Okay, here's the deal (and feel free to make fun of me during the advice giving process): So I passed down (i.e. sold for like $400-500 bucks) my old PowerBook G4 to my folks 8 years ago. Needless to say, they're tired of it taking 2 minutes to open a Safari page and are ready to upgrade. I have a 2009 MacBook Pro with maxed out RAM (8GB) and had to throw a SSD in after the stock HD failed. I haven't had any problems with it, and it's been able to keep up just fine. Now, I don't do any "pro" work, but every now and then I like to dabble in HD video and would like the ability to smoothly edit video and hi-res photos. My other uses are the basic OS, iTunes, iPhoto, Movies, GarageBand, Office Suite, Windows 7 on Bootcamp for work apps and Command & Conquer games...nothing crazy.
In trying to figure out what was best for them, I decided to once again "give" them mine after swapping out SSDs to a smaller size for them (240GB, they only use 50GB of 100GB now), leaving me with the Crucial M4 500GB SSD I bought for it.
Now, I've already purchased (and have been using for the past 5 days) the maxed out version of the recent Oct 15" retina MBP (2.3 Ghz/512SSD/16GB RAM/Nvidia dGPU) at a discount of $200 for the education/mil/fed employee discount. Total after taxes for that was about $2600 bucks. I'm not made of money, but it wouldn't necessarily hurt me financially...I'm just having a bit of buyer's remorse in justifying it. I used my past two laptops for 4+ years, but the last MacBook Pro could probably keep up with my needs for another year or two.
I was considering returning this one for a 13" retina model, but think I can get a better deal with a refurb 15" from June 2012. It's a 2.3Ghz Quad-Core/4GB Ram/500GB HD, although I would swap the stock HD with the Crucial M4 SSD and upgrade the memory to 8 or 16GB. With the 16GB of RAM upgrade the price comes to $1572 after taxes...saving about $1000 by getting a machine that is about 1.5 yrs old. Technology wise it seems pretty good...same RAM as the current models (although Apple doesn't advertise it), 1600MHz bus/memory (same as current models), graphics are better than what I had but worse than new models, has BT 4.0 but lacks 802.11AC (not that I plan to buy an AC router soon), has USB 3.0, upgradeable RAM, optical bay to 2nd HD if I want later, replaceable batteries (not glued in like current model, although I'd get 7 hrs instead of the advertised 8...I can live with that).
Trying to look at this as objectively as possible I figured out the cost of ownership of each model over a 4 yr period, not counting that Crucial M4 SSD, as I'm keeping it one way or another (either in the refurb unit or as an external drive).
The Oct 2013 retina cost $651/yr or $54.25/mos.
The June 2012 refurb cost $436/yr or $36.34/mos.
Breaking it down it's easy to say "oh, it's only $20/mos more for the new tech...get that!" That's what one friend said, but what do you guys think?
Other factors to consider...I can keep my current bag/small sleeve for the same form factor. It's primarily a desktop replacement, sitting next to a 24" LED Cinema Display. I travel with "work" all over the world, sometimes an ethernet connection is required, but it's rare. HDMI is great, but I've only wished I had it a time or two.
Is there a huge difference between the two processors? Current 2.3 Ghz Quad Core i7 w/ turbo boost to 3.3 Ghz "Crystal Well" vs. Refurb 2.3 Ghz Quad Core i7 w/ turbo boost to 3.5 GHz "Ivy Bridge"?
So, for $1k I'd get the retina (which is nice, but not necessary at normal sitting distances), HDMI (which I won't use regularly), lose ethernet/audio in/optical drive/user upgrades aside from HD, but see a big jump in performance. I ran the black magic speed test for read/write and both pegged the needles, with Write at 711 MB/s and Read at 732 MB/s. My old system ('09 MBP) posted speeds of 207 MB/s and 265 MB/s respectively.
Lots of info there...sorry, wanted to be thorough so thanks for reading! So how about it? Should I keep the current beast or return it and get the refurb...or go for a new 13" retina (had to throw a twist in at the end
)
In trying to figure out what was best for them, I decided to once again "give" them mine after swapping out SSDs to a smaller size for them (240GB, they only use 50GB of 100GB now), leaving me with the Crucial M4 500GB SSD I bought for it.
Now, I've already purchased (and have been using for the past 5 days) the maxed out version of the recent Oct 15" retina MBP (2.3 Ghz/512SSD/16GB RAM/Nvidia dGPU) at a discount of $200 for the education/mil/fed employee discount. Total after taxes for that was about $2600 bucks. I'm not made of money, but it wouldn't necessarily hurt me financially...I'm just having a bit of buyer's remorse in justifying it. I used my past two laptops for 4+ years, but the last MacBook Pro could probably keep up with my needs for another year or two.
I was considering returning this one for a 13" retina model, but think I can get a better deal with a refurb 15" from June 2012. It's a 2.3Ghz Quad-Core/4GB Ram/500GB HD, although I would swap the stock HD with the Crucial M4 SSD and upgrade the memory to 8 or 16GB. With the 16GB of RAM upgrade the price comes to $1572 after taxes...saving about $1000 by getting a machine that is about 1.5 yrs old. Technology wise it seems pretty good...same RAM as the current models (although Apple doesn't advertise it), 1600MHz bus/memory (same as current models), graphics are better than what I had but worse than new models, has BT 4.0 but lacks 802.11AC (not that I plan to buy an AC router soon), has USB 3.0, upgradeable RAM, optical bay to 2nd HD if I want later, replaceable batteries (not glued in like current model, although I'd get 7 hrs instead of the advertised 8...I can live with that).
Trying to look at this as objectively as possible I figured out the cost of ownership of each model over a 4 yr period, not counting that Crucial M4 SSD, as I'm keeping it one way or another (either in the refurb unit or as an external drive).
The Oct 2013 retina cost $651/yr or $54.25/mos.
The June 2012 refurb cost $436/yr or $36.34/mos.
Breaking it down it's easy to say "oh, it's only $20/mos more for the new tech...get that!" That's what one friend said, but what do you guys think?
Other factors to consider...I can keep my current bag/small sleeve for the same form factor. It's primarily a desktop replacement, sitting next to a 24" LED Cinema Display. I travel with "work" all over the world, sometimes an ethernet connection is required, but it's rare. HDMI is great, but I've only wished I had it a time or two.
Is there a huge difference between the two processors? Current 2.3 Ghz Quad Core i7 w/ turbo boost to 3.3 Ghz "Crystal Well" vs. Refurb 2.3 Ghz Quad Core i7 w/ turbo boost to 3.5 GHz "Ivy Bridge"?
So, for $1k I'd get the retina (which is nice, but not necessary at normal sitting distances), HDMI (which I won't use regularly), lose ethernet/audio in/optical drive/user upgrades aside from HD, but see a big jump in performance. I ran the black magic speed test for read/write and both pegged the needles, with Write at 711 MB/s and Read at 732 MB/s. My old system ('09 MBP) posted speeds of 207 MB/s and 265 MB/s respectively.
Lots of info there...sorry, wanted to be thorough so thanks for reading! So how about it? Should I keep the current beast or return it and get the refurb...or go for a new 13" retina (had to throw a twist in at the end
)
