I think the DDR3 memory / 1066 front side bus is what's causing all the problems. Currently it's really expensive, and probably put pressure on other features, to keep the price down. So we end up with a consumerish Macbook Pro that's overpriced by about US$1,000. Apple is very aware of this, they've said that the new platform/technology would put a sqeeze on their profit margins in the short term but that they were confident it would become more profitable & make them more flexible in the long run. So bad news for now, but probably good news for the future.
In comparison, Dell's similarly priced 15" professional laptop workstation (
US$2,500 Dell Precision) still uses the less expensive DDR2 memory so it can be much more feature laden. For the same price you also get - dual drive docks, eSata, Quadro FX! discrete video, a quad core processor, a real DisplayPort, relatively cheap memory up to 8GB, and a bunch of other nice features. It should run Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro like a dream. But of course, if you want to run FCS2 that's a different story. And I'm really, really bummed it can't run FCS2 because that's the machine I really want and the interim laptop that I wish Apple had made.
On the other hand, the Dell Precision 17" notebooks which use DDR3 memory, have prices that are more in line with what Apple is charging. So hopefully Apple had a really good reason to go with DDR3. On the plus side it looks like the memory on the Apple laptops is actually running as fast as the 1066 front side bus, so I'm looking forward to seeing some benchmark tests to see how that all pans out.
October 15th, 2008, 05:52 PM
