i5 or i7 core?

I am getting ready to buy a 13" mac book pro. What is the difference between an i5 and i7 core?

The i7 is a faster processor for most tasks and the 13" MacBook Pro comes with a bigger hard disk in the i7 configuration.

Apart from that the remaining spec is identical. The choice is yours but as a rule of thumb, get the best spec you can reasonably afford.

no need to worry much about the difference - my mum has an MBP with icore 5 and i have one with icore 7 - i can't see much of a difference except in price

TheMacMania said:

no need to worry much about the difference - my mum has an MBP with icore 5 and i have one with icore 7 - i can't see much of a difference except in price

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That may be so but it depends on what you use it for. If you game/video edit/other intensive stuff, get an i7. The only other reason that you would want an i7 is for increasing the life of your laptop.

Agreed.

That's why I'd always say go for the best you can reasonably afford. False economy otherwise..

Depends on what your doing. For websurfing and ms word type tasks then it wouldn't really matter which one you have. For more intense tasks such as video editing, Photoshop editing, or gaming then you would want the i7.

Yeah, I have to politely disagree with the conventional wisdom that the most expensive/fastest chip is ALWAYS the best choice.

For some people, an i7 is a complete waste of extra money. Heck, the entire computer is likely to be far more powerful than they actually need for some users, but that's what's on offer so there you go.

The average lifespan of a laptop is about three to four years (this is because they're subjected to so much more abuse than a desktop). So if your needs are modest, in three-four years that i5 is still going to perform as well as it ever did, and the difference from the i7 will still be minimal from that perspective.

Obviously there are lots of cases where an i7 is a better idea, but the notion that the i7 is magically going to extend the working life of the notebook for a really significant period of time before over an i5 is, for most people, a fallacy.

With respect, I guess we'll agree to disagree again.

Lots of ifs buts and maybes in there. And 'magically'?

I can only say that the single time I went for a lower spec 2ghz MacBook Alu rather than the base MacBook pro I regretted it a year later. Sure, it still worked, and does to this day but it's gotten tired compared to my colleagues MacBook Pro - the one I was going to get but shyed from. That's just my experience of course. Horses for courses.

It wasn't intended as a blanket universal statement. That's why there are so many "for some users" in it.

But let's say (just for the sake of discussion) that a person's main reason for buying a notebook is to do Facebook, email, surf, play some games, maybe edit the occasional photo or phone-video.

This is almost exclusively what something like 70 percent of people do with their computers.

Is an i7 worth the extra money for such a user if they are likely to replace the machine in four years? I mean, if they can afford it easily well hey go for it, but if that extra $200 or what have you could also be used for AppleCare or extra RAM or suchlike, is spending extra for the i7 really needed in that situation?

Maybe. Maybe not. The user would be able to evaluate their situation and outlook for the future better than I could. I'm just saying there's a reason why Apple offers both.

chas - i´m with you. i agree though that you should always go for the best you can afford BUT - the i5 is just fine for photoshop even with 4 GB of RAM. of course, if you do intensive video editing it might run out of ram but still you can invest in 4 more gb later.