Resolved Comparison between MacBook Pro's

[Mal]

I'm looking to buy a new laptop, and I'm looking right now at BHPhotoVideo.com (bought from them before, though not computers), and they have a previous model and a current model available. I'm curious what the general opinion would be between the two, taking into consideration not a big difference in price. I am a Mac tech, and I also work a lot in Keynote and Pixelmator, but not with video or anything like that. Either drive is big enough (I currently have a 500GB) and I'm considering a 1TB drive in the future anyways, which wouldn't be affected by the decision of which of these models I purchase. If I get the older one, I can upgrade the RAM to 8GB for about the same total price as the newer one, I think, although I may consider the same upgrade with the newer one anyways.

Links:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/762131-REG/Apple_Z0LY_0002_13_3_MacBook_Pro_Notebook.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/756788-REG/Apple_MC724LL_A_13_3_MacBook_Pro_Notebook.html

I'd appreciate any thoughts on the matter! I'll be looking to purchase within the next day or two, can't put it off any longer.

jW

 

[Mal]

So after a moment's thought, it actually seems that there's no advantage, except the larger drive and free Parallels software (which I wouldn't use), of the first of those links over this one: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/756787-REG/Apple_MC700LL_A_13_3_MacBook_Pro_Notebook.html

Thus, it becomes a comparison between the current base model and the current i7 model. I guess the real question is how much difference the i7 processor will make to the tasks I described, and for some future-proofing (I've had my current computer for almost 3 years, and I expect the new one to stick around that long too).

EDIT: And now that I realized that, I think the obvious choice is the cheaper i5, considering the performance difference. I can get a 1TB hard drive and 8GB of RAM for far less than $300 too, although I might wait for a really good sale on the RAM since I'm working with 4GB now and it works ok for me.

Thanks, MacRumors!

jW

 

[killerrobot]

Between the first i5 and the i7. I would go with the i7 processor. It's only 50 bucks more than the i5.

Between the two i5s then I would definitely get the cheaper, especially if you're going to replace the HDD anyways.

Overall, it looks like the cheaper i5 (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/756787-REG/Apple_MC700LL_A_13_3_MacBook_Pro_Notebook.html) would be the way to go in order to save. For what you do/need, it should handle everything more than adequately.

As far as future proofing, I would hope an i5 processor can last the next three years.