15 inch vs 17 inch

[scottkifnw]

My opinion

No.

Since money isn't the issue, and you have another monitor, go with the 15" for portability, less weight.

Also my opinion, the 17" isn't that portable.

sek

I'll be a college freshman next year at cornell and I'm trying to decide between the 15 inch and 17 inch MacBook pro, so i was wondering if you guys could give some advice
I would definitely go with the 15 inch for portability/ desk size reasons, but I have an ipad so i could use it with the keyboard dock when i need small/portable, so I'm feeling sort of mixed now
I'll be an information science major and ill probably double major in computer science and business, so i will need to do some demanding tasks, though i assume either computer can get the job done, but the bigger screen on the 17 might be better for multitasking... Though i have a 24 inch monitor for when im in my dorm
So it comes down to - is the extra pound in my backpack worth it for some extra screen real estate in the library/computer science classes/etc?
Note that money isn't too much of an issue
Let me know what you think, plus any extra tips you might have since this is my first MacBook
Thanks!

 

[petrelli18]

okay everyone, i need your help

i am going to buy a MBP for back to school but im not sure which one i will need. I am using it for nothing more than notes, email, internet and some movie watching. Nothing intense. I like the size of the 13", but i just figured the i5/i7 is something i would need.

however, for the huge price difference from the high end 13" to the i7 15" (about 700 with AppleCare) is it really worth it. If im not doing anything intense, will i really notice a difference in speed? or will i really need the additional discrete GPU.

Things like the HD screen, 7200 rpm HDD, i7 processor and discrete GPU all look really attractive on paper, but it it really worth 700$?

I am not really a computer guy, just have been reading alot of MacRumors in anticipation of the upgrade, so i could really use your opinions. Thanks alot.

 

[tuna]

This is simply not true. The only difference between the Core i5 and Core i7 is that the Core i7 has 4 MB of cache while the Core i5 has 3 MB of cache (other than the slightly faster clock speed). For me at least, $200 (or $180 with student discount) is not worth the very slight speed increase from the i5 2.53 GHz to the Core i7 2.66 GHz. A much better upgrade, for the same price, would be an Intel SSD.

Most users would never notice the performance increase going from the i5 2.53 GHz to the 2.66 GHz i7. The i5 and i7 are the same family of technology (Arrandale), and both are much better than the Core 2 Duo in the 13''.

Anandtech just did a review of the 15'' MBP i5 version, and found that the 2.4 GHz model was faster than the older 2.8 GHz version, in some cases by quite a wide margin. http://anandtech.com/show/3659/apples-15inch-core-i5-macbook-pro-the-one-to-get

Thats a good article, and if you read it you see that in the end he says that the Core i7 is a relatively good deal. He says that he would spend the money on an SSD first, but thats only close to relevant if you can afford to only have 128GB of storage (SSD).