Late-2008 15" MBP: 2.53GHz vs. 2.8GHz? Worth the $250? (Both have 512MB 9600M GT)

[GodWhomIsMike]

Late-2008 15" MBP: 2.53GHz vs. 2.8GHz? Worth the extra $250 for just the extra CPU speed, when both have 320GB hard drives, 4GB DDR3 ram, and 512MB 9600M GT?

$1449 vs $1699. Opinion?

I use Photoshop CS4, record videos in AVI format and compile/encode them into DVD format, FileMaker 10 Pro Advanced, various Virtual Machines, videos, light gaming, etc...

Starting a graduate program in Computer Science this Fall, so probably some programming too.

 

[GodWhomIsMike]

I currently have a 2.16 GHz Macbook with 2GB DDR2 ram, 320GB hard drive, and the horrible GMA 950 graphics.

This machine chokes to death with any media tasks, and just playing online video makes the fans on this thing spin at max speed.

 

[relativist]

Personally, I'd go with more screen size, especially if your going to be using it often without an external monitor. That's my preference anyway.

 

[GodWhomIsMike]

Personally, I'd go with more screen size, especially if your going to be using it often without an external monitor. That's my preference anyway.

I have a 22" monitor that it will be displaying to most of the time. Majority of the time, it will serve as a desktop machine, hooked up to a monitor.

Although... with the $250 saved, I could replace this 22" with a Dell S2409W 24" Full HD Widescreen Monitor. Hmmmm

 

[aaquib]

I'd go with the 2.66, no doubt about it. The 2.8 will only show a performance boost when encoding your AVI files to DVD's, but even then, it'll be a nominal increase. Definitely not worth the $250, unless you'll be sitting there with a time counting the extra few seconds

 

[Theclamshell]

doesent the 2.8 have the 7 hour batt and the sd slot??

 

[jb1280]

doesent the 2.8 have the 7 hour batt and the sd slot??

there existed a processor upgrade to 2.8 in the first iteration of the late 2008 15", so the old battery and expresscard slot.

 

[TK2K]

Late-2008 15" MBP: 2.53GHz vs. 2.8GHz? Worth the extra $250 for just the extra CPU speed, when both have 320GB hard drives, 4GB DDR3 ram, and 512MB 9600M GT?

$1449 vs $1699. Opinion?

I use Photoshop CS4, record videos in AVI format and compile/encode them into DVD format, FileMaker 10 Pro Advanced, various Virtual Machines, videos, light gaming, etc...

Starting a graduate program in Computer Science this Fall, so probably some programming too.

you'll notice the difference with video apps