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sarakn

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 8, 2013
765
46
I really want Haswell because it's a way to future-proof my device as well as take advantage of the latest and greatest features.

My quandary is:
How easy will it be to resell this laptop if I choose to purchase it today.
I can buy the 15" rMBP with 16GB mem and 768GB storage for $2,618.99 delivered.

Since this price is almost $600 less than Apple's price, I wonder if I can sell later and get close to by purchase price and use that to buy a new laptop. I'm worried that Apple would release the new models and this could be hit with a $1000 price drop. What do you guys think?

Apple 15.4" MacBook Pro (with Retina display) quad-core Intel Core i7 2.7GHz,
16GB RAM,
768GB Flash Storage,
Intel HD Graphics 4000,
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB GDDR5,
Intel HD Graphics 4000, Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion (Z0ML4LL/A)
 

NStocks

macrumors 68000
Apr 3, 2008
1,567
18
England
I really want Haswell because it's a way to future-proof my device as well as take advantage of the latest and greatest features.

My quandary is:
How easy will it be to resell this laptop if I choose to purchase it today.
I can buy the 15" rMBP with 16GB mem and 768GB storage for $2,618.99 delivered.

Since this price is almost $600 less than Apple's price, I wonder if I can sell later and get close to by purchase price and use that to buy a new laptop. I'm worried that Apple would release the new models and this could be hit with a $1000 price drop. What do you guys think?

Apple 15.4" MacBook Pro (with Retina display) quad-core Intel Core i7 2.7GHz,
16GB RAM,
768GB Flash Storage,
Intel HD Graphics 4000,
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB GDDR5,
Intel HD Graphics 4000, Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion (Z0ML4LL/A)


You can't future proof any computer, unless it's easy to swap internal components. I know what you mean but unfortunately it's not really possible. Sure this is the latest processor and I'd guess that next years "tock" processor won't be a huge jump like Ivy bridge to Haswell is, so in this respect you have 2 years of future-proofing before "Skylake" comes out in 2015.

This doesn't mean the Haswell is obsolete, but there's always going to be a huge processor upgrade in 2 years at the most for Macbooks. Personally, depending on what Apple do to the rMBP this year, I'm selling and upgrading my current rMBP because I don't want to loose as much money with older technology. (so selling each year or so means the value stays higher and I benefit with newer technology, rather than waiting 4 years and loosing 70% value and have a 3 year old computer.
 

dusk007

macrumors 68040
Dec 5, 2009
3,411
104
It depends on what you care about. The Haswell upgrade will like the Air yield you some more battery life but it won't do much for performance.
CPU speed difference will be virtually non existent.
GPU speed difference even if there is a 750M in there is not that big. You can probably overclock the 650M yourself to pretty much the same level.
PCIe SSD sounds great but actually it is worthless. In almost all cases the SSDs are already too fast for the CPUs. Except for unpacking huge not compressed archives nothing will be sped up as other stuff limits. IO also won't be any higher than todays SSDs.

I have my doubts that you should resell that notebook.
If you want something in between because you need it now, you can also go for something cheaper. A Samsung 770Z5E is great and worlds cheaper. Even if it doesn't sell as high in absolute dollars you'll probably loose less money. Or you just keep it.

Just for two months I really wouldn't aim for a resell. Buy it or don't. It will likely get you a better price than a 15" cMBP with similar specs (new) at the time of sale. It won't drop 1000 bucks in price but it will be quite a bit for just that short time it is a bit nuts.
Selling it after a year or two is more reasonable.
 

Aksta

macrumors regular
May 3, 2011
208
0
Surrey, UK
I was thinking of selling mine now after about a year but the resale value is so low compared to other apple products. looking at completed fleabay listings for near new products in the uk and it is around 500-600 lower than list price, so you may want to just wait it out.
 

PDFierro

macrumors 68040
Sep 8, 2009
3,932
111
I'm in the same position. If I buy a rMBP now, I'm certainly going to sell it when the Haswell rMBP comes out.
 

Xcallibur

macrumors 6502a
Jul 24, 2011
520
9
Manchester
I think if you was to sell the rMBP in a few months time you'll probably lose at least £200/$350, I've recently sold my MacBook, lost around £100 on it but it was a year old and I'd rather lost a little to update my laptop.
 

sarakn

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 8, 2013
765
46
You can't future proof any computer, unless it's easy to swap internal components. I know what you mean but unfortunately it's not really possible. Sure this is the latest processor and I'd guess that next years "tock" processor won't be a huge jump like Ivy bridge to Haswell is, so in this respect you have 2 years of future-proofing before "Skylake" comes out in 2015.

This doesn't mean the Haswell is obsolete, but there's always going to be a huge processor upgrade in 2 years at the most for Macbooks. Personally, depending on what Apple do to the rMBP this year, I'm selling and upgrading my current rMBP because I don't want to loose as much money with older technology. (so selling each year or so means the value stays higher and I benefit with newer technology, rather than waiting 4 years and loosing 70% value and have a 3 year old computer.

That's right: it's technology - it's always changing so I like to get a very powerful machine that'll be able to withstand the upcoming applications for at least 3-5 years.

I guess I'm just impatient and trying to see if getting a new laptop right now and being able to sell without losing much of the purchase price in the next few months is a wise move.

My reasoning was the laptop costs $3200 on Apple and $2600 on Macmall, so maybe I could resell for close to 2600 and use the money on the new laptop.

But I think it's best to wait it out.
 
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