what is the difference between the macbooks and the macbook pro's?

except for screen resolution, design, and cosmetic features, an equally equiped MacBook costs less than MacBook Pro of the same system features such as hard drive, RAM, processor speed, and FSB speed.

so what is the extra 1,000 dollars for the MacBook Pro for? an extra two inches of screen?


im confused. and im wanting to get a macbook (the cool black one) but i feel like im mising something cause i can get a 2.0ghz intel core duo with 80gig HD and 1gig of ram with the same 667mhz FSB in a MacBook for almost 1000 dollars less than an equally equiped MacBook Pro.

anyone?

2 important differences to compare with your needs; expresscard expansion slot, dedicated graphic card.

Dedicated graphics card means two things:

• high resolution for the built-in LCD (i.e. more stuff can fit on the screen)
• the ability to have two displays with separate pictures (extended desktop)

The MacBook can draw to another display as well, but it will only mirror it's built-in LCD image, not have an extended desktop. So that ability of the MacBook Pro is rather handy if you ever set up a desk with a big LCD & keyboard & mouse. Oh, and if you spring for the 17" MBP, you get another USB port & a Firewire 800 port (sweet!)

the MacBook actually supports "extended desktop". it is not disabled like the iBooks were.

Really?! Wow. I was not aware of that. Ok, so then, yeah, that dramatically reduces the gap. If you're not gonna play any games or do any graphics work, or need the expresscard expansion slot, there's no difference. Just a tiny bit of processor speed, screen size, and hard drive size (but you're gonna have a bunch of externals anyway as a musician.)

so basicly the macbook is a steal as far as features for price go.

APPLE ROCKS

The dedicated graphics card in the Pro is kind of a big deal: the base MacBook has a shared graphics card and can demand something like 300Mb of your system RAM, so unless you max that puppy out you'll be losing quite a chunk of RAM that could be put to better use managing EQs, compressors, reverbs etc.

Also, having a bigger screen is a real-world, day-to-day benefit. To me, the MacBook screen feels cramped, even though it's now "widescreen". My 12" iBook feels like it has more room to breath, vertically at least.

Personally, I don't like the glossy screen or the keyboard of the MacBook. Definitely not crazy about the easy-marking surface of the black one, either. If you get the black one, you'd better take good care of it and clean it daily. Check out the demo machines in an Apple Store and you'll see what I mean.

The graphic chip uses 64 MB of ram, where have you seen this number of 300? And it's more than enough for aqua… Now for games it's very "normal" I'd say. But we're not around here to play in 3D…

What's stupid is to have this shared RAM, don't tell me that given the current prices they can't use dedicated 64 MB faster VRAM… dedicated is just a better idea for performances (ok, the chip is not exactly for performance…) Intel, sometimes… sigh!

The only thing I'd crave for on the macbook are the ports… but it's entry level, you can't fight against that.

From what I understand (as told to me by someone who knows a LOT about Macs, works in an Apple Store and is an active part of the Mac developers community), the graphics card can absorb anything up to 300Mb of system RAM if a task demands it. FWIW, this is his only main objection to the MacBook - other than that, he recommends it if you don't need the dedicated graphics card.

Ok, but if the RAM is shared between graphics and all other tasks, will it influence the audio performance? Like it was with PCs long time ago? Brrr... I hope not

It can. Not only the system overhead, but each app grabs a slice, each graphical UI plug-in grabs a slice, the waveforms, etc. Considering audio people cram as much memory as possible into the machines, it seems a shame for the graphics card to eat a substantial chunk of it.

Apple will bump the MacBook Pro up to a faster chip soon I hear (same family as the new Powermacs), then the difference will be pretty substantial.

You might want to wait until after the WWDC in August.

OK .... I finally got my MacBook. I had to get the black one and let me tell ya, these things rock! I bought it at the Apple Store with my cousins EDU discount ($1399) and then went to Fry's Electronics and picked up 2GBs of RAM and a 7200rpm 100GB drive all for only $380. Early tests with Logic 7.2 and Live 5.2 puts this computer on par with my friends dual 2.0Ghz G5. \ o / woot \ o /

Coming from a 15" 1Ghz TiBook, I thought I would miss the screen real estate but I've become quite used to it. This laptop should hold me over until the 2nd or 3rd revision (2yrs?) of the MacBook Pro.

I will report more soon.

I'm new to Mac's, and just picked up the bottom of the line MacBook.

As always, if you wait for the next iteration, you'll get better performance....but you'd always be waiting for the next one!

The shared video RAM is a bummer, no doubt about it. If you are a dedicated gamer, I would go with the MBP. If you are a very casual gamer, or have another 'puter for gaming, the MacBook is a killer deal. The 1.83 MacBook with default 512mb of shared RAM is plenty to run Quake, Quake 2, Quake 3, StarCraft and WarCraft 3 (although more RAM is always better).