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Just Spitballing on the New Pro

April 27th, 2012

A new Macbook Pro refresh is on the horizon, hopefully sooner rather than later. The shortest historical refresh time is not until June, but I am hoping it’ll come sooner, especially since the last release was only the barest of speed bumps (0.2GHz CPU bump, a slightly better graphics card, 256 MB more graphics memory–nothing else changed in the 15“ model), meaning that is was hardly a ”refresh“ at all. It’s also why I did not replace my seriously aging MBP, long without an optical drive anyway (it broke a year and a half ago) and struggling to keep up with current software demands.

So here I am, straining at the bit to buy a new machine, but I have to wait. I have a lot to look forward to: the new Intel Ivy Bridge CPUs have come out, and the new MBPs are bound to have them.

What worries me is talk about a new, slimmer form factor. It sounds nice, but I’m worried that they might make the Macbook Pro into little more than a 15” Macbook Air. Granted, the Air is nice, but I really need the capacity and ports that a Pro gives.

It’s expected that the new Pro will come without an optical drive; Apple was the first to abandon the floppy, so this makes sense. Sure, a Blu-ray drive would be fantastic, but that’s an extreme long shot. Apple will more likely continue with their direction towards wireless and the cloud. If there’s no optical drive, Apple could save a lot of space.

Ports are another probable cut–but they are also what have made the Pro a “Pro”; cutting FireWire would be a big disappointment for many people, like myself, who still have FireWire peripherals. Apple has a tendency to not give a crap about that, unfortunately.

A bigger potential problem would be if they went with SSD, and chintzed and went with a 256 GB storage solution. I have long been looking forward to increasing my drive space, which is currently 250 GB. A pro model should have more than that (current models have 500 and 750 GB), and I fear that Apple would make 256 GB standard and charge hundreds of dollars to upgrade to 512 GB. Look at the Air–you get 128 GB for the base 13“ model, and pay $300 to get 256 GB. I can easily imagine Apple giving us 256 GB on the 15” and then asking $500 for an upgrade to 512 GB. Even worse, they might make 128 GB standard on the low-end 15“ model, and ask $250 to upgrade to 256 GB, which would really tick me off.

Now, if a 512 GB SSD came standard, that would be sweet. But somehow I doubt it; Apple has been known to disappoint on stuff like this (look at the iPad and how they have refused to bump the SSD memory on those for the 2nd and 3rd generations). As with the no-Blu-ray and early FDD and now probably DVD retirements, they can be dictatorial about what you need and what you will get, as it suits their esthetic sense. SSD will be a big, fat target to chintz on.

What alternatives are there? If Apple keeps 2.5” HDDs, they could keep the rear end of the Pro a similar thickness and start tapering to the front only, which seems unlikely if they really want a slimmer enclosure. Or, if they wanted to improve performance without switching to SSDs, they could try a 2- or even 3-disk RAID array with 1.8“ drives (maybe 2 250 GB drives in a striped array and a third as a built-in ”Time Machine“ backup to address higher failure risks in the striped array).

This seems unlikely, however; HDD and RAID are moving backwards, and Apple likes shiny, futuristic stuff. SSDs look far more likely, meaning my primary hope is that Apple’s huge consumption of flash memory (not to mention their recent acquisition of an SSD manufacturer) allows them to give the best capacity solution for a reasonable price.

But if Apple goes down the ”oh, the Cloud is here, you really don’t need all that storage“ road, I will be ever so pissed.

Late Edit: One other possibility I forgot to consider: if Apple stays with the 2.5” HDD storage solution, they could go for an SSD cache. Given that they don’t go for an ultra-slim model, this actually might be the most likely compromise, allowing for both capacity (perhaps continuing the 500 and 750 GB drives) and speed (with perhaps a 64 GB SSD), with the missing optical drive and a redesigned battery shape allowing them to slim down enough to make a difference in aesthetics.

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  1. Troy
    April 27th, 2012 at 12:58 | #1

    you’re really over-thinking this : )

    As for internal storage, 256GB is more than enough. You’re not going to fill that up with apps, documents, and projects.

    Media, sure, but all your media doesn’t have to be on SSD.

    512GB SSD is $600 at newegg!

    Apple’s really dropping the ball with thunderbolt. They should have at least some sort of external SATA docking solution for it, so you can attach 3.5″ hard disks at least.

    http://www.maclife.com/article/reviews/seagate_goflex_thunderbolt_adapter_review

    “We copied the same 1.13GB folder to a 7200-rpm FreeAgent GoFlex drive using the Thunderbolt adapter on a MacBook Air, and then again using USB 2.0. The USB transfer took 45 seconds while the Thunderbolt adapter finished the same task in 17 seconds.”

