Mac Book Pro 2.4 or 2.5 advice?

[tokugawa]

Well I guess with all the advice I got from my thread regarding the Dell XPS, I have decided to go and splurge on a Mac Book Pro.

Now after looking at the Mac site, one of the reasons for me looking at a PC over the Mac was the cost. Holy crap are Macs so much more expensive. That being said, could I bother you computer experts one more time with the following questions:

1.) 2.4 ghz (3MB shared L2 cache) versus 2.5 (6MB shared L2 cache) - more than $460 difference. Which should processor should I get; 2.4 dual core or 2.5 dual core?

2.) AppleCare Protection Plan for MacBook Pro (w/or w/o Display) - Auto-enroll for 3 years costs $399. Basic hardware warranty is 1 year and technical support is 90 days. Is this worth getting?

3.) Mac Software: Final Cut Express 4 ($200), Aperture 2 ($200) and Logic Express 8 ($200). Are they any good? Do you recommend getting them?

Your input and recommendations would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

PS anyone out there tried using Eclipse on a Mac?

 

[geek]

1.) 2.4 ghz (3MB shared L2 cache) versus 2.5 (6MB shared L2 cache) - more than $460 difference. Which should processor should I get; 2.4 dual core or 2.5 dual core?

I doubt if you will see a difference when it comes to processor. I think the big difference is in video cards. The 2.5 Ghz also has a bigger hardrive (200 Gigs vs 250 Gigs) and you can get a 7200 rpm drive with the 2.5Ghz.

2.) AppleCare Protection Plan for MacBook Pro (w/or w/o Display) - Auto-enroll for 3 years costs $399. Basic hardware warranty is 1 year and technical support is 90 days. Is this worth getting?

Only useful if you travel a lot with your Mac.

3.) Mac Software: Final Cut Express 4 ($200), Aperture 2 ($200) and Logic Express 8 ($200). Are they any good? Do you recommend getting them?

Sorry can't answer this.

 

[timhorton]

I doubt if you will see a difference when it comes to processor. I think the big difference is in video cards. The 2.5 Ghz also has a bigger hardrive (200 Gigs vs 250 Gigs) and you can get a 7200 rpm drive with the 2.5Ghz.

Only useful if you travel a lot with your Mac..

Macs are more expensive, but they are that much better built than the run-of-the-mill PC. This isn't a Mac vs. PC thing - it's a industrial design and build thing. Macs are made from premium parts. You can find PCs just as expensive and built just as well, but there are lots of cheap PC made with cheap parts.

Macbooks (as opposed to Macbook Pros) are more like mid-level PC laptops.

The video card is only an issue if you are running dual monitors or doing some heavy duty gaming. If you are just using it as a laptop, you'd never know the difference.

5400 vs. 7200 is only noticeable to the average user in disk intensive applications like nonlinear video editing and multitrack recording. The difference in things like startup time is negligible.

If you are getting upgrades like memory, harddrive, etc. get them from a Mac Dealer, not from Apple. Apple charges premium prices.

Applecare - while your laptop is more likely to suffer with lots of travel, Applecare covers anything that happens in three years. Travel damage isn't really covered - though they will fix lots of wear and tear things if fixing a warranty item. While Macs are really well built, f anything breaks on your laptop, buying Applecare will have been worth it. You can buy it up to a year after you buy your Mac if you want to spread the cost out. Applecare is a good thing. I've had Applecare on all my laptops because I'm really rough with them. I usually use it at least once in the three years.

There's nothing wrong with Macbooks. The average user wouldn't notice a performance issue between a Macbook and a Macbook Pro.

3.) Mac Software: Final Cut Express 4 ($200), Aperture 2 ($200) and Logic Express 8 ($200). Are they any good? Do you recommend getting them?

Final Cut Express - serious video editing. If you want to edit the occasional home video, iMovie will suffice. iMovie is included with the computer.

Aperture 2 - Serious photographer cataloguing and correction tool. For the casual photographer iPhoto will be all you need. Aperture and iPhoto aren't image editing apps like Photoshop - they are primarily asset management tools.

Logic Express - Serious music production tool. If you just want to fool around with making some music, GarageBand will suffice. If you aren't a musician, you don't need Logic.

These are all the pro versions of the software that comes with the computer.

 

[tarkay01]

Before buying a MacBook Pro, check out the problems with the nvidia 8600 video card. Scan the MacRumors forum http://forums.macrumors.com or google for nvidia 8600 graphics problems.

TheInquirer.net has all the dirt also.

http://www.theinquirer.net/search/?page=1&zone=all&source=inquirer&query=nvidia+g86

Essentially, it appears there is a manufacturing problem with these chips which likely affects ALL 8600 chips. They are likely to fail with thermal cycling i.e. use.

I am an engineer in the business and consider this to be a major problem as it is likely to cause significant failures. As it is, I have a MBP 2.4 and am very happy with it but will be selling it as soon as I see a reasonable solution from Apple/nvidia. A chip failure will require logic board replacement which can cost $1000-$1400. And, replacing the board will not insure you don't have a bad chip on the replacement board.

It's not just Apple which is affected. Many of the high end laptops from other manufacturers also have this chip so nvidia may be looking at a cost of $ 1-2 billion or more to fix it which may break nvidia. They do not seem to be responding well so far.

Be careful and don't buy without apple care.

 

[geek]

There are also rumours of new macbooks coming out in a couple of weeks so you may want to wait a bit.

http://gizmodo.com/5055024/rumor-new-macbook-and-macbook-pro-will-look-like-air-%2B-imac

 

[tokugawa]

thanks guys for all the advice.

 

[juscause]

My company has about 10 MacBook's and Applecare has more than paid for itself in every one.

 

[just humming]

One other thing I'd recommend. Load up on RAM (4 GB max) and install Parallels virtualization software: http://www.parallels.com

That way you can also run Windows and Linux and all of their apps.

The MacBook rocks! Enjoy!