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15" Macbook Pro i5 > 15" Macbook Pro i7

Penn Jennings said:
Paying hundreds of dollars now for more for performance that you don't need now is not "future proofing". There is always a very high premium to paid to move from the middle of the performance curve to the high performance side of the curve, especially in regards to CPU.

If you convert this into a math problem, at retail prices, you are paying $550 a year for the i7 over 4 years. That amount will let you replace the i5 after 3 years and about month. NO ONE know what the future requirements will be because no one can predict the technology beyond about 12 to 18 months. Future Proofing out 3 to 4 years seems very unrealistic.

If you just want the i7 and money is no object, great, get it. If you need it get, get it. But calling it "future proofing" just seems wrong.

PS. If money IS an object and you plan on trying to keep the MBP for 4 years, it might make more sense to get the i5 and upgrade the HD AND the memory in a year or 2. I'd be willing to wager that in 2 years you can add a very fast 1TB HD and another 4 GB of memory to the i5 for the cost of the i7 today and the i5 will out perform the i7 in general.
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'Future proofing' may be overstating the case. What you are buying is longevity and versatility.

With an i5 you will always be left wondering if what you are doing would be faster or better with an i7. No such worries if you buy an i7 to start with. :)

If all other things are equal, an i5 owner will eventually have to upgrade sooner than an i7 owner.

And IMHO if you keep your MBP for several years, sooner or later there will come a point when you want to do something and an i5 won't be *quite* up to the job but an i7 will.

And I don't believe the differences in battery life and 'heat' will be anything more than negligible, in real life.

As for 'not using' the performance bonus, you could say the same thing about people upgrading from Core 2 to i5. How many of them are *really, really* using all the performance gain? Maybe there was no point in them buying an i5? :)

i7 = a small price to pay to make sure your machine lasts as long as it can and can do as much as it can, processor-wise.
 
steveLONDON said:
'Future proofing' may be overstating the case. What you are buying is longevity and versatility.

With an i5 you will always be left wondering if what you are doing would be faster or better with an i7. No such worries if you buy an i7 to start with. :)

If all other things are equal, an i5 owner will eventually have to upgrade sooner than an i7 owner.

And IMHO if you keep your MBP for several years, sooner or later there will come a point when you want to do something and an i5 won't be *quite* up to the job but an i7 will.

And I don't believe the differences in battery life and 'heat' will be anything more than negligible, in real life.

As for 'not using' the performance bonus, you could say the same thing about people upgrading from Core 2 to i5. How many of them are *really, really* using all the performance gain? Maybe there was no point in them buying an i5? :)

i7 = a small price to pay to make sure your machine lasts as long as it can and can do as much as it can, processor-wise.
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good point.

What is more important to you?

"could i have done this faster if i would have got the i7?"

or

"could this battery last longer if i would have got the i5?"
 
Don't know what your point is, but I've republished the ad just so you can do whatever you want with it. Copy and paste it into your own ad perhaps?
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/sys/1721193040.html

Let me know when you've satisfied your craving so I can delete the ad again. That's what you do when you've sold an item on craigslist.

Again, my point here was that I saw no performance gain from the i7; only a battery loss. Maybe you should check out the i5 and compare. I don't think you'll magically discover this gain in a few years that will save you from upgrading but I could be wrong.
 
Jwink444 said:
would you say its worth it to upgrade the hard drive to 7200 ? i guess its $50 bucks to do so
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While the speed difference is not as great as a few years ago, since the new 5400rpm drives are fairly speedy, it's still worth it to me to go with a 7200rpm because the price is right...:)
 
yooper said:
saniko,

Not sure what you are gaining monetary wise here, but I don't know what your hoping to sell the i7 at either.

The way I see it, you purchased a 2.66GHZ i7 with an NVIDIA 330M with 512MB and selling it a loss to buy a 2.53GHz i5 with a NVIDIA 330M with 256MB?

Even if you break even, how is this a benefit? Unless you don't have access to electricity while working and really need the (claimed) extra battery life, I just don't see it.

Also, you failed to mention if all the settings that could influence battery life were identical between both computers. Settings such as Airport, Bluetooth, backlit keyboard, playing with volume controls in addition to over a dozen other setting can and will influence battery life.

It's possible that your battery life estimates between the two machines are accurate, but without first verifying all the possible settings you could be off.

You may find yourself doing more intensive tasks on the computer in the future. If the i5 takes a bit longer to complete the task, then the battery has to run longer to complete the same task over the i7. Over time, battery life vs computing crunching between the two processors may be much different than you realize.

