Would you sell your 15" MBP for a i7 27" iMac?

C

caleb2001r

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
93
Just curious. I have a MBP 15" that's only a few months old, and when I saw the 27" of goodness I melted. Would you sell yours to buy the desktop?

If you're wondering what I do for a living, I was in real estate, but now I'm doing web development (learning programming, web design, and all that good stuff) from home. I don't travel much, but when I do, the laptop is really useful.
 
In your position I would get a 30" monitor and just hook up to it at home. It will be significantly larger and have better resolution than the imac plus you'll still be mobile.
 
That's true; never even considered that option. Thanks for the suggestion! I guess I'm just a little inclined to the "look" of the new iMac as well. The 30" Cinema Display looks pretty bland in comparison, in my opinion.
 
If you spend more the 75% of your computer time at home, then I'd suggest you get a desktop machine and a small laptop (13" or less).

That new iMac is really sweet.
 
Mr. Wolf said:
If you spend more the 75% of your computer time at home, then I'd suggest you get a desktop machine and a small laptop (13" or less).

That new iMac is really sweet.
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I do; I'm rarely on the road. I was more when I was a real estate agent, but not so much anymore. I'd say the only thing I'd really miss is having the laptop in bed, or next to my wife while she watches TV and I browse the net.

If anything, having a desktop would get my rear end out of bed, lol. :)
 
caleb2001r said:
The 30" Cinema Display looks pretty bland in comparison, in my opinion.
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The 30'' ACD hasn't been updated in a long time. It's overdue for a refresh, but I suspect if Apple had any plans to release a new model, they would have done in the recent line refresh.

Really, if you want to preserve the option to go mobile, just buy a 24'' ACD and plug your MBP into it while working at home. But if you're bound and determined to get a 27'' iMac, why let your current ownership of an MBP stop you?
 
Just because the apple 30" display hasn't been updated in a long time doesn't mean other companies don't make them. I don't have any personally, but a friend of mine uses two dell 30" displays with his powermac.

A monitor is a monitor; buy based on features and price.
 
caleb2001r said:
That's true; never even considered that option. Thanks for the suggestion! I guess I'm just a little inclined to the "look" of the new iMac as well. The 30" Cinema Display looks pretty bland in comparison, in my opinion.
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I don't recommend getting apple's 30" at the moment. There is definitely a refresh in the lineup coming up soon. Go for a dell! or hp 30....good for the price and quality. Dell also makes a pretty sweet 27" monitor...2709 maybe?
 
Why would someone suggest the OP keep his MBP and buy the 30" Apple Display? For the price of the display he could keep his MBP and buy the 27" iMac he's been eyeing.

He can have the best of both worlds.
 
And that's also an option too - to buy both. I just don't know if that would pass the wife test, hehe. I should also consider other brands too. I was a long time PC user/builder/modder until I came to Apple about 6 months ago, and I just really love their products.

If I could stick with Apple that would be ideal, but of course, I should keep my options open.
 
Just get an iMac if you really want one. I wouldn't give up the laptop though.
 
A few years ago, when i had my 17 inch imac, I would have said yes. But after I went mobile I realized I could never go back. think about all those random times you want your computer on the road. I'd go with the 30" screen on the side even if it doesn't look as nice (are they IPS w/ LED backlight also?)
 
If you do a lot of video editing or 3D rendering, the core i7 iMac would be worth the upgrade over your MBP.

Thing is though, if you do a lot of video editing or 3D rendering, you'd probably be better served with a Mac Pro anyways, and the current Nehalem-based Mac Pro shows up occasionally on Apple's refurbished page for $50 less than a new i7 iMac.

Considering the iMac would include a 27" LED+IPS display it's a tough call, but for most tasks the extra processing power would just go unnoticed.

If you're biggest tasks are programming and web development, then I recommend getting your money's worth out your MBP for a while. You can always purchase a refurbished i7 iMac later from Apple at a nice discount.
 
Tomahawk said:
If you're biggest tasks are programming and web development, then I recommend getting your money's worth out your MBP for a while. You can always purchase a refurbished i7 iMac later from Apple at a nice discount.
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That's definitely true. One thing I didn't remember is that while I'm branching off into web development, I'm bound to attend some training sessions for the programming language I'm learning and a MBP would be pretty much needed at that point.

I'm glad I posted this on the forums and waited. There's aspects of this I didn't even consider. Thanks guys!
 
In a heartbeat.

I sold my 3 month old 15" Powerbook G4 for one of the new Intel 20" iMacs in 2006. MASSIVE jump in performance.
 
criccio said:
In a heartbeat.

I sold my 3 month old 15" Powerbook G4 for one of the new Intel 20" iMacs in 2006. MASSIVE jump in performance.
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Whatchu talkin bout Willis! My computer for the past 3 1/2 years has been a 15" Powerbook.

I just made the switch to Intel last Saturday with a new iMac (21.5" w/ ATi graphics), so talk about a massive jump in performance! I can walk! I can WALK!!!
 
