Help choosing a new 13" macbook pro!

Im about to buy a new 13" macbook pro. It will be my first mac. It will be used primarily for web browsing and document creation. However, I want to rip my DVDs to my exxternal hard drive.
Anyone have any experience doing this and how much better/faster would the 1499$ model be over the 1199$ model be with the upgraded processor. Is the upgraded processor worth 300$? Any opinions would greatly help me.

ripping DVDs : the speed at which they are ripped is determined by the speed of the optical drive. takes about 20 minutes on a newish Macbook pro/iMac. the superdrives are the same in the new version, so it would be about that.

where the processor comes in is in the encoding stage, where you turn the huge VOB files (can run up to 8.5GB) into a nice viewable video, like a .mov or .mp4. the new MBP 13" i5 processors will do this alot faster than any older version.

in my mind the upgraded processor will be worth the money. to you it might not be. it would mean less waiting for encodes to finish, plus more power for other tasks. if you can stand to wait a bit longer, go for the stock version, its still a great processor.

If it's for minor things like that, get a macbook, not a pro. Pro's have more RAM and an SD card slot ect. more for movie making than writing documents and web surfing.

kribensis12 said:

If it's for minor things like that, get a macbook, not a pro. Pro's have more RAM and an SD card slot ect. more for movie making than writing documents and web surfing.

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I think for only $200 more, it's well worth the price to get a macbook pro over the original macbook. The aluminum casing, backlit keyboard, and just overall more well built machine is worth way more than $200 in my opinion.

Macbook pros appeal to a wide audience due to it's quality, which is only have the reason why it's a better selling machine.

imppy said:

I think for only $200 more, it's well worth the price to get a macbook pro over the original macbook. The aluminum casing, backlit keyboard, and just overall more well built machine is worth way more than $200 in my opinion.

Macbook pros appeal to a wide audience due to it's quality, which is only have the reason why it's a better selling machine.

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To the OP, in terms of doing what you specified, both the original macbook and the macbook pro will perform quite similarly. In terms of the 2 macbook pro models and your specified usage, don't bother spending the extra 300 for a higher end model.

go for the pro. it is a far better machine. far, far better, and will last you much, much longer.

video encode times will be less, and the processor will be very nippy compared to the comparitively sluggish core 2 duo of the white macbook.

unless you dont have the money, in which case a new white macbook will do the trick, just not as well.