Short on money again :(

[JessicaLuchesi]

Hey everyone,

My macbook white just went down for repairs. I just love AppleCare. Anyway, am thinking of replacing it. The repair shop offered me 800 trade in for a new one. The one I can afford right now, and makes more sense, is the 13" Unibody MacBook Pro with 4Gb and 2.53Ghz. I am used to the 13" screen, and do my work on a 20" iMac anyway when it comes to serious processing. It's more a gaming / client visiting / location shooting machine for tethered USB or FireWire tethering.

I guess my question is... Snow Leopard is around the corner. My only concern is that 2.53 is OK for now, and will be dragging after the new OS comes out. Mostly what I run is Lightroom 2 and CS4.

So, what is your opinion? Buy this now, or wait for a possible expansion of the line from Apple into 2.66 after Snow Leopard comes out? Is there a HUGE difference between 2.53 and 2.66 that would justify waiting?

[Alex MacPherson]

Hey everyone,

My macbook white just went down for repairs. I just love AppleCare. Anyway, am thinking of replacing it. The repair shop offered me 800 trade in for a new one. The one I can afford right now, and makes more sense, is the 13" Unibody MacBook Pro with 4Gb and 2.53Ghz. I am used to the 13" screen, and do my work on a 20" iMac anyway when it comes to serious processing. It's more a gaming / client visiting / location shooting machine for tethered USB or FireWire tethering.

I guess my question is... Snow Leopard is around the corner. My only concern is that 2.53 is OK for now, and will be dragging after the new OS comes out. Mostly what I run is Lightroom 2 and CS4.

So, what is your opinion? Buy this now, or wait for a possible expansion of the line from Apple into 2.66 after Snow Leopard comes out? Is there a HUGE difference between 2.53 and 2.66 that would justify waiting?

I would wait. It's only a month until Snow Leopard is released. There might be a bump up in speed for the MacBook with back-to-school and the release of the new OS.
Also you will find out if, indeed,  2.53 drags or not.

[JonasYip]

I guess my question is... Snow Leopard is around the corner. My only concern is that 2.53 is OK for now, and will be dragging after the new OS comes out. Mostly what I run is Lightroom 2 and CS4.

Snow Leopard is supposed to be significantly faster than the current OS since they were focused on rewriting the codebase for performance rather than on introducing new features.

[K.C.]

I'm using the 13" MBP 2.53 and it's a great little location computer. Noticeably faster than a white MB and 4GB of RAM keeps it out of cacheing the OS too often.

It's not going to slow down with Snow, it's going to speed up.

[Alex MacPherson]

I need a new macbook pro pronto.

Funds are low. My options are the: 2.26 or 2.53. I need it to run Capture One for tethering.

If I could get by on the 2.26, I would prefer that. I can upgrade the ram later.

Is is doable on the 2.26? Will it run smoothly?

[ChrisJR]

RAM is the main concern. I just bought a 24" iMac with 2.66ghz and 4GB RAM and it's ridiculously quick compared to older iMac's and the white Macbook (which I also own and has 2GB RAM).

Photoshop as an example opens in a minute / couple minutes on the Macbook. Around 10 seconds on the iMac. The upgrade cost to Snow Leopard is minimal. If you need a computer now just buy and pay the $30 or whatever it is upgrade to Snow.