Which Would last longer, the Regular Macbook Pro or the Retina Edition?

iLikeTurtles! said:

I know odd question, but when you think about it, ram and HD/SSD and the batery are easily replaceable for theregular macbook if they fail over time.

would the regular macbook pro, over the long run, out last the retina macbook pro since it cannot be upgraded with those parts?

My concern was, my friend told me SSDs will degrade over time. is this true?

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retina one has soldered ram means lesser connector problems, and ssd means no moving parts means more durability, new gen design means more resale value over the years.
I've not heard about sad getting degraded but I've heard pen drives loosing data stored over time of 10-12 years, but they are cheap pen drives, apple uses highest quality flash chips so even if they do, you have at least 20-25 years before it looses any data, and degrading? probably after you.

iLikeTurtles! said:

I know odd question, but when you think about it, ram and HD/SSD and the batery are easily replaceable for theregular macbook if they fail over time.

would the regular macbook pro, over the long run, out last the retina macbook pro since it cannot be upgraded with those parts?

My concern was, my friend told me SSDs will degrade over time. is this true?

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No moving parts, and modern SSDs will take hundreds of years to start to have read/write errors. As far as battery is concerned...if you are still under warranty apple will replace it for free if it stops holding a charge (along with everything else on it) once out of warranty you can pay to repair...but honestly after 3 years its about time to replace it anyway.

SSDs will degrade, but it's unlikely you'll see any adverse effects for the life of the machine.

iLikeTurtles! said:

thanks for the replies.

im wanting this to last for my 4 years of university so im considering going all out at a retina or my current 2011 model.

as my previous thread showed, i already have a2011 macbook pro with an upgraded intel 520 series 120gb SSD (considering selling it thoguh). since its ram and HD and battery are replaceable, i assumed it would last longer since those can be upgraded and further add to the lifespan of the macbook.

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I like turtles too, thats a pretty funny name man, well done.

iLikeTurtles! said:

thanks for the replies.

im wanting this to last for my 4 years of university so im considering going all out at a retina or my current 2011 model.

as my previous thread showed, i already have a2011 macbook pro with an upgraded intel 520 series 120gb SSD (considering selling it thoguh). since its ram and HD and battery are replaceable, i assumed it would last longer since those can be upgraded and further add to the lifespan of the macbook.

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The new Mbp should easily last 4 years. I'm on year 4 with my Mac pro and I'm only replacing it with the new mbp because I am going to London for a year and I won't be able to take it. Need something powerful and portable.

iLikeTurtles! said:

I know odd question, but when you think about it, ram and HD/SSD and the batery are easily replaceable for theregular macbook if they fail over time.

would the regular macbook pro, over the long run, out last the retina macbook pro since it cannot be upgraded with those parts?

My concern was, my friend told me SSDs will degrade over time. is this true?

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Grey lumps in brown sauce? or Brown lumps in grey sauce?

TheMacBookPro said:

SSDs will degrade, but it's unlikely you'll see any adverse effects for the life of the machine.

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I'm not so much into the SSD's, but when you say "degrade", how do you then mean it? How does a SSD degrade?

They should both last the same! As far as which will handle future applications and software better.....that's a crapshoot!

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PEN10k said:

I'm not so much into the SSD's, but when you say "degrade", how do you then mean it? How does a SSD degrade?

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http://www.anandtech.com/show/2738/8

mohsy90 said:

They should both last the same! As far as which will handle future applications and software better.....that's a crapshoot!

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http://www.anandtech.com/show/2738/8

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So ssd's get slower over time?

No they loose data. The flash chips stop storing data or something.

Anyway I have a MacBook (non pro aluminum) from 2008 that I still use. Original battery, original hard drive, and I just upgraded to 4gbs of ram a few months ago.

Orange furball said:

No they loose data. The flash chips stop storing data or something.

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They don't lose data, the data is still saved.
If a NAND MLC cell "dies" it becomes read-only.

SSDs have limited capacity; if you go with just that you might need more storage, which would be a problem.

Hard drives also fail. So being able to replace one is a Good Thing.

It's not real definitive either way, but it's likely either could last you four years.

So get what you like.

Rob

iEnvy said:

So ssd's get slower over time?

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Yes, but you likely won't even notice the degradation over the life of your macbook (3-5yrs). In that time SSD will probably be cheap as hell.

What's your priorities?
Screen/weight/portability>everything else = rMBP
Otherwise the regular/classic MBP is better.
Foreseeably in the future, the classic MBP will be upgradeable to 32gb ram, 1TB SSD will be $250 each. SO in 5 years your cMBP can have 32gb ram and 2tb total of SSD space whilst a rMBP will be stuck with 8gb and 256gb of SSD. (Yes, the rMBP SSD is a potential upgrade, but given OWC piss-poor SSD pricing I really don't see paying $800 for 480gb of SSD as an option.)

SSD will degrade over time as they are used. Just a fact of the way they are engineered. They read/write data differently than spinning drives. That said, it is prudent to back up your main drive on a regular basis with multiple drives. Don't depend on one external drive to warehouse all your information. Just too risky.

You asked about the comparison to the new retina display model. I will lay my money on the previous version that can be upgraded and parts changed out. If your battery fails, you can easily replace it yourself. Same goes for RAM sticks, hard drive, etc. The new retina models forbid this. Sort of akin to buying a car. Would you buy a Cessna 172 that had no replaceable parts on it at all? The other side to this is many people change out their computers every 3 years or so, making it a moot issue in practice. Many of them get caught up in the propaganda and advertising hype and decide they want the latest and greatest so their machines never have a chance to wear completely down.

Yeah I upgrade from a 2006 Black Macbook to late 15in 2011 macbook pro..... big difference in speed but the macbook is still going strong. My daughter in-law now uses it for day to day surfing. Yes i maxed out the ram and bought a new battery but if taken care of it will last another 4-5 years. Only reason why I upgrade was because lightroom was getting slower with each revision and wanted the extra screen real estate.

I'm hoping that SSD's are going to continue to drop in price.... maybe a future xmas gift.

There are long term studies just being completed, that reveal SSD's are not as long lasting as first anticipated. If one does some research & learns about SSD's you'll find some controversy between the life of an SSD vs a HDD. It's educational & quite interesting.

As far as guessing which one of the two will last the longest. Fact is, it's only guesswork & totally irrelevant. Give the MBPr about three years in the hands of customers & real world use, then we'll have something called experience.

To base a buying decision on guesswork is like gambling in Las Vegas. The odds are not in your favor.

iLikeTurtles! said:

so based on your theoretical analyses on this situation and your knowledge about SSDs you've come across the net, if you were in my situation, which option would you "in your opinion" take action on?

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The large volume of research I've done aside, if it were me I'd avoid the MBPr at all costs.

Thats based on two decades as an Apple customer. Typically the first generation of an all new Mac laptop is to be skipped. The following years (next year) model will have a huge number of small to large bug fixes, improvements & the like.

Want a recent example? Read the reviews of the 2010 vs 2011 MBA's. The 2011 are far better machines. Remember the reviewers & enthusiasts always have glowing comments when it's new. The following year when it's compare to the newest model is when you get the truth.

That's why reputable auto publications like Car & Driver & Road & Track have long term road tests. It's then that you find out the true story. Any new product is always given the benefit of the doubt. It's human nature. Once the newness wears off, it's a different story.