Christopher
ClioSport Club Member
Z4M
Long story short, my old 2009 Core 2 Duo MBP had a recurring fault which was repaired, then eventually replaced with a new Core 2 Duo MBP. That turned out to have discolouration on the base, which I wasn't happy with. 
A call to Apple and a polite email later, and this arrived yesterday, in exchange...
It's a 2010/11 i5 MacBook Pro, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD and a glossy display. Totalling nearly £1,700. Not bad considering I paid £1,000 for my old Core 2 Duo, with the education discount.
So far, I'm loving it. It's 80% as good as the i7 in my iMac for nearly everything, which kind of makes me wonder if I ever needed to go i7 in the iMac. Meh.
It multi-tasks like a champ, running all of Creative Suite simultaneously, whilst still having spare oompf for internet browsing/emails etc. The only limiting factor at the moment is the RAM, with me being used to having 8GB on the iMac. I'll sort that when I can afford to, though.
I also fired up some Windows games under Bootcamp and it ran GTAIV perfectly with all the display settings maxed out. I was getting around 30-45 FPS, which is pretty good for a notebook. It also runs WoW under OSX perfectly, with everything set to Ultra, I was getting a capped 60 FPS in most areas, only dipping to ~30 FPS in high-detail areas. Again, pretty good!
The only downside is that it's a bit louder than the Core 2 Duo, but that's kind of expected, given the extra oompf.
So anyone considering either the i5 iMac, or i5 MacBook Pro, it's 80% as good as the full fat i7. So really not worth the extra cash, to put it simply. I just thought people might like to know that, considering there's a few on here looking at Macs at present. Hope it helps.
Oh, and the new charger is so cool.
A call to Apple and a polite email later, and this arrived yesterday, in exchange...
It's a 2010/11 i5 MacBook Pro, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD and a glossy display. Totalling nearly £1,700. Not bad considering I paid £1,000 for my old Core 2 Duo, with the education discount.
So far, I'm loving it. It's 80% as good as the i7 in my iMac for nearly everything, which kind of makes me wonder if I ever needed to go i7 in the iMac. Meh.
It multi-tasks like a champ, running all of Creative Suite simultaneously, whilst still having spare oompf for internet browsing/emails etc. The only limiting factor at the moment is the RAM, with me being used to having 8GB on the iMac. I'll sort that when I can afford to, though.
I also fired up some Windows games under Bootcamp and it ran GTAIV perfectly with all the display settings maxed out. I was getting around 30-45 FPS, which is pretty good for a notebook. It also runs WoW under OSX perfectly, with everything set to Ultra, I was getting a capped 60 FPS in most areas, only dipping to ~30 FPS in high-detail areas. Again, pretty good!
The only downside is that it's a bit louder than the Core 2 Duo, but that's kind of expected, given the extra oompf.
So anyone considering either the i5 iMac, or i5 MacBook Pro, it's 80% as good as the full fat i7. So really not worth the extra cash, to put it simply. I just thought people might like to know that, considering there's a few on here looking at Macs at present. Hope it helps.
Oh, and the new charger is so cool.
