13inch Macbook Pro, base model or top?

Ev0 · 11 Mar 2011 at 09:50

Almost ready to hit the buy button on a new 13inch Pro, but can't decide whether the top model is worth the extra cash.

Now the disk size I'm really not fussed on, likely it'll be swapped for an SSD at some point anyway, but is the i7 worth the £200 odd over the i5?

I'm thinking on the face of it no it isn't, however I really wanted a chip with the AES-NI instruction set and the i5 doesn't have it

Don't think I can justify that for 250 extra over the other model.

What would/did people here go for, base or top?

uvarvu · 11 Mar 2011 at 10:41

The Core i7 turbo boost mode has been disabled on the 13 incher.

Ev0 · 11 Mar 2011 at 10:51

Or not if you read the article and updated comments, however turbo boost is not something that bothers me if it's there or not

More interested in the AES-NI

Combat squirrel · 11 Mar 2011 at 15:47

i5 has AES-NI according to wiki ?

hyper_piper45 · 11 Mar 2011 at 19:15

I have no idea what AES-NI is but I don't think the extra £200 is worth it. For that price you could get a Vertex 3 SSD when it comes out which would make a massive difference to performance. I suppose it depends what you will be doing with the machine, if you are not doing a lot of cpu intensive stuff I wouldn't worry about it.

Ev0 · 11 Mar 2011 at 22:37

Combat squirrel said:
i5 has AES-NI according to wiki ?

Not the one in the 13inch Pro

All it does is speed up AES encryption tasks, was thinking it could be a real boost when using truecrypt or something.

Don't think I'll bother as it's a bit of a price premium for it.

allosunshine · 12 Mar 2011 at 12:06

Get the base model and use the £200 to get a SSD, 8gb RAM and an Optibay.

Ev0 · 12 Mar 2011 at 20:19

Yeah have ordered the base model as would rather spend the extra cash at somepoint on an SSD at least. Not for a bit though

hyper_piper45 · 12 Mar 2011 at 21:03

Ev0 said:
Yeah have ordered the base model as would rather spend the extra cash at somepoint on an SSD at least. Not for a bit though

Sounds like a good decision.

Rainmaker · 12 Mar 2011 at 21:51

I got the base 13" as reviews said the % performance increase of the 13" i7 just didn't tally up with its price premium. This is my first Mac and I have to say, after a first day wobble (OMGWTFHAVEIDONE?) I'm absolutely in love with it. <3

I'll be doing the same as you; SSD and 8GB RAM, probably once Lion comes out. IF Apple enable TRIM for 3rd party SSDs and the performance issues in SATA3 drives get ironed out, anyway.

My machine's screaming along for what it is - no regrets here. Enjoy yours when it arrives.