Which is better? Mid 2009 Macbook Pro 13 inch or Early 2008 Macbook Pro 15 inch

[Macdude2010]

Hello,
I have an opportunity for fix an old Early 2008 MacBook Pro 15 inch as a little experiment. However, I was curious to see if it would be faster than my brothers Mid-2009 MacBook Pro 13 inch.

So, if the 15 inch Macbook Pro works, the specs will be:
2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (6MB L2 Cache)
nVidia GeForce 8600M GT (512 MB GDDR3)
800MHz Bus
667MHz DDR2 RAM

And the MacBook Pro 13 inch specs:
2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (3MB L2 Cache)
nVida GeForce 9400M
1066MHz Bus
1066MHz DDR3 RAM

I'm not just looking for processor speed, but more of a general performance comparison, such as GPU/CPU performance, as well as how much a factor the DDR3 vs DDR2 and different bus speeds play into it.
Thanks!

 

[Idefix]

What do you mean by "fixing" an early 2008 MBP with the 8600M chip? Because if the 8600M chip is bad, you need a motherboard...

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/feedback/MacBookPro_video_failure.html#storytop

After a hard fight with Apple, I had the motherboard replaced because of the 8600M problem. The extended warranty is gone, now.

I'd go with the 2009.

 

[Commy1]

13"

 

[Macdude2010]

What do you mean by "fixing" an early 2008 MBP with the 8600M chip? Because if the 8600M chip is bad, you need a motherboard...

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/feedback/MacBookPro_video_failure.html#storytop

After a hard fight with Apple, I had the motherboard replaced because of the 8600M problem. The extended warranty is gone, now.

I'd go with the 2009.

I'm going to repair it regardless, found an exchange service that gives me a new board with the revised 8600 for $144. I wanted to know from a performance standpoint

 

[accountforit]

You aren't going to notice a difference between the two.

 

[priitv8]

You aren't going to notice a difference between the two.

Except for the Unibody on the newer machine, which would be a dealbreaker for me.

 

[MarvinHC]

Except for the Unibody on the newer machine, which would be a dealbreaker for me.

Why, not a fan of the unibody design?

 

[priitv8]

Why, not a fan of the unibody design?

On the contrary. The early 2008 MacBook Pro is not my taste.
15" Unibody MBP is the late 2008 one.
I should have said "dealmaker" instead of "dealbreaker" probably

 

[MarvinHC]

On the contrary. The early 2008 MacBook Pro is not my taste.
15" Unibody MBP is the late 2008 one.
I should have said "dealmaker" instead of "dealbreaker" probably

No worries, got you now. I am writing these lines on a late 2008 and I am quite impressed how good it still is given it's age and how cheaply I got it
The nice thing about this one is also that you don't even need a screwdriver to change the battery!

 

[priitv8]

No worries, got you now. I am writing these lines on a late 2008 and I am quite impressed how good it still is given it's age and how cheaply I got it

Yep, I still have mine. And given it's got 8GB RAM and SSD boot drive + HDD data drive, it's still a very useable computer. Except in CPU-heavy-chores (like HandBrake video conversion), it just pales compared to my mid-2013 rMBP.

 

[WMD]

The 8600M GT is considerably faster than the 9400M. Integrated graphics are pretty lousy by comparision. The older one will be faster in that regard, at least.