Macbook Pro: 13"[2.4 or 2.66] vs 15" [any speed]

[runebinder]

I'm kind of in between with the 13" 2.4 or 2.66...I'm seeing a lot of people saying to just get the base. Can anyone tell me why it's better to get the base? Perhaps if I end up having extra money which parts would you recommend me getting?

Because $300 is not worth it for a a small processor bump and 70GB extra HDD space, you're better off with the base and putting the extra money you would have spent on the 2.66GHz model towards an SSD drive or 8GB of RAM, they'll give you a far better performance increase.

 

[JackHobbs]

I have a 13" MBP with 2.53GHz and 4GB of Ram. I run CS4 on it and do a little movie editing using imovie. I'm really impressed with the speed that it loads CS4 and it meets all of my needs. There isn't any lag that I notice when I'm editing photos. That said another 4GB of Ram would make it even nippier. I like the 13" as it is very portable and I use it when I'm working in school.

 

[ouimetnick]

I'm kind of in between with the 13" 2.4 or 2.66...I'm seeing a lot of people saying to just get the base. Can anyone tell me why it's better to get the base? Perhaps if I end up having extra money which parts would you recommend me getting?

The hard drive can be upgraded your self. For a 500 GB Hard drive, it costs around $87 at iFixit. A 320GB HD that is found in the "high end" MBP costs $65.79 So then you are spending $234.21 to get a CPU that is a 266 MHz speed increase. You won't even notice a speed difference comparing the 2.4 GHz to the 2.66 GHz. Maybe .5 or less second difference, but nothing with the extra money. So you are wasting you money getting a very little faster CPU.

 

[kny3twalker]

The hard drive can be upgraded your self. For a 500 GB Hard drive, it costs around $87 at iFixit. A 320GB HD that is found in the "high end" MBP costs $65.79 So then you are spending $234.21 to get a CPU that is a 266 MHz speed increase. You won't even notice a speed difference comparing the 2.4 GHz to the 2.66 GHz. Maybe .5 or less second difference, but nothing with the extra money. So you are wasting you money getting a very little faster CPU.

in your argument here, you are ignoring that when you do the upgrade yourself, you still have the old hardware. And the oem 250gb plus the upgraded harddrive is more space or the oem drive can be sold.

Then when you say .5 seconds faster, do you mean on an hour long encoding or something? Without defining the task the time difference has no relevance.

Regardless the upgraded 13" is a terrible value and offers impercievable performance gains.

 

[ihonda]

i went with the base 13" and added a 640gb hd, its love

 

[ChrisWeissPhoto]

Both 13" and 15" will probably be able to handle what you want to do, the 15" will be able to do it in less time.

The differences between core 2 Duo vs i5/i7 core. i5/7 supports hyper-threading, which means the computer will see 4 cores, 2 real and 2 virtual. Once apps start becoming common that make use of this the i5s and i7s will be much faster than the C2D.

Also i5/7s have turbo boost so in single threaded apps they can turn off one core and automatically overclock the remaining one. The i5 2.4GHz will go as high as 2.93, the i5 2,53GHz will go as high as 3.06GHz and the i7 2.66GHz will go to 3.33GHz.

So if you're planning on it lasting on 4 years, the C2D in the 13" will still be able to last but will not age as well as the i5/7s.

Thanks for the feedback. I guess it seems like I should go with the 15 then. I really wish they had put the i5 in the 13, I'd really like it a little cheaper and more portable. But as you said, the 15 will age better and probably give me more bang for my buck.

Can you explain threading a little more? Like single threading vs...? And what is the point in overclocking a single processor when itcould divide it between the two? It seems to me that would be faster but I am obviously missing some information here to understand it.

Thanks for your help! Oh, and this was typed on my iPhone really quickly, my apologies for any grammatical/spelling errors.

 

[Quicksilver2001]

My personal experiences (in brief)

I have been raised in a family that buys Macs as often as we can or need to (it's really great when both coincide...) That said, I love the portability of the 13.3 inch MacBook Pro, plus the ergonomics of the 13-incher in all areas work out better for me, because you're not supposed to type in such a way that the MacBook's edge is slicing your wrists. Then again, I type using the "hunt-and-peck" method and never could get the hang of touch typing.

With that said, I sincerely do applaud you if you can indeed buy a used/refurbished MacBook Pro Summer 2009 15.4 inch and it will work out for you. For me, as a college student, it worked out better to go to a real brick & mortar store and buy a new MacBook there.

I don't find the lack of a matte display option to be a deal-killer, and I wouldn't have bought any newer or older MacBook than this Pro from the Spring 2010 model line-up. I have both an Early 2008 iMac 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo 24-inch, with the (still awesome to me) 1920x1200 resolution screen, and my old used upon arrival 2.4GHz MacBook White Early 2008 spends its time attached to our bedroom HDTV, thus giving me a really good semi-desktop that can also moonlight as a really good (if not outstanding like the Pro) laptop. I keep it around because it's like a netbook or an iBook G4 in the Apple netbook role,but it runs Snow Leopard unlike the iBook G4, and Mac OS X updates won't shut it down like a PC netbook.

For my needs, I have three perfect placeholders (stadtholders in Dutch), and the MBP Spring 2010 13.3-inch 2.4GHz base model just has it all over both of the Summer 2009 13.3-inch models AND the Spring 2010 high-end model, which all the users and professionals both agree was the wrong choice.

Hope this helps and I am indeed new to this site!