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Difficulty making decision about purchase of Macbook or iMac

K

Kalhawari

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 5, 2013
10
0
Hello,

I am currently a student looking to save up for a new mac to purchase sometime in the near future.
My current macbook pro is the aluminum unibody from 2008 with 500gb hard drive 2.4 ghz dual core 8gb of ram running 10.8. I currently also own an ipad 3 that i use a lot for school and almost always leave my macbook at home.


my macbook is dying off and i need a new macbook. for the longest time i wanted a 15 inch laptop and i have had my eyes on the retina display mac for a while...the only problem is the price is kind of throwing me off...even the macbook pro non retina is expensive compared to an iMac for some reason....


i cannot make my decision between the following

Macbook Pro Retina 15 Inch,
Macbook Pro 15 Inch
iMac 2013 and Second hand new specs macbook Air
Or any other suggestions...


I still want to be able to always use my ipad or get one for my textbooks and school but I always bring my laptop to my friends to play some select few games.

i am not looking to buy a laptop or computer for games because i have the ps3 and 360 and hopefully the next gens when they are out but i want to feel like i have freedom if i need it.. there have been times where i brought my ipad and laptop to school but rarely do i do that on average.

I am lost guys but I know i will be happy with the following:

new mac
16GB Ram at least
dedicated graphics
at least 500GB hard drive
i5 or i7 process( if its substantially better than i5 and worth the money)


what do any of you think?
thanks
 
r0k

r0k

macrumors 68040
Mar 3, 2008
3,611
75
Detroit
Kalhawari said:
Hello,

I am currently a student looking to save up for a new mac to purchase sometime in the near future.
My current macbook pro is the aluminum unibody from 2008 with 500gb hard drive 2.4 ghz dual core 8gb of ram running 10.8. I currently also own an ipad 3 that i use a lot for school and almost always leave my macbook at home.


my macbook is dying off and i need a new macbook. for the longest time i wanted a 15 inch laptop and i have had my eyes on the retina display mac for a while...the only problem is the price is kind of throwing me off...even the macbook pro non retina is expensive compared to an iMac for some reason....


i cannot make my decision between the following

Macbook Pro Retina 15 Inch,
Macbook Pro 15 Inch
iMac 2013 and Second hand new specs macbook Air
Or any other suggestions...


I still want to be able to always use my ipad or get one for my textbooks and school but I always bring my laptop to my friends to play some select few games.

i am not looking to buy a laptop or computer for games because i have the ps3 and 360 and hopefully the next gens when they are out but i want to feel like i have freedom if i need it.. there have been times where i brought my ipad and laptop to school but rarely do i do that on average.

I am lost guys but I know i will be happy with the following:

new mac
16GB Ram at least
dedicated graphics
at least 500GB hard drive
i5 or i7 process( if its substantially better than i5 and worth the money)


what do any of you think?
thanks
Click to expand...

I picked up a late 2011 15 inch hires antiglare MBP late last year from Microcenter. I got a sweet deal that was $200 less than refurbs of the same machine were going for. I also own an iPad mini that I take to meetings and classes. My system has 8 GB of RAM right now but I have a fresh couple of sticks of 16GB lying on my desk waiting for me to have time to put it in. I've been busy including a funeral this week but another reason I haven't put it in is that with 8GB I'm delighted with my MBP's performance. The biggest impact to me of having more RAM would be the ability to keep 100+ tabs open in Chrome. Not something I really need to do that often anyway.

If you want to upgrade your own RAM or HDD/SSD, I suggest you go with the standard (non-retina) 15 inch MBP. I also recommend the MBP over the iMac because it is more portable even though you have your iPad 3 to take to classes. If you don't care about doing your own upgrades, go for the rMBP. It's a beautiful machine and is thinner/lighter than the standard MBP. While mine sits on my desk 24x7, I do appreciate the ability to pick it up and take it somewhere if I ever need it.
 
K

Kalhawari

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 5, 2013
10
0
r0k said:
I picked up a late 2011 15 inch hires antiglare MBP late last year from Microcenter. I got a sweet deal that was $200 less than refurbs of the same machine were going for. I also own an iPad mini that I take to meetings and classes. My system has 8 GB of RAM right now but I have a fresh couple of sticks of 16GB lying on my desk waiting for me to have time to put it in. I've been busy including a funeral this week but another reason I haven't put it in is that with 8GB I'm delighted with my MBP's performance. The biggest impact to me of having more RAM would be the ability to keep 100+ tabs open in Chrome. Not something I really need to do that often anyway.

