Hi good folk of MacRumors! I posted this question on another site but figured I'd ask here as you guys seem to have the best advice as a whole.
I'm on the search for a new laptop, specifically a MacBook Pro. I'm totally familiar with the interface considering that my high school only had Mac computer labs so there is no worries about learning curves and the like. I'll be replacing a big, clunky, cumbersome Compaq Presario CQ62 that I bought on a budget nearly 2 years ago. The battery conked out after 12 months and it's now slow as a wet week and sounds like a jet engine taking off.
Now that I'm less confined to a budget, I've been looking around at the various MBP options. I've already wiped out the idea of an Air (although some of you may be able to sway me) simply because of the small hard drive space and lack of ports/disk drive. I also think it'll cost a lot more to upgrade it to the specifications I want and need for the work I'm doing.
PLEASE NOTE: I'm not looking at recent Retina-display models simply because I can't justify the price hike for a student.
Typically there's going to be a lot of web browsing and word processing, often 10-15 tabs open at once, a fair bit of YouTube, and also a fair bit of Photoshop. I'm often working on Photoshop and browsing a heap of tabs while listening to music in iTunes at the same time. I'm not a gamer at all (only on PS3) so I won't be into any of that. I may run a virtual disk of Windows 7 on the odd occasion to run particular programs.
I need some reviews from people in the know to help me make an informed decision, so I figure there's no better place than here. I have narrowed it down to two options (although this isn't set in stone):
MacBook Pro 13-inch 2.9ghz, Dual Core Intel i7, 8GB RAM, 750GB hard drive
Macbook Pro 15-inch 2.3ghz, Quad Core Intel i7, 8GB RAM, 500GB hard drive
Now I know that the second of those two, the 15-inch, comes by default with 4 GB of RAM. Is it necessary for me to upgrade that to 8GB? Or does the fact that it's Quad Core make it faster already? The 2.3ghz vs 2.9ghz is throwing me off (I mean it is a smaller number!)
Will the 13-inch 2.9ghz be enough for my needs? If I don't have to spend an extra $400 to get the 15-inch then I'll be very happy. Finally is there a noticeable weight difference when carrying around a 15-inch as compared to a 13-inch?
Remember I'm not ruling out the Air but I would rather a Pro.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Gibbsy
I'm on the search for a new laptop, specifically a MacBook Pro. I'm totally familiar with the interface considering that my high school only had Mac computer labs so there is no worries about learning curves and the like. I'll be replacing a big, clunky, cumbersome Compaq Presario CQ62 that I bought on a budget nearly 2 years ago. The battery conked out after 12 months and it's now slow as a wet week and sounds like a jet engine taking off.
Now that I'm less confined to a budget, I've been looking around at the various MBP options. I've already wiped out the idea of an Air (although some of you may be able to sway me) simply because of the small hard drive space and lack of ports/disk drive. I also think it'll cost a lot more to upgrade it to the specifications I want and need for the work I'm doing.
PLEASE NOTE: I'm not looking at recent Retina-display models simply because I can't justify the price hike for a student.
Typically there's going to be a lot of web browsing and word processing, often 10-15 tabs open at once, a fair bit of YouTube, and also a fair bit of Photoshop. I'm often working on Photoshop and browsing a heap of tabs while listening to music in iTunes at the same time. I'm not a gamer at all (only on PS3) so I won't be into any of that. I may run a virtual disk of Windows 7 on the odd occasion to run particular programs.
I need some reviews from people in the know to help me make an informed decision, so I figure there's no better place than here. I have narrowed it down to two options (although this isn't set in stone):
MacBook Pro 13-inch 2.9ghz, Dual Core Intel i7, 8GB RAM, 750GB hard drive
Macbook Pro 15-inch 2.3ghz, Quad Core Intel i7, 8GB RAM, 500GB hard drive
Now I know that the second of those two, the 15-inch, comes by default with 4 GB of RAM. Is it necessary for me to upgrade that to 8GB? Or does the fact that it's Quad Core make it faster already? The 2.3ghz vs 2.9ghz is throwing me off (I mean it is a smaller number!)
Will the 13-inch 2.9ghz be enough for my needs? If I don't have to spend an extra $400 to get the 15-inch then I'll be very happy. Finally is there a noticeable weight difference when carrying around a 15-inch as compared to a 13-inch?
Remember I'm not ruling out the Air but I would rather a Pro.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Gibbsy