Is there a difference between the baseline Macbook Pro and the 2,5ghz? (Besides CPU)

[DaSal]

If you look on the apple website you can see that the baseline Macbook Pro is 500 bucks cheaper, with seemingly the only differences being the CPU and the graphics card memory?

I could easily upgrade the ram to 4gb for way less than 500 bucks and I don't care about the minor cpu difference and graphics card memory as I won't be gaming much.

However I read somewhere that the baseline model has a worse cache or something? Even though I can't find evidence on the website. Is the performance of the baseline and the 2,5ghz almost equal? I haven't been able to find any benchmarks. I find it hard to believe the .1ghz difference is going to make a huge difference. (I'm planning to put a 7,200RPM drive in it anyway, I assume that'll make a more significant difference?)

 

[clyde2801]

http://www.macworld.com/article/136279/2008/10/macbookpro_benchmarks.html

The 2.53 has more L2 cache, but unless you're a true professional squeezing every last processor cycle out of your machine, I doube you'll tell a difference. Especially if you cram the ram and stick in a 7200 drive. Truthfully, I've got a white c2d imac in my office, a 2.4 uni MBP at my house, and a lenovo netbook hackintosh as a road machine, and I can't tell the difference between the models when I'm doing ordinary consumer stuff; only when I'm trying to encode a DVD I LEGALLY BOUGHT to my iPod can I tell much of a difference. The only reason I bought the MBP over the MB was that I found the MB's screens unacceptable when they first came out.

Let me warn you now you're probably going to be bitched at by a few members for not doing a search on this topic. I would (hopefully, non-bitchily) suggest you do this, since I'm pretty sure there has been at least a couple of lengthy, extensive threads already done on this subject. You may as well do this, and find all the info and opinions you need at your fingertips NOW rather than wait a few hours or days for responses to dribble into your thread.

Good luck!