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i7 vs i5 price confusion

J

JamesDibben

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 4, 2011
18
13
I have a friend who is going to purchase a macbook pro for me in exchange for some web design. This will be my first mac computer.

He's willing to get a refurbished 2.5 i5 (2012) from Apple at $999.

I was looking through Amazon and we can get a refurbished 2.7 i7 for $850.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...olp_refurbished?ie=UTF8&condition=refurbished

What am I missing here? Isn't an i7 better than an i5? What's the deal with the price discrepancy?

Please forgive the question if the answer is obvious. I'm in the middle of my divorce from Microsoft.
 
chrfr

chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,520
7,045
JamesDibben said:
What am I missing here? Isn't an i7 better than an i5? What's the deal with the price discrepancy?
Click to expand...

The computers on the Apple store will arrive appearing new and have a full warranty from Apple. Computers refurbished by others will not have the warranty.
 
K

krypticos

macrumors regular
Nov 9, 2007
237
0
JamesDibben said:
I have a friend who is going to purchase a macbook pro for me in exchange for some web design. This will be my first mac computer.

He's willing to get a refurbished 2.5 i5 (2012) from Apple at $999.

I was looking through Amazon and we can get a refurbished 2.7 i7 for $850.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...olp_refurbished?ie=UTF8&condition=refurbished

What am I missing here? Isn't an i7 better than an i5? What's the deal with the price discrepancy?

Please forgive the question if the answer is obvious. I'm in the middle of my divorce from Microsoft.
Click to expand...

well normally i7 vs i5 is a pretty easy answer but here they for no better way to put it are the same chip kinda. so the i7 is a sandy bridge cpu and the i5 is a ivy bridge cpu so the i5 is a newer generation of cpu but in the grand scheme of things they are going to perform almost identical. now if it was a normal i5 vs i7 debate then it would be i5 doesnt have hyperthreading and the i7 does but with mobile it can get confusing. from what i can see from here on the i5 and from here on the i7 they are going to be very similar. they are both dual core cpu with four threads.

now as far as the price differences go that is more because the 2012 i5 has usb 3.0 and bluetooth 4.0 the newer cpu with slightly better igpu intel 4000 and can address more ram for the igpu and can use a faster ram.

where as the mid 2011 i7 has usb 2.0 and bluetooth 2.1+edr and a older cpu but still preforms very well. a slightly slower igpu intel 3000 and slightly slower ram.

hope this helps with your choose
 
K

krypticos

macrumors regular
Nov 9, 2007
237
0
chrfr said:
I'd buy from Apple rather than the unknown 3rd party vendors.
Click to expand...

i would have to agree because you get the warranty and they look brand new. i bought a 2007 refurbished macbook and it was like brand new.
 
J

JamesDibben

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 4, 2011
18
13
krypticos said:
well normally i7 vs i5 is a pretty easy answer but here they for no better way to put it are the same chip kinda. so the i7 is a sandy bridge cpu and the i5 is a ivy bridge cpu so the i5 is a newer generation of cpu but in the grand scheme of things they are going to perform almost identical. now if it was a normal i5 vs i7 debate then it would be i5 doesnt have hyperthreading and the i7 does but with mobile it can get confusing. from what i can see from here on the i5 and from here on the i7 they are going to be very similar. they are both dual core cpu with four threads.

now as far as the price differences go that is more because the 2012 i5 has usb 3.0 and bluetooth 4.0 the newer cpu with slightly better igpu intel 4000 and can address more ram for the igpu and can use a faster ram.

where as the mid 2011 i7 has usb 2.0 and bluetooth 2.1+edr and a older cpu but still preforms very well. a slightly slower igpu intel 3000 and slightly slower ram.

hope this helps with your choose
Click to expand...

This was incredibly helpful! Thanks for taking the time to get that together for me!

Thank you everyone else for your thoughts. I think I'm going to just get something from Apple. I can rely on quick shipping and there are two stores close so if I have problems I can get help.
 
K

krypticos

macrumors regular
Nov 9, 2007
237
0
JamesDibben said:
This was incredibly helpful! Thanks for taking the time to get that together for me!

Thank you everyone else for your thoughts. I think I'm going to just get something from Apple. I can rely on quick shipping and there are two stores close so if I have problems I can get help.
Click to expand...

No problem glad i could help. also hope the divorce goes well with Microsoft.

Enjoy your mac.
 
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