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New Baseline vs. Old Baseline (Worth Exchanging

T

takeitt

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 14, 2007
11
0
I'm debating exchanging my old baseline macbook pro for the new one. I bought it on sale 2 weeks ago strategically anticipating an update today. I figured that if I wasn't happy with the update, I wouldn't have missed out on the sale. And that if I liked the update I could return this one and buy the new one. I'm now wondering whether its truly worth me going through the process of exchanging it.

Now the obvious improvements I can see are the bigger hard drive, better video card, and multi touch. I had also researched before, noting that penryn would offer some increase in battery life. All of these features seem pretty intriguing for the 100.00 difference I would be paying.

My main question is on the processor, how does the reduction is cache along with increase in clock speed effect the performance. I've read people complaining about the cache reduction, and I'm curious as to whether or not it makes a drastic difference in real world tasks. I do a lot of photoshop, video editing, and audio recording work. How would this processor compare to my current one. If I will see an overall improvement than my decision should be a no brainer. However I'm interested in what people have to say.

Can anyone offer me any insight into this?

Thanks!
 
Someone read my thoughts. I was just going to ask this for a cousin of mine with the old 2.2GHz baseline.
 
If you were a person that just did web surfing, web development or programming, then I would say that the difference in cache is probably minimal in real world applications. BUT!!, since you did mention to do a lot of photoshop, video editing and audio recording, the smaller cache will probably take a toll in overall performance. With smaller cache, you might see exactly the same or slightly less performance than the older (not older but the SR) baseline model. If you were to get the higher end MBP with 6MB cache then it would be worth upgrading. I'm not too sure about the memory on the video card but more memory is better. hehe.

The increase in battery life is also minimal maybe adding an extra 30 mins or so. I'm also on the fence as to weather exchange my (broken) SR MBP for the new one or try to get another SR MBP.

-JoE
 
cache is a big deal and the extra 1 mb of cache is more important than .2 processor speed imo..but honestly the extra vram and hd space would make up for it
 
I got it on sale at Future Shop, and I made sure I'd be able to return it for no charge, and indeed I can. So thats why I'm asking you guys.
 
If you want a new unit: If the difference is $100, get the new system. You will make up that $100 on resale. Would multi-touch save you time?

If you want bang for the $: Get a refurbished 2.4 for $1649, max the ram, get a scratch disk or external monitor.
 
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