rMBP dilemma

Really depends on usage although 4gb will be the limiting factor in the next few years.

Being you picked this up for a good deal I would consider hanging onto it for a year and then selling it. Then spending the extra money on whatever it is at that time you need.

Although, without looking I believe that 350$ gets you 8gb ram and 256ssd right? that to ME is worth the 350.

xCassiopeia said:

Hello community,
Recently purchased the Haswell base model rMBP for $1099 from bestbuy. Overall I'm impressed on how fluid the machine is performing and hoping for continuous use 5+ years down the road. My concern is will 4GB be powerful enough or will i need to fork out an extra 350$ too "future proof" my investment. What do you guys think.. Is it worth an extra 350$ upgrade to 8GB?
Thanks for your time

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That depends on your usage. I am using the 2012 MBP non-retina and was having issues because I am sitting at 4 gigs of ram and it was constantly getting close to the point that my keyboard and mouse would stop responding and I would have to reboot manually. I only use my computer for small tasks as well but I have a lot open all the time. As soon as I get the money I will be upgrading to 8 gigs of ram and I will be purchasing AppleCare. Best of luck Cassieopeia. I also enjoy DBSK's music.

For five years down the road, I would recommend getting the extra RAM and SSD space, but remember that by then, current technology will be old. There are also other possible failures that could happen down the road.

It depends on what you want to do with the machine. If its just casual use, then 4GB will be adequate for the next 4-5 years. If you are editing large videos/photos, then 8GB is a must.

I got the same deal and am very happy with the computer. Keep it and put the $350 away...(would be closer to $450 with tax for me to upgrade)

If in two-three years you think you are starting to struggle..sell it *(maybe get $600 or more) and add the $350 and a little more and you can upgrade to all the newer goodies.

I don't think 8mgs is a definite need right now except for those that do code or run windows as already mentioned.

At $200 going to 8/256 is a no brainer..at $400 plus tax the answer is not so clear.

xCassiopeia said:

Ill be working with virtual machine and intro on coding. Is it possible to push through those category with 4GB by the minimal? @leman

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Depends on what you want to do with the virtual machine If its a background linux server - sure, you can run a bunch without any worries. If its Windows with Visual Studio - that will get rough. For coding, you don't need a good computer. One of the best programmers in the world uses a Core 2 Duo machine

Dual core, 4GB....vs....future-proof, 5+ years

If you want to "future proof" for 5 years....get 16GB memory, at least 500MB SSD, and the fastest quad core (not dual core) CPU the budget allows. Requirements on memory, storage and CPU power go up year by year....OS release by OS release....app by app.

You would not want to run Mavericks and current app releases on a 5+ year old Mac.

MCAsan said:

Dual core, 4GB....vs....future-proof, 5+ years

If you want to "future proof" for 5 years....get 16GB memory, at least 500MB SSD, and the fastest quad core (not dual core) CPU the budget allows. Requirements on memory, storage and CPU power go up year by year....OS release by OS release....app by app.

You would not want to run Mavericks and current app releases on a 5+ year old Mac.

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It doesn't quite work like that. For everyday usage, the difference between dual-core vs. quad-core is very negligible. 16GB of RAM will be wasted if it will never be used. In other words, there is no guarantee that OP will ever need it. 8GB would be fine. 500+GB of SSD is also useless in this case. 256GB is more than adequate and if storage needs change there is the option of an external HDD. No one should do long term storage on a SSD. Requirements do not increase annually, by each OS release or even by each application release ; I'm not sure where you got that from.

there is no guarantee that OP will ever need it.

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And more importably...none that OP will not....especially over 5 years.

Requirements do not increase annually, by each OS release or even by each application release ; I'm not sure where you got that from.

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So following that logic, if I still had my 1984 Mac with 128K, a floppy drive and no HD.....I should be able to load Mavericks, iWorks, and iLife. I think my iPad Air has more resources than the 1984 Mac.

Let's try this one more time. 16GB will be overkill for those uses in 5 years. Plus, technology will be different 5 years from now. In regards to requirements, only a fool would think that it's possible to run 2013 based software on antiquated hardware. Back to your earlier statement, it would be asinine to make the claim that requirements increase annually or with each OS iteration. Macs from 5-6 years ago can still run Mavericks; Mountain Lion and Mavericks have the same system requirements.