Are the better TB MBP 13 internals worth it for me?

[supajam]

Hi guys,

Long time lurker, first time poster. Like many of you I was somewhat disappointed with the pricing last week, however I've been waiting a long time to make the switch from Windows to Mac (fancy a change) so I'm not pulling out at the last minute!

I need some help deciding if the better 13" TB specs are worth the £££ over the non TB for my uses...

I currently have a budget 2012 13" Thinkpad running an i5-3210m, 4GB ram and a 7200 rpm HDD on Windows 7.
My typical day usage has recently increased: 10 tabs open in Chrome, Evernote, Wunderlist, iTunes, and chemical software (Chemdraw, Topspin) running. This typically takes up >80% of the RAM and I experience slow downs. Out of work I play Football Manager which is CPU intensive, but bearable on my current laptop using moderate settings. What has become very frustrating is video editing. I don't do anything fancy - church service broadcasts so just basic cut/paste, minimal effects and HD 1080p video for YouTube, not 4K. But the clips are ~30 mins so rendering takes aaages using Sony Vegas (we talking 3hrs+!). Cutting down to below 1 hr would be fantastic.

To that end, I was wondering if the base line 13" TB MBP would be beneficial to me compared to the non touch? The touch bar looks great however I'm not too fussed about it. Just wondering if the 28W CPU and faster RAM would help for my uses? I plan to buy FCPX or just use iMovie as it will probably suffice for me, so I guess rendering will be significantly reduced anyway. I'm just looking for something snappy for day2day use and more useable for basic video editing of long clips.

Also I plan to keep the machine for at least 3 years - is 16gb worth the upgrade? I know the easy answer is "yes" due to lack of upgradability, but I'd rather not splash out on an extra 8gb which i will never use. I can't see my uses increasing, but I don't have experience of MacOS so don't know what the memory management is like.

Thanks!
Sj

 

[blackberrycubed]

nope, just get the base version and you will be fine.

 

[leman]

The TouchBar version will be faster for your music editing needs, but I don't think that it will dramatically affect your experience. The base non-TB laptop is already lights years ahead of your Thinkpad.

 

[supajam]

Thanks guys.

I was pretty excited about the touch bar initially but I suppose the base non-TB is pretty much the ideal laptop for me. I was waiting out for a retina MBA and the 12" Macbook was almost there but for the performance. The non TB MBP appears to be the closest thing we'll get especially on the battery life front.

Cheers.

 

[crassapple]

I would get the non-TB with 16GB in your situation. Wouldn't your video editing benefit from more ram?

 

[supajam]

I would get the non-TB with 16GB in your situation. Wouldn't your video editing benefit from more ram?

Yep still not 100% sure on this. 8GB is now the norm and my initial thought was to definitely max out the RAM to "future proof", but my usage is very mainstream to many on here (running mulitple VM's, compiling large code etc). I will probably VM Windows from time to time but will 8GB not cover that?

 

[Gualwer]

Yep still not 100% sure on this. 8GB is now the norm and my initial thought was to definitely max out the RAM to "future proof", but my usage is very mainstream to many on here (running mulitple VM's, compiling large code etc). I will probably VM Windows from time to time but will 8GB not cover that?

I'm also debating if I should shell out the $200 for the 16gb ram. I only use it for internet browsing, email, and playing WOW, but I dont know what the future holds, so I dont know if I should go with 16gb.