Am I making a mistake?

[dlastmango]

Hello, I'm considering a new MacBook Pro. My usual system over the past many years is the 13" with DVD drive. I'm wondering if I'm making a mistake by buying the current 2012 13" with DVD and not going with the 13" retina. It will mainly be a road computer for my job. Mainly video work where capturing HD video requires a good deal of storage or converting clients videos for use in a live event we are doing. This may end up being a primary system at home replacing my Mac mini 2.3 quad i7 that holds my music and 30,000+ family photos. ( might consider placing them on an external so I only have access to those at home)

Here are my thoughts...


- I can easily upgrade the ram and HD as need be. I would easily upgrade to 8gb of ram right away and maybe go to SSD in the future.

- I could swap the internal DVD drive to add an extra hard drive if I need more internal space.

Is there much speed/performance I am missing out on by staying with the older chipset? What the difference between the two?

Is there anything else I need to think about?

If it's possible, I'd love to install snow leopard on a separate partition on the 2012 DVD model if it would let me. (A nice to hav for some tasks that I know don't work in anything newer)

Thanks for your comments
Chris

 

[saturnotaku]

Here are my thoughts...


- I can easily upgrade the ram and HD as need be. I would easily upgrade to 8gb of ram right away and maybe go to SSD in the future.

- I could swap the internal DVD drive to add an extra hard drive if I need more internal space.

Is there much speed/performance I am missing out on by staying with the older chipset? What the difference between the two?

If you need space and performance and don't use your SuperDrive often, going with an SSD for booting/applications and HDD for storage is a good way to go. If you'll be frequently using the DVD drive, and you don't want to carry it separately, consider a hybrid SSD/HDD such as this.

GPU performance on the 13-inch Retina is much better, especially if your video editing application(s) can take advantage of OpenCL. However, you would have to consider the trade-offs of fixed storage and RAM.

If it's possible, I'd love to install snow leopard on a separate partition on the 2012 DVD model if it would let me. (A nice to hav for some tasks that I know don't work in anything newer)

Thanks for your comments
Chris

Unfortunately, this is not possible.

 

[Hieveryone]

Yes. Technology is outdated even when it is first announced because while they're selling Haswell they're making Broadwell.

I would buy the latest technology. Buying an older model only means you'll want to upgrade sooner

my 2 cents

 

[abowlby]

Hey OP:

I picked up my rMBP a few days ago. I deliberated between it and the MBA for sometime before finally going with the Retina. I would definitely recommend it, it is such a nice system and the display does not disappoint.

Good Luck!!

 

[maflynn]

I'm wondering if I'm making a mistake by buying the current 2012 13" with DVD and not going with the 13" retina.

I think you need to decide whether upgradability is worth spending money on outdated technology. Personally, I'd go with either a MacBook Air, or the rMBP if you really want the retina screen. Just my $.02 but if you max out the memory what is the likelihood if you wanting/needing more ram in the future - probably nil