So here's my situation. I'm a student in high school, and I currently have a 3rd generation iPad (which I'm writing this on) and a 2008 20" Core 2 Duo iMac. The iPad performs great, I can easily take it to school when necessary due to the form factor. However, the iMac is starting to detoriate in peformance - it only has 3 gigs of RAM and a 2.4 GHz Dual Core Core 2 Duo.
I use my iMac for just about everything: word processing, music production (as a hobby) and a bit of video editing. My question is, with the iPad I currently have, should I either get the:
A. 27" inch iMac priced at 1999, upgraded with the 3.4 i7 to 2199 OR
B. 15" Retina MBP at 2199
I like the idea of a big screen, the 27 inch is very appealing to me, however I've had the iMac for nearly 5 years now, and the design and form factor of the MBP really stick out to me (especially that backlit keyboard). Performance wise I know the iMac will run better (it has a 1GHz processor advantage over the selected MBP) however I'm certain that for the tasks I use it for the MBP will be more than enough - Logic 9 runs OK with my iMac, a quad core i7 with 8 gigs of RAM will definitely run it perfectly.
Thoughts? Keep in mind I have the iPad with me as well.
Thanks.
I'd do a non-retina 15" only because your upgradeability options are numerous compared to either of your current options (you can upgrade RAM or storage rather than just RAM on the 27" iMac or just storage on the rMBP [and mind you, your storage upgrade options on the rMBP are seriously limited by comparison to the non-retina]).
That said, you can still pump a substantial amount of life yet into that iMac; it will perform better with 4GB rather than 3GB due to (a) there being an extra GB, and (b) due to it being a matched RAM pairing; plus you can add an SSD to that machine or, if you don't care about your internal ODD, an optibay kit so that you can then, dare I say it, make your own Fusion Drive. Both are things that would prolong the lifespan of your current computer.
Plus, adding a 15" non-retina (or a retina, for that matter) really would compliment that set-up nicely; you'd have your iPad for most mobility tasks, your MacBook Pro for heavy mobility tasks, and your venerable, yet retrofitted-to-be-more-awesome-than-it-currently-is iMac to stand in as a secondary stationary machine on which you can store a ton of things (as 3.5" hard drives have way larger capacities now than either 2.5" drives or SSDs), and with the magic of a DIY Fusion drive, that iMac will sing like it never has before.
I'd say give it some thought, you have a nice amount of options.