I just did exactly what you're thinkin' about. I had a one year old MacBook Pro 15" 2.2 ghz that pretty much never left the house. I wanted a horsepower upgrade and the new Mac Mini just wasn't enough and the new iMac looked pretty tempting.

Ultimately I ended up getting the new 27" stock model with the 3.06 core duo. Blows the MacBook away and the new screen is awesome. I also have my 27" Samsung connected to it for dual 27" goodness. One thing that prompted the jump for me was the dealer offered me a grand to trade in my MacBook Pro. I forgot that's one big advantage on the Mac side of the fence is that the re-sell market is pretty lucrative so that may help your decision.

I upgraded my new iMac to 8GB ram (not from Apple though) and only paid $95 Cdn for that. Also installed Win7 64 bit this morning and tried my Mass Effect game just to test and it works just fine. I'm actually quite surprised as I'm playing it at 2560x1440. Had to do some fussing with the drivers as Apple doesn't support Win7 just yet but got it all working.

Anyhoo, I don't think you'll be dissapointed and I bought a Netbook quite a while back now and that's been my only road warrior. It's just too convenient on the road and I don't think I could ever travel again with a full size notebook. Good luck!

James
 
joudbren said:
I also have my 27" Samsung connected to it for dual 27" goodness.
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What a totally rediculous setup! Here's the big question: What's the samsung and how does it look next to a 27" LED backlit IPS? What differences do you notice? etc etc. Great opportunity for comparison!

Also I hear you about the RAM, I looked on apples website and it's about $1000 to get 8 gigs, rediculous...
 
Get the 27" iMac and then go pick up a netbook that runs OSX well. Best of both worlds :)
 
Terpfen said:
10.6.2 kills Atom support. Also, Hackintosh endorsements are against the rules.
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I don't believe it's against the rules to suggest it. I believe you can't suggest how to obtain or use it. I can be wrong.

Getting back to the OP, get the 27" :D
 
persisting1 said:
I don't believe it's against the rules to suggest it. I believe you can't suggest how to obtain or use it. I can be wrong.
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KaosDG is going to have to clarify, but I'm sure that all Hackintosh discussion is against the rules, which would include recommending them as usable computers.
 
We have been recommending them around here for quite awhile, we just can't talk about how to go about getting one setup. For that, we simple point people to the OSx86/Insanely Mac forums.
 
If your doing most of your computing @ home, I would say sell the MBP and go for the iMac. Also I read the other day Apple has re-enabled atom support in the latest 10.6.2.
 
joeshmoe said:
Here's the big question: What's the samsung and how does it look next to a 27" LED backlit IPS? What differences do you notice? etc etc. Great opportunity for comparison!QUOTE]

hate to quote myself but I'm really curious. Anything to say about this?
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I3roknI3ottle said:
If your doing most of your computing @ home, I would say sell the MBP and go for the iMac. Also I read the other day Apple has re-enabled atom support in the latest 10.6.2.
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For the record, the official 10.6.2 release, 10C540 does *not* include Atom support, the hackintoshers are going to have to find another way to do this as 'vanilla' will no longer be an option.
 
I've been teasing myself about this option as well, but ebaying turns up that the $1999 MBP I paid for 4-5 months back now only goes for $1100-$1300. I'm very happy with it as is, definitely not going to shell out the rest of the money + tax for it.

Plus taking it to the bathroom is... priceless. I'm pooping and foruming right now! Multi-tasking is king
 
Someone here hasn't seen the Seinfeld 'took the bookstore book to the bathroom to read instead of buying it while i was there' episode.
 
joeshmoe said:
joeshmoe said:
Here's the big question: What's the samsung and how does it look next to a 27" LED backlit IPS? What differences do you notice? etc etc. Great opportunity for comparison!QUOTE]

hate to quote myself but I'm really curious. Anything to say about this?
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Hi! Apologies for the delay getting back to everyone, I've been crazy busy. To answer your question, the Sammy looks pretty cool next to the iMac! However....

The iMac screen annihilates the Samsung both in colour accuracy and clarity. I thought my Samsung was pretty good for my photo editing and I use a Spyder2 calibrator to profile my screens. I finally got around to profiling the iMac on the weekend and OMG! It blew the Samsung out of the water! Just goes to show that ignorance is bliss I guess because now the Samsung pales in comparison.

I still use both monitors connected but my photo editing is now 100% restricted to the Apple screen. The IPS technology is fantastic and combined with the LED backlighting you just can't go wrong. I'm still not too keen on the glossy display but I'm getting used to it and I have no serious reflections in my location so I can deal with it.

I have noticed a little eyestrain though but mostly from the tiny text on the screen due to the 2460x1440 resolution. I can easily change font sizes in Safari and such but text in menu items, etc., is still pretty tiny and my eyes ain't what they used to be. Sigh.... Wasn't an issue with the Sammy as even though the monitor is the same size the resolution is 1920x1200 so text was bigger. Hope that helps and cheers!

James
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good comparison. Sounds like a sweet screen. What are the perks of glossy displays? they just look sleeker or what? Sorry to hear about the text sizes, that's what universal access is for! haha. I'd be curious how it would do if you played some games on it.
 
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