[rockin_amigo14]

So I recently declared a Film major at school and since I will be commuting in the fall, I've determined I'll need a MacBook Pro to replace my Toshiba so I can have home access to Final Cut Pro.  The school definitely has labs their but traveling 30 minutes just to do my homework and then having certain times to do it in does not sound ideal.
 
Regardless of the conditions, I'm in the market for a 15" model.  My friend currently has the previous iteration of the MacBook pro, the all silver model and says it works really well, handles HD excellently with 4GB RAM, does everything he needs it to, etc.
 
I know very little about MBP's so I'm hoping someone can help shed some light on the story.  Is the unibody model worth the upgrade over the generation before it.  The difference is around $400 so it's pretty significant.  If there's someone out there with an opinion on if it's worth the money or if it's smarter just to spend the saved money on, say, AppleCare, I'd like to hear either argument.
 
Thanks!

 

[Roger Strummer]

 

I have the old model of Macbook Pro and have no desires currently of upgrading, great machine. It has some advantages over the new models, like replaceable battery and Expresscard port (which is only in the 17'' model of the current lineup) and two firewire ports. 
 
But with that said the last model of 15'' MBP of that line was discontinued in October 2008, so it is a bit old, which shortens its life expectancy. Are you shopping for a new one or a used one? If you are looking at buying the new Core ix models they are significantly faster, and if I was editing HD video I would go for one with the higher resolution display. 
 
Also be careful  of the Macbook Pros with the Geforce 8600M GPU (which includes most of the models produced in 2007 and 2008), it had an awful high rate of failure, which made Apple extend the warranty, but even so I would be careful about it.
 
Feel free to ask any more questions, hopefully I've been helpful.
​

 

[krmathis]

I would go for the current model, unless you really need user replaceable battery and/or Expresscard.
I have the old one (July 2007) and it sort of get the job done. Have gone through a dead mother board and 3 dead batteries though, although all covered by warranty. Expect the current series to be more stable.

 

[SimD]

Film Major here with old MBP (2.2 Core 2 Duo with 8600M) using FCP. It works great with ProRes HD. I have to keep Real Time at the lowest settings however and renders take forever. I am upgrading to the new 15inch, but not because the old one is slow. Only because my warranty is over in a few months and three years is long enough.
 
If warranties aren't your thing, get the old MBP. It's a very very good machine and honestly, I prefer the aesthetics of the old models more. Only thing I would recommend is get a 7200 hard drive, a FW800 external and bump the RAM to 6gigs.

 

[warp08]

I have a 2010 Core i7 CTO MacBoook Pro fully maxed out with RAM and a 512GB SSD and a hi-res 15.4" display.  Best computer I've ever owned, period.  Even with an Employee Purchase Plan discount, however, it is one piece of expensive hardware.  A huge step up from my early 2008 MacBook Air in terms of raw performance.  It fully loads OSX from a shutdown state to fully operational in about 18 seconds.  Windows 7 Ultimate from a BootCamp partition takes about 45 seconds, but thankfully, I don't have to do that very often. Battery life under realistic usage patterns can easily last 6.5-7 hours on a single charge.
 
If you have sufficient funds, this is the best MacBook Pro ever, unless you insist on 3 USB ports and an ExpressCard slot instead of the SD-card slot.  In that case you want to look at the 17" but be prepared to do some heavy lifting..