MacBook Pro 17 inch - Specs suggestion?

klbowden wrote in post #7367039
...anyone REGRET the 17" and wish they had not opted for it?

Good luck finding them As the #1 17" computer on the market sold by the company with the highest customer satisfaction and least amount of hardware issues... I doubt many people are going to tell you they 'regret' buying the 17". I personally own an early 08 15" 2.5GHz MBP and having ordered some 17" MBPs for work I'll likely stay with the 15" for one main reason, the 15" size is perfect for my work. My camera bag is rated to carry a 17" laptop... Maybe I'll try the 17" but it is big.

In short, I would recommend the 17" if you're not going to be taking it everywhere with you. Otherewise, get the 17" if you can afford it.

TheHoff wrote in post #7367110
I have a 15" Unibody and I'll likely be getting a 17" in the next few weeks. I'll probably go for 2.93 processor, 4 gigs, and 7200 rpm drive.

.27 faster? Save $300 and get the 2.66. I don't think your going to see any real world difference between these two.

Kronie wrote in post #7367447
.27 faster? Save $300 and get the 2.66. I don't think your going to see any real world difference between these two.

meh, I know, I always get the low end of the processor spec and I've said that here before... but in an effort to future proof the laptop for a few more months I thought I'd get it closer to the 3 mark.

I'm coming from a 2.53 unibody so it is a .5 increase; that might not be insignificant when I'm often waiting for LR previews to render and I see both cores on this laptop maxed out. You're right though, it may be better to just chuck the $300 in the SSD fund.

TheHoff wrote in post #7367599
meh, I know, I always get the low end of the processor spec and I've said that here before... but in an effort to future proof the laptop for a few more months I thought I'd get it closer to the 3 mark.

I'm coming from a 2.53 unibody so it is a .5 increase; that might not be insignificant when I'm often waiting for LR previews to render and I see both cores on this laptop maxed out. You're right though, it may be better to just chuck the $300 in the SSD fund.

My views has always been to upgrade the processor to the max even if it's a minute difference. Throwing the money in SSD fund is something where prices will go down anyway and have the feasibility to upgrade it at a later point whereby the processor is something you won't be able to do. Same goes with memory.

nutsnbolts wrote in post #7376164
My views has always been to upgrade the processor to the max even if it's a minute difference. Throwing the money in SSD fund is something where prices will go down anyway and have the feasibility to upgrade it at a later point whereby the processor is something you won't be able to do. Same goes with memory.

Right. I always used to go on the low end of the processor scale while keeping the RAM high since that is preferable for Photoshop. The only time I'd hit the processor-wall was running a filter or resizing an image... now with Lightroom, suddenly photo work is a lot more intensive for the processor as it renders the previews as you change the non-destructive edits. I find myself processor-bound a lot while waiting for Lightroom...

and yea that is a good point that with a laptop you can't ever swap the processor... but before LR I never needed more speed there.