choosing my first mac

[slunken]

i wanted to go with the 15" MBP but i heard they overheat a lot. the white macbook is "discontinued" and the processor of last years model is not as good compared to the 15" MBP. i run a lot of picture/video/audio programs simultaneously so i need a workhorse.

to my knowledge the heat issue with this year's MBP's has not been fixed.

idk what to do. suggestions? input?

[yo soy el mejor]

no clue. tim should be able to give you sound advice. sit tight!

[slunken]

no sweat. i'm about to run a couple quick errands anyway. actually have the night off!

[sppunk]

Are you set on a laptop?

What programs will you be running exactly?

What's your budget?

[Banana]

lol mac, I just bought all my shit to build me a new pc yesterday.


-COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

-BIOSTAR TZ68A+RCH LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

-EVGA SuperClocked 01G-P3-1563-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support ...

-CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power ...

-Intel Core i7-2600 Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600

-Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

-G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL

-Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

-ASUS VW246H Glossy Black 24" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor

-LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS-324-98B

-Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit - OEM


Order Total $1,472.52



It's going to be Battlefield 3 time for me.

[MyOneAndOnly]

are you going to use this thing continuously all day every day? Your primary machine? Or is it a secondary machine just for portability?

My wife has one that's a couple of years old and she has it running all day every day. No problems.

[MyOneAndOnly]

Originally Posted by Banana

lol mac, I just bought all my shit to build me a new pc yesterday.


-COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

-BIOSTAR TZ68A+RCH LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

-EVGA SuperClocked 01G-P3-1563-AR GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support ...

-CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power ...

-Intel Core i7-2600 Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600

-Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

-G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL

-Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

-ASUS VW246H Glossy Black 24" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor

-LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS-324-98B

-Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit - OEM


Order Total $1,472.52



It's going to be Battlefield 3 time for me.

/wrists

[slunken]

Originally Posted by sppunk

Are you set on a laptop?

What programs will you be running exactly?

What's your budget?

1. yes. portability is essential.

2. photoshop, illustrator, vlc, itunes, mixcraft (garageband), movie maker, utorrent, etc. no gaming unless you count an NES emulator.

3. the 15" MBP was gonna run me @ $1908 after taxes.

Originally Posted by scottytheoneand

are you going to use this thing continuously all day every day? Your primary machine? Or is it a secondary machine just for portability?

My wife has one that's a couple of years old and she has it running all day every day. No problems.

Main machine. Using everyday for everything. it's only this years' models that are having the heat issue.

[slunken]

and i thought about an AIR but after not having any cd/dvd drive for a year now i really miss having one.

[duovamp]

My MBP has never had a single heating issue. It's the Core 2 Duo though. The MBP has a very intelligent processing management architecture that keeps the computer's battery usage to a super low amount in order to preserve its lifetime. The side effect of this is that it keeps the cores pretty underclocked most of the time, and thus doesn't run into heating issues. They can get warm under ultra high loads, but never dangerously so. The entire computer's exoskeleton is a massive heat sink - which is brilliant in its own right.

I suggest a MBP. I decided a while ago I was going to consolidate my PC and laptop and have never been happier. It's beefy enough to run any game that interests me. I have to recommend going on newegg.com and ordering a SSD for it though. Don't overpay for theirs, you can find a faster one on newegg. Plus it'll save you a TON of battery life and potential heat/noise if you're concerned about that. I went with the upgraded vid card though, but that was a necessary evil of getting rid of my PC because I was tired of having a massive tower at home AND a laptop, and transferring crap between them.

I've built my own PCs for years and I've never been quite so pleased with my purchases. The quality of the hardware is top of the line. Love the trackpad, love the monitor, love the keyboard, love the speakers. It's a fantastic piece of equipment.


I will say this, when I run Windows through Bootcamp, the mobo no longer intelligently manages all the hardware, so everything's set to max. So it'll get pretty toasty in Windows. But the solution to that was downloading a free fan management program to just max all my fans all the time. I highly recommend the MBP - but mine isn't one of the new ones so I can't attest to the heat thing.

[slunken]

the new models are quad-cores wihch, with some bad thermal paste, is part of the new heat problem (though it's fast as hell)...

thanks for the reminder about newegg - though i prefer buying big things from a brick & mortar store that site could be an option for tracking down an older model.

right now my options would be to 1) actually buy the new 15" MBP and see if it gives me fits (i've heard both horror stories and great ones) or 2) buy a new older model MBP or 3) wait and see if the regular macbook is updated sometime soon.

and as much as i want to - i'm not going to jump out and buy something just because it's my b-day soon and i've been planning/saving/working towards this for a few months now. buh...

[slunken]

it kind of reminds me of the first quantum leap episode where the test pilots are trying to hit mach 3 but the gasoline keeps boiling in the tank therefore the jets explode

[MyOneAndOnly]

Originally Posted by slunken

and i thought about an AIR but after not having any cd/dvd drive for a year now i really miss having one.

I'm using the USB superdrive for the Mac Air. it's very slim, light and it rips and burns pretty quick. (can't remember the specs).