If you want to upgrade your own RAM or HDD/SSD, I suggest you go with the standard (non-retina) 15 inch MBP. I also recommend the MBP over the iMac because it is more portable even though you have your iPad 3 to take to classes. If you don't care about doing your own upgrades, go for the rMBP. It's a beautiful machine and is thinner/lighter than the standard MBP. While mine sits on my desk 24x7, I do appreciate the ability to pick it up and take it somewhere if I ever need it.
Click to expand...


Thank you very much for your help. I think you have some valid reasons. The thing is though know find that if I want 16gb of ram anyway I don't think it would matter if I get the retina or non retina since laptops are capped with how much remember they have anyway right? So wth that I just have to decide laptop right not, I am hoping prices will go down...an imac I'd still less which boggles me
 
J

Jedi Master

macrumors regular
Apr 5, 2013
197
0
ar the moment on the Death Star
Kalhawari said:
Thank you very much for your help. I think you have some valid reasons. The thing is though know find that if I want 16gb of ram anyway I don't think it would matter if I get the retina or non retina since laptops are capped with how much remember they have anyway right? So wth that I just have to decide laptop right not, I am hoping prices will go down...an imac I'd still less which boggles me
Click to expand...

Get both, from the Apple Certified Refurbished mac store shop.

Then get a Mac Air

----------
Jedi Master said:
Get both, from the Apple Certified Refurbished mac store shop.

Then get a Mac Air
Click to expand...

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac





Refurbished 21.5-inch iMac 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i5
Originally released October 2012
21.5-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display
8GB memory
1TB hard drive

NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M with 512MB
Built-in FaceTime HD camera
$1,099.00
Save $200.00
15% off

Select

Refurbished 21.5-inch iMac 2.9GHz quad-core Intel Core i5
Originally released October 2012
21.5-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display
8GB memory

1TB hard drive

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 512MB
Built-in FaceTime HD camera
$1,269.00
Save $230.00
15% off

Select
 
luffytubby

luffytubby

macrumors 6502a
Jan 22, 2008
684
0
You shouldn't get a Laptop unless you are planning on carrying it around. And how much you want to carry it around dictates which Laptop you need.




Think in the future for the next couple of years. If you rarely bring your laptop and ipad to school now, will that change? if yes, go macbook pro, if not stick with the nice stationary experience of an Imac.
 
iSayuSay

iSayuSay

macrumors 68040
Feb 6, 2011
3,792
906
If you really care about what you get for the money, get the iMac.

$1200 iMac can get you quite close to what you get on $2000 MBP. All in a bigger screen. You pay a lot more for portability.

Think about it, do you need it mobility so badly. Because if you're going to sit your laptop 24/7 on the same desk, well vote for your wallet and get the iMac.

iMac can also be moved around whenever needed, it's thinner and lighter, remember? ;)
 
r0k

r0k

macrumors 68040
Mar 3, 2008
3,611
75
Detroit
luffytubby said:
You shouldn't get a Laptop unless you are planning on carrying it around. And how much you want to carry it around dictates which Laptop you need.




Think in the future for the next couple of years. If you rarely bring your laptop and ipad to school now, will that change? if yes, go macbook pro, if not stick with the nice stationary experience of an Imac.
Click to expand...



iSayuSay said:
If you really care about what you get for the money, get the iMac.

$1200 iMac can get you quite close to what you get on $2000 MBP. All in a bigger screen. You pay a lot more for portability.

Think about it, do you need it mobility so badly. Because if you're going to sit your laptop 24/7 on the same desk, well vote for your wallet and get the iMac.

iMac can also be moved around whenever needed, it's thinner and lighter, remember? ;)
Click to expand...

Normally I would agree with both of you about only buying a Laptop for portable use, however because I have a roll-top desk, I like the way I can let down the roll top right over my Macbook Pro (if I move my external monitor). With that bulky monitor sitting there I guess I don't really have that valid of a reason any more but I do like the fact that my MBP is portable AND user upgradeable. This is something that cannot be said about the MBA or rMBP. To some extent you can upgrade an iMac but for now the most upgradable Macs are the Mac mini and non retina MBP models.
 
K

Kalhawari

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 5, 2013
10
0
what if i keep my macbook i have now which is pretty much more powerful than a macbook air and upgradable and get an imac?
 
iSayuSay

iSayuSay

macrumors 68040
Feb 6, 2011
3,792
906
Kalhawari said:
what if i keep my macbook i have now which is pretty much more powerful than a macbook air and upgradable and get an imac?
Click to expand...

Your old MBP is actually less powerful than current MBA, seriously. But yes, it's far more upgradeable.

Yes that's quite a good idea if you only need portability once in a while for taking notes, doing homework and research.
If you have the money, keep what you have now and get the iMac. It's the beefiest machine Apple could offer for the money, something mere mortals could still afford.
 
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