Macbook Vs. Macbook Pro, what's the real difference??? Options

[thumperjack]

what is the difference between the macbooks and the macbook pro's?

except for screen resolution, design, and cosmetic features, an equally equiped MacBook costs less than MacBook Pro of the same system features such as hard drive, RAM, processor speed, and FSB speed.

so what is the extra 1,000 dollars for the MacBook Pro for? an extra two inches of screen?


im confused. and im wanting to get a macbook (the cool black one) but i feel like im mising something cause i can get a 2.0ghz intel core duo with 80gig HD and 1gig of ram with the same 667mhz FSB in a MacBook for almost 1000 dollars less than an equally equiped MacBook Pro.

anyone?

[monkeyboy23]

Ok, but if the RAM is shared between graphics and all other tasks, will it influence the audio performance? Like it was with PCs long time ago? Brrr... I hope not

It can. Not only the system overhead, but each app grabs a slice, each graphical UI plug-in grabs a slice, the waveforms, etc. Considering audio people cram as much memory as possible into the machines, it seems a shame for the graphics card to eat a substantial chunk of it.

Apple will bump the MacBook Pro up to a faster chip soon I hear (same family as the new Powermacs), then the difference will be pretty substantial.

You might want to wait until after the WWDC in August.

[Nonz]

OK .... I finally got my MacBook. I had to get the black one and let me tell ya, these things rock! I bought it at the Apple Store with my cousins EDU discount ($1399) and then went to Fry's Electronics and picked up 2GBs of RAM and a 7200rpm 100GB drive all for only $380. Early tests with Logic 7.2 and Live 5.2 puts this computer on par with my friends dual 2.0Ghz G5. \ o / woot \ o /

Coming from a 15" 1Ghz TiBook, I thought I would miss the screen real estate but I've become quite used to it. This laptop should hold me over until the 2nd or 3rd revision (2yrs?) of the MacBook Pro.

I will report more soon.

[Justin Thyme]

I'm new to Mac's, and just picked up the bottom of the line MacBook.

As always, if you wait for the next iteration, you'll get better performance....but you'd always be waiting for the next one!

The shared video RAM is a bummer, no doubt about it. If you are a dedicated gamer, I would go with the MBP. If you are a very casual gamer, or have another 'puter for gaming, the MacBook is a killer deal. The 1.83 MacBook with default 512mb of shared RAM is plenty to run Quake, Quake 2, Quake 3, StarCraft and WarCraft 3 (although more RAM is always better).