Which Macbook - help me choose

[i-sidd]

Hi all,

My 5 year old macbook is showing signs of age, Netflix does not play smooth or for that matter any flash videos or divx movies. Programs are slow (aperture 3), safari crashes, the volume is greyed out and I cant hear internal speakers, there is a red light from the headphone jack and space is overall its very sluggish.

I need to buy a new Macbook 13 inch. Whats the max RAM I can have - 8gb or more. Also I will be editing photos so I need space? max hard drive size?
Third party upgrade for ram and HDD or should I do it through apple.

$1199
13-inch: 2.3 GHz
2.3GHz dual-core
Intel Core i5
4GB 1333MHz
320GB 5400-rpm1
Intel HD Graphics 3000
Built-in battery (7 hours)

$1499
13-inch: 2.7 GHz
2.7GHz dual-core
Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz
500GB 5400-rpm1
Intel HD Graphics 3000
Built-in battery (7 hours)


How much of a difference is there between 2.3 and 2.7 ghz. Also I heard of heating issues etc, is that a concern with these?

It will be used for email, surfing, MS office, aperture 3 some video editing

 

[palpatine]

Hi all,

My 5 year old macbook is showing signs of age, Netflix does not play smooth or for that matter any flash videos or divx movies. Programs are slow (aperture 3), safari crashes, the volume is greyed out and I cant hear internal speakers, there is a red light from the headphone jack and space is overall its very sluggish.

I need to buy a new Macbook 13 inch. Whats the max RAM I can have - 8gb or more. Also I will be editing photos so I need space? max hard drive size?
Third party upgrade for ram and HDD or should I do it through apple.

$1199
13-inch: 2.3 GHz
2.3GHz dual-core
Intel Core i5
4GB 1333MHz
320GB 5400-rpm1
Intel HD Graphics 3000
Built-in battery (7 hours)

$1499
13-inch: 2.7 GHz
2.7GHz dual-core
Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz
500GB 5400-rpm1
Intel HD Graphics 3000
Built-in battery (7 hours)


How much of a difference is there between 2.3 and 2.7 ghz. Also I heard of heating issues etc, is that a concern with these?

It will be used for email, surfing, MS office, aperture 3 some video editing

endless threads about this dude. you might want to try a search. i have the mbp 13 with 8gb ram. you could get up to 16gb apparently, but few do. you can get by doing photo editing on the 13". i have no problems, and i personally find the resolution to be just fine.

i think no one will recommend the i7 for the 13". there is nothing wrong with it, but it is not a good deal. much better to move up to the 15". you could get 1TB hdd into your computer, but why? i'd just rely on external drives. i've got several terabytes in external drives.

anyhow, i'd go with the 15" for serious editing. the resolution is better, the screen is bigger, and you'd probably get something out of the quad cores.

 

[AFPoster]

endless threads about this dude. you might want to try a search. i have the mbp 13 with 8gb ram. you could get up to 16gb apparently, but few do. you can get by doing photo editing on the 13". i have no problems, and i personally find the resolution to be just fine.

i think no one will recommend the i7 for the 13". there is nothing wrong with it, but it is not a good deal. much better to move up to the 15". you could get 1TB hdd into your computer, but why? i'd just rely on external drives. i've got several terabytes in external drives.

anyhow, i'd go with the 15" for serious editing. the resolution is better, the screen is bigger, and you'd probably get something out of the quad cores.

Agreed!

 

[i-sidd]

I am sure that it has been asked before a lot but its more of an individual needs based question, so any help would be appreciated.

My current macbook has 2 GHz will I see any real difference if I move up from 2 to 2.3 GHz?

 

[seong]

Here is the thing. If you have enough money that you can spend few hundred extra dollars on a computer, DO NOT CHOOSE the high end MBP 13", but choose the base model of 15". My rule is that, if you have extra $300 to choose the high end MBP 13", I would rather spend that money on the SSD for my speed boost. That 0.4 GHz won't probably make a huge difference in real world. I don't know if you know this or not, but RAM is not the most important part of a computer. It will not make a computer any faster, unless you have 1GB of RAM. 2GB or 4GB is enough for daily use + video editing. I'm a video editor myself, and my current machine (look at my signature) suits me perfectly.

 

[MasterHowl]

If you're getting a 13", maybe you should also consider getting a larger external monitor?

You'll benefit from the extra screen space and higher resolution.

I have a 23" monitor hooked up to my 15" MacBook Pro and it's great!

 

[Amadeus Zull]

If you live near a microcenter the base early 2011 MBP 13 inch is $999.

And yes, you will see a big nice improvement. (assuming you have a white macbook).