    Thunderbolt looks to be too much hassle for such a small payoff. I’m never slinging gigabytes around where I have to wait for the copy to finish. It looks like that review is using a 2.5″ laptop drive and not the 3.5″ option for GoFlex system drives (I’d prefer 3.5″ for home use). GoFlex is just too much added expense for me to justify anyway.

    Ivy Bridge should have USB 3 native finally so the MBP’s ports should be that.

    A USB 3.0 SATA dock would be the best thing, but thus far I don’t see anything available at newegg that’s bulletproof.

    LaCie (there’s an old name) has a nice drive:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822154543

    with apparently 80 MB/s transfer, which would be faster than the above 1.13GB thunderbolt copy (66MB/s).

    So going with a USB 3 solution for your external storage would be best. Works GREAT for time machine I might add, I have 3 time machine backup disks that I use with my USB 2.0 dock (it’s also an eSATA dock but my MBP’s eSATA ExpressCard adapters never could work right )

    Ah, here’s another shoot out of USB 3 vs Thunderbolt:

    “While the desktop Thunderbolt solution is certainly faster, near twice as much, as the FireWire 800 interface, it offers no performance benefits over USB 3.0 or eSATA when used with hard drives. ”

    http://www.storagereview.com/seagate_goflex_desk_thunderbolt_adapter_review

    So pray for USB 3 I guess.

    I’m looking forward to a high-density “retina” display. Been waiting for that for *ever*.

  2. Luis
    April 27th, 2012 at 14:09 | #2

    As for internal storage, 256GB is more than enough. You’re not going to fill that up with apps, documents, and projects. Media, sure, but all your media doesn’t have to be on SSD.
    Depends on what you use it for. I use mine for multiple purposes at my school, including downloading and editing large amounts of HD video, using large stores of images in creating projects using the Adobe suite (great school discounts!), using different versions of operating systems in emulation (e.g. XP and Win 7 using Parallels, maybe Win 8 from now, each using up to about 10-15 GB), as well as for personal use to store all my music and as many images from my Canon and iPhone as I can keep. I am constantly getting a full disk at 250 GB, and would not be surprised if I could easily fill up 512 GB as well. I need as much as I can get.

    As this machine constantly goes back and forth between home, office, and various classrooms, keeping too many files on an external HDD is a huge pain in the ass. I should know, I have several external TB HDDs out of necessity.

    Nor do I think this is too unusual for many people that need the Pro model, ergo the “Pro”moniker. Some people need that capacity and power in a portable unit.

    512GB SSD is $600 at newegg!
    Yeah. But too bad Apple isn’t Newegg…

    I really am hoping that Apple will come up with a solution that allows for best capacity, and a large SSD would be great. Like I mentioned, they bought Anobit recently and use what seems like the lion’s share of flash memory in the world, so one would think that can keep SSD costs down to a minimum. But despite what Newegg may offer, Apple ain’t doing that, not yet. Look at the current Macbook Pro, where they charge $1200 for a 512 GB SSD!

    Thunderbolt looks to be too much hassle for such a small payoff. I’m never slinging gigabytes around where I have to wait for the copy to finish.
    I am. Quite often.

    I’m looking forward to a high-density “retina” display. Been waiting for that for *ever*.
    Yep. Another reason I waited. I’ll be bummed if they don’t have it, as I kind of have to get what comes out next–I can’t wait for the subsequent refresh, not with the machine I have right now.

  3. Troy
    April 27th, 2012 at 15:23 | #3

    It’s also why I did not replace my seriously aging MBP, long without an optical drive anyway (it broke a year and a half ago)

    Maybe a dual internal set-up — 320GB HDD and 256GB SDD — would work for you. You can do that with the current MBPs:

    http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DDAMBS0GB/

    But it’s pretty crazy that you can sell 3 shares of AAPL and get a new MBP . . .

    I have a late 2008 MBP now 3.5 years old and it’s aged much better than my previous laptop, a mid-2002 PBG4. That one was a total pile of crap by year 4 — borked hinges, peeling paint . . . obsoleted CPU ISA . . .

    But this one is still indistinguishable from brand-new MBPs, LOL.

    Speed-wise, I have no complaints. I guess the new MBPs are much faster but with the 2.8GHz x64 C2D don’t have a problem with slow apps. I’m using Mountain Lion on it now and it’s great, and Snow Leopard and Lion made the machine faster too it seemed.

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