Can't Decide On MBP 13 2.66 or 15 i5 2.4

I'm starting business school in september
basic word processing and web browsing email and what ever the school requires, i will be installing windows 7.
I need a computer that will last me all day so i decided on a macbook pro coming from windows all my life currently writing on a MBP 13 2.4 (2010 model) test driving for a couple of weeks and i like it quite a bit but i find the 2.4Ghz is a bit slow coming from an i7 Tower so my question is

is there a huge difference between the C2D 2.66 or 15 i5 2.4 in processor speed
price isn't a big concern to me also how much better is the battery life in the 13" and how much more does the 15 weigh is it significant enough to be a sore shoulder and extra heat. and the GPU don't care about had a gaming comp and never used it.

and i will be installing a Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid HDD either way

thanks

 

I think coming from an Core i7 tower, you will feel the C2D and i5 will be slower. No doubt. As for battery life, I think they get around the same. The 13" might get a bit more (like 30-40 minutes more?).

I suggest you just go for the 13" MBP because as a college student, I can tell you it SUCKS to carry or lug around things like text books or laptops. The 15" will be too bulky I think.

And since you don't care about the GPU, I dont see a need for the 15" MBP.

 

The 2.4Ghz 13" should be plenty...business school doesn't require a whole lot of computer power(or brain power for that matter and I'm most of the way through my MBA). The only people I see hauling anything more powerful to class are either engineers w/ some hefty Precision M6500's or the unemployed guy who is looking to blow through the rest of his student loan check. Plugs are everywhere so all day computing is overrated honestly unless you're classroom happens to be on a cross country flight. The single most complex program I had to use so far in a class was a regression tool built atop Excel and it could run in my Atom powered MSI Wind b/c I quit my old job and turned in my Latitude. It wasn't speedy at it but it still could be done w/o having to quit and drag myself to the labs of computers 2 floors away.

Drop the savings into a good SSD and use it. If you're in Windows, you're stuck using the discrete GPU which will half your battery life anyway so by the time you go w/ an i5 15" and Windows, you might as well get the Vaio Z which will last almost as long and weigh half as much. The 13" MBP doesn't have a discrete card to use so I suspect it'd be less of an impact.