2 Questions - Is this the right purchase/AppleCare

[SquirrelGirl]

Hello! I have two very different questions but figured making one thread was probably the polite thing to do. If one of the questions is in the wrong place I will surely separate them

1) I am going to buy my husband a rMBP 13. His needs are different than mine, he is a musician wanting to expand his range of software (Arturia, ableton, and more obscure things I can not remember the names of, lol) so I know he needs more than the base SSD for speed of software and files. He takes film photographs and I think he could appreciate the screen as well vs the non retina. I am considering the mid spec 2.4/8G/256 model hoping to give him three years of life. Am I on the right track? Will the processor and memory keep up with him for a couple years? Damn retina not being easily upgraded

2) Completely unrelated - I recently had an Express Replacement of an iPad via AppleCare (awesome service BTW). Apple received my original on Monday the fifth, when should I expect the authorization hold to expire on my card? I do not need it to for credit limit issues but feel weird having another transaction from Apple go through before it clears. Could that potentially cause problems? Am I overthinking it?

Thanks in advance.

 

[pukifloyd]

1) I am going to buy my husband a rMBP 13. His needs are different than mine, he is a musician wanting to expand his range of software (Arturia, ableton, and more obscure things I can not remember the names of, lol) so I know he needs more than the base SSD for speed of software and files. He takes film photographs and I think he could appreciate the screen as well vs the non retina. I am considering the mid spec 2.4/8G/256 model hoping to give him three years of life. Am I on the right track? Will the processor and memory keep up with him for a couple years? Damn retina not being easily upgraded

That model sounds good! Go with maximum memory you can because the more RAM it has, the more programs he can run at once. Also max out the processor if you think he's going to do a lot of processor intensive stuff (which I think he will). I wouldn't spend a lot of money on a bigger SSD since they're too expensive. I think that since he's going to deal with lots of sound libraries and photos, he might have to get an external hard drive to store data since 256 (or even 512GB) won't be enough for all that stuff.

2) Completely unrelated - I recently had an Express Replacement of an iPad via AppleCare (awesome service BTW). Apple received my original on Monday the fifth, when should I expect the authorization hold to expire on my card? I do not need it to for credit limit issues but feel weird having another transaction from Apple go through before it clears. Could that potentially cause problems? Am I overthinking it?

I had a similar issue when they replaced the RAM on my computer. They removed the hold after about 10 days. Wait for another week and if it's still there, call them and ask about it. They're very helpful about it

Good luck with the purchase! and welcome to MR.

 

[SquirrelGirl]

Thanks very much for the thoughtful reply

I went ahead with the mid spec rMBP. Should get it Monday morning.

And I will give it until next week before worrying about the hold. Thanks again for the help!