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MacBook Pro 2.4 vs 2.53 GHz?

M

mktb

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 6, 2008
27
0
So I'm definitely buying a MacBook Pro. No question on that, so don't try to convince me otherwise ;)

Here's what I'm looking at (edu discount prices):

MBP 2.4GHz $1900
MBP 2.53 GHz $2300 ($400 more than 2.4)

MBP 2.53 has 512MB vram (vs 256), 4GB RAM (vs 2GB), 320GB HD (vs 250GB), and 2.53GHz proc speed (vs 2.4GHz.)

Does that justify $400? I really don't like replacing things myself, and I'd like this MBP to last. I have an older 2.4GHz MBP now with 2GB RAM, and I'm overloading it.

Thanks!
 
I guess thats up to you. If you are interested in gaming, the 512 of vram might give you a lil boost...the proc boost will do little to nothing, and the 4gb ram can be added to the 2.4. If you want my opinion, grab a 2.4, upgrade it to 4gb, wait for slc ssd's to get cheaper and upgrade to one of those when the price gets right with the $$$ you saved.
 
nocoast said:
I guess thats up to you. If you are interested in gaming, the 512 of vram might give you a lil boost...the proc boost will do little to nothing, and the 4gb ram can be added to the 2.4. If you want my opinion, grab a 2.4, upgrade it to 4gb, wait for slc ssd's to get cheaper and upgrade to one of those when the price gets right with the $$$ you saved.
Click to expand...

Oh, the proc will do not much? Hmm. Might go for 2.4 now...
 
nocoast said:
I guess thats up to you. If you are interested in gaming, the 512 of vram might give you a lil boost...the proc boost will do little to nothing, and the 4gb ram can be added to the 2.4. If you want my opinion, grab a 2.4, upgrade it to 4gb, wait for slc ssd's to get cheaper and upgrade to one of those when the price gets right with the $$$ you saved.
Click to expand...

im doing the exact same
cant wait for SSD's to drop
although u can get 64gb HD for around 120 on ebay after live cashback
 
nocoast said:
I guess thats up to you. If you are interested in gaming, the 512 of vram might give you a lil boost...the proc boost will do little to nothing, and the 4gb ram can be added to the 2.4. If you want my opinion, grab a 2.4, upgrade it to 4gb, wait for slc ssd's to get cheaper and upgrade to one of those when the price gets right with the $$$ you saved.
Click to expand...

totally agree. you'll get a bigger overall difference with an SSD than you would with the 130mhz. Looking at Geekbench scores, the difference is so small that some 2.4GHz are slightly slower, some slightly faster. The biggest discrepancy came with the 2.8ghz model.
 
mktb said:
So I'm definitely buying a MacBook Pro. No question on that, so don't try to convince me otherwise ;)

Here's what I'm looking at (edu discount prices):

MBP 2.4GHz $1900
MBP 2.53 GHz $2300 ($400 more than 2.4)

MBP 2.53 has 512MB vram (vs 256), 4GB RAM (vs 2GB), 320GB HD (vs 250GB), and 2.53GHz proc speed (vs 2.4GHz.)

Does that justify $400? I really don't like replacing things myself, and I'd like this MBP to last. I have an older 2.4GHz MBP now with 2GB RAM, and I'm overloading it.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Well, let's look at what you are getting with the higher end model, twice the RAM, twice the VRAM, twice the L2 cache, 70GB more HD space, and a faster processor. Yea, I'd say it's worth $400.

However, it really depends on what you want to get out of your MBP. Do you want to game on it? Will you be doing any video editing? If yes, then go with the higher end. Sure, you can upgrade some on the 2.4Ghz model but not all, specifically the VRAM and processor.

If you are just doing web surfing, e-mail, iTunes, etc. then don't spring for the 2.53Ghz model. With the 2.4 you'd get pretty good performance and save yourself some coin.

Incidentally, I'm in the same boat as you. I'll be buying my new MBP a few days from now. I'm leaning toward the 2.53 but could get the 2.4 also. Basically, I don't want to compromise on anything while playing WoW and want the flexibility of doing things later on that require a fair amount of horsepower even if I don't need them today.
 
based on your breakdown, the 2.53 better specs looks totally worth it for the extra 400 bucks
 
spring for the 2.53! :D

i had the same dilemma as well, and decided on the 2.53 to 'future proof' as much as possible since i plan on keeping this for a long time. upgrading to 4gb on the 2.4 would be like $200 already since 2 x 2gb DDR3 sodimm's are sill really expensive. so $200 more for +70gb, 2x vram, 3x L2 cache.
 
I went for the 2.53. I just couldn't sit back and allow myself to take half the video RAM. It works great too! Glad I spent the extra $$$
 
Here's a thought...why don't you first try spending $150 bucks or less to max the ram on your existing MBP before you spend $2500 on a new top end system? Maybe soldier on with that for another six months to see if they're going to come out with intel quad core mobile processors.

Arstechnica and some other folks have done some benchmarking with the new (top end and BTO) MBPs and the older ones. Their conclusion was that while the new models have some performance gains over their immediate predecessors, the gains are slight.

If you're using it for work, and every minute means money lost, shouldn't you be using a mac pro anyway?
 
$$$$$$$$$

Go with the cheaper one, then invest your savings into Apple stock.

In fact, I'd go with a clearance MBP Classic, which can be had for 1400 with the edu discount and is not refurbished.

Think about it, if you then invest the $1000 in AAPL, and it merely goes back to what it already was three months ago, in about a years time you'll have $2000 to buy whatever the latest and greatest Apple is next October.
 
Ya I didn't read the entire post but I do agree with you. I'd spend the $100 and max out your ram now, then wait for the next iteration of core i7 MBP's.
 
core i7 mobile processors arent even slated to come out until late 09. and after they do come out, you still have to wait for apple to refresh their lineup. plus once those come out, theres going to be something even BETTER than core i7's in the pipeline! should he wait for those as well?

if you need/want it buy it now. unless a release is immediately imminent like next month or something, you cant play the waiting game with electronics. there will always be something newer and better that will come out in the future. dont wait for something that definitely wont even surface for another year. thats just utterly ridiculous.
 
The 3M extra cache will give you a 10 to 15% boost in some apps (especially video editing/photo editing). Couple this with 2 GB extra ram, 256 MB extra VRAM, and a bigger hard drive.

I am getting the 2.53 with ADC (Thank god for being a student!)
 
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