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For 90% of the people, an i5/256mb GPU will do fine.

If your in that 10% that needs the slight performance (or bragging rights?) then so be it.

But please, don't go to that 'future proofing' crap. A slight performance boost isn't future proofing at all. Like a previous poster said, save the money and upgrade sooner.
 
some people will pick an i5 or 13 inch c2d because they value battery over performance.
 
I've opted for the low end i5, just because I feel that makes most sense.
I've usually always opted for the low end version, because the extra cost to gain a little performance has for me usually not been worth it.

The difference between the i5 (2.4) and the i7 is a whooping $400!
You get a 500GB HD instead, and some more video RAM.

My previous machine was a SR MBP introduced 2007.06.05 at US$1,999 (2.2 GHz) and US$2,499 (2.4 GHz).

Today, would the $500 premium for +0.2GHz, +40GB HD and an extra 128MB VRAM made any difference? No, not for me.

But adding 4GB RAM and a 320GB GB HD for $250 half a year later did.

Today a 7200RPM 500GB HD costs less than $100, possibly in less than a year you can get a 750GB 7.2k RPM for the same.
Or a SSD like Crucial M225 (256GB) that now costs less than 600 for about the half.


That is at least my advice, as i tend to run of HD space and RAM long before CPU and GPU.
 
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