Resolution and heat in the i5 and i7?

[Blu101]

any thoughts. Looks like I can get for the same price a 17 inch i5 2.53 mbp 1900x1200, or a 15 inch i7 2.66 with 1680x1050. Both are $2299.00. Will the 2.53 be taxed more and run hotter having to fill up that large screen vs the i7? What is the best value between the two

I'd get the best of both worlds: a 15" 2.4Ghz i5 with the hi-res screen and use the saved $$ towards RAM, HDD or accessories (sleeve, better headphones, printer, etc.).

The i7 is only ~10-13% faster than the 2.4 i5 and would best be utilized for lots of photo/video editing or other cpu intensive work (the 2.53Ghz i5 is only ~3% faster, and in some cases, even worse than the 2.4Ghz i5). The i5 will also run a little cooler and get you a little more battery time. And finally, on an online benchtest article I caught last week, the 512MB 330M made no difference whatsoever compared to the 256MB 330M in all of their tests (all the popular games, CoD4, etc.), except for when running an external monitor at the max resolution (2560x1600 or something like that). According to them, the 330M card is just too slow to take full advantage of the extra 256MB. But for those who will be running an ACD (or equivalent), it may come in handy. But don't be fooled, this is only at the max res, the 256MB 330M has no problems running an external monitor at native resolutions. In fact, my gf's 2006 macbook runs fine on my 42" plasma at its native res, so I'm sure a 2010 MBP will cruise on by.

If you plan on using it outdoors a lot, you might want to check out the anti-glare screens too.

Good luck.

 

[michial]

What about getting a refurbed 2.4 i5 with a 256 ssd. They are like 300 off refurbed? But ive heard macs dont have trim or auto clean compatibility so ssds degrade unlike their pc cousins which renew their function and perrformance.

 

[mox123]

my 2010 MBP 2.4GHz Core i5 (High-res glossy) idles at about 40C, which is a HUGE improvement when compared with my old 2008 classic MBP that idles at 54C.

I'd definitely go high-res. No idea what people are complaining about regarding the screen fonts being too much. To me, screen real estate is golden.

 

[Blu101]

What about getting a refurbed 2.4 i5 with a 256 ssd. They are like 300 off refurbed? But ive heard macs dont have trim or auto clean compatibility so ssds degrade unlike their pc cousins which renew their function and perrformance.

Unless you do a lot of work with huge files, i.e. video and photography, some sort of autocad or similar, etc., I'd skip the whole SSD thing for now. They're still very expensive and will only benefit you if working with large files. A 7200 RPM HDD will serve you fine until SSD becomes more mainstream and affordable (and refined).

 

[scrace89]

I came to my MBP 17 i5, from a quad core i7 hp envy17 with a 1gb gpu and the heat from this laptop is nothing compared to the heat from that laptop. It also depends which OS you are using if you dual boot with windows 7, windows 7 runs much hotter than OS X snow leopard. I suggest the i5 1200p, $200 for ~10% increase in performance is not worth it IMO and I don't think you'd ever notice a difference.

 

[michial]

I came to my MBP 17 i5, from a quad core i7 hp envy17 with a 1gb gpu and the heat from this laptop is nothing compared to the heat from that laptop. It also depends which OS you are using if you dual boot with windows 7, windows 7 runs much hotter than OS X snow leopard. I suggest the i5 1200p, $200 for ~10% increase in performance is not worth it IMO and I don't think you'd ever notice a difference.

Which i5 did you recommend I didnt understand? the i5 2.4 or 2.53, 15" or 17"? Also can my wife play sims 3 on it. Is the stock 5400 rpm hdd good enough? That is our only gaming the mbp will see. thanks for all the help. So do you regret going mac from such a beastly hp laptop?

 

[michial]

I'd get the best of both worlds: a 15" 2.4Ghz i5 with the hi-res screen and use the saved $$ towards RAM, HDD or accessories (sleeve, better headphones, printer, etc.).

The i7 is only ~10-13% faster than the 2.4 i5 and would best be utilized for lots of photo/video editing or other cpu intensive work (the 2.53Ghz i5 is only ~3% faster, and in some cases, even worse than the 2.4Ghz i5). The i5 will also run a little cooler and get you a little more battery time. And finally, on an online benchtest article I caught last week, the 512MB 330M made no difference whatsoever compared to the 256MB 330M in all of their tests (all the popular games, CoD4, etc.), except for when running an external monitor at the max resolution (2560x1600 or something like that). According to them, the 330M card is just too slow to take full advantage of the extra 256MB. But for those who will be running an ACD (or equivalent), it may come in handy. But don't be fooled, this is only at the max res, the 256MB 330M has no problems running an external monitor at native resolutions. In fact, my gf's 2006 macbook runs fine on my 42" plasma at its native res, so I'm sure a 2010 MBP will cruise on by.

If you plan on using it outdoors a lot, you might want to check out the anti-glare screens too.

Good luck.

Can you link up that info you found on it. Sounds interesting. Any reason to avoid buying refurbished. They have great deals but I'd hate to get one with scratches or dents

 

[WardC]

Has anybody been able to compare the heat on the i5 versus the i7? Like when ripping a few DVDs using Handbrake and maxing out all the cores, which machine runs hotter?

 

[Blu101]

Can you link up that info you found on it. Sounds interesting. Any reason to avoid buying refurbished. They have great deals but I'd hate to get one with scratches or dents

Here you go (the 330M 512MB vs 256MB article):

http://www.barefeats.com/mbpp22.html

From the article:

"One of the questions asked of me and posted on forums is, "Do I need the MacBook Pro with 512MB of video memory ro is 256MB enough? Is it worth $200 more?"

To answer the question, we ran some 3D games at various resolutions to see at what point the MacBook Pro with 256MB of video memory fell behind. Turns out that you have to go all the way to 2560x1600 resolution (using an external 30" Cinema display) and 4X Anti-Aliasing to bring the "VRAM challenged" MacBook Pro to its knees.

At least when it comes to 3D accelerated games, unless you are connecting your MacBook Pro to an external 30" Cinema display running at 2560x1600, the model with 256MB of video memory will run GPU intensives apps just as fast as the model with 512MB of video memory."


Pretty easy to find other articles and benchtests on how the i7 is ~10-13% faster than the 2.4 i5 (just google search "macbook pro i5 vs i7").

I haven't read anything bad about buying refurbished from the apple store yet. In fact, some even report happy surprises like upgraded displays, RAM and HDDs, but since they weren't listed, you can't count on that every time. Refurb gives good discounts and comes with full warranty and still eligible for 3 year warranties (additional purchase, of course), so if shopping on a budget, it's a very attractive option.