I got a low end rmbp with the 4/128. I thought it would be enough and on many levels it is, but I dont like deleting stuff and maintaining my HD every 2 weeks. I have a bunch of movies and pictures an shuffle those around and do a fair amount of time managing the files I need and dont need. I wish I would have gotten a 8/256 because this thing fills up fast.
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Advice for anyone.
- Thread starter taelan28
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I am not sure what you are saying. Are you trying to warn against the base model? I have 85 of 128GB free on my machine. Did you not know how much content you had to store? Sorry, really not trying to sound rude. I feel bad that you feel you made the wrong choice. A small thumb drive will do wonders for you.
Something like this.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/321378909122?lpid=82
How about buying an external USB 3.0 HDD and putting all your media files there instead?
Or if you're within the 14-day return period, you could return it for a refund and purchase a 2.4/8/256 machine instead.
I bought the 13" 8/256 yesterday, coming from a 2010 15" with dual drives (SSD + HDD). I then got a 4TB USB 3.0 WD My Book, dumped the HDD from my MacBook and it benchmarks faster than my old internal drive did! I just ran a Call of Duty session off of the external drive, and it performed just fine. Especially since it was importing a thousand pics into aperture and importing iTunes at the same time 
I'd grab a USB 3.0 drive to store your big apps, and all your media on and call it a day. I plan to keep the external drive at home with my big stuff, and just keep the OS and main Apps on the SSD. And leave just enough space to import stuff when I'm on the go, then move it later. You can also install Steam on the internal drive, and have it store game files on the external. Worked great for TF2 and Portal 2.
As for the games, I don't do much (have a PS3). But I find running them at medium high at 1280x800 works just fine. I did run COD 4 and Half Life 2 at 2560x1600 just because, and it worked alright. But everything was tiny, lol. Newer games would kill it at that res though. When it's on my external monitor running at 1080p most games I play run just fine on the Iris. Pretty impressed with it coming from a 9400m then a 330m.
I'd grab a USB 3.0 drive to store your big apps, and all your media on and call it a day. I plan to keep the external drive at home with my big stuff, and just keep the OS and main Apps on the SSD. And leave just enough space to import stuff when I'm on the go, then move it later. You can also install Steam on the internal drive, and have it store game files on the external. Worked great for TF2 and Portal 2.
As for the games, I don't do much (have a PS3). But I find running them at medium high at 1280x800 works just fine. I did run COD 4 and Half Life 2 at 2560x1600 just because, and it worked alright. But everything was tiny, lol. Newer games would kill it at that res though. When it's on my external monitor running at 1080p most games I play run just fine on the Iris. Pretty impressed with it coming from a 9400m then a 330m.
I bought the 13" 8/256 yesterday, coming from a 2010 15" with dual drives (SSD + HDD). I then got a 4TB USB 3.0 WD My Book, dumped the HDD from my MacBook and it benchmarks faster than my old internal drive did! I just ran a Call of Duty session off of the external drive, and it performed just fine. Especially since it was importing a thousand pics into aperture and importing iTunes at the same time
I'd grab a USB 3.0 drive to store your big apps, and all your media on and call it a day. I plan to keep the external drive at home with my big stuff, and just keep the OS and main Apps on the SSD. And leave just enough space to import stuff when I'm on the go, then move it later. You can also install Steam on the internal drive, and have it store game files on the external. Worked great for TF2 and Portal 2.
As for the games, I don't do much (have a PS3). But I find running them at medium high at 1280x800 works just fine. I did run COD 4 and Half Life 2 at 2560x1600 just because, and it worked alright. But everything was tiny, lol. Newer games would kill it at that res though. When it's on my external monitor running at 1080p most games I play run just fine on the Iris. Pretty impressed with it coming from a 9400m then a 330m.
An external drive defeats the portability of a laptop. Just like how external gpus never caught on much less were made. Id get an external for a full backup but not as my point of storage.
