My shiny new 17″ Macbook Pro arrived this morning. I’ve been busy getting everything wrapped up in order to make the transition from my G5 PowerMac, so I wasn’t paying attention to the news. A friend just emailed me about the new build-to-order options available today on the Macbook Pros.
The base model / pricing is the same as it’s been, but Apple now offers an option to bump the processor to a 2.6GHz Core 2 Duo (+$250) and the hard drive to either a 250GB 5400rpm (+$150) or a 200GB 7200rpm (+$200) drive.
A 200MHz difference in processor speed isn’t that big of a deal. In fact, I’m not sure if I would have paid the extra $250 for it. But, I most definitely would have chosen the 200GB 7200rpm drive. I paid $150 to have mine upgraded to a 160GB 7200rpm drive.
Whenever you buy a computer, you know it generally won’t be too long before a new model comes out. That’s just how the computer industry is. But, it would have been nice to at least get my top-of-the-line Macbook Pro out of its box while it still was top-of-the line. :(
Oh well, that’s the way it goes. I’m still excited to get my new machine up and running. I still have some preparations to make before migrating.
Oh, and they introduced new Macbooks as well… which now share the same Santa Rosa-based architecture as the Macbook Pro. They also have a faster front-side bus, updated video card, and can take up to 4GB of RAM. It’s much improved over yesterday model.
I think if you call up Apple and explain your situation and timeframe, they will send you out a new one with a better hard drive.
You can trade yours up for the new ones. Apple’s long standing policy has always been that if you purchase a product and said product gets an update within weeks of your purchase, you can trade up for free.
Thanks guys. I considered calling Apple. I wasn’t sure what their response would be, considering the pricing didn’t change and technically they didn’t come out with a new model… just a couple of extra options on upgrades. I also noticed that if you select either of those upgrades, the shipping jumps from 24hrs to 2-3 weeks. Looks like they aren’t quite ready to ship those yet.
The extra drive space would have been nice, but I decided to just keep this one. I think I’ll be happy with it. And, I just can’t stand the thought of sending it back and waiting a few weeks for a replacement. I was so ready for an upgrade. ;)