I plan on buying a 13"MBP this month for college and will definitely upgrade the RAM to 4gb. I'll only be using it for school work and very basic audio and photo editing, nothing to intensive. Will I even notice a difference between the 2.26 and 2.53 processors? or should i just save the $300 for countless other things i'm going to need this fall? Including other computer supplies.
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buying 13" MBP. 2.26 or 2.53?
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I'm probably OCD about this kind of stuff but I went with the 2.53 (although I too was strapped for cash) because I don't want to think some time down the road that I could have had a little more processing power.
Remember that its an extra .27 ghz processing power on 2 cores, so its like .54 ghz extra processing power.
The ram and memory alone don't make it much of a bargain, but I like knowing I have more processing power and thats the one thing you'll never be able to upgrade.
Also, take into account that theres a $100 student discount on the 2.53 and a only a $50 discount on the 2.26.
Whichever one you get, I'm sure you'll be thrilled with it.
Remember that its an extra .27 ghz processing power on 2 cores, so its like .54 ghz extra processing power.
The ram and memory alone don't make it much of a bargain, but I like knowing I have more processing power and thats the one thing you'll never be able to upgrade.
Also, take into account that theres a $100 student discount on the 2.53 and a only a $50 discount on the 2.26.
Whichever one you get, I'm sure you'll be thrilled with it.
Core 2 Duo doesn't scale like that.
As to future power - you'd be further ahead putting the $300 savings in the bank and buying a new computer sooner than spending more money today. If power/time is your goal, then upgrading more often is optimal.
2.26 with a student discount, buy 3rd party ram think about 75 bucks and for 99 you can either upgrade to a 7200rpm 320gig HDD or a 5400rpm 500gig HDD.
I did this very thing last week. After selling the free Ipod and the 99 printer to my brother, I have a 2.26Ghz, 4gig ram, 320gig 7200rpm HDD 13" MBP and love it.
Most people will never even use the full power or their processor and get caught up in the numbers vs realizing they just blew 300 bucks for nothing. Unless your going to running CAD, processing lots of video or design type work the extra processor will never be noticed in your daily use.
Benchmarks are great but meaningless for people that will be browsing the web, email, music, streaming Hulu/Netflix etc.. I stream alot of TV thru Hulu and I have watched my iMac 2.8/4gig/320HDD sit next to my new MBP 2.26 and there is zero difference, both machines are overkill for the task. Streaming is all about your internet connection anyhow but the processor doesn't even break a sweat.
I did this very thing last week. After selling the free Ipod and the 99 printer to my brother, I have a 2.26Ghz, 4gig ram, 320gig 7200rpm HDD 13" MBP and love it.
Most people will never even use the full power or their processor and get caught up in the numbers vs realizing they just blew 300 bucks for nothing. Unless your going to running CAD, processing lots of video or design type work the extra processor will never be noticed in your daily use.
Benchmarks are great but meaningless for people that will be browsing the web, email, music, streaming Hulu/Netflix etc.. I stream alot of TV thru Hulu and I have watched my iMac 2.8/4gig/320HDD sit next to my new MBP 2.26 and there is zero difference, both machines are overkill for the task. Streaming is all about your internet connection anyhow but the processor doesn't even break a sweat.
You won't need 8GB RAM. Since you probably won't use the 4GB you want to upgrade to you will probably use around 500mb to 1.5GB anyway with tasks you have posted.
Agree with everyone else, the 2.26 is fine. The only thing possibly worth
spending the extra cash on is the 15" screen IF you want it.
spending the extra cash on is the 15" screen IF you want it.
Core 2 Duo doesn't scale like that.
As to future power - you'd be further ahead putting the $300 savings in the bank and buying a new computer sooner than spending more money today. If power/time is your goal, then upgrading more often is optimal.
+1. The processing bump is more of a marketing thing. Most users won't experience any difference except for CPU intensive applications. Even then, the performance increase would be negligible.
2.26 one sounds better and thats why i got it, i use it for djing, music production and basically surfing the web
the laptop is great !
ohh i also upgraded the ram to 4gb ..
the laptop is great !
ohh i also upgraded the ram to 4gb ..
Yea definitely don't spend the money on that small of an upgrade, spend it in an SSD, which of course makes it cost almost $1900 if you get 4GB RAM, but looks like SSD is worth it. Of course 2-3 years from now, SSD will be cost effective, have around 750 GB of storage, and be really cheap, as well as the standard.
SSD's are currently overrated. If you do some research and see how they degrade rather quickly as you fill up the drive they become as slow or slower than a traditional HDD. The huge premium per gig doesn't come even close to the performance gain. People get so excited because their computer boots in 15 seconds vs 40 seconds, sure that's great, but I think the last time I booted by iMac was over a month ago, it sleeps, never shuts down. The MBP I'm on now simply has the lid shut, not shut down, making boot times pointless and doesn't help me be more productive in anyway.
As far as SSD's becoming the standard... unless they change the way they work from the controllers to the actual cell type of the memory it's going to be more than 2 years before they are even close to becoming the standard. Notice how every netbook 18 months ago was SSD.. and now they are all going back to HDD? There is a reason for it if you do your research on SSD's and really understand how they work, they don't justify the cost and performance for someone that will use the drive over 2/3's of it's capacity.
If you can afford the 2.53 then go with that one. You will never regret buying one that is to fast. I do agree that the best upgrade you can make to it right now is a SSD drive. It's amazing how fast it is.
Regarding the much written about resale value. Don't think about that. First you purchase the computer to use and second we are just round the corner of a major platform change. It will not matter one bit if you have the 2.53 or the 2.26 if you compare it to the coming quad core systems and higher that have higher speed, scalability and ports. Buy to use not sell.
I got the SSD because I travel and the notebook gets bounced around quite a bit. I've had two mechanical hard drive failures, certainly shortened lifespan compared to the SSD "aging". I'd rather deal with the SSD issue than a hard drive total failure and data loss. Other than that, then yes the other benefits are that it boots fast and is dead quiet.
I just bought a 13" MBP 2.26 on Monday. I chose to save the $300 to use towards a 500GB WD Scorpio Blue and 4GB ram ($60 at newegg). Even if I bought the 2.53, I would have upgraded to the 500GB.
The slight bump in processor speed wasn't enough justification for me to buy the 2.53. And considering that my last laptop (2.16 MBP 15.4") still felt fast enough for me, I saw no need to have anything more than 2.26.
The slight bump in processor speed wasn't enough justification for me to buy the 2.53. And considering that my last laptop (2.16 MBP 15.4") still felt fast enough for me, I saw no need to have anything more than 2.26.
I have never seen anything on an SSD getting slower when filled up, that happens on HDDs.
SSD:s do slow down with age but they are a very good upgrade anyway. There is a Trim function that help with this but first drives have to implement it and second operating systems have to use it. Right now only Linux has it.
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531&p=15
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3531&p=15