The iris gpu is great for older games. Finally the pc industry has matured. I also think people took note of how low spec blizzard games were and how much they were minting. The consoles play a part in holding back pc games to low specs as well as the lack of a sustainable high end game market.
im toying woth cliud storage right now. Onedrive and icloud befuddle me.
Well, if I could get 2TB of storage in this rMBP and keep it under $1,500 I would be happy. But without having a hard drive, it's just not feasible. I loved my cMBP for having dual drives, but the GPU, SATA II, USB 2.0, no HDMI/Thunderbolt, etc were holding me back.
Most of the time my laptop is on a dock on the desk anyway, so an external makes sense for me. Big storage when I need it, and when I leave with just the laptop to go somewhere, I don't need my entire library with me. I keep a small subset of songs I like (about 64GB) on the SSD, and keep a serrate working set photo library on it, then move it when I get back home.
But the MBP is not a gamers laptop my any means, look to the PC market for that. Asus, Razer, and the like would be right up your alley. I find most games run better under Windows than OS X anyway.
Most of the time my laptop is on a dock on the desk anyway, so an external makes sense for me. Big storage when I need it, and when I leave with just the laptop to go somewhere, I don't need my entire library with me. I keep a small subset of songs I like (about 64GB) on the SSD, and keep a serrate working set photo library on it, then move it when I get back home.
But the MBP is not a gamers laptop my any means, look to the PC market for that. Asus, Razer, and the like would be right up your alley. I find most games run better under Windows than OS X anyway.
I biggest obstacle for me to overcome when switching to an Apple laptop was the small SSD size. I took a realistic inventory of my info and divided things into 3 rough categories: data I had to have with me at all times, data I would need with me from time to time (say two or three times a month), and data that I rarely access. Once I had changed my thinking and realized I didn't need ALL my data ALL the time things were easy.
I picked up a 32GB flash drive to accompany my two 16GB flash drives I already have. I got a 3TB USB 3.0 external HDD which I use as one of my back up drives as well as a portable storage tool if I need more than 32GB with me (this almost never happens). I am looking into the 128GB SD cards that fit almost flush with the body (jet drive is one I believe).
Unless you just have hundreds and hundreds of GBs worth of data there are several fairly cost effective ways to manage your data. Flash drives are always dropping in price and are usually on sale to boot. I'm sorry you feel the 128GB drive isn't big enough but you can augment its capacity fairly easily.
I picked up a 32GB flash drive to accompany my two 16GB flash drives I already have. I got a 3TB USB 3.0 external HDD which I use as one of my back up drives as well as a portable storage tool if I need more than 32GB with me (this almost never happens). I am looking into the 128GB SD cards that fit almost flush with the body (jet drive is one I believe).
Unless you just have hundreds and hundreds of GBs worth of data there are several fairly cost effective ways to manage your data. Flash drives are always dropping in price and are usually on sale to boot. I'm sorry you feel the 128GB drive isn't big enough but you can augment its capacity fairly easily.
By the sound of it that would just mean you are maintaining your files monthly rather than every two weeks.
If you wish to permanently remove that as a hassle them get a cMBP, bin the optical and fit a second HDD, I did this and replaced the original with an SSD and have the bets of both worlds, backing up to a 2TB external as required but it means I can carry the prime copy of my iPhoto, iTunes and media with me.
By the time my Hitachi 7200 1TB fills up there will be even bigger HDDs available.
128 GB should be enough if you install the operating system and software you want to use, and keep your documents on your local drive. However, if you plan to have a Windows partition (or use Windows on a virtual machine) or to keep your media in your local drive, then it is recommended to have at least 256 GB.
Instead of an external HDD, you may buy a pen drive if you want additional and portable storage. You can find pen drives that go up to 128 GB these days and they are getting cheaper. You can carry one of them on your key ring.
As for the 4 GB, it should be enough for most things. However, if you plan to use virtualization or run very heavy software, then you should have 8 GB.
