MBP questions (proc, ram, battery)

[cmm]

First, how long does the battery last on the 15" MBP with a 5400rpm HDD in it?

Second, is the 2.33 proc worth the price?

Do I need 1 or 2 gigabytes of ram?

I run these apps at all time: firefox, itunes, word, textedit, calendar, macirssi, terminal, preview

I also use mathematica and handbrake.

I am upgrading from a pb 12" 867mhz 768ram machine. I need this machine to last at least two years; with intel procs, who knows how long they'll be good for.

Thanks.

 

[livingfortoday]

I would say go with a slightly slower processor, and get 2GB of RAM. You won't feel the bump from 2.16 to 2.33 as much as you will the 1GB to 2GB.

 

[student_trap]

if your going to bump the ram of the cheeper machine to 2gigs, you would probably be better of simply going for the better machine, as you get an updated processor and more video ram for very little £ more!

However for your usage, you would probably be absolutely fine with the lower model just as it comes!

 

[dmw007]

I would rather have the extra RAM than the slightly faster processor.


But as student_trap points out, going with the 2.33GHz model stock is not that much more after bumping up the RAM on the 2.16GHz model.

 

[Wolfpup]

Well, going by Amazon, it's basically $375 more, just for a speed bumped CPU and double the video RAM (which isn't very useful since it's a low-end GPU). It's not a terrible deal, but IMO it's not a great one either.

 

[smueboy]

Yeah - i'd say go with the 2.16 and add 1GB RAM. For the apps you'll be running that'll be plenty.

Battery usage is very dependent upon what you are running. When i have multiple apps open (mail, safari, word, acrobat etc.) i get 3-4 hours when just surfing, writing mail etc. When i'm using photoshop however, it goes way down.

 

[macbookprouser]

Yeah - i'd say go with the 2.16 and add 1GB RAM. For the apps you'll be running that'll be plenty.

Battery usage is very dependent upon what you are running. When i have multiple apps open (mail, safari, word, acrobat etc.) i get 3-4 hours when just surfing, writing mail etc. When i'm using photoshop however, it goes way down.

i need to get me another gig of ram.