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.2 ghz bump worth $180?

L

lakhany07

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 21, 2008
16
17
I just ordered a the 13 inch rMBP with 16 gb of RAM and the 2.8 GHZ processor 4 days ago.

I saw that they just refreshed the lineup with a faster processor and was wondering if it was worth it to upgrade to the 3.0 ghz processor (it would come out to the same price on education pricing) or ask Apple to refund the current difference in pricing ($180)?

I will use my computer for mostly school stuff, music and maybe a little bit of minimal stuff in iPhoto. (The 16gb of RAM might be overkill but I figured that it would be a solid safeguard against possible future RAM needs).

I plan on keeping the computer for at least 4 years and want to make sure that I invest in something solid.

Thanks!
 
lakhany07 said:
I just ordered a the 13 inch rMBP with 16 gb of RAM and the 2.8 GHZ processor 4 days ago.

I saw that they just refreshed the lineup with a faster processor and was wondering if it was worth it to upgrade to the 3.0 ghz processor (it would come out to the same price on education pricing) or ask Apple to refund the current difference in pricing ($180)?

I will use my computer for mostly school stuff, music and maybe a little bit of minimal stuff in iPhoto. (The 16gb of RAM might be overkill but I figured that it would be a solid safeguard against possible future RAM needs).

I plan on keeping the computer for at least 4 years and want to make sure that I invest in something solid.

Thanks!
Click to expand...


too much hastle for a refresh that won't make any difference , now if you had the base model 13" i would have said HELL YES cause it comes with 8gb of ram now , but you have 16gbs so no difference
 
A Macbook Air's processor would be more than enough for what you'll be using your computer for, so stick with what you ordered and enjoy it!
 
The vast majority of users would never notice any performance difference between the 2.8 and the 3.0. The few that may would only see a very slight benefit.
 
wait so if you return it and get the new one you get $180 back? if so then do it definitely cause $180 is free applecare lol for a 13'
 
Awesome, thanks guys (and/or gals). I appreciate the help.

Apple just saved me a solid $180 bucks. I most likely would have went for the 3.0 ghz if I ordered today so I'm kind of glad that I ordered last week.
 
Sifinity said:
wait so if you return it and get the new one you get $180 back? if so then do it definitely cause $180 is free applecare lol for a 13'
Click to expand...

Yes. At least I saw that another poster said that Apple will refund the difference in pricing if it is with 14 days of the purchase date. I hope it is true, they usually have pretty solid customer service so I doubt it will be much of a problem.

I think I am going to go squaretrade for my protection. I have them for all my products and they have been amazing so far. No hassles at all and very affordable.

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capathy21 said:
Would they refund you 180? Where is that figure coming from? If they would then yes, keep what you have and take the money.
Click to expand...

The $180 is the difference in price between the 2.8 ghz and the 3.0 ghz processors. The 2.8 was an upgrade before and now it is standard. The upgrade costs $180.

The price difference of $180 comes from the education pricing.
 
lakhany07 said:
I just ordered a the 13 inch rMBP with 16 gb of RAM and the 2.8 GHZ processor 4 days ago.

I saw that they just refreshed the lineup with a faster processor and was wondering if it was worth it to upgrade to the 3.0 ghz processor (it would come out to the same price on education pricing) or ask Apple to refund the current difference in pricing ($180)?

I will use my computer for mostly school stuff, music and maybe a little bit of minimal stuff in iPhoto. (The 16gb of RAM might be overkill but I figured that it would be a solid safeguard against possible future RAM needs).

I plan on keeping the computer for at least 4 years and want to make sure that I invest in something solid.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
For your usage, my answer would be: [Expletive] no!

In fact, if what you listed is really all you do, the lowest end MacBook Air would not feel any slower than a current MBP at those tasks.

You would not be able to see the difference except in synthetic benchmarks. A processor upgrade is pretty much never good bang for the buck in a laptop. Unless you are making money with that computer and every last second counts, it's useless.
 
Last edited:
snaky69 said:
For your usage, my answer would be: ******* no.

In fact, if what you listed is really all you do, the lowest end MacBook Air would not feel any slower than a current MBP at those tasks.
Click to expand...

Haha thanks. My brother has the MacBook Air and he loves it but I have to say that the Retina display is killer for me. I am moving up from a 2009 MBP so this should be a solid upgrade.
 
lakhany07 said:
Haha thanks. My brother has the MacBook Air and he loves it but I have to say that the Retina display is killer for me. I am moving up from a 2009 MBP so this should be a solid upgrade.
Click to expand...

The display is a nice to have indeed. But I stand by what I said: from a computational power point of view, a rMBP's available power far exceeds your needs. (It's better to have too much than too little power, with that said).

I edited the post you quoted so I'll just paste the last paragraph here, in case you hadn't seen it:

You would not be able to see the difference except in synthetic benchmarks. A processor upgrade is pretty much never good bang for the buck in a laptop. Unless you are making money with that computer and every last second counts, it's useless.
 
snaky69 said:
The display is a nice to have indeed. But I stand by what I said: from a computational power point of view, a rMBP's available power far exceeds your needs. (It's better to have too much than too little power, with that said).

I edited the post you quoted so I'll just paste the last paragraph here, in case you hadn't seen it:

You would not be able to see the difference except in synthetic benchmarks. A processor upgrade is pretty much never good bang for the buck in a laptop. Unless you are making money with that computer and every last second counts, it's useless.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I just talked to apple and got a $180 refund. Pretty much just got free squaretrade coverage and usb superdrive with the price difference.
 
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