13" MBP Purchase Advice

[Portal83]

Going nuts waiting for Oct 22nd and thinking of just biting the bullet now but have some questions.

I don't really care about retina or battery life and have an SSD I could throw into a cMBP i7 2.9GHz on sale right now for less than the i5 rMBP Haswell update will be. Looking at how the MBA benchmarked, is it safe to say the Ivy Bridge i7s will still have a fairly significant performance advantage over Haswell i5s?

The only other thing really keeping me from purchasing now is the graphics. How is the 5100 expected to compare to the 4000? Some of the benchmarks I've seen show approx 15% increase on the 5000 vs 4000 on the MBA for most games. Is that accurate? Even if the 5100 is 20%, I'm not sure that's enough to warrant me waiting for a slower processor. I don't play a lot of games (maybe some WoW/Civ5) and I've been doing that with a 9400m. How does the 9400m compare to the 4000?

The only other demanding thing I really do with my computer is Final Cut. Would Final Cut even benefit much from better graphics or is there more to gain from a faster processor?

 

[mewellsar]

This is my dilemma too. I've finally decided to get a MacBook and was advised to wait. Unfortunately I don't have a great amount of cash to get into one. The bottom MacBook Pro has almost the same specs my current dying Toshiba has, so I know it will fit my needs currently and the price is right ($999) on the education pricing. My only concern on my current Toshiba is the integrated graphics aren't good enough to run a marching drill design program feature effectively.

But I worry about two or three years down the line. What will resale be? Will the new graphics be a big upgrade?

Just can't decide to wait or take what I can now while they are cheap.

My dream is for one to hit the $1199 price with 256gb SSD, but I bet that won't happen.

 

[Apple_Robert]

This is my dilemma too. I've finally decided to get a MacBook and was advised to wait. Unfortunately I don't have a great amount of cash to get into one. The bottom MacBook Pro has almost the same specs my current dying Toshiba has, so I know it will fit my needs currently and the price is right ($999) on the education pricing. My only concern on my current Toshiba is the integrated graphics aren't good enough to run a marching drill design program feature effectively.

But I worry about two or three years down the line. What will resale be? Will the new graphics be a big upgrade?

Just can't decide to wait or take what I can now while they are cheap.

My dream is for one to hit the $1199 price with 256gb SSD, but I bet that won't happen.

Why not get a computer you can afford, and keep it until it either doesn't work anymore, or doesn't meet your current needs?

In my opinion, seeking to buy a computer because of need should be the priority, not what the resale value might be. If it is the latter, you will be on the losing end most, if not every time.

Apple computers are not an investment. They are tools.

 

[sarakn]

Why not get a computer you can afford, and keep it until it either doesn't work anymore, or doesn't meet your current needs?

In my opinion, seeking to buy a computer because of need should be the priority, not what the resale value might be. If it is the latter, you will be on the losing end most, if not every time.

Apple computers are not an investment. They are tools.

Good advice. OP, keep in mind that in 2 years the resale value of a $1,000 machine will not be that great, so get what you need.

Have you thought about a refurbished system? That will definitely save you a couple hundred dollars.

 

[mewellsar]

I understand, I've never actually sold a used laptop, they've worn out, but I've been surprised looking at used MacBooks from 2010 still selling for over 1/2 the original price.

My big fear is buying one now and just like always, the next time one if the two specialty programs I use updates, the new features don't work well on my older machine because they've been designed with new technology in mind.

Now will someone please answer the original poster question as I piggybacked to see the graphics answers as that is what has become obsolete in my current PC laptop.