15" i5 or i7?

I am about to buy a 15" Macbook Pro, I have been wanting it for sometime but my only question is should I get the i5 or i7. I will not be upgrading anytime soon, money is not really an issue but what are the pro's and cons? Does the i7 produce alot more heat? Does it kill the battery alot faster? How much % performance increase is it?

 

if money isn't an issue, why not get the core i7? on the other hand, it's really not worth the additional asking cost given that it is still a dual-core arrandale and not a clarksfield. it runs a little hotter than the core i5 models, but not in any impactful way, although i can't speak to sustained win 7 + gaming heat output and effects. as for performance, it's a couple hundred extra megaherz and some extra l2 cache -- it's nice, but hardly significant. a core i7 macbook pro is largely bragging rights and little else, imho. i'd save $500 and get the 2.4 core i5 and buy some extra kit with the savings (like an ssd or more ram).

edit: oh, the 330m gpu in the core i7 model has 512mb vram instead of 256. if you're a gamer, that's gonna help, but again, the 330 is already a big bottleneck for higher graphics settings.

 

Core i7 i pure marketing in the Macs. Real Core i7s are Quad Core (or 6 Core) and much faster.

 

Unless you need the minor(?) performance increase with the i7 for something specific, spend the money on the hi-res display instead (assuming you're ordering online) It's worth it for the display, it really is.

 

Yeah, I'd go with the i5, Apple murders you on the upgrade price to i7.

 

Well the I made the mistake of getting the 2.8ghz i7 but I did good and got the Anti-glare Hi res screen. I got it as a refurb though so it was priced decently.

I7 - 2.8Ghz
4gb ram
5400 rpm 500gb hard drive
Anti-glare Hi Res screen

$2,199 + taxes.

 

Why a mistake? Has it been doing double duty as a burger grill?

 

I just say mistake because there seems to be a 50/50 split of people who think the i7 is a waste of money. I won't see if it doubles as a oven until I get it on the 10-14th. I figure it cannot be any hotter then my Asus G72 that regularly exceeded 100C and that was after re applying thermal paste, adding heatsinks, and undervolting. The mac can't be worse then that.

 

it should be fine. the truth is, faster processors are rarely worth the premium apple charges. that doesn't mean it's a worse processor.

 

I have two Dell i7 desktops - the performance is very nice but the desktops were very cheap. I bought my son a new 15 inch MBP this past summer and just went with the i5. It has plenty of CPU power for what he does (light gaming and lots of schoolwork).

 

I agree with the i5, $500 upgrade might only be worth it if it was a quad-core i7..but for dual core I doubt there will be much performance difference

 

One of the features of the i7 is triple-channel memory which obviously does you no good in a laptop.

I'd wait for Sandy Bridge anyways.