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Why would I pay more for an i7 vs. i5 2011 13" MBP?
- Thread starter MacGiver
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It's a personal call. When you do these things, will you get annoyed if they take 15-20% longer?
I've said this many times, about several iterations of the 13" MBP: The upgrade to the faster processor is almost never worth it in the 13" line. The money spent on the proc upgrade could buy an SSD which would give a much larger performance increase.
i5 is more than fine. before the i5/i7 was out, people used Core 2 Duos just fine, prior to that, Core Duos.
So there will be a noticable diff even for these kind of amateur tasks....as I consider 15% faster a difference. on the other hand for the price of an i7 i could get the i5 with 8G Ram and a 750GB HD....hmmm....hmmm
Apple's CPU upgrades are rarely worth it.
Max out the ram, install an SSD. Much better bang for the bucks.
i7 is a wee bit faster, but I doubt a human would notice in normal use. It's def not "snappier," but it may render a video in 33 minutes instead of 36 minutes. Meh.
Max out the ram, install an SSD. Much better bang for the bucks.
i7 is a wee bit faster, but I doubt a human would notice in normal use. It's def not "snappier," but it may render a video in 33 minutes instead of 36 minutes. Meh.
Thanks...but in my opinion the SSD is still not worthy for the price vs. capacity.
For now I'd go for a 750GB HD and 8G ram.
It rarely works that way in real life. Are you really there, hawking over your machine every time a render or compression finishes? Or are you cooking, on the phone or watching TV?
If you do these types of things A LOT, then, you would really want to look at the low end 15" since the quads are absolutely going to be faster. You won't get your money back on a CPU upgrade on resale anyhow.
Dunno, once you use an SSD for boot and launching apps, it's hard to ever see going back to a platter drive. SSD too small? External drive, NAS or optibay mod.
in my experience rendering vids with i7 cuts down time a lot
my pc can render a vid in 45 mins,
my old i7 mbp renders in 25
OK thanks everyone...I see most beleive that for normal use it is better to go with a i5 and get more ram and more GB...
I also see many of you like the SSD...but for 150$ more you get 750GB and for 1250$ a 512GB SSD...where goes your choice if you really need more GB???
Mine goes to the 150$ and 750GB without any doubt...unless I missed something???
I also see many of you like the SSD...but for 150$ more you get 750GB and for 1250$ a 512GB SSD...where goes your choice if you really need more GB???
Mine goes to the 150$ and 750GB without any doubt...unless I missed something???
Are you buying the HD and RAM from Apple?
You will save yourself lots more if you buy and install the items yourself.
What you are missing is booting in 15 seconds instead of 1 minute and all apps and browsers loading about 2-3-4x faster EVERY time you go to use them.
1TB externals are under $100 these days.
It's preference, some people just hate externals or networked storage, but you need a backup drive anyhow.
I have a 128GB SDD with a 1TB FW800 external and a 2.5" 500GB bus powered Seagate external.
SSD is the best performance upgrade in the last few years. I mean, an upgrade you can truly feel.
I say upgrade yourself for 2 reasons.
- You get a hard drive for backups.
- You can get a better faster SSD aftermarket. Apple is a little conservative with their SSD selections. They value their margins too much to give you the bleeding edge.
It is an easy upgrade, though you need a $5 special screwdriver.
i5 v. i7? Just web surfing and stuff and working in Photoshop and normal day to day use, I challenge anyone to be able to tell the difference, assuming the clock speeds are close.
You would see gains in audio and video compressing, but I just don't think it's worth it. i7 also runs hotter and probably gives slightly worse batter life.
I understand your point and I am sure your are right saying the perf are better. But then I would at least need a 256GB SSD but Apple is asking 650$ in addition...what the hell! I have a lot of photos and videos I want to keep on my MBP drive when I travel and 128GB wont be enough...I already have an external HD. It does not bother me and I use it to store what I do not use often and as a back up disk. But come on 650$ for 250GB I call this cheating people...even if it is way faster...just my call and opinion. I am glad to ear others thoughts that could be different than mine. Maybe you'll convince me
I understand your point and I am sure your are right saying the perf are better. But then I would at least need a 256GB SSD but Apple is asking 650$ in addition...what the hell! I have a lot of photos and videos I want to keep on my MBP drive when I travel and 128GB wont be enough...I already have an external HD. It does not bother me and I use it to store what I do not use often and as a back up disk. But come on 650$ for 250GB I call this cheating people...even if it is way faster...just my call and opinion. I am glad to ear others thoughts that could be different than mine. Maybe you'll convince me
As people have said, DON'T BUY the ssd from Apple.
These days it's becoming more useful to move your information to cloud based storage, so it can be accessed from any device. Also, you can then opt for smaller and faster onboard storage.
The other primary benefit, you don't end up storing the same data in multiple locations.
The other primary benefit, you don't end up storing the same data in multiple locations.
So it means if i buy the default/normal 320GB HD I can remove it and swap it against an SSD I buy on the market place? Is that what it means? Or do i ned to buy the 128GB SSD and swap it against another SSD?
All hard drives (platter and SSD) use the same SATA connection.
Yes, then you just slap the 320GB in a $10 USB case and use it for Time Machine.
Another option is to put a platter drive in the Superdrive locations via an optibay. That way you run a 128GB boot drive (256 SSD start at $400 in the marketplace) and you can put your 750GB drive idea in the optibay.
I rarely use my Superdrives for anything these days.
11" Air? They use different form factor SSDs which are not as common or as cheap.