Bottom line, IMO both computers are fantastic and I'm sure you will enjoy either way. It's just the idea of selling a new but used i7 on Ebay to buy a new i5 what threw me.
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Exactly this.
 
Wow, we're getting onto another topic altogether. The reason why people might sell on eBay or Craigslist right now is very simple. People know that these computers are new. People may not want to pay sales tax so even purchasing a computer for the same price on eBay as in apple.com is worth it because they don't have to pay the extra 8% to state. Others may have had access to different discounts to get their Macbook Pro and they aren't really selling for a loss even if you think they are. The buyer gets a better deal on the Macbook than they have access to; the seller gets their money back or better.

Seriously, if I've ever not wanted my Mac after one to three months of owning it, I can always go to eBay or Craigslist and get my money back. That's the beauty of an Apple product... ridiculously high resale value for the first few months and decent resale value in a year for upgrades.

Even if I wasn't making my money back, it wouldn't make a difference for me. I'm fairly price insensitive. From my perspective, i5 = more battery life. I wrote my message to share my experience.

I'm not running any additional tests for anyone because I can't. I no longer have the i7 machine. Do whatever makes you happy whether it's future proofing or the peace of mind from getting the best that's out there. I wanted to get the best machine out there and after spending time with the i5 and i7, I've opted for the i5.
 
saniko said:
Surprised you can get 7:45 without an SSD! I think the SSD makes the biggest impact on the computer... the i5 and i7 speed differences might be imperceivable after an SSD upgrade.
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Imperceivable?


kijinnmaru-inconceivable.jpg
 
:) Now you're quoting my favorite movie of all time.

imperceivable - Impossible or difficult to perceive by the mind or senses.
inconceivable - Impossible to comprehend.

To me the difference between an i5 and an i7 is imperceivable. To use an iPad instead of a macbook to write a term paper is inconceivable.

Do you have six fingers?
 
saniko said:
i7 sold at higher than what I paid for it. Didn't need eBay; just used craigslist. I love Apple products! I put it out there for $2100... the buyer saves $250+ because I had the antiglare, hi-res display. I kept my SSD and put back the 500GB hard drive. It's so easy to resell these products. We both got a good deal. I'll use the profit for Applecare.

I just wanted to share my experience but apparently that is not what people want to hear.
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sanico,

You write well and appear to be educated and intellectual. I realize that you offered an opinion based on your requirements and experience.

With that said, I'm a bit perplexed as to how you made money selling a 15" i7 which includes the Hi-rez and anti-glare display for the $2100.00 asking price.

As new as the i7 is, and with the optional display you selected, the Apple store would be your only option at this point.

The Apple discount for the i7 is $1999.00 plus $135.00 for the display, plus the 8% (Seattle) sales tax you paid equals $2304.72.

If you sold the i7 for the $2100.00 asking price, you lost $204.72.

The Apple discount for the i5 is $1849.00 plus $135.00 for the display, plus $158.72 in sales tax bringing your total to $2142.72.

Add the $204.72 you lost on the i7 to the $2142.72 price of the i5 and you're looking at $2347.44.

It appears you lost $42.72 on the deal, but you said still had money left over for Apple care ($239.00)?

Yes, I do have extra free time this evening. I also knew the discounted price difference between the two computers as I do qualify for the discount and went back and forth as to which computer I wanted last week.

I apologize in advance if I'm missing something. I'm not looking to pick fights and could be wrong in my assumptions.

Just looking for honesty and clarity from someone who writes well enough to influence peoples ($2000.00 plus) buying decisions.
 
I find it amusing that someone would create such a tale to make themselves feel better about having chosen the i5 over the i7. :D
 
Sometimes you just have to make a purchase in a state with no sales tax. Portland is pretty close to Seattle.

Also, buy Applecare on eBay. I think you can get a pretty sweet $135 buy it now deal most of the time for 15" and 17" macbook pros.

I can't do the math here right now, but it should all add up. And even if it doesn't, don't worry about it. I don't have anything to gain from this. I just wanted to share my experience having both an i5 and i7 macbook pro.
 
For me the best value is the i5 2.53ghz model. I want the 500gb HDD and the AG screen.

i5 2.4ghz works out to be $2,415 after student discount; the
i5 2.53ghz works out to be $2,488 after student discount.

So you can see that the more expensive model is only $73 more after the options I want. :p

All prices in Aussie dollars.
 
saniko said:
Sometimes you just have to make a purchase in a state with no sales tax. Portland is pretty close to Seattle.

Also, buy Applecare on eBay. I think you can get a pretty sweet $135 buy it now deal most of the time for 15" and 17" macbook pros.

