Upgrade to MacBook Pro from MacBook

[josephmccutchen]

I am planning on upgrading to a MacBook Pro at the end of the year. What I have right now is a MacBook Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz, 500 GB HDD, 4 GB RAM. I've had it for nearly three years, and for standard usage (Internet, email, word processing, music, etc.), it does fine. However, when I'm doing video editing, using VMware Fusion, etc, it doesn't hold up very well. I'm looking at either buying the 13" MacBook Pro, or the 15". I would have the money to buy the 15", but just because I would have the money, doesn't mean I want to spend it. I would like to get the 13" if it would do well enough for video editing, Fusion, etc. I don't do a whole lot in the way of video editing (once or twice a month), but I'm thinking of buying an HD Camcorder as well, therefore I might be doing more video editing. Here's what I'm wondering:

1. Buying the 13" MBP, putting in 8GB of RAM.
2. Buying the 15" MBP Intel Core i5 or i7, using 4GB of RAM and seeing how it holds up.

I know that the Intel Core i5 & i7 are much better than the Intel Core 2 Duo, but once again, I'm seeing what I can get away with. Any comments and/or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot!

MacBook 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 500 GB HDD 4GB RAM; iPod Classic 160GB

 

[mulo]

i5 for sure, it will outperform the C2D by about 100%
the i7 really isn't that beneficial because you cant stick three sticks of ram in a MBP so the triple channel memory can't be used.

 

[pandamonia]

i5 for sure, it will outperform the C2D by about 100%
the i7 really isn't that beneficial because you cant stick three sticks of ram in a MBP so the triple channel memory can't be used.

Thats not the only benefit of i7.

512mb video ram, and also larger CPU cache, dont waste money on apples rip off ram at £320 when you can buy it for £150.00 use that money for the i7 and get the ram when you can afford it.

 

[stefan1975]

benchmarks show that the i7 is hardly an improvement over the i5 and the 512mb GPU memory is 0% faster over 256mb unless you connect it to a >2560 resolution monitor.

 

[bhattsan]

i5 for sure, it will outperform the C2D by about 100%
the i7 really isn't that beneficial because you cant stick three sticks of ram in a MBP so the triple channel memory can't be used.

Thats a bold statement to make. If the difference was that significant, I'm not so sure as many people will recommend MBP 13. You won't notice a difference between the processor in MBP 13 and i5 for most taks day to day. I would recommend 13 and putting 8 gb in there. It seems you are doing a lot of RAM intensive activity and OSX will love the extra ram for that

 

[josephmccutchen]

RAM vs. Processor

Thats a bold statement to make. If the difference was that significant, I'm not so sure as many people will recommend MBP 13. You won't notice a difference between the processor in MBP 13 and i5 for most taks day to day. I would recommend 13 and putting 8 gb in there. It seems you are doing a lot of RAM intensive activity and OSX will love the extra ram for that

I would rather get the 13", not so much because of the money, but because of the size; for me, the 15" seems too big.

I'm pretty computer savvy, but you got me on this one: the things I do (email, VMware Fusion, iMovie, etc.), could be done on a 13" without any lag? Those weigh more on the RAM than the processor? Second, what IF I get into more photo-intensive or video-intensive activities? Would it be more practical to get the 15" in that case? Is it better to be safe than sorry?