Low or high end 13 inch Macbook Pro?

[tobygw]

So I've been debating for a while now about which Macbook I want to get, and for the moment I think I would like the portability of the 13 inch. I've yet to decide however if I want the low or high end 13 inch.
The most intensive things I plan to do on it would be rendering and livestreaming HD content, and playing some games like TF2 and Starcraft 2.

The low end 13 inch would cost me $1,149 and the specs in which it differs are it has a 2.3Ghz Intel Core i5 processor and a 320 GB hard drive. The high end would have a 2.7Ghz Intel Core i7 processor and a 500GB hard drive. So do you think I would notice a difference between the two for what I plan to use it for? Do you think that it is worth the extra 300 dollars?

 

[barkomatic]

I don't think there will be a noticeable difference though you may want to pay $50 to bump the hard drive up to 500GB on the i5.

Keep in mind that neither 13 inch model is ideal for anything except casual gaming.

I'll add however that I've been pleasantly surprised at how well my personal i5 13 inch handles games. For processor intensive tasks like video encoding its incredibly fast.

 

[squeakr]

Don't waste the money on the hard drive bump. For the price, you can do it yourself aftermarket for the same price or less and you will then have the a spare drive to put in an external for backups. This way if you ever need to send your MBP off for repair,you can swap the drives back and remote boot with the drive you were using in another MBP and have all of your data and settings in the interim, and not worry about your data being compromised (as most of the time it is recommended to do a fresh install before sending off for repair at the very least back it up. This way no reinstall/ migration when you get the MBP back.)

 

[Icy1007]

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The 13 inch will not play TF2 or SC2 very well, regardless of which one you get.

 

[tech324]

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The 13 inch will not play TF2 or SC2 very well, regardless of which one you get.

I agree. I have the 13 inch i5 Macbook Pro and I can not play TF2 on it. I have dropped the settings and it still lags really bad. I even played it connected to a network cable instead of wireless. So I play all my games on my desktop instead.

 

[Kentochan]

I have the base model 13", but I can play SC2 on medium settings without a problem. No lags, no stuttering, no nothing! Looks really good too

 

[FOX160]

The base model has the guy in the Apple store showed me it is only a few
seconds faster. OK you get a 500gig hard drive but you can update the base
model hard drive for £ 40 pounds sterling.

For me I bought the base model and with the money saved I bought a Samsung syncmaster 2333HD TV/Monitor and a 1TB rugged external
hard drive.