which to buy?! 13 or 15

[TinyPitch]

Well im a high school student in Korea and trying to buy the new mbp that just came out..... but the thing is which to buy? 13 inch high end(2.66 C2D) or 15 inch low end (2.4 i5).... but their about the same speed except when i5 goes into turbo boost mode which boosts up to 2.93 i think.
I am attracted to the 15 inch but i think its too heavy/big to carry around in school or outside. Mostly ill doing school works, photoshops/illustrator, some gamings such as SC2 that will be coming out.... So should i get the 13 inch with weaker graphics or 15 inch with stronger graphics? or do 320m and GT 330m doesnt make big of a difference?...

 

[GoCubsGo]

Get the 15" it will suit your needs just fine. I also suggest ham and cheese for lunch, toasted bread if you have a toaster. If not, I suggest a kenmore toaster.

 

[dendritic cells]

It's being discussed a bit at this thread.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but 320m is integrated and 330 is a discrete, they are really different in terms of performance. If you search for 320m in this forum you will find some discussions already. Although we're still lacking real benchmarks (like the ones in notebookcheck.net), I'd go for the discrete if gaming is your primary need.

Toast with scrambled eggs is my favorite.

 

[TinyPitch]

Well i guess 15 will do since 13 wont handle some graphic works that i will be doing.... thank for the help

 

[Puqq]

Well im a high school student in Korea and trying to buy the new mbp that just came out..... but the thing is which to buy? 13 inch high end(2.66 C2D) or 15 inch low end (2.4 i5).... but their about the same speed except when i5 goes into turbo boost mode which boosts up to 2.93 i think.
I am attracted to the 15 inch but i think its too heavy/big to carry around in school or outside. Mostly ill doing school works, photoshops/illustrator, some gamings such as SC2 that will be coming out.... So should i get the 13 inch with weaker graphics or 15 inch with stronger graphics? or do 320m and GT 330m doesnt make big of a difference?...

The performance difference between MBP 13 and MBP 15 is very small. Go to notebookcheck.net for precise figures (FAQ/processor benchmark list). If you want more portable system, go for 13", if you want larger screen- go for 15" (possibly, with Hi-Res)

I would actually recommend going for the base MBP 13 (2.4GHz) instead. It costs significantly less than the upgraded machine, but looses just very little on processor speed. In addition, you can easily do aftermarket upgrade of HDD (to 500gb for 50 pounds in UK) yourself. In my opinion, 266MHz is not worth 15% price difference.

 

[Puqq]

Well i guess 15 will do since 13 wont handle some graphic works that i will be doing.... thank for the help

What graphics work exactly are you talking about? I would predict 330M to be up to 40% faster than 320M.

Check this out:
310M (320M has 48 pipelines, but lacks dedicated memory)
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-310M.22439.0.html
330M (with 512mb memory in general. The one in MBP has 256mb only)
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-330M.22437.0.html

 

[TinyPitch]

Well money is not in my concern... but portability is. If i was just going to leave it in my dorm i wouldve just bought a desktop.... ive used 13 one before and it was really good but the screen was a little to small for me to do some stuffs on it.... Also graphic concerns me since ill be doing some gaming on it. Oh yeah im doing photoshop and illustrator.

 

[iSax1234]

The 13 in is a little more portable yes, but it sounds you need graphics power and screen real estate. Most people say that 15in is the best medium and you're getting more power. If i Were you i'd get the base 15 with high res display.

 

[TinyPitch]

sooo i am going to get my 15 inch mbp at end of this month since korea will have it at that time.... but just asking is higher res worth the extra money that ur giving?

 

[mjoshi123]

Well money is not in my concern... but portability is. If i was just going to leave it in my dorm i wouldve just bought a desktop.... ive used 13 one before and it was really good but the screen was a little to small for me to do some stuffs on it.... Also graphic concerns me since ill be doing some gaming on it. Oh yeah im doing photoshop and illustrator.

if money is not a concern have you considered looking at Sony Vaio Z series ? You can get very well loaded machine with SSD + 1GB Video card + i5 processor for like $1999. And it is carbon fiber so build quality is really nice. Plus you will get SXGA screen with more resolution.

 

[TinyPitch]

i just dont feel on sony vaio Z series.... ive tried it before and i did not really like it although it is good. Also i like OSX for my school works and stuffs than the window side. So thats why i wont get Sony Z. Ill just install windows through bootcamp and play some games and thats about it

 

[Arrandale]

The 13 in is a little more portable yes, but it sounds you need graphics power and screen real estate. Most people say that 15in is the best medium and you're getting more power. If i Were you i'd get the base 15 with high res display.

+1

The 15" really is a superior machine all around. If you have the money, plonk it down. It's really very portable, easily fits in most backpacks and is very light and thin compared to other laptops in this class.

As the poster above said, you sound like you need graphics performance, especially if you want decent quality gaming and good performance in Photoshop and FCP.

If this is a machine you're going to be working on everyday for the next few years, there's no reason to skimp on a couple hundred dollars. For many, the computer is their main tool of work, and having a good product can ease many of the hassles of everyday life. Not saying the 13" isn't a good product, it's fantastic, but except on the portability front it pales in comparison to the 15" and even then the portability shouldn't be an issue unless you're going to be carrying it in a purse.

 

[TinyPitch]

Well yeah ive deceided to get the 15" but when i think about it the i7 is attractive but is i7 increase in speed really noticeable compared with i5 2.4?