MacBook Pro purchasing & updates? -advice-

[Bilvox]

My glorious powerbook g4, on which I recorded most of my first album and a good portion of my new has gone to mac heaven... so sad. It served me well as a creative tool and personally.
I am now at the point, after it being declared dead by Apple Store Employee, where I am needing to purchase a replacement. 15 inch, 2.4ghz is what it is looking like.
(If my telethon - fundraising goes well ;-) )
So is there anything I should know? Ie:
Leopard being released at the end of the month
any possible updates - speed bumps to the mbp line?
better to wait a week or two - or make that fall now?
The Buyer's Guide says mid cycle safe to buy... but... just wondering.
Thanks,
~bv

 

[Veritas&Equitas]

Only upgrade it could *possibly* have would be a cpu bump (ala 2.2->2.4 & 2.4->2.6). Can't go any higher than that b/c 2.8 gets the chipset too hot, and industry has said the cpu can't go up that high realistically. That being said, I'd wait until Leopard comes out to see if the cpu get a slight speed bump.

If no hardware update, you still get Leopard with your system, and don't have to pay for it like you would if you bought the MBP today.

 

[Transeau]

Recording and mixing is a fairly low CPU task, unlike sampled software instruments. So, if you are not using GarageBland and you ARE going to use something more like Logic Pro or SoundTrack Pro, then CPU speed isn't going to be nearly as important as memory and disk speed.

I would say just hold on a bit longer and wait for 10.5. Pick up the cheapest Macbook Pro, ordered with a 7200RPM drive. Then order 4GB from newegg and install it yourself. ($700 for $200 worth of memory is just stupid.)

Just make sure you get updates for whatever software you use. Older software will run, but it is REALLY slow.