Macbook Pro i5 or i7?

[bakerbranded]

Hey everyone,
Ok well for the start of school in the fall RIT has a hefty list for all photo majors to purchase or equipment to come with so I will probably be back here more for other stuff but a computer is the only thing not in the list. But I still plan on getting one anyways and have decided on s fifteen inch macbook.

So now that the new macbook pros are out. I honestly don't know which one to purchase. The i5 or i7. I'm going to school for biomedical photography but would be using it for my photography business regularly as well as everyday college stuff non related to photography.

Basically which one should I get and why? Is the base model of either one ok to get or should I add or change anything to the computer? The least pricey the better lol. But I'm expecting it to be expensive.

Oh and sorry if this is in the wrong section.

Thanks guys,
Scott

[doubleo6point9]

Probably better off asking this in the computer section of the raw, processing and printing part of the forum but I just picked up the base 15 i5 with a 500 gb 7200 rpm hard drive and it works well for me. I use lightroom, cs4 and running a trial version of aperture and so far it's been pretty good to me. I used to run a macbook 2.4 C2D with 8 gigs of ram and a 7200 rpm and honestly, I haven't benchmarked either laptop but the i5 is quicker than my older macbook. Either way, if you have the cash I would say go for the i7 with hi res screen (anti glare or glossy depending upon your preference) and at least go with the 7200 rpm hd upgrade if you can't afford a ssd. If not, the base i5 has been good to me so far so you should be fine with that.

[MacHeadCase]

These benchmarks might help you decide.

MacBook Pro Benchmarks (April 2010) (http://www.primatelabs.ca/blog/2010/04/macbookpro-benchmarks/):

... What people have been asking me, though, is whether they should get the i5 or the i7 MacBook Pro. Personally, I think the low-end i5 is more than sufficient for most tasks (it’s about 15% slower but costs 25% less). Granted, it’s got less drive space and less video card memory but it’s still zippy. If, however, you want the fastest MacBook Pro available then go ahead and get an i7; you are paying a premium for the performance but at least it’s not a steep premium! ...

[MaxxuM]

i5 MBP if... You're not going to do heavy 3D, video production (FCS), edit more than 100 RAW photo's at a sitting and don't so a lot of multitasking (like rendering a movie while using Aperture at the same time) often.

i7 MBP if.. You're going to do moderate often or heavy 3D work, going to use FCS weekly and work on projects longer than a few minutes, edit more than 101+ RAW files daily or you're a very heavy multitasker. The i7 will also stay viable for a little longer, but not measurably different. Battery life will be shorter and cost will increase.

[Moppie]

A 7200rpm HDD will yield the biggest difference in performance, if after doing that, the i7 is still with in your budget then you might as well get the best you can afford :)

[sth_]

If you're concerned about speed, first make sure you get the fastest storage option you can afford.

I have the i7 in combination with the 7200rpm hard-drive and the only time I've seen the CPU really max'ed out was when doing some video compression. When, for example, handling RAW images in Aperture, the limiting factor is still the hard-drive (none of the CPU cores hits 100% while doing that), so I wouldn't call the i7-upgrade a must-have, especially for photographers. An i5 with a SSD will be faster in most situations.

Unlike the desktop versions, the mobile i5 and i7 CPUs are basically the same chip, so the speed difference isn't really that big.

[Moppie]

I have the i7 in combination with the 7200rpm hard-drive and the only time I've seen the CPU really max'ed out was when doing some video compression. When, for example, handling RAW images in Aperture, the limiting factor is still the hard-drive (none of the CPU cores hits 100% while doing that), so I wouldn't call the i7-upgrade a must-have, especially for photographers. An i5 with a SSD will be faster in most situations.



A 7200rpm drive does make a huge difference, as does an SSD (exponentially faster).
But replace that 450D with a 5D2 and you will see all the cores hit 100%, regardless of how fast the HDD is :cool:

[nonameowns]

biggest difference is that i5 get 256 mb of graphic memory while i7 get 512.

[sth_]

A 7200rpm drive does make a huge difference, as does an SSD (exponentially faster).
But replace that 450D with a 5D2 and you will see all the cores hit 100%, regardless of how fast the HDD is :cool:
Feel free to send me a 5d2, I'd love to benchmark that... 8)

biggest difference is that i5 get 256 mb of graphic memory while i7 get 512.
Not in the 17" ;)

[BeritOlam]

I think Maxxum gives you the basic break-down of how I'd view things. Only thing I can think to add relates to your 'gear' list -- if you're shooting RAW on your 40D, theoretically that could make the i7 proportionately less necessary. Of course, it still depends a lot on your work load and multi-tasking (per Maxxum's comments). However, the i7 becomes more necessary when you move into 5D2-type territory because the files are so much bigger.