13" MacBook Pro 2.3Ghz i5 VS 15" MacBook Pro 2.0Ghz i7 question....

[thiagos]

Ok so here's what I am planning on doing. I want to buy a 13" Macbook Pro 2.3ghz i5 and upgrade the RAM to 8GB and the hard drive to the new Seagate Momentus XL (500GB 7200RPM 32MB and it works as an SSD Drive for starting up and shutting down which is the fastest laptop hard drive out there).
If I buy the 15" MacBook Pro 2.0Ghz i7 I will not be able to do these upgrades.
Which machine would be faster afterall?

 

[awer25]

It depends on what you want to do with it. The 15" has much more raw processing power, but the 13" will be faster for small daily tasks like checking email and browsing the web since it's 2 cores are faster (and these tasks don't overload them). If you encode video for example, the 15" will be much faster.

 

[Naimfan]

The 15" quad core i7 is still going to be faster as far as processing; the Momentus will be a bit quicker in opening applications as it stores the most recently used data in the 4 GB SSD portion (note, but not the entire operating system).

 

[Dark Void]

probably the 15'', as it's quad core.

 

[2hvy4grvty]

For every day use, the 8GB won't have an effect. The hybrid drive helps, but it's no real SSD. If it were a choice between 8 GB + hybrid drive vs quad core, larger screen, discrete graphics, that's a pretty easy choice.

HOWEVER, that's not taking into account the i5's biggest redeeming point: it's size. How important is that to you?

 

[thiagos]

For every day use, the 8GB won't have an effect. The hybrid drive helps, but it's no real SSD. If it were a choice between 8 GB + hybrid drive vs quad core, larger screen, discrete graphics, that's a pretty easy choice.

HOWEVER, that's not taking into account the i5's biggest redeeming point: it's size. How important is that to you?

I would be using it to encode video with Handbrake as well as Photoshop. I think the 8GB memory would come quite handy on the i5. I know that the i7 is a faster processor but if I add 8GB and a fast hard drive to the i5, will I have a near as fast machine?
I know that 4GB is not enough for a quadcore computer, as each core will only have 1GB ram.
Having 8GB on the i5, giving each core 4GB of ram, will I have a fast machine for encoding HD video as well and photoshop?

 

[dsio]

I would be using it to encode video with Handbrake as well as Photoshop. I think the 8GB memory would come quite handy on the i5. I know that the i7 is a faster processor but if I add 8GB and a fast hard drive to the i5, will I have a near as fast machine?
I know that 4GB is not enough for a quadcore computer, as each core will only have 1GB ram.
Having 8GB on the i5, giving each core 4GB of ram, will I have a fast machine for encoding HD video as well and photoshop?

That isn't how memory management works. The RAM upgrade only costs like $60-80 so its not a big deal to do after the fact. If you want to do video encoding, get the 15, save up $80 bucks, and upgrade it after the fact. You can do the same with the hard drive.

 

[DWBurke811]

Encoding is pretty solely based on the processor, so if that's a main thing you're going to be doing it might be worth going with the 15" i7.

 

[nunes013]

Encoding is pretty solely based on the processor, so if that's a main thing you're going to be doing it might be worth going with the 15" i7.

This. Buy the 15" i7 and you can upgrade the ram and hard drive aftermarket (You can do both for a little more than $200 with some sales). I'm in the process of encoding my families dvd collection to an external and I have a core2duo, which is a great processor, but can be painfully slow sometimes. I have seen the handbrake times with the quad core in the MBP and its like compared to others. I wouldn't give it a second thought.

 

[Wingzero]

I would be using it to encode video with Handbrake as well as Photoshop. I think the 8GB memory would come quite handy on the i5. I know that the i7 is a faster processor but if I add 8GB and a fast hard drive to the i5, will I have a near as fast machine?
I know that 4GB is not enough for a quadcore computer, as each core will only have 1GB ram.
Having 8GB on the i5, giving each core 4GB of ram, will I have a fast machine for encoding HD video as well and photoshop?

4GB is not enough for a quad core?

Each core will only have 1GB?

I'm sorry where have you heard that, biggest piece of computer idiocy I've ever heard.

Also is you used Handbrake and Photoshop a lot you would know for a fact a quad core is better for rendering and encoding than a dual core. Sounds like you just want epeen to me.

 

[MrRoyksopp]

13 inch is more portable. Its still powerful, but ofcourse not as powerful as the 15 inch.