13" MBP, i5 vs i7

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coyo

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I'm looking to get a new laptop shortly and it's going to be a non-Retina 13" Macbook Pro (no Apple vs anything in this thread please).

I'm a general home computer user; internet based apps, surfing, iTunes, photos (very light editing), videos (almost no editing, if any).

I've got Airport Express, iPhones and iPods in the house and will be getting an iPad and Apple TV with the MBP so that everything can network together easily.

I'm looking at either the 2.5GHz i5 with an additional 4G of RAM (total 8G) or the 2.9GHz i7 (already has 8G RAM).

The additional 250G of HDD space (500G to 750G is not needed; I currently only use 125G of my 450G HDD.

Opinions on either option?
 
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An i3 would do you fine. Save the money and go with the i5.
 
Macs said:
An i3 would do you fine. Save the money and go with the i5.
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Pretty much decided to do just that, just want to make sure I'm not over looking something. In looking at the real world price of RAM however, I'll get the machine with the standard 4G and upgrade to 8 (or 16) myself.
 
Make sure you can. I remember hearing people complaining that the new iMac doesn't have expandable RAM.

To put things into perspective, I use my machine for AutoCAD, VMWare, gaming, heavy CS6 and video editing. 16gb of RAM does me fine (overkill) and I rarely max out the power of my i7 (2720qm)
 
Macs said:
Make sure you can. I remember hearing people complaining that the new iMac doesn't have expandable RAM.

To put things into perspective, I use my machine for AutoCAD, VMWare, gaming, heavy CS6 and video editing. 16gb of RAM does me fine (overkill) and I rarely max out the power of my i7 (2720qm)
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You're thinking of the Retina display machines which you can't upgrade anything in. I'm sticking with the base MBP which still has a HDD (which may be upgraded down the road to a SSD) and an optical drive and allows for RAM upgrades up to 16G.
 
Just went through a similar thing. Was tempted by the retina, and yes you can replace the HD on it, it's the same as the MBA. I would grab the i7 off the refurb store if you're sure you want the MBP. I think it's $1269 there and comes with the same 1 year warranty that their new products come with. I have bought plenty this way all without any problems whatsoever.

I would definitely max out the RAM at 16GB, it's a no brainer for under $100 (just not from Apple).

The difference in cost to go to the i7 is worth it not only in the slight performance bump but also resale value. If you really don't care then the base 13" model can be had for $1019. You'll be happy with both but the i7 will seem less outdated in a couple of years imo.

http://store.apple.com/ca/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/macbook_pro/13

I just checked and they seem to be out of the i7's. But stock changes regularly.

Incidentally I opted for the MBA 13" base model but 8GB RAM. I figured I can eventually replace the HD once the prices come down.

Just my 2c.
 
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You & I use it for the exact same things, so i'd say to get the i5.

I have the very first aluminum macbook & 5 years later, 2.5ghz, 2GB of ram, 250 gb of storage, and the most outdated video card in the world are all specs that are still good enough for general home computer use.
 
Its a very easy job replacing the ram in a MBP, definitely do it yourself, not from Apple. I personally think 4 gigs is on the low side now, every mac in our shop has at least 8 gigs, things run very smooth, OS X loves ram, the more the merrier.

I personally would go with an i5 processor, if anything just to prolong the life longer, its a better processor. Your needs are light, so either would work well. I had the last gen MBP with i5 processor as my work machine running CS6 and it handled it very nicely, though I did replace it with a RMBP with i7 that handles it even better, and the flash architecture is amazing.
 
MBP with i5 it is (and will upgrade RAM myself). New to Mac; is there a preferred brand for RAM?

Looking forward to networking up the house with the MBP, an iPad, a couple of Apple TV's and my existing iPhones and Airport Express.

Part of the goal is to get rid of Bell ExpressVu and our land line, but that's another thread.
 
coyo said:
MBP with i5 it is (and will upgrade RAM myself). New to Mac; is there a preferred brand for RAM?

Looking forward to networking up the house with the MBP, an iPad, a couple of Apple TV's and my existing iPhones and Airport Express.

Part of the goal is to get rid of Bell ExpressVu and our land line, but that's another thread.
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Kingston has always been a good brand for me, but I use a variety of different brands in different Macs based on what I can get. I have crucial, mushkin and corsair in the different macs I have at work, and iMacs at home. Just keep the receipt when you buy it, when you plug it in, it will either boot up and work as it should, or just give you a loud beeping noise saying the ram is no good (or at least not liked by your mac). Then return and get something else. Only had that happen once with some mushkin ram in a mac mini at work.
 
Definitely look at the Apple refurb store, the products are essentially brand new minus the retail packaging. I've bought two Macbooks and an iMac from there, no problems at all.

I bought some cheap ram off Amazon, $30 for 8gb, been working great for the past year. Don't remember the brand though, I think it was a three letter name
 
Kingston HyperX is top notch RAM.
 
For your purposes, 4gb of RAM is plenty enough, 8gb is more than you'll ever need. Someone suggested 16 - that's completely overkill. Again for your purposes the difference between the i5 and i7 will be completely unnoticeable, so save money and stick with the i5.
 
Torcida said:
For your purposes, 4gb of RAM is plenty enough, 8gb is more than you'll ever need. Someone suggested 16 - that's completely overkill. Again for your purposes the difference between the i5 and i7 will be completely unnoticeable, so save money and stick with the i5.
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I didn't suggest 16...I said my laptop had 16 and that was vast overkill for even constant heavy use.

If he's essentially using it as a home server, I don't think 4gb will cut it. How much RAM does OSX use on its own?
 
Torcida said:
For your purposes, 4gb of RAM is plenty enough, 8gb is more than you'll ever need. Someone suggested 16 - that's completely overkill. Again for your purposes the difference between the i5 and i7 will be completely unnoticeable, so save money and stick with the i5.
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I found 4gb to be too little if you're running multiple ram heavy apps at once, Parallels is almost unusable with only 4. My mac is much happier with 8gb. It's so cheap, you might as well
 
Macs said:
I didn't suggest 16...I said my laptop had 16 and that was vast overkill for even constant heavy use.

If he's essentially using it as a home server, I don't think 4gb will cut it. How much RAM does OSX use on its own?
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Sorry, that comment wasn't directed at you, but at l84toff who said it was a 'no-brainer' :P.

Hm, a home-server, that's a lot different than than what he said he was going to use it for. But regardless; external network sources such as the TV/iTouch doesn't eat away at your RAM like that. But I guess with it being so cheap it wouldn't hurt to double up anyways for later. And I don't know how much OSX uses on it's own, I've been fortunate enough to never have to use it.

@regder, I use VirtualBox for Debian-KDE and can allocate memory for it just fine with 4gbs on my desktop, though Parallels may demand more I guess, I've never used it.
 
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