Which MB Pro? Old 17 or New 15?

Durbrow · #1 February 5th, 2007, 09:41 PM

I can spend $2000 US on a MBPro (according to my wife). I use my old TiBook primarily for teaching online courses but I would use a new MB Pro for running IE 7 under XP. The older 17 inch (older Core Duo) and a new 15 inch (new Core Duo) 2.16 ghz models are about the same price and have the same hard drive and memory.

Which would you get? Or what kinds of question would you ask yourself? I assume that the 17 inch gets poorer battery time....

Thanks for advice!

Thank The Cheese · #2 February 5th, 2007, 11:02 PM

It depends what is most important to you -- performance or screen size. The new MBPs have significantly improved specs -- RAM can be increased to 3GB instead of 2GB, and the new Core2Duo processors are quite significantly better than the CoreDuos.

So it depends on what you are doing. If you're doing Word, Powerpoint/keynote, internet browsing, then either will work just as well, and you can choose based on screen size and battery life. However, if you're doing video editing, encoding, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc (ie. high end video or graphics), then RAM and processor speeds start to matter.

If you're using Parallels to boot into Windows XP/Vista, then RAM REALLY starts to matter. As someone with 1.5GB of RAM on a MBP who has run Windows XP in Parallels, I can tell you it can be a painful experience switching between them a lot, and 3 GB of RAM would be just wonderful.

Of course, if you plan to use boot camp, then that doesn't matter, and it will not run much faster on the newer machine.

This is my opinion anyway, and it's not a clear answer as it depends what you use it for.

If I were you I would definitely go with the 15" MBP Core2Duo over the 17" MBP CoreDuo in a heartbeat. (btw, he Core2Duos have Wireless N cards, which will save you a bit of money down the line)

eric2006 · #3 February 5th, 2007, 11:09 PM

I'd choose the 15" just because the 17" is much harder to lug around, and you can always use an external display. I'd also check them out at an Apple Store or reseller to see what "feels" right.

Thank The Cheese · #4 February 6th, 2007, 12:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eric2006

I'd choose the 15" just because the 17" is much harder to lug around, and you can always use an external display. I'd also check them out at an Apple Store or reseller to see what "feels" right.

good point eric. I find that too (though some ppl love it). I personally think 15" is at that sweet spot where it's big enough to do serious work, but small enough to be easily portable. That can be personal taste tho

Durbrow · #5 February 6th, 2007, 01:46 AM

Minor/Trivia question: Did Apple increase the screen size with the MacBook Pro? I believe they are 15.4 inches. But were the older PowerBooks 15.2 inches?

Also, there is a cool article in Tidbits about using ScreenRecycler to make your old PowerBook into a second screen.

eric2006 · #6 February 6th, 2007, 07:47 AM

Yep, you can see screen size of previous models at apple-history.com

**fryke** · #7 February 6th, 2007, 08:35 AM

New is better. For running Windows in Parallels, make sure you have enough RAM.