I hate Apple...

[Village Idiot]

Not really but they make deciding on a computer really difficult.

I want a 15" MBP with atleast 2gb of ram and a 256mb video card. Keep in mind I'm buying refurbed. The price of one of those is the same price as a 17" MBP with 2gb of ram, a very very slightly slower processor, a large hard drive, a faster dvd burner, and I think that's it....I really don't want a 17" but I can't see spending the same price on a laptop that's smaller and only has an advantage of a 2.33ghz chip over a 2.16, but also has the disadvantage of drive space and chip size....the only way to get the cheaper laptop is a 15" with 128mb video card.

And even if I went with the base MBP, I'd still have to spend the money on memory which would make it cost nearly as much.

I'm going to be using it primarily for logic and in studio recording / at home editing. I want the beefier graphics card for a few games that I'm going to make work though (come on, need something to do on those slow nights) and I could possibly be using it for other things...

 

[christm]

i would say u should get the mbp as it has more screen space - for editing and games.

 

[Angelojoseph17]

i agree with christm, but it will be worth it.

 

[Smell The Glove]

I'm right there with you on the tough decisions, VI.
I would really prefer to spend a bit less and get the 2.16 MBP, but since I plan on doing some gaming on the Windows side of things, down the road I'll really be glad I went 2.33 with 256 MB graphics if I pick the more expensive 15" model. I like the 17' MBP a lot, but since I travel it would be a real hassle to haul around. It's just a bit too big for use on airplanes.

I was in the Apple Store the other day and was so close to buying one (though I'd wanted to wait a bit) and then started going back and forth about glossy and matte.

 

[fiveightandten]

IMO, a 17" unit is just too big for a laptop. If you want to use it with a larger screen at home you can hook it up to an external monitor. Flat panels are getting cheap.

Anyways, if it were me i'd grab the 15", simply because of the size. Just something to think about. But if performance for your dollar is more of a concern than portability, than it sounds like the 17" would be right up your alley.

-Nick

 

[Village Idiot]

You first two posters are bright fellas...

We're probably going to have a 30" screen in the studio, but it's also going to be used by me for home editing. I just hate paying more for less performance...I'll probably end up with the 17" though.

I already have one 17" Dell notebook though, so having two 17" laptops would suck....meh...I'll probably do it anyways...

 

[Village Idiot]

whoa....what's this?

Refurbished MacBook Pro, 15-inch, 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo
15.4-inch widescreen display (1440x900 resolution)
1GB (single SODIMM) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
100GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive
Slot-load SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 256MB GDDR3 memory
Built-in iSight Camera
Front Row and Apple Remote
Learn More
• Save 41% off the original price

Did they put 256mb card in the old 15" MBP?

 

[Village Idiot]

Crap....I just bought it

 

[gilesjuk]

Get the fastest CPU and GPU you can get for audio work.

The screen size won't matter, you can hook up external displays and external mouse etc...

The CPU isn't upgradable, the RAM is upgradeable and so is the disk.

Don't forget, the laptops use the slower mobile versions of the CPUs which aren't comparable to the desktop versions at the same clock speed. So get the fastest you can.

 

[Smell The Glove]

****! I was going to buy that!
Actually, I just got on to take a look and there's another one there. If it can arrive between Monday and Thursday next week, I'll probably jump on it. If not, then I'll just have to hit the Apple Store. My time frame at home is going to be limiited the next two weeks.

 

[xstep]

Did they put 256mb card in the old 15" MBP?

Yes. I have one that I bought as a refurb.

As for the U.S. Store, just now I didn't see that model available.

Keep in mind the different processors. The Core Duo is a 32bit processor while the Core 2 Duo is a 64bit processor. This may give some performance boosts with Leopard.

I beleive that the graphics chip is clocked faster in the newer C2D machines. Tests have shown improvements with this speed increase.

When I first read your post I looked at the Apple store and found a 15" C2D machine with 256MB of video and 2GB of main ram, and an older 17" CD machine with 1GB of main ram, both priced at $1999. Things have changed in the last hour and a half.