Previous Generation Macbook Pro 2.4 vs 2.5 Ghz

[sammy-e]

Hello,

I am curious if anyone has any advice as to whether I should get the 2.4ghz mbp or spend a little more and get the 2.5ghz (both are prev gen)? The diff is around 100-150$ in price. From doing a little reading, the differences between the to machines are:

1. 0.1 ghz
2. The 2.5ghz has a 512mb video card instead of 256
3. The 2.5ghz has 6mb of L2 cache vs 3mb in the 2.4ghz

Should I pay for the difference?

As for a little background on what I plan on doing with it besides the usual web surfing and documents, I do some image editing (nothing as intensive as photoshop) and plan on doing some video editing as well.

Please chime in with your opinion, anything helps. Thanks.

 

[madrox910]

Hey Sammy-e. Im by no means a computer guru. But the way I see it every little bit helps.
Im a graphic designer and I personally own the 2.5 and I love it. I figure If your going to fork over that much money what is an extra $100-150 anyways?
you get more bang for your buck. Granted Im sure many will tell you you would probably never notice a difference between the two. But you will know in your heart. you could have had the top.
By the way just a fyi. Video editing takes a lot of juice. I know from experience. you may want to save that $100-150 for a 3rd party ram upgrade.
apple ram is too expensive.
And if Im not mistaken the previous gen pro's unofficially support up to 8 gigs of ram.
wish you luck. I was a proud pc owner until I got my hands on my first mac. I dont think you can make a bad decision either way.
Hope this helps.

 

[sammy-e]

Thanks for the input, I appreciate it. As info, I ended up going with the 2.4 ghz since it turned out it was going to be close to 300$ cheaper and, like you said, I'd rather spend it on more ram.

If anyone has any suggestions on a good place to buy ram, please let me know. Thanks again for the help.

 

[mgridgaway]

I think you made a good choice. Sure, the new one may be a bit faster, but with the old one you don't have to deal with the glossy display... which may be prohibitive if you're a designer.

Besides, next year something will come out that will be a bajillion times faster than either of them, so in the long run it doesn't matter a ton.

 

[sammy-e]

I'll admit I love the look of the glossy screens, but they've yet to sell me on the functionality. Then again, maybe they're so bright it's not an issue - gonna have to drop by the store later today =)

In terms of speed, they'll probably come out with a quad core or something that will make my purchase look kinda chumpy.

 

[mgridgaway]

You're right not to be sold on the functionality. They're a bit of a nightmare in bright light. But just a bit.

It pains me that Steve Jobs just doesn't seem to care what we think or are asking for. He's a mastermind, for sure, but maybe it's time for him to move on and let someone in who's more open to listening to what people want instead of telling us what we need.

 

[sammy-e]

Now I just have to hope that the darn thing shows up in the mail before Christmas. It's a "gift for the wife".

And since we're totally off topic... yeah, I'm new to the mac world, but there does seems to be a bit of "mad genius" in Jobs. Although maybe it takes an eccentric to get anything really cool done.