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Is the extra speed worth it?

M

mr miyagi

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 17, 2007
51
0
Hi all
I am buying my first ever MBP. So go easy on me guys if the following question sounds dumb.

Basically I have a mac mini at the moment late 2006 model, 1.83ghz intel core duo 1GIG memory and 80gig internal HD.

Now I really want a MBP. So I have decided I am going to go for the 13" one. So I need to decide which one.

I use my mac mini at the moment, for surfing, using iworks, burning music, dvd's, watching video's etc.

I want my MBP for all of the above, plus gaming, (as I have never played games on my mac mini as I know it would be really bad quality and possibly slow).

Now I do have the money to buy the 13-inch: 2.66GHz. I would also want to make my MBP last atleast 3/4 years too. I would also be looking at doing photo editing and video editing too. So therefore is it worth it, getting the extra processor speed of up to 2.66GHz and 320GIG HD.

I know some people might talk about getting a SSD. However I am not comfortable doing that myself. So therefore going for what Apple offers. I would also be wanting to have the ability to use bootcamp and might have windows 7 installed too, for any window related applications.

Any advice appreciated

thanks
 
Get whatever you can afford.

Either will do all that you are asking, and more.

I run the entire Adobe Creative Suite + Quark 8 on a 2.4 C2D AL iMac w/4 gigs ram and it handles it all without even breaking a sweat. And I'm talking multi hundred meg Photoshop files and 100+ page documents with gigs of links.

Plus all of my personal stuff. *A lot* of stuff.

You arent doing half that, and the 13" MBP has more processor than my almost 3 year old iMac.
 
Hi
so basically the 2.4ghz will work just fine and do more is what u are saying. I think when if it saves me money I might as well go for the 2.4 one. Is the HD space always upgradeable without me voiding warranty in the future ?

So also I can be doing multiple things at once too without any slowness from what I mentioned above?
 
Future proofing doesn't make sense. You spend a couple hundred to upgrade the processor hoping to get a year or two more when the reality is that you could save the money now and upgrade earlier. You'd get a better machine a couple years down the road and if you sold your current one the depreciation of two years versus three years will also result in a lot of money saved.

For example, if you would have bought a 15" MacBook Pro roughly three years ago:
Santa Rosa 2.2Ghz $1999
Santa Rosa 2.4Ghz $2499

Chose the first one and upgrade now, versus waiting another year with the 2.4Ghz because you don't have that extra $500. Also, the difference in price of a used 2.2Ghz vs. a 2.4Ghz is going to be I'd imagine somewhere close to 1/10th of that $500 that was paid.

Now over the last three years is there anything the 2.4Ghz could do that the 2.2Ghz can't?
 
mr miyagi said:
Hi
so basically the 2.4ghz will work just fine and do more is what u are saying. I think when if it saves me money I might as well go for the 2.4 one. Is the HD space always upgradeable without me voiding warranty in the future ?

So also I can be doing multiple things at once too without any slowness from what I mentioned above?
Click to expand...

I would go with the 2.4. $300 isn't worth a slightly bigger drive and an unnoticeably faster processor. I would use the extra $300 for extra computer stuff when you need it (Maybe an external for storage/backup?). Hard-drive and RAM are both user replaceable (will NOT void warranty)
 
Thanks for the replies guys I think ur right. Ok me going to stick with the 2.4. Also I was thinkng of getting time capsule like 500 gig capacity external drive with this. So might as well put the extra money towards that. :).
 
If you can afford the 2.66, go for the 2.66
signature_smiley-14923-happy-police.jpg
however I do not think that the 2.4 will struggle as such, just may be slightly sluggy
 
personally, the only 2 MBP worth the bargain are the base 13" and the base 15", the others w/slight speed bumps are waste of $$, better put into accessories or 2nd hdd for necessary TM backups!

unless you need i7 for the video, even that is a rip off.
 
hi all
so i called up Apple and they dont have the base 13" in stock yet :( still waiting. hope me get it tomorrow :)
 
Also, even though they just upgraded the MBP's, don't expect an amazing experience as far as games go. It will certainly be adequate, but you will probably not be able to play games on the highest quality settings.
 
buddyguyman said:
Also, even though they just upgraded the MBP's, don't expect an amazing experience as far as games go. It will certainly be adequate, but you will probably not be able to play games on the highest quality settings.
Click to expand...

hey to be honest. now me thinking me will prob get a dedicated gaming console like wii or something for that. so going to leave gaming out of this mac :)
 
thegoldenmackid said:
Future proofing doesn't make sense. You spend a couple hundred to upgrade the processor hoping to get a year or two more when the reality is that you could save the money now and upgrade earlier. You'd get a better machine a couple years down the road and if you sold your current one the depreciation of two years versus three years will also result in a lot of money saved.


Now over the last three years is there anything the 2.4Ghz could do that the 2.2Ghz can't?
Click to expand...

Great post. I will be taking your advice myself. Thanks! :)

Just one question though - do you think that the resale value on the latest C2D MBP 13" will hold in a couple of years, bearing in mind that by that stage the C2D will have been probably out of production for that two years? I think that your original post above would be applicable for the Arrandale chip of course..
 
mackiwilad said:
Just one question though - do you think that the resale value on the latest C2D MBP 13" will hold in a couple of years, bearing in mind that by that stage the C2D will have been probably out of production for that two years? I think that your original post above would be applicable for the Arrandale chip of course..
Click to expand...

Well, Core 2 Duos will be in production for couple of years, I think. I doubt Apple will totally redesign 13" to make it ultimately better. C2Ds are still very fast so all the hype about iX CPUs is IMO useless as they only give marginal boost in certain apps.

Next 13" may still be Core 2 Duo, nobody knows. Technology develops so fast that in couple of years there will be Ivy Bridge, even Haswell in MBPs so very hard to say.

Macs keep their value pretty well so just buy it and worry about selling when it's time to sell it.
 
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