Performance: 2.66 Ghz 15-inch or 2.8Ghz? 5400rpm or 7200rpm?

[gobulldogs432]

Hi (first post here ),

I'm upgrading from a 13-inch 2Ghz core duo black macbook w/ 1.5 Gb of memory to a new pro. I assume I'll see a pretty fair performance boost.

I can't find a good performance breakdown and battery life breakdown. I have a student discount also...

Should I go for the 2.66 Ghz or 2.8 Ghz model? To me, it seems the biggest difference for my use would be the vcard... is the 512 mb actually that much better?

Should I go for 5400 rpm or 7200 rpm -- and would a 500 gb be faster than a 320 gb or no difference?

I'll use the computer mostly for school, but may use photoshop, gaming, etc occasionally (but definitely not every day).

Thanks!

P.S. I searched this and couldn't find a good thread... sorry for repetition if that's what this is

 

[kenned]

well the 140mhz extra aint going to do much of a difference. The main difference you would feel would be going with the 7200 RPM drive instead of the 5400. It will make your system feel much "snappier", as system and program startups will be much faster.

As to the difference between a 320gig and a 500gig drive, there will be a little difference in speed due to the data density of the drives.

And the 512MB on the GPU will probably only make a difference when you connect an external display.

Hope that helped

 

[jedijoe]

based off your usage.. i would say why waste the money.

2.66Ghz + 4GB memory + 500GB 5400RPM (which outperforms the Seagate 500GB 7.2k drive anyway in most tests)

The 9600M GT is significantly better in anything 3D, compared to the 9400m, but I don't think 256MB to 512MB is anything really appreciable, unless you are really planning to tax the vidcard with 3D intensive applications all the time.

 

[Kristalghost]

im buying a 15 to and im a student to.
im going for the 2.8 because of the graficscard (vista in bootcamp uses the gt)
and the 3=>6mb cache of the processor. I have been told it makes alot of difference.
as for the the HD id also go for the 5400rpm 500g HD because it preforms beter and uses less power in benchmarks.
hope this helps you out

 

[davidcalvet]

be aware of the 7200

I read in a french site that the 7200 was making some vibration in the unibody because of his speed.
go and check first if you can ...

 

[maflynn]

I have the seagate 7200.4 500gig drive and I've not noticed too much vibration. I'd say go for the 500gig and the 7200 rpm model.