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Max Payne

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 27, 2006
541
0
Brisbane, Australia
I am planning to buy a MacBook Pro Retina 15". I find the 13" not a good value because it is an i5 dual core.

I already bought a "Refurbished 15.4-inch MacBook Pro 2.0GHz Quad-core Intel i7 with Retina Display with 8GB RAM" for my wife.

I am planning to use the new MBR for MicroSoft Office, a bit of Matlab and occasionally Photoshop. I may also connect an external monitor in the future as well as installing windows 8. Which MBP do you recommend.

AU$1,869.00
Refurbished 15.4-inch MacBook Pro 2.0GHz Quad-core Intel i7 with Retina Display
8GB, 256GB Flash Storage

OR

A$2,749.00
15-inch with Retina display
2.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
16GB 1600MHz memory
512GB PCIe-based flash storage
Intel Iris Pro Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 2GB GDDR5 memory

Initially, I wanted the top of the range because I was planning to play games, but I don't see myself playing games anymore.

Which one do you recommend?
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,478
43,405
Tough decision, spend 2,749 and get a 16GB, 512GB machine with a dGPU or 1,869 for one that has half the ram and storage.

If it was me, I'd opt for the returb, budgetary reasons, but also I wouldn't need all the ram/storage. Additionally, avoiding the dGPU may be a good move given Apple's track record with discrete GPUs
 

Frenchy906

macrumors newbie
Oct 30, 2014
3
0
I would agree with the above comment.

Also, what model year is the refurb unit you would be looking at to buy? If it's a late 2012 / early 2013 model, I have a 480GB PCIe SSD I could sell you so you could have more storage. That is if you would be interested.
 

Max Payne

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 27, 2006
541
0
Brisbane, Australia
I would agree with the above comment.

Also, what model year is the refurb unit you would be looking at to buy? If it's a late 2012 / early 2013 model, I have a 480GB PCIe SSD I could sell you so you could have more storage. That is if you would be interested.

I was thinking of the refurb as I already have the same model at home. This is the late 2013 model.. Haswell with soldered memory. It cannot be upgraded.

I feel that 256GB SSD is more than enough for my needs especially that I don't keep movies in my PC.
 
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