MBP 13" Performance...

I'm looking at the MBPs and I love the size of the 13 inch, cause any smaller it is too small for me and any bigger it's too big. Anyways, will the 2.4GHz perform well hooked up to a 22" TV Screen with tasks like Heavy internet browsing, Adobe CS5, iLife... Or would it be better to get the 2.66GHz one, if it's a noticeable difference I think I'll get the 2.66GHz instead of the 2.4GHz. I thought of upgrading the 4GB of RAM to 8GB but I wouldn't do a processor upgrade then.
Money is a big part too... '

EDIT:Make that a 26" TV screen

 

Internet browsing there's no difference. For CS5 the 2.66Ghz will be a little faster. If its between getting a 2.66GHz CPU or 8GB's memory, I'd go for the 2.66GHz, as you can upgrade the memory later.

 

Absolutely agree with Joker on this one... Get the better proc. and buy RAM as it comes down in price.

I'm running CS5 on a 2009 2.53 13" and the performance is great, so you're going to do even better with the 2.66 in the 2010 model. Photoshop Indesign and Illustrator (the three apps I use the most) are almost "zero-wait".

Now, I've done the 8GB upgrade, but I wasn't struggling beforehand. I mostly have the 8GB RAM for Virtualization purposes.

Good luck with the decision!

 

As counterpoint, the functional difference between the 2.66 and 2.4 will be fairly minor, on the order of 10-15% reduction in processing times for CS5 things ... depending on exactly what you're doing. You'll have to decide whether the price bump is something you're willing to pay for that performance delta.

As for the RAM issue - DDR3 prices are forecast to remain stable over the mid-term, so there is no reason to rush out and upgrade as the 2x4 kits are fairly pricey. I would suggest seeing how your workflow is handled by the 4GB first, and then decide whether you might benefit from the upgrade. CS5 projects won't be affected much at all by RAM increase unless you're working with really big RAW files, and OS X handles multiple browser windows and open programs pretty well so 4GB is usually sufficient for 98% of users.

 

I just bought my 8GB kit of Crucial for $140. I should be able to resell my 2X2GB kit for about $65, so I'll only have $75 into my 8 gig upgrade.

 

One thing that puzzles me is the price of the 2.66 model. It's $300 more for the upgraded processor and larger hard drive, yet the retail price difference of those two components is about $45.

 

I'm actually in the process of selling my Mid 2009 MBP13 with the 2.53. That little machine conquered CS4/CS5 beautifully. I did iMovie on it exhaustively, along with DJ'ing. Had bootcamp, games, everything on that little beast. Best computer for the money IMHO.

 

Welcome to market segmentation 101. Ever wonder why if you want the sunroof or navi on a new car, you have to buy the premium package or at least one level above the base car when its all unrelated? One price to bring in the bargain hounds...another price point for the price is no object crowd. Means Apple can get a few bottom feeders w/ the stripped model but the margins are fattest for those who think the marginal improvement is worth $300.

You can't look at a MBP w/ upgrades as a rational purchase b/c if you did, the price/perf mix is all out of wack. I'm not talking about comparing between PC/Mac...just for the various minor upgrades from Apple that cost an arm and a leg over their actual cost.

 

But this is not a unique situation to Apple, so please don't generalize and suggest Apple does something unique that the other ODM's do not.

HP, Dell, etc are all guilty of upselling their upgrades.

 

Thanks everyone, but do you think Apple will make the next refresh of the MBP 13" have a faster processor. Because I would like that extra processor if I could have it....

 

I understand that principle, but in most cases you are getting added value even if you are forced to buy a certain package. A premium of nav package in a car adds items that are worth what is charged. And normally in a car a package price is cheaper than buying the options individually. This is not the case with the processor and hdd upgrade.

 

At some point they've got to upgrade these to a Core i CPU...maybe they'll bump the 15/17" ones to Sandy Bridge, and bump the 13" one to a Core i3/i5 or something?

Personally on the 13" I think I'd go with the 2.4GHz one as the price difference is just too big-I'd go that way and then just put the money towards a new system down the line at some point.

I have the same 2.4GHz Penryn Core 2 in my 2 year old Asus, and it's basically fine. It's at that point where you can use a faster system and realize you're starting to wait a bit, but heck, it's faster than the low end systems are still, and I still wait on the hard drive more than the CPU/GPU for MOST things I do on the system....and anyway an extra 266MHz isn't going to make or break it really.