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Tomacorno · Oct 14, 2009, 06:50 PM

Hello,

Just looking for some general pros and cons. My iMac G5 fried and I am thinking of going with a refurbed macbook pro.

Either the late 2008 15 inch 2.4 G which has a discrete graphics board, express/34 card slot and 2Gig of RAM

or

the summer 2009 13 inch 2.53 G MBP with a supposedly better (but smaller) screen only integrated graphics, SD card slot and 4 Gig of RAM.

Both are going for 1299.

imitchellg5 · Oct 14, 2009, 07:23 PM

If screen size isn't a concern, I'd get the 13", it's really the sweet spot in the MBP lineup.

ghporter · Oct 14, 2009, 09:23 PM

I'd say that the 13 is a great machine, but if you can use the Express Card slot, or need to drive an external monitor with complex graphics you can't go wrong with a 2008 MBP either. Adding RAM to either machine is trivially easy (easier on the 15 though) and trivially inexpensive, so don't let that difference even make you ponder for a moment.

EndlessMac · Oct 15, 2009, 12:51 AM

Originally Posted by Tomacorno

Just looking for some general pros and cons.

The one that's best for you depends on which features you can't live without. You are basically choosing between screen size, express slot vs SD slot, and discrete vs integrated graphics. As ghporter said you can easily upgrade the RAM so that's not really an issue. You should decide on things that can't be upgraded or changed.

The CPU is so close you really won't notice the difference. If you are a gamer or heavy graphics user then you should get the discrete graphics card, but for everything else the 9400M is better than what most people think of as integrated graphics cards. It can even play a lot games so it's a lot better than what you would consider an integrated graphics card. If most people were honest about their usage they would find out they really don't need a discrete GPU.

You are the only one who can decided which you can live without. The 13" was smaller than I thought when I saw it in person so make sure you can live with that size. Many people love its size though so if you like more compact laptops then that might be the way to go especially if you have an external monitor.

amazing · Oct 15, 2009, 10:53 AM

Does the 15" MBP w/EC have a matte screen? (mine does) because the 13" is glossy, right?

For me, that would be a deciding factor, but you're the judge.

Tomacorno · Oct 16, 2009, 10:00 AM

Thanks again for the responses. Both the MBPs I am looking at have glossy screens.

One more question. Can the MBPs be hooked up to the hdmi input of a television? That is, will a third party mini display to hdmi adapter do the trick? That is one of the benefits of portability over, say a more powerful iMac. However, Apple states "Mini DisplayPort output port with support for DVI, VGA, and dual-link DVI (requires adapters, sold separately)" and does not appear to have an HDTV solution.

If the MBP can be used to show hulu on an hdtv, does the discrete graphics card of the 15" come into play or does it not matter?

imitchellg5 · Oct 16, 2009, 08:02 PM

Originally Posted by Tomacorno

One more question. Can the MBPs be hooked up to the hdmi input of a television? That is, will a third party mini display to hdmi adapter do the trick?

Hey, look.

Tomacorno · Oct 29, 2009, 05:22 PM

Hey, thanks imitchellg5. I know I could have found that in a search but I was in the middle of this forum and not thinking. Or lazy.

I really like this new Macbook Pro. I received all the cables I ordered for it yesterday and, since my television has a dvi input, I used a mini displayport to dvi adapter, dvi cable, and audio cable to hook it up to the television. I figured dvi would be more versatile than hdmi if I buy a separate monitor some day. Seems to work great. Tested it on Hulu. Did a mirrored display and extended display. As I type this I realize I did not try any testing with the 9600 card on and off. I will have to see what I can set up this weekend. My son has used the discrete card when playing games but I cannot speak to how much of a difference it made. I really like the touch pad and using gestures to navigate. After two days it made my work windows laptop feel clumsy to use. Which, despite the OS, it did not feel clumsy before.

This one does not have an SD slot, however it has an express card slot and the first express card I purchased was a card reader which reads both SD and xD cards. I have cameras that use both those cards so that is actually more useful to me than an SD slot alone would have been. I also had to get a FW 400 to 800 adapter to hook up my old external FW400 drive. Have not tried that yet but I don't anticipate any trouble.

Everything is snappier but this is a big leap for me. My previous mac, recently deceased, was a two gig iMac G5 running Tiger - well, it ran Leopard for about a week before the caps gave out.

My mac before that (which still gets some use) is an 600 mhz G3 iBook. For the mac vs pc, er, skirmishes, I will say that I find it unlikely that I could still use a 600 mhz windows laptop for much. Web 2.0 has passed up the iBook - videos are unwatchable - but it still runs Office 2004 and can be used to surf as long as you pause when you open a page prior to scrolling around.

So this laptop has more of everything. My only quibble is that it seems to charge slowly. I thought it might be a problem at first but I saw that that was listed as a con in, I think, CNET's review. It is not a big deal for me as I am not super mobile with it. I use it in the house and my mobility is always near an outlet. If someone is comparing based on battery life I think that more consideration would need to be given to the newer models.

So, in the end I went with the bigger screen and discrete graphics over portability and longer battery life. I was prepared to ship it all back if the new iMacs could not be passed up but I liked the uMBP so much that I decided to keep it.

Now, wow, look at the prices on those refurb previous generation iMacs...

EndlessMac · Oct 29, 2009, 06:27 PM

It's good to hear that you are liking your new MBP. Many people post problems on this forum but don't follow up on what they did so it's good to hear about your conclusion.

Originally Posted by Tomacorno

So this laptop has more of everything. My only quibble is that it seems to charge slowly. I thought it might be a problem at first but I saw that that was listed as a con in, I think, CNET's review.

In comparison my old PowerBook took a very long time to fully charge but that could be because I still have the original battery and it's age might be a factor. My mid 2009 MBP charges a lot faster so I'm happy about that aspect.