I can't do the math here right now, but it should all add up. And even if it doesn't, don't worry about it. I don't have anything to gain from this. I just wanted to share my experience having both an i5 and i7 macbook pro.
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Understood and I appreciate you remaining a gentleman.

I have heard of Applecare being available via Ebay. Didn't look into it as I heard of it after purchasing my last iMac and already purchased the coverage via the Apple store.

Coincidentally, earlier this evening I wanted to learn more since I just bought the Macbook pro without Applecare and was excited to learn that it is a bill cheaper on Ebay through legitimate sellers - I'm in!

Enjoy your new Macbook,

Mark
 
yooper said:
sanico,

You write well and appear to be educated and intellectual. I realize that you offered an opinion based on your requirements and experience.

With that said, I'm a bit perplexed as to how you made money selling a 15" i7 which includes the Hi-rez and anti-glare display for the $2100.00 asking price.

As new as the i7 is, and with the optional display you selected, the Apple store would be your only option at this point.

The Apple discount for the i7 is $1999.00 plus $135.00 for the display, plus the 8% (Seattle) sales tax you paid equals $2304.72.

If you sold the i7 for the $2100.00 asking price, you lost $204.72.

The Apple discount for the i5 is $1849.00 plus $135.00 for the display, plus $158.72 in sales tax bringing your total to $2142.72.

Add the $204.72 you lost on the i7 to the $2142.72 price of the i5 and you're looking at $2347.44.

It appears you lost $42.72 on the deal, but you said still had money left over for Apple care ($239.00)?

Yes, I do have extra free time this evening. I also knew the discounted price difference between the two computers as I do qualify for the discount and went back and forth as to which computer I wanted last week.

I apologize in advance if I'm missing something. I'm not looking to pick fights and could be wrong in my assumptions.

Just looking for honesty and clarity from someone who writes well enough to influence peoples ($2000.00 plus) buying decisions.
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Thank you for this. Nothing in the OPs story added up to me, and you have just confirmed it.

I am a happy i7 purchaser :)
 
saniko said:
Alright, I will take one thing back. We both installed the flash beta for Macs. His I5 didn't fare so well at all watching HD hulu. My i7 did seem to be significantly better.
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what the hell did you expect?! If you want "pro" performance get the i7 when you want last years "pro" performance buy the i5. I think you should have kept your i7....when things are this expensive 2-3k YOU ALWAYS BUY THE BEST ... NEVER cut your self short because of a few hundred dollars and some 30-40 mins battery differences!!!
 
jonpwnz said:
you dummy what the hell did you expect?! If you want "pro" performance get the i7 when you want last years "pro" performance buy the i5. I think you should have kept your i7....when things are this expensive 2-3k YOU ALWAYS BUY THE BEST ... NEVER cut your self short because of a few hundred dollars and some 30-40 mins battery differences!!!
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We're talking about someone who doesn't even know where he sold his Macbook pro.... read the previous page. His "story" is that he put his MBP on ebay and then didn't need ebay and sold it on craigslist pretty much illustrates the fact that he has some kind of multi-personality disorder.
 
That's not cool. I went craigslist because I only have to write 5 lines and quote a price. With eBay, I would have to have pictures, pay 10% of final value to the paypal/eBay monopoly, and then pay for shipping.

If you're using a couple unrelated items to call BS to my story, that's just childish. I have to put up with crap from other people for loving the iPad, but I can see that this crowd can be just as crude.

Mods, if you can delete this thread and my membership it would be appreciated.

Thanks for making my first day on this site a very pleasant one. Keep it up.
 
saniko said:
That's not cool. I went craigslist because I only have to write 5 lines and quote a price. With eBay, I would have to have pictures, pay 10% of final value to the paypal/eBay monopoly, and then pay for shipping.
Mods, if you can delete this thread and my membership it would be appreciated.
Thanks for making my first day on this site a very pleasant one. Keep it up.
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There seems to be some kind of disconnect here... Again, some kind of multi-personality disorder.

You wrote this in your opening thread. Not me. You said it! No one is putting words in your mouth, this is what you said!
saniko said:
To make a long story short, I've put my i7 on eBay and got myself the base i5 model.
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And then you said this.
saniko said:
i7 sold at higher than what I paid for it. Didn't need eBay; just used craigslist.
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So you either have some kind of multi-personality disorder or you're a flat out liar.

I apologize for my personality, but I can't stand it when people aren't truthful and I don't want others to take a grain of salt in what you say cuz you obviously have problems getting your facts straight. This has nothing to do with saving money using Craigslist and I think you are confused if you think that is my issue.
 
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