Comments on: Macbook Pro Review – Late 2008 Model

By: davesmall

davesmall — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:31:15 +0000

I like the case and display but would not want to give up any of my current 1920 x 1200 screen resolution to upgrade. So I’ll wait for the 17″ model and then I’ll upgrade.

Not sure what benefit I might get from the new NVidia graphics. The only use that I have for computer games is to clear disk space by dragging them into the trash.

By: PossibleConvert

PossibleConvert — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:30:53 +0000

Awesome! Thanks for the help! I think a MacBook Pro purchase is in my not too distant future!

By: Ewdison Then

Ewdison Then — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:29:15 +0000

I did’t notice any louder noise or vibration (i guess it depends on the drive itself). I’m using 200GB Hitachi 7200RPM

By: PossibleConvert

PossibleConvert — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:19:46 +0000

I’ve noticed on a few 7200 drives that they can get pretty loud. Does this sound louder, and if so, is it enough to become annoying?

By: Ewdison Then

Ewdison Then — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:15:13 +0000

Not much different really, the bottom left felt a little warmer, but not by much

By: PossibleConvert

PossibleConvert — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:14:12 +0000

Does it run hotter or louder?

By: Ewdison Then

Ewdison Then — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:12:32 +0000

I’m actually on 7200RPM now, replaced it this morning and lost only roughly 15-20 minutes of battery operation time.

I think 7200RPM is worth the upgrade, using SuperDuper and restoring, I managed to get 14.1MB/s compared to 10.6MB/s on 5400RPM

By: PossibleConvert

PossibleConvert — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:11:08 +0000

Do you know if selecting the 7200rpm hard drive will cause the machine to run hotter, louder, and have a shorter battery life? And if given the choice which way would you go, 5400 or 7200?

By: Ewdison Then

Ewdison Then — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:01:01 +0000

I think i can get better FSP if i disable smoke smooth edges and etc, on this test i enabled every single thing there is (if i’m not missing anything) but overall, it’s a pretty good machine to have.

By: BlueBrat

BlueBrat — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:47:26 +0000

This is understandable, and I’m not after a super gaming machine. But that performance is still very poor. And remember, the 2nd graphics card comes into play when your plugged in, or if you purposely enable it when it’s on battery. And typically the battery will only drain when your actually pushing the card and it’s 3D capabilities, which doesn’t happen in the normal desktop environment.

By: Ewdison Then

Ewdison Then — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:37:54 +0000

Apple is balancing between battery life and gfx power, it will be hard to have demon gaming machine while keeping battery life to 4-5 hours with the same battery capacity. Unless you dont mind carrying super bulky machine.

By: BlueBrat

BlueBrat — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:27:10 +0000

54FPS at 1024×768? That’s it? That’s awful. They really need to put a better gfx card in their Pro model, that’s just abysmal performance, considering we’re already on the next-gen of games that need more power than that.

I was going to wait for the next 17″ Pro to hit, but looks like I’ll hold onto my (now-aging) 17″ MBPro with the even-more crappy X1600 card, since it seems there’s no reason to upgrade.