What are the exact benefits of 2.4Ghz over 2.0GHz? (New MB)

I am considering getting a new macbook with 2GB and I will upgrade the hard drive to 320GB/7200rpm. My choice is basically 2.0Ghz or 2.4Ghz.

I rarely use CPU intensive stuff. A normal session would be surfing (2 browsers 20 tabs), torrents and IM in background and an occasional VMware XP session. So going by that I could go for 2.0GHz. (although I've heard browsing flash websites can spike the CPU in OS X.)

And then there's the argument that a CPU upgrade is quite hard, so I should go for 2.4Ghz.

I would like the laptop to last me 3 years. I have some money but I don't like overpaying for an upgrade that would not really benefit me.

My questions:
If go for 2.4GHz, will I notice any benefit when I am not using CPU intensive applications?
Does 2.4Ghz speed up application loading and GUI speed? Or is that more hard drive dependend?
Will the next version on OS X run smoother on 2.4GHz?

 

IMHO i think that you really wouldent benefit from the 2.4 version the only thing that im buying the 2.4 version for is the bigger HDD and the backlit keyboard if you can happily live without the backlit keyboard then go for the 2ghz version as for all the stuff you just describe that you will use the laptop for the extra 400mhz is not really noticable at all and app loading is a mix of HDD speed and CPU along with a few other things like motherboard and little bit of ram importance but for the browsing and apps your using the ram is more important then the CPU and 2gigs of ram will be fine aswell

 

The OS itself can be a CPU-intense application.

 

Right. That's why I am asking. Normally i work in XP which does not need a lot of CPU power. OS X may be a different story.

 

I never know that you can upgrade a laptop's CPU.

Btw, do you notice that the 2.0Ghz MB doesn't have backlit keyboard?

 

Looks like both have only 3MB of cache so you won't notice much. I initially thought the 2.4 had 6MB of cache. Go with the 2.0 and use the money saved to upgrade the RAM.

 

Yes thanks I am aware of that. I don't mind with or without.

Thanks. I'll probably upgrade the RAM anyway later, whether i go for 2.0Ghz or 2.4Ghz.

 

I bought the 2.0 on the day of the keynote (because I thought it had the keyboard backlighting). Found out it didn't before it was delivered, called Apple and they issued me a $150 credit towards my current purchase or if I decide to upgrade to the 2.4 they could apply it to that. I decided to change the order to the 2.4, here's why;

I currently have an aluminum iMac 24", I purchased it the same week when Steve Jobs did the private showing for the new aluminum iMacs and iLife 08. I bought the 2.8Ghz model because I wanted to live through speed bumps for at least 2-3 years without being concerned that my machine would be outdated. Although there's been an upgrade since mine came out I still have one of the fastest iMacs.

I chose the 2.4 aluminum Macbook for the same reasons, future proofing is important for me. You will be fine with the 2.0 model however the next revision may be bumped up to 2.4 Ghz with a backlit keyboard for the same price you are paying the current 2.0. All of a sudden you have an outdated machine and you can't upgrade the keyboard. Think about resale value, not just your immediate needs.

 

Good points but if you take the prices for the previous gen MBP, $1999 for the 2.4 and $2499 for the 2.5 and the current refurb prices of both: $1350 for 2.4 and $1499 for 2.5. You can see that the higher end model actually dropped significantly more than the base model. I do agree with you about avoiding future speed bumps and I'd totally upgrade to the 2.8 MBP if I had the money. But as far as resale, it seems like those that bought the previous 2.5 MBP are hurting more than those who got the 2.4 MBP.

 

Phil:
There are no appreciable differences between cpu's for daily, basic OS applications (that you'd ever really see outside of benchmarks only). OSX by itself isn't going to stress the cpu enough to make a difference, and in fact I rarely see mine spike above 25% for the regular uses I've put mine through in the past week.

As you noted, cpu only helps when intensive applications are engaged. This pretty much means video encoding, compiling, etc. That means that for 98% of the majority of users activities, there will be no real difference between the cpu's for anything they're doing (1 second on opening applications, etc does not count in my book). That leaves the major differences between the mid and high MBs at keyboard, hdd and cpu. $300 is a bit steep for the cpu upgrade alone, esp if a 160 hdd is enough to meet your needs - else, a new 250-320 hdd will run you $70-90 w/o an external enclosure ($20 more) to clone over.

There's only so much future proofing that a cpu can do - all of the current Penryn chips are going to get spanked by Nehalem next year, whether they're the 2.0 or 2.4 variety. Best advice for notebook purchasing comes down to 1) buy what you need, and 2) buy more if you can afford it or want to spike your specs. As for resale, in 3 years either MB is only going to be worth $500 or less anyway, regardless of the current specs, since it will be quite *old* tech by then.

Me, I decided that the bigger hdd insert into the 2.0 would take $100 off the difference anyway. And since I'm upgrading from a 2-1/2 yo P-M 740 notebook and near 3+yo P-D 280 desktop, I would be lazy and just this once buy above my regular needs to get the higher cpu to shave that extra 5-10 minutes from my video encodes; I'm going to be doing a bunch of family videos now that I fell in love with the simplicity and capability of iMovie and FinalCut Express on my wife's MB.....

 

Lol ClearSkies I know you're right but I pulled the trigger on the MB 2.4 GHz anyway. Will get it around 5-10 nov. If I don't cancel it before that time.

I think the 2.4Ghz will have a bit more resale value, but not much.

 

With the MacBook, which one you go for makes less of a difference. With the Pro, though, it makes a bigger difference because the L2 cache difference is where it's at...

That said, in terms of future proofing, the 2.0Ghz is not going to be any less future proof than the 2.4Ghz model. Something that simply doesn't work on the 2.0Ghz model will also not run on the 2.4Ghz either. Basically, they'll both become obsolete at the same time based on their architecture.

 

Saw a classmate with the new alubook in Anatomy but didn't get a chance to ask her if it was 2.0 or 2.4. I was probably 20-25 feet away but that thing looked amazing. Makes me want to buy one now. I'll ask her in General Dentistry class tonight