If you don't use the superdrive but occasionally, it's a good option.

IMO, though, if you're working all day on this machine in one spot (like at your desk) the MBP is a better choice. Great specs and that larger screen is worth it. Plus, it's actually pretty light. If you're on the go all the time and use it traveling, i'd suggest the Air.

[duovamp]

I'd trade my C2D for a quad core in a heartbeat tbh.

[slunken]

actually this is exactly like that.

[slunken]

Originally Posted by scottytheoneand

I'm using the USB superdrive for the Mac Air. it's very slim, light and it rips and burns pretty quick. (can't remember the specs).

If you don't use the superdrive but occasionally, it's a good option.

IMO, though, if you're working all day on this machine in one spot (like at your desk) the MBP is a better choice. Great specs and that larger screen is worth it. Plus, it's actually pretty light. If you're on the go all the time and use it traveling, i'd suggest the Air.

for now I'm against a separate usb disc drive. what with 2 externals, an ipod, digital recorder, game pad(s) i really don't need another tethered device. even within my studio it gets moved around a lot between 4 main locations.

Originally Posted by duovamp

I'd trade my C2D for a quad core in a heartbeat tbh.

idk maybe i'm just scared of all that glorious power

[Nimrod's Son]

I have this:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/04/m...ew-early-2011/ MacBook Pro (early 2011) (2.2GHz Core i7-2720QM, Radeon HD 6750M / Intel Graphics 3000)

in the 17" model and it has zero heat problems. In fact it's had almost no problems at all except the USB connectors are all on one side and if you use all standard (non-Apple) USB connectors you can only fit two, not three devices at once.

My buddy just got the Macbook Air 15" and let me play with it a bit. The thing screams due to the SSD in it. I mean it reboots completely in about 5 seconds.

So if you want a workhorse, go Pro. If you want a sportscar, go Air.

[slunken]

Originally Posted by Nimrod's Son

So if you want a workhorse, go Pro. If you want a sportscar, go Air.

I like that.

Out of all the reviews I read I don't think anybody mentioned the 17" model. It' was mostly the 13" base models with the problem and the occasional 15". Apparently the problem is/was so bad that apple started offering a return w/ no questions asked no restocking fee with their MBP products.

Clearly they're not all defective but the problems reported aren't minor annoyances - we're talking 6200 rpm fan speeds and 100 degree temps just doing normal multi-tasking. it seems as if the thermal paste is too thick so the fans don't kick on until the thing is already super hot - so when they kick on they're kicking on overdrive

[Nimrod's Son]

Originally Posted by slunken

I like that.

Out of all the reviews I read I don't think anybody mentioned the 17" model. It' was mostly the 13" base models with the problem and the occasional 15". Apparently the problem is/was so bad that apple started offering a return w/ no questions asked no restocking fee with their MBP products.

Clearly they're not all defective but the problems reported aren't minor annoyances - we're talking 6200 rpm fan speeds and 100 degree temps just doing normal multi-tasking. it seems as if the thermal paste is too thick so the fans don't kick on until the thing is already super hot - so when they kick on they're kicking on overdrive

My last Macbook Pro (which I still have - either 2009 or 2010 model, I can't remember) was a 17" and did overheat a lot. The new one has some sort of rubber where the old one had metal, and that metal used to get hot. All I can speak to is the 17" and while the old one pissed me off with how hot it got, the new model doesn't have that problem.

[slunken]

i def don't have the cheddar for the 17" model. too big too. i just bought an endtable that's 17" high.

[slunken]

what if i got them confused?

also i thought the new models were that same aluminum/metal/whatev

[mxzombie]

looks like everything's covered already here. wouldn't hold out for the macbook if i were you

[duovamp]

Yeah I can't tell you how important it is to have a SSD with OSX on it. Shit's fast as hell.

[duovamp]

But make sure it's got a super high read speed. Write isn't nearly as important imo.

[slunken]

word up 2 that.

it's been a pleasure, gentlemen. further bulletins as events warrant.

[slunken]

Originally Posted by mxzombie

wouldn't hold out for the macbook if i were you

i still believe

(won't wait it out though)

[mxzombie]

also if you're thinking about an external display, wait a few weeks for the thunderbolt display. we still have the 27" cinema displays but thunderbolt will be way better

[Dead Frequency]

I hate macs. I hate Apple. Though these opinions are based entirely in ignorance. I would get something from the Toshiba satellite series personally.

[Nimrod's Son]

Originally Posted by slunken

i def don't have the cheddar for the 17" model. too big too. i just bought an endtable that's 17" high.

The 15" are the same as the 17" for the new models as far as whether or not they overheat.

[Nimrod's Son]

Originally Posted by slunken

what if i got them confused?

also i thought the new models were that same aluminum/metal/whatev

this is what my old one looks like:




My new one looks like this:


See how the top of the bottom portion has that black cut-away area close to the monitor? that used to be metal, and used to get really hot. now it's this black rubbery substance instead, is modular to be part of the lid and not connected to the bottom, and doesn't get hot.