What would you do?

What do you use your laptop for?

Meister said:

Seriously: What do you use your laptop for?

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This, if we know what you're using the laptop for, we'll be able to give you a better idea.


With the specs you mentioned for your current laptop, 80GB hard drive and 1GB of RAM, I'd guess it's at least 6+ years old right? Increasing the RAM would help a bit but the CPU is probably the biggest bottleneck, but if all you do is browse, it should be fine.

But you should be asking yourself: "Do I really need a new laptop?"

zeniswise said:

Using it for surfing the net, office work/typing biz plan/ recipes (planning to open a pastry shop), syncing devices (have an iPhone) so I can do work when I'm on the go like thinking of ideas to add to the biz plan or recipe, watching/streaming hd movie/video, work on pastry shop's site, manipulate photos of desserts for the sites and other medias like
brochures, ads etc

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Does your old laptop still perform for these tasks?I get the feeling an iPad is for you.

zeniswise said:

Oh hell no ... Internet slows down badly after a short use

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I think you know that any mac will work perfectly fine for your needs, but I see nothing that cannot be done with an ipad. And for its mobility, price and user experience an iPad would work best for you. If you do not like it yiu can still upgrade to a macbook later.

zeniswise said:

I remember a poster said that 2014 macbook is a ripoff.. The 2013 is very similar to the specs

Is that true?? ... Also wise to wait for the next wave of macbook with better specs/value

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Actually for your use patterns, the best value maybe in going the other way - get a refurb MBA/P from 2012/13. You get hundreds of dollars off and the machine is perfectly capable of light tasks for many years into the future. There is nothing you described that requires waiting for a new generation (and paying the associated premiums).

zeniswise said:

What about this situation?

When a new wave of MacBook 2015 come out soon ... Does the current models 2014 dramatically drop their prices?

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Dramatically? Barring some unforeseen development - No.

You should check out the refurb prices on 2012/ 13 models that Apple quotes today. Come 2015; you will expect a similar discount on 2013/14 hardware.

The apple website is pretty good...

The 13 inch is a dual core so slower for rendering, games and any app that leverages multicore processors well. The 15 inch is a quad core and has more powerful graphics so better for video editing and game playing etc.

Don't upgrade that old laptop is not worth the investment.

For your use the 13 inch will be fine.

Size is a matter of taste but

Quality is the same (actually the 13 inch is slightly more pixel dense) however the larger size can be nicer for watching videos and gives more real estate for large excel sheets etc.

Scaling on both can give you far more screen space to work on though as long as you don't mind icons and text being smaller...

I would reccomend at least 256gb for any laptop these days video can quickly take up space.

8gb is enough for all but the most demanding of apps and work loads.

Also honestly the apple certified refurbs will be exactly like new with the same warranty and applecare options, they'll save you hundreds of dollars and the only difference will be the box.

I have a 2013 8gb 512gb model and it is awesome for photos video and general work, I wouldn't worry about anything new at all.

zeniswise said:

Is it worth upgrading cpu to 2.8ghz for $100 or to 3ghz for $300?
Also is it worth upgrading ram to 16gb for $200?

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Why are you considering these upgrades?
Everyone here has told you that your needs can be met with a 2012 mba or any other mba or rmbp.
Why would you spend $300!! on clockspeed? $200 on a RAM upgrade?
What am I missing here?

zeniswise said:

What about this situation?

When a new wave of MacBook 2015 come out soon ... Does the current models 2014 drop their prices dramatically?

I'm a bit nervous with used electronics .. It just me and my mentality lol ... Because I will always think when is it going to die

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Refurb from Apple is NOT used. it's just the same as brand new, same warranty, AppleCare availability same return policy etc.

zeniswise said:

On refurbished site ... There is a 2013 13.3", 2.4ghz i5 rmbp with 8gb and 256gb ssd for $1239

Or refurbished 2014 13" 2.6 GHz i5 rmbp with 8gb and 256gb ssd for $1359 since the brand new one is $1,599

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Both of those will work fine for you.
Take whicheverone is cheapest!

that panasonic of yours is worth $36
get the amazon gift card!
don't get rid of the panasonic so fast. u can image the hard drive as a virtul disk file and run it under vmware fusion
i was comparing benchmark scores (cpu only) from my c2d mac mini 2010 model 2.4ghz vs my 1.4 ghz i5 mac mini 2014 (base model) and as far as cpu goes the newer mac is a lot faster. but its slow 5400 rpm drive slows the computer down


i have both the mac book pro and the iPad

the haswell's battery life in the mac book pro is almost as good as an iPad

i like taking the iPad out if i don't expect to charge it for 9 or 10 hours or so

if i take the macbook pro out, and i think i need 9 or 10 hours of life ill bring
the charger just in case

the new processors have turbo boost and hyper threading which were not in the c2d.


the other crazy suggestion i would say. is forget what other people say... buy the i7 version. the extra money for the processor might buy you time and you won't need to upgrade it as soon as in the future.

a lot of people don't like i7s because they cost more and they think they don't need the cpu power of an i7

if its just a dual core i7 then skip it and stick with the i5

rigormortis said:

the other crazy suggestion i would say. is forget what other people say... buy the i7 version. the extra money for the processor might buy you time and you won't need to upgrade it as soon as in the future.

a lot of people don't like i7s because they cost more and they think they don't need the cpu power of an i7

if its just a dual core i7 then skip it and stick with the i5

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What apps could the OP possibly use where a i7 would bring any benefit?

On the 15" and for power users the i7 is a smart choice, since it offers hyperthreading.
The OP is not a power user though.

Meister said:

What apps could the OP possibly use where a i7 would bring any benefit?

On the 15" and for power users the i7 is a smart choice, since it offers hyperthreading.
The OP is not a power user though.

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handbrake

it uses every single core at 100 % to rip your dvds and blu rays to h264

rant section:
the i3 and i5 processors are crippled versions of the i7. the i7 came out first. you guys complained
that the i7 cost too much money. intel caved in to your demands and came out with the i3 and i5

people will spend $300 to $512 for a 500 gb SSD hard disk. because they want the maximum speed possible.
but if they are asked to spend $200 more for a quad core i7 running at 4 ghz. they get all cheap

i bet a lot of people running i7s are still running them to this day. while at the same time, the people who bought c2d want to upgrade them because they are too slow.

another thing about i3 and i5 is they shove intel's video card down your throat.

all this power gamers are being sucked into buying intel's video card.

my i7 is 6 or 7 years old. i don't know if intel does this for the current i7s.


my 7 year old i7 runs circles around my 2010 mac mini and my 2014 macs