would be 2 gig of ram...exactly the same as your 13".

Like I already mentioned...from a CPU performance perspective the two computers would be essentially the same (technically the 17" MBP would be slightly slower, but probably not noticeable). For graphics intensive tasks...the 17" might be a little bit better due to the better graphics hardware.

- Nick
 

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Ok, thank you very much for your time and patience with me..

If it were me...I would probably do the trade. Although the smaller max. ram & older Core Duo cpu of the 17" would bother me a bit (if I was going to keep the computer for my own use).

Let me mention this as well. From the financial standpoint...the 17" is worth more money. So if you wanted to sell a laptop (to help finance the purchase a newer laptop)...you would be better off doing this trade, selling the 17"...then buying something newer or new.

With this said. Why would the other person want to trade a more valuable 17" MBP for your 13" Macbook? A couple possibilities are:

- they don't know that their 17" is worth more (sort of unlikely)
- something is wrong with the 17" MBP that they are not telling you (or you haven't mentioned so far)

Good luck,

- Nick
 
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The kid is a college student and said it is too bulky to lug around from class to class, so he wants a smaller Macbook. he was looking for 900 for it or a trade.... i told him i would leave my dj library on there.. maybe that was the selling point for him lol
 

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Good luck deciding!:)

- Nick
 
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I did decide to do the trade... and the machine is mint!!...it was a girl that went to a local college, the only issue im having is the airport drops out sometimes, maybe because i have a cheap router? I did some reasearch on the mbp airport issues, and it seem alot of mbp owners have this problem.Will upgrading my router to a airport extreme base station help at all???
 

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I did decide to do the trade... and the machine is mint!!...it was a girl that went to a local college, the only issue im having is the airport drops out sometimes, maybe because i have a cheap router? I did some reasearch on the mbp airport issues, and it seem alot of mbp owners have this problem.Will upgrading my router to a airport extreme base station help at all???

Congrats on the trade...glad to hear it's in great shape & you like it!:)

As far as the airport problems...it's really hard to say if it's your computer (the 17" laptop) or your router, or your internet service provider?

- Did this happen with your old laptop?
- Do you have a 2nd computer at home to see if it has the same problem?
- How often does this problem happen/day?

If it happens VERY often...and you don't have a 2nd computer...you could go to a local McDonald's (or other place with free wireless internet)...and see if this "Airport Dropping" happens there.

Hope this helps,

- Nick
 
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It doesnt happen everyday, when it is connected its great i.e within 5ft of my router.when i move away from it, it drops out, and it does it when i am sitting there too sometimes and my other computer in the house dont have this problem, and my other macbook didnt have this problem, although the signal was very weak in the kitchen. should i invest in the airport base station?
 

bobtomay

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That vintage MBP along with the 1st gen of the C2D models had an issue with the airport drivers. Mine is one. Apple fixed it and broke it again depending on which version of Tiger or Leopard you were running. They had it fixed never to break again about 10.5.4 I believe it was. Make sure the machine has all it's updates. I believe 10.4.11 did work and then they broke it again with the initial release of Leopard.

If you're using WEP, change to WPA. You might also try changing the channel before you buy another router.

To answer the question, yes, the driver they had did work with the Airport Extreme (I had a Time Capsule) while flaking out on both my D-Link and Linksys during that time frame.
 
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I am running the latest version of snow leopard, and i do belive all of my updates are done but i will check that out. any other ways to correct the problem??
 

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...should i invest in the airport base station?

Do what "bobtomay" mentioned about making sure this 17" MBP has the latest & greatest OS software. As far as the router...personally I feel a router is a router. There are some better quality routers out there...with the Airport Base Station being a good one. But just because you have an Apple computer...doesn't necessarily mean you need an Apple router.

If you feel that you you currently have a "cheap router"...then sure get a better/newer router. That could be an Apple Airport Extreme Base Station...or a highly recommended router here on Mac-Forums is a D-Link DIR-655.

Personally I would do the:

- software updates first (if not running the most up to date OS version)
- confirm wireless performance with the current router (good/bad)
- purchase a router that you can return in case it doesn't fix the problem
- confirm whether the new router improves things

Please let us know how things work out,:)

- Nick
 

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