What Macbook Pro should I get?

March 7, 2008 2:15 PM

Say I have about DKK 17,000 to spend on a new 15" Macbook Pro. Should I go for the 2.4 GHz version with 4 gigs of RAM or the 2.5 GHz version with 2 gigs of RAM?

Here are the important specs for the two machines:

2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB memory
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics with 256MB SDRAM

2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB memory
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics with 512MB SDRAM

I will use the machine for surfing the web, web design, some graphic design in Photoshop and Illustrator, and word processing with Microsoft Word.

So what's most important? More memory, or processor speed and a better graphics card?

posted by sveskemus to computers & internet (17 comments total)

You can always add memory later I would think. I've done this will all of my Macs for years now. Cheaper, comparable quality, after-market memory, too.
posted by Brocktoon at 2:21 PM on March 7

The memory on the graphics card is not an issue for your uses. Above 256MB, graphics card memory is almost never a bottleneck even in modern games.

More regular RAM, however, may well provide a performance improvement, especially if you use VMWare Fusion or Parallels.

The 100MHz improvement in processor speed is negligible. Generally speaking, increases of less than 10% are difficult to notice.

If it were me, I would get the 2.4GHz with 2GB of RAM and then add 2GB of after-market memory if I felt that performance was lacking or I spent a lot of time using Fusion or Parallels.
posted by jedicus at 2:26 PM on March 7

In my opinion, there is absolutely no need to get the 2.5GHz model over the 2.4GHz. There is little chance of you pushing the 2.4GHz model to its limits with the type of work you plan on doing, and the speed increase is negligible. Spend more money on RAM- which is cheaper to buy through a site like NewEgg rather than Apple and super easy to install.
posted by ISeemToBeAVerb at 2:28 PM on March 7 [2 favorites]

As others have said, buy the 2.4 GHz machine w/minimal RAM and purchase aftermarket RAM later. Also, buy the fastest HDD you can as a built-to-order option, as replacing the HDD yourself while it is still under warranty will violate said factory warranty.
posted by mosk at 2:38 PM on March 7

Get the 2.5ghz, it is based on a newer chip and throws off less heat.

The 2.5 has a larger base hard drive.

You can buy 4gig of ram for 110 US shipped.

The 2.5 has a larger multii-touch track pad.

The video memory size is not a giant issue currently, but you may find it useful down the road.
posted by iamabot at 2:38 PM on March 7

In order to upgrade the ram in a macbook pro you need to remove installed memory. 2 x 2gb chips as mentioned are about 100 US.

The 2.5ghz MBP's are based on the penryn chip. This means slight bump in mhz, a reduction in power usage and heat throw off and an increase in the l2 cache on the chip, from 3MB to 6MB. It's this last one that can be significant, while the mhz's have only increased slightly the volume of instructions the process can process and cache has increased, reducing overhead on pulling data in from system memory.

The larger multitouch pad is nice, I think it's worth it. I would not buy the fastest hard drive you can get built to order, imho it's a waste of money on a laptop nd 7200rpm laptop drives suck battery juice with reckless abandon. If you find it's a problem down the road you can purchase a hard drive and upgrade later far cheaper and have an authorized service center install it
posted by iamabot at 2:47 PM on March 7

The 2.4ghz model is perfectly adequate. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to notice any difference between the two in everyday usage.
posted by svolix at 2:48 PM on March 7

The 7200 RPM drive does not have a measurable effect on battery life. This is because the vast majority of the time the hard drive is not doing anything at all.
posted by jedicus at 3:07 PM on March 7

Why not get the 2.5GHz, and then upgrade the RAM when/if you want to later? RAM always gets cheaper, but the processor can't be swapped out... I'd think the 2.5GHz is a better long-term purchase? no?
posted by mhh5 at 3:11 PM on March 7

Sorry, wrong link for the battery life comparison. I can't find the review I read before buying an MBP, but testing showed that the difference was so minimal as to be completely overshadowed by things like using the graphics card, screen brightness, WiFi, etc.
posted by jedicus at 3:13 PM on March 7

Better off with the 2.4GHz.

