Need suggestion--MBP 13 or 15?

I am thinking about getting my first mac and have a budget around 2k-2.2k. I am wondering whether I should go with MBP 13 with SSD or MBP 15 for a i7 CPU. Which upgrade will give me more performance boost, SSD or quad-core CPU with larger L3 cache?

MBP 13: 2.3G Dual-core i5 3MB L3 cache + 4GB DDR3 + 256GB SSD +Apple care= $2098. (I wish 13 has an option for 7200rpm HD).

MBP 15: 2.0G Quad-core i7 6MB L3 cache + 4GB DDR3 + 500GB 7200rpm HD +Apple care= $2248.

I do a lot of programming, some video playback, but very little gaming. I also plan to VM Win7. The size and weight of both 13 and 15 are OK to me.

 

Or you could get the MBP 15 2.2g for roughly same price range.

 

That one plus apple care will cost >2400... My main question here is which one is a better combination? dual-core i5+SSD or quad-core i7+7200rpmHD?

 

Well, they will each provide difference performance boosts for different purposes. The 13" model with SSD will boot faster, load programs faster, and perform tasks faster that heavily rely on the SSD drive. The 15" with the quad-core processor will do better with processes that rely more on the processor and graphics. It will likely have some slower boot tomes, load programs a little slower, etc. You may or may not notice these differences in real world performance though. I don't know if virtual machine will perform better with the quad-core Core i7. It should be but, being a recent Mac user, I have had not experience with virtual machine.

You also need to consider portability. If you have the money, I don't see a reason why someone would go with the 13" model unless they wanted something that was more portable. The 13" MacBook Pro is more for people who want something that is portable, their budget is a little lower, and/or they will never fully use a quad-core processor (I fell into all three categories).

 

Thank you for the info!

 

If you plan to do some light Virtual Machine use, 4 GB is okay, but 8 would be nice. If you want to do heavy VMing, then 8 GB RAM is almost a must.

Also, does anyone actually know how fast the SSDs for MBPs you get from Apple actually are? They seem to be overpriced compared to MacBook Air SSDs and other standard 2.5" SSDs (from OCZ, etc.), so it makes me wonder if they're equally fast or old'n'slow.

 

It depends if Apple is still using the same models as the previous MBP's or if they upgraded to new ones. Given that it is much less expensive to upgrade the hard drive and RAM after the fact (at least for the MBP), I don't know many people have relied on Apple for those aspects.

RAM shouldn't be a deciding factor since it is only $85 to upgrade the current MBP line to 8GB of RAM, that includes the $4 cost of a phillips head #00 screwdriver to open up the bottom of the MBP.

 

Yes, it is overpriced... That's why I am thinking about buying one from other retailers...

 

amazon if you don't upgrade anything

 

Always get the max CPU and video card you can get, mostly cause they are completely un-upgradable. Then get the SSD and RAM laters.

 

I have both a 17" 2.6ghz I5 and a 13" 2.2ghz C2Duo and though the 17 is a lot more powerful I just picked up a new 13" I5 yesterday.

I travel a lot and the 13" is great for that. I have been waiting for the day that they made the 13" competitive with the bigger ones and luckily for me, that day came last week!

The screen is much better on the 17" to me and overall everything about it is better except practicality.
This is obviously purely subjective so it is not reasonable that someone else could predict the best for you.

That said I am satisfied now that the 13" can hold its own and should give my daily waits between compiles a break.

I replaced the stock drive with a 256g SSD and the optical came out and in went a 750gb 7200 rpm Seagate.

The thing is so fast now it is almost unbelievable.

Since I have my old 13" and cloned it to the new one I can run them side by side and it is good.
I decided the I7 upcharge was not worth the $300.00 but I did max the Ram too.

 

You like the battery time of the MBP 13?

 

Battery time does go about an hour more based on specs... I am thinking more about 45min based on what I do

 

I have had the new one 2 days....don't know yet.
The older one,yes surprising battery life,i usually disable most power management for performance and I was always satisfied in the past.

As I understand it they now use more realistic methods to rate life on the new ones but who really knows?