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13 inch MBP Longevity

T

tlmp

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 29, 2015
22
16
I'm shopping around for a MacBook Pro. I'm currently using a 2009 MBP with 8GB of RAM. Since that machine has lasted me so long, I'm looking for a new MBP that will last me for the new several years. I do some video editing, audio editing, and run Parallels for applications that don't run natively on the Mac. I prefer the portability of the 13 inch over the 15 inch. I'm most likely going to get 16GB of RAM (I used to buy the base model and upgrade the RAM when necessary...but since that's no longer an option, I want to have the most RAM available from the get go).

No one here has a crystal ball, but it's it likely that the mid 2015 13 inch MBPs would handle everything I mentioned with ease for the next few years? Would taking a step up and going for a 15 inch (and therefore, a quad core processor) be overkill?
 
I can't think of anything that would change that would make that Mac obsolete in the next few years. The last couple OS updates have not really required increased specs and the new machines we see on the horizon are only incremental speed increases. The i7 would speed up video renders if you do a lot of that kind of thing, but otherwise in day to day usage, I don't think it is worth the extra money.
 
I basically had the same setup as you, a 2009 13"MBP that lasted me until 2014 and only died because a family member decided it would make a nice coaster.

I have the 2015 13"MBP with 16GB of RAM. The SSD speed is unreal.

Frankly, this machine (other than the battery which isn't all that expensive to replace) from my perspective is going to hold up BETTER than the 2009 did. My plan is to keep this until 2020 or so.
 
tlmp said:
I'm shopping around for a MacBook Pro. I'm currently using a 2009 MBP with 8GB of RAM. Since that machine has lasted me so long, I'm looking for a new MBP that will last me for the new several years. I do some video editing, audio editing, and run Parallels for applications that don't run natively on the Mac. I prefer the portability of the 13 inch over the 15 inch. I'm most likely going to get 16GB of RAM (I used to buy the base model and upgrade the RAM when necessary...but since that's no longer an option, I want to have the most RAM available from the get go).

No one here has a crystal ball, but it's it likely that the mid 2015 13 inch MBPs would handle everything I mentioned with ease for the next few years? Would taking a step up and going for a 15 inch (and therefore, a quad core processor) be overkill?
Click to expand...

The 15" is not overkill and having a quad core is definitely a great way to go for longevity and power.

However...I still prefer the non-retina MBP and the 13" non-retina MBP is only $899 now at Best Buy.

That machine, plus 16GB RAM, and a SSD would be less expensive than the 13" retina and perform just as well (except for the retina display of course). You could also go another step and add a second SSD to it and then the R/W rate approaches 900MB/s. The reason for this is due to the fact that the 13" non-retina has 2 SATA 3 connections. This is important because SATA 3 is the same speed as PCIe 2.0. Since the 13" retina only has one connection that maxes out at the same transfer rate as one of the non-retina's SATA connections, the 13" cMBP will outperform it.

If you want AC WiFi, then you can get an AC adapter since the machine has usb 3.0 and then you have an AMAZING machine that should last until 2020 no problem and you would only have spent around

$899 MBP
$108 16GB RAM
$115 240GB SSD

$1,211.76

Or you could get a second SSD and put them in RAID and the total cost would be around: $1,344.76
 
tlmp said:
I'm shopping around for a MacBook Pro. I'm currently using a 2009 MBP with 8GB of RAM. Since that machine has lasted me so long, I'm looking for a new MBP that will last me for the new several years. I do some video editing, audio editing, and run Parallels for applications that don't run natively on the Mac. I prefer the portability of the 13 inch over the 15 inch. I'm most likely going to get 16GB of RAM (I used to buy the base model and upgrade the RAM when necessary...but since that's no longer an option, I want to have the most RAM available from the get go).

No one here has a crystal ball, but it's it likely that the mid 2015 13 inch MBPs would handle everything I mentioned with ease for the next few years? Would taking a step up and going for a 15 inch (and therefore, a quad core processor) be overkill?
Click to expand...

Yep they'll be fine for 4-5 years, however your use case screams 15 inch to me. More cores and better graphics are great for video editing and the extra cores are a big bonus in VM'[s (like parallels). The rMBP 15 inch is about the same weight as the old 13 inch MBP but it is a lot bigger.
 
Thanks for the responses so far! Previously, I have little trouble running Windows applications. I'm planning to do more data analytics work and working with large datasets though, which is what would make me think about getting a quad core processor. For video work, my current setup has allowed me to put together some 30 minute projects, but I haven't tried anything too intense on it. I'm trying to keep my total expenditure under $1600 if possible.
 
I have a 2009 Mac Mini, a 2010 MBP and a 2012 rMBP. The Mini is finally starting to act wonky, i.e., something's wrong with it and I have to look at the powerbrick for the 2010 MBP. I think all three machines don't owe me anything in that I've gotten more use out of them then I expected.

My point is my prior history indictes a nice long life span for current machines and while defects and/or hardware failures can play into that, I've been fortunate to not really incur any problems, so I'm rather confident that my current setup will have a nice long lifespan as well.
 
Thanks for the input, everyone. It's super helpful. I think I'm still debating between the 15 inch MBP deal for $1799 at B&H now (if I could get a good credit card cashback deal...I'm watching what's out there) or getting a 13 inch MBP with 16GB of RAM and 256GB SSD when the new ones are released.
 
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