I've been shopping around for a new laptop, as my present laptop just can't handle the video editing I'm throwing at it (it's just a little Toshiba with 256MB RAM, not meant for anything more than websurfing, and I knew I'd have to upgrade eventually). I'm looking at the MacBook Pro, but can't decide which one to go with. These are the three options I'm considering:

1.
- 15 inch screen
- 2.4 GHz processor
- 4 GB RAM
- 200 GB, 7200RPM Hard drive
- NVidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor (256MB of GDDR3 memory)
- Price: $2,399.00

2.
- 15 inch screen
- 2.5 GHz processor
- 4 GB RAM
- 200 GB, 7200RPM Hard drive
- NVidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor (512MB of GDDR3 memory)
- Price: $2,849.00

3.
- 17 inch screen
- 2.5 GHz processor
- 4 GB RAM
- 200 GB, 7200RPM Hard drive
- NVidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor (512MB of GDDR3 memory)
- Price: $3,149.00


Note that the only advantage of number 3 over number 2 is the 17 inch screen.
Note that numbers 2 and 3 have two advantages over number 1:
- 2.5 GHz instead of 2.4
- 512MB graphics memory instead of 256MB

I want to get a laptop that I can hopefully be using a few years from now, hence the desire to go with number 3. From the specs it looks like it'll be able to hold its own against whatever laptops come out in the next few years, and that's important to me because I don't want to have to buy another computer in three years.

- Is it really worth it to get 512MB graphics memory? That seems to be the biggest difference here.
- Also, are Macs really worth the extra cost?

Macs are notoriously expensive compared to PCs, but they seem to be able to handle just about anything you throw at them, and more. It's the price I'm still trying to get past. Is it worth it? What do you think?

im in the same boat as you, i want to get a laptop that can hold up to the test of time

but if you are paying those kind of prices why dont you go to ww.alienware.com and make yourself a proper laptop....

depends if you want to move around with it,

if so I'd get #2 and then an extra external monitor to use when at home/in the office.

Otherwise the larger HD screen on the 17" is a boon. But it's a pig to carry around everywhere.


Also, Mac's a re pretty similar in price spec for spec when I bought mine, only £50 difference between the mac I bought and the Dell *shudders* equivalent. They also have far fewer issues, and they crash a great deal less!

There's not much difference between computers 1 and 2, I don't think it's worth paying an extra $450 for bare minimum upgrades. You could certainly get by on a 256MB graphics card and there is no noticeable difference between a 2.4Ghz cpu and a 2.5Ghz cpu. Might be worth thinking about.

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