Unless you encode regularly (and in which case a lappy is probably not the way to go), it'll be quick enough by far. For reference, I'm running a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo in my last generation MBP, and it handles Photoshop easily.

And iamabot, both the 2.4GHz and 2.5GHz are the newer Penryn chips, so it makes no difference. Apple do not sell Merom based MBPs any more.
posted by dragontail at 3:13 PM on March 7

The 2.5 has a larger multii-touch track pad.

Untrue. The trackpad is the same size on all of the MacBooks. The new Penryn-based models (in 2.4, 2.5, 2.6 flavors) have the MacBook Air-style new multi-touch features (pinch, rotate, etc like on an iPhone), but are the exact same size as in previous MacBook Pros.

I bought a 2.4Ghz the day before yesterday.

According to the benchmarks in this article on MacWorld.com , the 2.5 can does the CS3 tests three seconds faster.

I'm quite pleased with what I bought. This screen is brilliantly bright. Compared to my old MacBook Pro that I bought two years ago it like night and day. I bought the entry-level SKU with the 2GB memory and will upgrade to 4GB memory in a year or whenever I need it. Right now, it runs circles around my old MacBook Pro in Photoshop.
posted by birdherder at 3:37 PM on March 7

DKK 17,000 = USD 3,500. Are Macintoshes really that expensive in Denmark?
posted by gum at 3:39 PM on March 7

gum, I was just looking at the exchange rate. Apple.dk has the US$1999 model is 11,039 DKK before VAT which is US$2270.

Perhaps Komplett or another online seller can sell you the 4GB memory for less than the uprgade price Apple does. It looks like Apple charges 2880 DKK for 4GB memory and Komplett charges 700 DKK? (I can't read Danish so I got lost in the Hukommelse section of Komplett.dk)
posted by birdherder at 3:54 PM on March 7

I did make a couple of misstatements I'd like to retract on further (peer) review. You're probably fine with either model, the performance impact is negligible between the two.

AnandTech has a write up of the differences/etc between the various models.

Regarding battery life, I have run 5400 and 7200 rpm drives in several systems over the years, and the 7200's nearly always impacted the battery life in my day to day usage. My personal preference is as much ram as I can afford and that can be used by the system with a mid speed high capacity hard drive, outside of backups there is no intensive disk activity happening day to day on laptops i lug around.
posted by iamabot at 4:02 PM on March 7

Thanks for all your answers so far. If anyone has any more insight please keep them coming.

gum: Are Macintoshes really that expensive in Denmark?

The 2.4 GHz Macbook Pro with the 4 gb upgrade is DKK 16,599. It's DKK 13,799 without the extra RAM. The 2.5 GHz version with 2 gb RAM is DKK 17,299. So yeah, they are a bit more expensive here. But you have to consider how weak the Dollar is when you make the comparison.

Right now I'm leaning towards just getting the 2.4 GHz version with the standard amount of RAM and seeing how that is to work with. As some of you guys say I can always upgrade later. I'm writing this on a 12" PowerBook with a 867 MHz G4 PowerPC processor and 640 MB RAM and that actually serves me alright for everything except heavier Photoshop and Illustrator work. So I'm sure either one of the Macbook Pros will seem very fast to me. :)
posted by sveskemus at 5:16 PM on March 7

i went from a 1.67GHz Powerbook to a 2.2 GHz MBP with 2 GB RAM, and i noticed a huge difference in speed. having twice as many processors and twice the RAM made a huge difference. I imagine the difference will be even more for you, with an older G4 and newer MBP.

I would get the 2.4, get the biggest 5400 rpm drive and the stock RAM, and update the RAM with 3rd party stuff later.

that's what I did but haven't upped the RAM. yet. i may, someday, but have no pressing need to.

Applecare. spend the money on Applecare.
posted by KenManiac at 7:41 PM on March 7