Macbook Pro 15" i5 or i7

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Hey guys.

I am a long term windows user and have been using iPhone & iPAD for sometime and i guess i am getting more and more hooked on the whole Apple thing. I am going to be buying a Macbook Pro 15"

Now i cant make my mind up between the i5 and the i7 and hoping that i can get some sound advice as to which one. In my heart i would like the i7 but in my mind i cant decide.

I am going to be web surfing , Mac MS Office, VMware for the odd Windows thing, would like to get in to Video capture and editing, ripping my movies and blueray (which i own)

Is the i7 worth the extra money? am i missing something by not going down the i7 route?

Thanks for any help and suggestions you can give
 
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Main-11" Air, iPhone 6+, iPad Mini 3, Hi-Fi Extras- Too many to count
I think that the i5 is going to be just fine for what you are going to be doing. The i7 would probably be better if you were going to keep it a while and it will also be worth more if you sell it. Personally I would go with the i5.
 
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If you can afford the i7, why not go for it?

It will perform better, you may not notice it but it will enable you to have the computer longer.

I would go with it.

But, for what you are doing, you might not need the i7.

Rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
 
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Thanks for taking the time to reply guys. The Macbook is defo not a keep it for a year and then get shot of it. I am looking to go for at least a three to four year life span. From what my friends who have Macbooks that a 3 to 4 year macbook is still going strong compared to a Windows laptop which seems out of date after a year.

I think you are right if i can afford an i7 then maybe i should go with the latest and greatest but you are prob right in that i wont be pushing it to the max which i guess is a good thing.

Unless anyone else has any good points maybe the i7 is the one
 
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If you plan to keep it, then definitely go with the better specs.

Also, OWC offers RAM upgrades. So if you get 4GB, then they have upgrades for 8GB, and also even to 16GB! Its expensive. But if you start with say 8 (recommended I would say, especially with any type of editing programs) then in the future when RAM prices drop, you could upgrade to that.
And, if you get a conventional HDD, you could replace it with an SSD. That would all make your computer feel new.

SSD is definitely nice.
 
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Yep i think 8GB of RAM would defo be on the card. I have seen prices for 16GB and its crazy. Its like £1,500+.......sod that right now.

I have been looking at the SSD drives and converting the CD Drive to house a standard scratch drive. My only question to myself is do i want to carry my CD Drive with me as well? Not sure right now
 
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Thats a good choice.
If you don't want to have Apple install the RAM, you can order the 8GB from OWC, and then install it yourself. That might be cheaper than Apples upgrade.

16 is wayyy pricey now, but I mean in 3 years Im sure it will be nothing like that. Just another thing to upgrade your computer then...

SSD is definitely the way to go. Everything will launch faster, load faster. Its awesome. My computer boots up in 15 seconds. Basically no lag. OWC Mercury Pro 6G SSD is a good drive. I believe it is one of their fastest. 500mb/s read/write speed.

Now, Apple will not warrant these items because they are not genuine Apple. Just something else to take into consideration.

I would get an external drive for now, and consider an SSD as the main drive, and then if you want to do an OWC data doubler, you could always install another conventional HDD in the CD drive bay. Converting your CD bay would be up to you, and depend on how much you actually insert CDs/DVDs. You may just use flash drives and have no need for it anymore. But an external drive is always a good idea.

Then you can partition the external drive, and back up with time machine and carbon copy cloner, and then if your hard drive ever failed, you would be able to boot up from the external drive. Pretty neat.

Hope this helped.
 
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All good info for a Macbook noob like myself. So from what i have been reading you would install the SSD as the main hard drive, replace the CD Drive with the converter kit to install a standard 2.5" drive in to the bay. I like this idea loads. Just thinking about how much i use my CD drive on my current windows laptop and have to say its not much at all. I dont think i would mind it being external at all.

I like the idea also of an external HD and use it with time machine. Oh yeah i would not buy the 8GB of RAM via apple.
 
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Awesome, Im a noob myself but Ive been doing a little bit of reading.

Yes, you got it down perfect. The 2.5" HDD would be back up and to store extra data on or whatever other information you want on it. But the OS should be on the SSD so it will boot much faster and load applications faster. Make sure you install applications onto that drive.

I don't use mine hardly ever either and I think I might do the CD drive upgrade just like you are talking about. But I have plenty of space on my external drive so I don't need that for a while.

I would definitely check out OWC! To match the ram and ssd....just a suggestion.
 
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Definitely.

Check back and tell me what you think!

Good luck
 
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Pretty impressive the SSD drives. I think it is defo an upgrade i would like to do in time. The 12GB of RAM is not to bad a price. I mean its still high but its not terrible. I was looking at something in the uk where 16GB of RAM was £1,500 for 2 x 8GB sticks.

The CD convertes look like the link i posted so glad to see there are a few firms out there doing it. Just need to track them down in the UK or get shipped over.
 
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Yes, they are some of the fastest out there.

Definitely. I will be upgrading my ram someday hopefully to 16, but the 12 does seem reasonable.

There are of course competitors out there, but Im sure you'll find the one you need/want.
 
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Thanks for your info and advice mate. It has really helped me. I just cant wait to get my macbook :)
 
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You're welcome! Just glad I could help out.

Definitely you'll absolutely love it! I just got a badass 13" and it's awesome :)
 
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Your Mac's Specs
13" Late 2011 MBP,iPad '3' 32gb,iPhone4 32gb
Pretty impressive the SSD drives. I think it is defo an upgrade i would like to do in time. The 12GB of RAM is not to bad a price. I mean its still high but its not terrible. I was looking at something in the uk where 16GB of RAM was £1,500 for 2 x 8GB sticks.

Don't mean to interject, but check out RAM Memory Upgrade: Dell, Mac, Apple, HP, Compaq. USB drives, SSD at Crucial.com

They have a UK site, and charge nowhere near £1500 for 16GB of RAM. Whoever quoted you that is taking the Michael.

Crucial have a memory tool on their website and you can put in your MacBook's info and it will suggest the correct RAM.

Just for info, on Crucial's site, they charge ~£290 for 2 x 8GB or a much more respectable £34 for 2 x 4GB.

Slightly less than the £1500 you were quoted!
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Mid-2012 15" MBP 2.6GHz i7, Late-2011 13" MBP 2.4 GHz i5, Early-2008 Mac Pro 2.8Ghz Xeon
Like previously mentioned, if you can afford i7, go for it. An i5 will do more than what you need though if you really want to save money (I edit pictures/video on a CoreDuo with minimal lag). But my guess it won't be current as long with Mac OSX operating systems as the i7 would be. Since you want this computer to last long, I say get the i7 and you can keep that computer for probably even more than 4 years an have stay relatively current with most software. My CoreDuo 2Ghz is about 4 generations of processor old and the computer itself is almost 7 years old and it still runs almost everything except for really good games. If you take care of the i7 machine it will have a very long lifespan and if you max out its RAM capabilities it will stay fast for quite a while. Overall the i7 is better but if you can't afford it you will still have a very good computer that will still last quite a while.
 

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