I have a 2008 15-inch Macbook Pro which has served me very well throughout the years. However, it is increasingly showing its age and while I would love to get another year out of it, I am pretty convinced I need to replace it sooner versus later.
I have been researching the newest line of Airs and Macbook Pros in an attempt to find a suitable replacement. About 60% of what I do is email, web-browsing and coding along with some light photo editing. However, I have a couple of Windows only programs I must run requiring that I have a speedy virtual machine (currently using Parallels with XP). On occasion, I also use the computer for music production work. It is mostly hobby stuff but I used to use my old machine professionally so I want to retain some future ability to record music on it if need be.
Ideally, I want something that is small, light and highly portable which peaked my interest in the Airs. However, I am pretty convinced that they lack the horsepower I require. Subsequently, I have decided to focus on either the 13-inch or 15-inch MacBook Pro. I vastly prefer the form-factor of the smaller laptop but wasnt sure that it would be powerful enough for all my needs.
Between the high-end 13-inch model and the low-end 15-inch, it appears that the main difference is a quad-core processor as almost everything else can be upgraded/changed to be about even. Am I missing something else? And if this is the case, how important or significant of a performance boost would I get based on my needs going with the 15 inch over the 13?
I have been researching the newest line of Airs and Macbook Pros in an attempt to find a suitable replacement. About 60% of what I do is email, web-browsing and coding along with some light photo editing. However, I have a couple of Windows only programs I must run requiring that I have a speedy virtual machine (currently using Parallels with XP). On occasion, I also use the computer for music production work. It is mostly hobby stuff but I used to use my old machine professionally so I want to retain some future ability to record music on it if need be.
Ideally, I want something that is small, light and highly portable which peaked my interest in the Airs. However, I am pretty convinced that they lack the horsepower I require. Subsequently, I have decided to focus on either the 13-inch or 15-inch MacBook Pro. I vastly prefer the form-factor of the smaller laptop but wasnt sure that it would be powerful enough for all my needs.
Between the high-end 13-inch model and the low-end 15-inch, it appears that the main difference is a quad-core processor as almost everything else can be upgraded/changed to be about even. Am I missing something else? And if this is the case, how important or significant of a performance boost would I get based on my needs going with the 15 inch over the 13?