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MBP 15" i5 vs i7! Help!

xPAULx

xPAULx

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 14, 2009
34
0
Wales (UK)
Hey guys!
Im looking to buy a MBP 15" but im not sure what version to get the i5 or the i7?

I Do a degree in multimedia so I will be using it for pretty hardware intensive tasks Eg Maya, Logic, After effects etc.
I currently have a 24" iMac which I have had for 2 years and still going strong!

I will be upgrading the laptop to 8GB of RAM , 7200RPM 500GB hardrive and hi res antiglare screen.

I can get student discount on it but is the price difference between the to laptops worth it?

Please help!
Thanks!
 
I'd certainly say the other upgrades you've chosen are more important. When it comes to upgrading though, I always say fork out the extra money now so the computer has a better life-span (longer before it needs replacing because of age).
For your kind of work, you will use the extra clock speed, mostly when rendering. I'd say do it.
 
Thanks for the help mate!

Also would upgrading to an SSD we worth while?
Im just not sure paying the high price:confused:
 
With Maya, power is very important. I am not versed into recommending the most powerful processors but in your case I think it's valuable. If you don't use Maya that much I think the i5 will be fine.
 
i5 for sure, you cant stick 3 memory sticks in your MBP so tripple channel memory is useless here, the only thing you get is an extra 130mhz on each core.

friend of mine has it, i have the 17" i7, we did cinebench tests and they performed exactly the same; 15.93
 
i7 will add en extra 256 MB of VRAM to the NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M for 512MB total.

If you are using it for mulitmedia, i7 is the way to go.
 
Add another vote for the i7. More juice to run your media apps. I may be prejudiced since I just received my new i7 this past Monday, but I got it for those very same reasons.
 
Defiantly go with the i7 it just makes more sense.
Your a multimedia student so will probably need the extra power, and if your planning on running a few of those programs at the same time the 8GB ram would also make alot of sense.
 
As others have already commented, with your apps, you may really want to consider getting an i7-based CPU. Also, an SSD is really a fantastic upgrade.
 
Absolutely go for the Macbook Pro i7 (15 Inch). A 512MB Graphics Card is becoming the standard minimum for quality performance, and the i7 does grant you some significant processing power, as compared to the i5. In the end, you'll be happy you spent extra cash for a computer that will last you a year longer, before you'll have to upgrade.
 
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