• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
programming forums Java Mobile Certification Databases Caching Books Engineering Micro Controllers OS Languages Paradigms IDEs Build Tools Frameworks Application Servers Open Source This Site Careers Other Pie Elite all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
Marshals:
  • Campbell Ritchie
  • Jeanne Boyarsky
  • Ron McLeod
  • Paul Clapham
  • Liutauras Vilda
Sheriffs:
  • paul wheaton
  • Rob Spoor
  • Devaka Cooray
Saloon Keepers:
  • Stephan van Hulst
  • Tim Holloway
  • Carey Brown
  • Frits Walraven
  • Tim Moores
Bartenders:
  • Mikalai Zaikin

Comparing 17" MacBook Pros

 
author
Posts: 9050
21
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I gotta have as many portable pixels as I can.
The retina display, beautiful as it is, is just too tiny for my middle-aged eyes and fingers.
So I'd like to get one of the - now retired - 17" MacBook Pros (1920 x 1200 pixels)

Here are some candidate machines:

Unibody core 2 Duo, 2.93, 4gb, 320gb, $1100

unibody i5 2.53, 4gb, 500gb, $1500

unibody i7 2.2, 4gb, 750gb, $1900

I guess the question is this - are the i5 or i7 worth the extra money? I don't think I push the processor too much (I don't do video editing for instance).
Any other reasons to pick the i5 or i7?
 
Sheriff
Posts: 67746
173
Mac Mac OS X IntelliJ IDE jQuery TypeScript Java iOS
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I'd think you'd want at least the i5. Mine is an i7, with the memory maxed to 16GB, and performs well.
 
Bert Bates
author
Posts: 9050
21
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Did a little more research... it seems that going from core duo to i5 to i7 you get only incremental benchmark improvements. Then, not surprisingly, when you jump to the i7 quad core, you get a doubling of performance.
 
Bear Bibeault
Sheriff
Posts: 67746
173
Mac Mac OS X IntelliJ IDE jQuery TypeScript Java iOS
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
If it's a choice of throwing money at CPU vs memory, I'd go with memory.

I got significantly better performance when I upped to 16GB.
 
Bert Bates
author
Posts: 9050
21
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
My current, ancient MBP 17 is maxed out at an unusual 3gig. I can imagine that a jump to 8gig would be quite noticeable - but Bear, what in the heck are you doing that gobbles up more than 8 gig?

 
Bear Bibeault
Sheriff
Posts: 67746
173
Mac Mac OS X IntelliJ IDE jQuery TypeScript Java iOS
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
At most times: in addition to the usual Mac stuff including Mail, Calendar, Reminders and Safari: an IDE, 2 instances of PostgreSQL, Tomcat, 2 or 3 instances of the Play! server, Photoshop, Illustrator, Bridge, 5 or 6 terminal windows, and a text editor. Sporadically: iTunes, iPhoto, InDesign, OmniGraffle, Evernote, Preview, Word, Numbers, and so on.

Oh, and sometimes a Parallels Desktop loaded with Windows 7 for IE testing.

8GB got gobbled up pretty fast!
 
Bert Bates
author
Posts: 9050
21
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
And I thought I had a lot of stuff going on ;)

How about the whole "hyperthreading" thing that the i5 and i7 chips have? How does that work? Does it help?
 
Bear Bibeault
Sheriff
Posts: 67746
173
Mac Mac OS X IntelliJ IDE jQuery TypeScript Java iOS
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Ya got me. All I know is what I can see happening on the screen!
 
Rancher
Posts: 4803
7
Mac OS X VI Editor Linux
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Its trivial to eat up 8GB. I run thunderbird, chrome, safari, a couple of shells, netbeans, tomcat, mysql, apache and odds and ends. My DBMS is big, so mysql tends to need a lot of buffers, etc. My 15" MBP is 18+ months old, I maxed it at 8GB. I think that is enough, but when I replace it, I'll got for at least 16GB. Memory is dirt cheap these days, even if Apple charges a bit more than normal vendors. My unit has 2gHz quad i7. There are times when I wish it were faster, but its still acceptable for "professional software development"

I'd be concerned that a much faster CPU will make it a lot warmer. Mine already runs hot. Hot enough that I have it on an angled stand with two fans.
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic