08-03-2010, 09:15 AM

Hi guys! (:

Brand spanking new to this forum and MBPs all together.
I'm looking to get a 13" and was wondering if the extra $400 is worth it for the better specs.
Is there a massive performance difference between the 2.4GHZ and 2.66GHZ?
Also the extra 70GB doesn't really appeal to me.
I have a desktop at home and I mostly store everything on that any ways, the MBP will most likely be for uni usage.


Any comments/opinions will be greatly appreciated!
TIA!!

08-03-2010, 10:02 AM

I would just ignore the hard drive part of the question...it looks like your real question is about which processor. I have one of the 2.66's...its fast and i love it..I have used the 2.4's at work and notice a slight difference but nothing 'massive'. like maybe a couple seconds on most applications, others you cant even tell...this link might help
Benchmarks: New 13-inch MacBook Pros | Laptops | From the Lab | Macworld

08-03-2010, 05:24 PM

Originally Posted by mayflyTR

I would just ignore the hard drive part of the question...it looks like your real question is about which processor. I have one of the 2.66's...its fast and i love it..I have used the 2.4's at work and notice a slight difference but nothing 'massive'. like maybe a couple seconds on most applications, others you cant even tell...this link might help
Benchmarks: New 13-inch MacBook Pros | Laptops | From the Lab | Macworld

Will the 2.66ghz be faster than the 2.4ghz, when opening and closing applications? I have used the 2.4ghz 13 inch model, and i felt programs took a bit long to open. When i would click on a program on my dashboard, like Firefox, the icon would bounce several times before opening. Would the bump from 2.4ghz to 2.66ghz be noticeable? Would it help with program load times, and opening and closing applications?

08-03-2010, 05:41 PM

yes the 2.66ghz will be faster...but it all depends on what kind of applications you are using..if you are going to be using some more intensive programs like final cut, adobe creative suite, aperture..you will notice a bigger difference..however if firefox is your main concern dont waste your money, its not a noticeable difference ...if you are more of a home user your computer is excellent for your needs

08-03-2010, 06:01 PM

Originally Posted by mayflyTR

yes the 2.66ghz will be faster...but it all depends on what kind of applications you are using..if you are going to be using some more intensive programs like final cut, adobe creative suite, aperture..you will notice a bigger difference..however if firefox is your main concern dont waste your money, its not a noticeable difference ...if you are more of a home user your computer is excellent for your needs

So i wouldn't notice a speed increase when opening and closing applications and programs if i were to upgraded to the 2.66ghz model? Would upgrading the RAM increase these speeds?

08-03-2010, 07:01 PM

i have the new 2.4, it is fast.. id dabble in video editing and it holds up great.. if you have any thought to go onto the 2.66 you might aswel go for the 15" mbp with the i5 cpu

08-03-2010, 07:46 PM

Originally Posted by DigiDoom

So i wouldn't notice a speed increase when opening and closing applications and programs if i were to upgraded to the 2.66ghz model? Would upgrading the RAM increase these speeds?

You would need to upgrade to a faster hard drive if application startup speed is what you want. The problem is that the 13" only have the 5400 RPM drive and SSD ones. I noticed a difference when I got the 7200 RPM drive. You can always upgrade the drive yourself later so it's not that big of an issue when buying.

Getting more RAM helps the most if you run out of it during usage. For example having 32 GB of RAM isn't worthwhile if you daily use around 2 GB with what you do.

Also a 2.66 isn't much faster than a 2.4. As mentioned it will only be noticeable when doing something that really needs processing power. It's nice for people who only want a 13" MBP but want the fastest thing available. There are people who use their 13" MBP more intensely so every bit of power they can get is wanted.

08-03-2010, 07:56 PM

Originally Posted by EndlessMac

You would need to upgrade to a faster hard drive if application startup speed is what you want. The problem is that the 13" only have the 5400 RPM drive and SSD ones. I noticed a difference when I got the 7200 RPM drive. You can always upgrade the drive yourself later so it's not that big of an issue when buying.

Getting more RAM helps the most if you run out of it during usage. For example having 32 GB of RAM isn't worthwhile if you daily use around 2 GB with what you do.

Also a 2.66 isn't much faster than a 2.4. As mentioned it will only be noticeable when doing something that really needs processing power. It's nice for people who only want a 13" MBP but want the fastest thing available. There are people who use their 13" MBP more intensely so every bit of power they can get is wanted.

I have been using a 2.66ghz machine before i got the MBP, and i notice things run a little faster on the 2.66ghz machine, so i figured getting the higher end 13 in mbp would give me speeds i am used to, and make things like opening/closing programs, music production, etc a bit faster.

08-03-2010, 08:05 PM

Getting a faster processor will always make things faster but the question is how noticeable it will be and if that is worth the money. Since you said you have tried one out and noticed it's a bit faster then I think you have answered your own question.

If money is not an obstacle then of course the fastest processor will give you the best performance but a few seconds/minutes faster isn't always worth it for some people. Although if you want the fastest performance when it comes to opening applications for the first time then your hard drive speed is what matters most.

08-03-2010, 08:12 PM

Originally Posted by EndlessMac

Getting a faster processor will always make things faster but the question is how noticeable it will be and if that is worth the money. Since you said you have tried one out and noticed it's a bit faster then I think you have answered your own question.

If money is not an obstacle then of course the fastest processor will give you the best performance but a few seconds/minutes faster isn't always worth it for some people. Although if you want the fastest performance when it comes to opening applications for the first time then your hard drive speed is what matters most.

I havent tried the 2.66ghz model, just use the 2.4ghz one. Wonderd if the 2.66ghz would noticeably speed things up when it comes to even the little things, like opening and closing programs.

08-03-2010, 08:56 PM

Originally Posted by DigiDoom

I have been using a 2.66ghz machine before i got the MBP, and i notice things run a little faster on the 2.66ghz machine

Originally Posted by DigiDoom

I havent tried the 2.66ghz model, just use the 2.4ghz one.

So I'm assuming the 2.66 you are talking about is a Windows machine? That's a little different and you need to know what other specifications the computer had. The processor is not the only thing that makes a computer fast. For the faster performance you need to look at the computer as whole because it is only as fast as it's slowest part. It's the bottle neck effect if you are familiar with that expression.

As I already mentioned you really should be looking into the hard drive speed if you care that much about the speed of opening applications. It will also benefit you when saving files and accessing files on your hard drive.

08-03-2010, 11:51 PM

the jump from 2.4 to 2.6 should not be fast enough to shave seconds off opening an app. There isn't that much of a difference in speed! It is noticeable in a prolonged arunning app that is running something(like hd content and such). What you might have noticed is maybe more ram with more apps opened up.
2.4 and 2.6ghz should both open up firefox in the same amount of time because it's not a that big of a program to freshly open(varies if you have different home pages).
What's more important that going from 2.4 to 2.6 is getting a faster hard drive! I don't know why people neglect their HDD's and but worry so much about processor.
Listen to what EndlessMac said.

I don't think that's worth a 400 dollar premium alone with the extra hdd space. You can do a whole lot with 400 bones!

08-04-2010, 09:02 AM

Thanks a lot for your help guys! (:
I'm guessing if there isn't a massive difference between the 2.4 and 2.66 then I'm not going to bother spending an extra $400 which I believe isn't worth it. Mainly because I'm a uni student and don't have much money laying around hehe

Thanks again!