New Macbook or MBP

[Alucard]

HI fellow Muggers,

I come to you again for advice regarding laptops. I currently have a 15" MBP which I have used over a year. As many of you know, the old MBPs tend to have a problem with heat management. So I was thinking of replacing the laptop to the new unibody ones.

Just to give you an idea, here's what I do with my laptop:
- email, word processing, browsing (standard)
- photos (no editing), storing videos with imovie (no editing too), music
- World Of Warcraft (very very important hehehe)
- travel: I constantly travel throughout the year for business and I normally carry my laptop with me. There will be times when carrying my iPhone is enough (for short 2-3 day trips) but for longer trips I bring my laptop.

So what do you guys and gals think? Should I go for an upgraded MBP or will the normal Macbook suffice for my needs. Keep in mind that WoW does use graphics and I'm just not sure whether the graphics card in the unibody MB is good enough.

Any help appreciated.

[Salaryman Ryan]

If you travel around a lot a Macbook might be a good purchase but you have to consider a few things.

Pros:

- Obviously the smaller size and lighter weight.

- Cheaper!

-Its performance is quite good. In fact the Macbook 2.0 Ghz is actually as nimble as a 2.2 Macbook Pro according to Macintouch's review.

- World of Warcraft is a relatively old game so you can play it easily on a Macbook. Just check youtube for numerous Macbooks running WoW videos to give you an idea.

- Macbooks generate far less heat. There are threads in Macrumors claiming that the unibody Macbook Pro does get quite hot when running extensive tasks like gaming and video encoding.

Cons:

- I think you'll probably find the Macbook screen not as good as your current Macbook Pro. I suggest you check it out a demo unit in a Mac store if you think the screen is good enough for you.

- smaller screen resolution and you lose the discreet graphics of a Macbook Pro.

[badw33d]

heat is still a problem with the latest MBPs, try using it with keynote, FCP and FLASH.

[pochiman]

no question: get a tricked out MBP Unibody! one running on a 512MB Nvidia Graphics Engine!

one word: godlike!

[mig]

no question: get a tricked out MBP Unibody! one running on a 512MB Nvidia Graphics Engine!

one word: godlike!

overkill. the 9600m gt is a 128 bit card, meaning it can only process up to 256mb efficiently. the 512mb ram on a 9600 will give it maybe a 10% performance increase. the difference would only be really seen in really, really texture heavy processes.

for all your needs, i say get a high end macbook and stick 4gb ram in it. it would definitely help with WOW, although don't expect to run it at high settings.

[Alucard]

Thanks for the replies.

Cheaper and lighter are definitely the main factors for consideration here. But of course I want my gaming experience to be roughly the same. I don't mind the screen size difference that much because I normally play in Windowed mode anyway (tab in and out).

I currently run WoW on 1440 resolution, with textures and spell effects set to High, the rest are set to low.

I just thought that since I don't do any video/photo editing the MBP might be too much for my needs. I'm just worried that the built in video chip with the new MB is not good enough to run WoW decently.

Upgrading any machine I get to 4gb is a priority though

@pochiman
That's really expensive though >.< and I have to agree with Mig, it does seem like overkill. I won't be able to utilize the power of the CPU/Video card outside of WoW.

[Tecson]

the high end MB and the low end MBP have the same specs xcept for the screen size, so it comes down to the display really.
before i bought my MBP i notice that the display is really much better than the MB, it looks washout when viewed on an angle,so with only 18k difference i went with MBP na. and because i love the look of the speakers on the side too, looks more professional.
weight and size is ok to me, im 5'4' and went as far as to look at the mirror before buying to see if its awkward for my height but no its actually fine.

[Salaryman Ryan]

Here a video of an Alu Macbook playing WoW:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYR8i...eature=related

Looks quite smooth to me.

[Alucard]

the high end MB and the low end MBP have the same specs xcept for the screen size, so it comes down to the display really.
before i bought my MBP i notice that the display is really much better than the MB, it looks washout when viewed on an angle,so with only 18k difference i went with MBP na. and because i love the look of the speakers on the side too, looks more professional.
weight and size is ok to me, im 5'4' and went as far as to look at the mirror before buying to see if its awkward for my height but no its actually fine.

Thanks for the reply. I have 3 reasons why I'm considering MB rather than MBP:
1.) Price - though I can spring the money for MBP, it just seems too much power for my needs. I don't do video/photo editing and I only play WoW. I'm too lazy to install/maintain a windows partition on my laptop so there's limited games available.
2.) Weight - I travel a lot. I know its only like 2 pounds difference, but I'd imagine that 2 pounds will make a lot of difference when you're queueing up for immigration.
3.) Heat - previous MBP are terrible, NAY, SUPER TERRIBLE at heat management. My current laptop gets to 75 degree C when I play WoW. Getting SMC fan control helped, but its still not advisable to place it on my lap during heavy usage unless I decide to go sterile. Is this fixed with the new MBP? Does your laptop get ridiculously hot when you do any process that's CPU intensive (video encoding, games etc)?

Thanks for the input.

[Salaryman Ryan]

The Unibody Macbook does get hot when playing games and video encoding but not as hot as the old ones. As for the washed out screen of the Macbook, you can calibrate it to look ::almost:: as good as the Macbook Pro. Unfortunately it won't improve the narrow viewing angles.