15" Retina High vs BTO

[ARK]

First off this will be an EPP purchase and Im looking at the 15" Retina high end or the BTO. My wife and I currently have the MBP in my sig and we still have 80GB left on the drive. My plan is to let the wife use our current laptop whereas I will migrate my info over and use the 15" retina for freelance graphic design work (Adobe CC). The kicker is we are due this month for our first baby. Its a boy! So I have a feeling I will be taking videos of this little guy. So will I need the extra room the 1TB allows?

My current freelance work has allowed me to save up the $3000+ for the BTO but I dont know if I should get the 1TB drive or the upgraded processor. So what would you guys do? Keep in mind I will probably have this Retina for 5 years as I did our current model.

High End Model $2399 (EPP Price)
2.3GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz
16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
512GB PCIe-based Flash

or

BTO Model $3035 (EPP Price)
2.6GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz
16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
1TB PCIe-based Flash

 

[leman]

Upgrading the CPU probably won't do anything for you. Upgrading storage depends on whether you need 1TB or not. If money is not a problem and you don't want to think about it, then I'd suggest you get the 1TB

 

[zI INFINITY Iz]

Regarding the 2.3GHz (4850HQ) vs the 2.6GHz (4960HQ)

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-4960HQ-vs-Intel-Core-i7-4850HQ

Here you can quickly see what you can expect. That 2.6GHz i7 is truly a beast, insane power for such a thin laptop. The thing is that the 2.3GHz is also very strong and the difference isn't that much. You are looking at around 10-15% difference I guess.

Note that your battery life might suffer from the 2.6GHz upgrade... I personally think the 2.3GHz is the better choice.

About the storage: that's something you have to decide. Is that 1TB really needed? Do you always need fast storage? If not, you can have 512GB's of fast storage in your MacBook and buy much cheaper (but slower) external storage.

And before somebody mentions it, yes the 1TB upgrade gives you faster read/write speeds, but I don't know how much you will notice that in real life.

 

[ARK]

Im sure I could get by with the 512GB, however since were having a baby, I feel like Im going to be taking videos of him and or doing some video work. Im going into a life change and wonder if I will need that extra room for the 1TB. Thats kind of where Im at on that. The processor is more of a "whats another $184?"

How much faster is the 1TB vs the 512GB?

 

[Bear]

Im sure I could get by with the 512GB, however since were having a baby, I feel like Im going to be taking videos of him and or doing some video work. Im going into a life change and wonder if I will need that extra room for the 1TB. Thats kind of where Im at on that. The processor is more of a "whats another $184?"

How much faster is the 1TB vs the 512GB?

You're planning on keeping the system for 5 years. You may have a lot of video and pictures of your son over that time. And Are you going to have another child in that time?

Based on what you've said, the 1TB SSD might be a good idea. The CPU that's a coin toss.

 

[ARK]

You're planning on keeping the system for 5 years. You may have a lot of video and pictures of your son over that time. And Are you going to have another child in that time?

Based on what you've said, the 1TB SSD might be a good idea. The CPU that's a coin toss.

I will pretty much be a stay-at-home dad while I do freelance work. Its quite possible that we may have another child as well. Just never know.

 

[zI INFINITY Iz]

Im sure I could get by with the 512GB, however since were having a baby, I feel like Im going to be taking videos of him and or doing some video work. Im going into a life change and wonder if I will need that extra room for the 1TB. Thats kind of where Im at on that. The processor is more of a "whats another $184?"

How much faster is the 1TB vs the 512GB?

512GB: around 700-800MB/s
1TB: around 1,1-1,2GB/s

Something like this if I'm not mistaken. Though you will only notice the difference in few situations.

If you're going to keep this device for 5 years and make a lot of video's, you may need way more then 1TB of storage anyway. So then the question is: what/how much is the data you need ON the machine (and when taking it somewhere else with you)? If the actual data you always need to have on your machine is less then 512GB's, you can save hundreds of dollars by going with the high end model. It's also easier/faster to exchange in a store as well if something breaks.

Is there something nice you could buy for those 600$? You could buy 2TB's of external storage for 100-200$ (example) and buy another 400$ item as well (tablet, PS4, etc)

 

[jkcerda]

Why not save the cash & store on portables? I am keeping my laptops& desktops free of as much as I can & storing on portables

 

[leman]

Im sure I could get by with the 512GB, however since were having a baby, I feel like Im going to be taking videos of him and or doing some video work. Im going into a life change and wonder if I will need that extra room for the 1TB

Don't forget that you probably don't want to keep all that videos on your internal prone to failure disk. You want to have multiple copies spread over external HDDs, online storage etc. (assuming you don't want to lose them). I'd rather get the 512GB and invest the rest of the money in a good backups solution such as a NAS with time machine support + some external drives to do backup copies.

 

[ARK]

Yeah you guys are making some good points. Additionally, I could use the left over money to update our Time Capsule or stash it away towards an MBA for her. Point taken. I think Im going with the high end. Gotta play some D3 as well.

Also, any problems connecting it with the 24" Cinema Display? I know I'll have to get the Magsafe to Magsafe2 adapter.