MBP 17" Screen Resolution and HDD

[answer348]

I'm very interested in picking up a refurb or clearance priced 17" MBP, but I'm not sure which direction to go on the options for screen resolution and hard drive.

-Screen Resolution: high resolution, regular resolution, or does it even matter?

-Hard Drive: 5400rpm, 7200rpm, or does it really matter?

I'll be using the laptop mostly for web surfing, word processing, and perhaps some MMO gaming. I'm not sure which functions benefit from higher resolutions or faster hard drives.

 

[emt1]

I'm very interested in picking up a refurb or clearance priced 17" MBP, but I'm not sure which direction to go on the options for screen resolution and hard drive.

-Screen Resolution: high resolution, regular resolution, or does it even matter?

-Hard Drive: 5400rpm, 7200rpm, or does it really matter?

I'll be using the laptop mostly for web surfing, word processing, and perhaps some MMO gaming. I'm not sure which functions benefit from higher resolutions or faster hard drives.

Hard drive speed really won't make a difference in your case. Higher res would help with gaming... as long as the video card can play the games you want with the settings you want at the higher resolution. If it can't... then there's no point to the higher resolution.

 

[alphaod]

Higher res would help with gaming... as long as the video card can play the games you want with the settings you want at the higher resolution. If it can't... then there's no point to the higher resolution.

Higher res would only make gaming performance decrease.

 

[answer348]

The lower screen resolution and the slower hdd seem to be fine then (and improve the price point).

Now I need to do something about the fact that an equivalently specced 15.4" model is $600 cheaper than the 17" model. That seems to be a high price for a little more real estate.

 

[answer348]

I'm still mulling this screen resolution question. What exactly are the benefits to the higher resolution screen? Or, which users benefit the most from it?

 

[benjs]

I'm still mulling this screen resolution question. What exactly are the benefits to the higher resolution screen? Or, which users benefit the most from it?

A big one would be watching 1080p video content.. if you have access to high-definition video content, you will not be fully taking advantage of that if you have the regular screen. Also, as mentioned, any games with a native resolution higher than the regular screen can be played back at that native resolution, assuming that resolution is equal to or less than the resolution of your screen - which it likely will. If your needs are just for a computer to do your word processing and web browsing etc., stick with the regular screen, it'll be sufficient.