I am trying to decide between the high end 13-inch MBP or the 15-inch low end version. The retina, while nice is not something that I am interested in just to settle that and get it out of the way. Currently I have a 2008 Macbook that has been through a lot of heavy usage and while it still works, its seen its better days.. think of it as a relatively healthy 12 year old dog - still barks but just doesn't jump off the couch for leftovers as fast or if at all.
Basically for a new laptop, I am looking at something that will last at least 4-5 years without feeling like its outdated after only 2. I plan to use this laptop for somewhat heavy MS office use, web browsing, some digital media viewing, and needing to run multiple programs at once without a slow drag. I will also being using this as my main computer for an evening MBA program in 2013.
My main question centers around if there is really that significant of a difference between i7 dual core and i7 quad core for the kind of stuff I want to do with it, my concerns over speed and multitasking and future proofing the purchase as best I can. The larger screen would be nice too, but I am just interested in knowing how much of a difference there is between the two in terms of speed/performance. The geekbench scores are a nice reference, but that is only to see how they perform while being maxed-out, correct?
Also - Not interested in the MBA - Very sleek design, but no dvd drive kills it for me. The other issue is the specs - it seems to be a half step below the MBPs, though I could be wrong -I'm not a huge tech guy, so please do not jump all over for saying that lol.
Thanks for the help and suggestions!
Basically for a new laptop, I am looking at something that will last at least 4-5 years without feeling like its outdated after only 2. I plan to use this laptop for somewhat heavy MS office use, web browsing, some digital media viewing, and needing to run multiple programs at once without a slow drag. I will also being using this as my main computer for an evening MBA program in 2013.
My main question centers around if there is really that significant of a difference between i7 dual core and i7 quad core for the kind of stuff I want to do with it, my concerns over speed and multitasking and future proofing the purchase as best I can. The larger screen would be nice too, but I am just interested in knowing how much of a difference there is between the two in terms of speed/performance. The geekbench scores are a nice reference, but that is only to see how they perform while being maxed-out, correct?
Also - Not interested in the MBA - Very sleek design, but no dvd drive kills it for me. The other issue is the specs - it seems to be a half step below the MBPs, though I could be wrong -I'm not a huge tech guy, so please do not jump all over for saying that lol.
Thanks for the help and suggestions!
