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Is it worth the extra $$$ for 2.3GHz over 2.2Ghz?
I’m looking to get a new Macbook Pro 17″.
I know all my specs except for two things:
Whether to get 2.2GHz or 2.3GHz i7 Proccessor
Whether its worth getting more than 128 Gig of Solid state hard drive memory.
Is it worth splashing out quite a lot of cash to upgrade 2.2Ghz to 2.3Ghz? Ive tried to research it and many people say no, but some people say the 2.3GHz has more L3 Cache memory (8mb vs 6mb in the 2.2Ghz). I don’t even know what L3 Cache is, or how it will affect FCP performance.
Also, 128 Gig of hard drive should be enough for me if i intend to store all media on an external…. right?
Here is a link to Intel comparison between the two processors, if anyone can spot much difference please tell me. At the moment im leaning towards the 2.2Ghz because it seems like too much money to spend for a 2.3GHz if i might not even notice any difference in speed.
https://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=52227,50067,
Thanks,
J
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8 Replies
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I would hold off on the SSD and spend that money on the upgraded processor and more RAM.
I’m playing with my new 17″ MBPro now. Wait till SSD’s come down in price. It is very easy to change the HD in the New MBPro.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
Typically you pay a significant premium for the “fastest” CPU where the increase in price doesn’t match the increase in performance. The only real way to know if there is a noticeable difference in performance is to test both of them out with the identical workflow you plan to use on them. My gut says you’ll never notice the difference and you’re going to be more bottle necked at disk IO than the modest gains in CPU.
As for the 128 GB disks. Look at what you’re using now and how much space that is. Will it all fit in 128 GB with plenty of free space? Good rule of thumb is to leave at least 20% of your disk empty.
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Thanks for the replies.
As for the bottleneck: There is the new thunderbolt connection, and Lacie is bringing/has brought out a “Little Big Disk” with thunderbolt, so should be no speed lost there??!!
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[Chris Gordon] “Good rule of thumb is to leave at least 20% of your disk empty.”
That rule doesn’t apply to Solid State Drives.
Jason Jenkins
Flowmotion Media
Video production… with style! -
Spending someone else’s money .. my favourite 😉
Fwiw Jay, if I was buying today then my money would be going on the 2.2 GHz option … saving the extra that the 2.3 GHz option would have cost me and putting that instead towards the matte screen option and a third party upgrade to 8GB of RAM ( cheaper to order 2 x 4GB from OWC than to buy Apple’s own 4GB upgrade ). Re the SSD, yes, an internal SSD startup disk would be nice and the 128 GB SSD should be all that you’ll need to start off, assuming you’re happy to skip all the extra “Content” that comes on the FCS discs … but as has been noted, the internal HD is easy to upgrade to an SSD as and when the prices of the higher capacity units come down to something more affordable, so if you find yourself leaning that way then the 500GB 7200rpm drive option might be a good compromise for the time being.
Cheers
Andy -
great, thanks again for all the input guys.
re the 128 Gig, doesn’t the full Final Cut Studio (including all content for all software), only come to 40 Gig or so? I am using Final Cut Studio 2, as far as I can remember the whole install was around 40-50 gig.
I dont use my computer for any other applications, apart from small ones i..e VLC and Wiretap.
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Actually, the i7 supports hyperthreading, which can increase the number of “cores” – processors – it presents to the application. The i5 does not. FCP takes full advantage of this. It makes your rendering run much faster. I think it is well worth the extra bux.
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Hey Ronald
Jay is discussing the choice between the standard Quad Core 2.2GHz i7 chip in the new 17″ MBP and the Build To Order option for the Quad Core 2.3GHz i7 chip in the same … they are both i7 chips 😉
Cheers
Andy
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