Baseline 13" or high end 13"

[thda13]

Im deciding between these two which one should i get. I mainly use for school, web browsing, downloading all that stuff and only a tiny bit gaming.

if i get the baseline 13" what upgrades should i get or should i just get the high end 13"

 

[DWBurke811]

Order a stock base 13", then throw in 8GB or RAM yourself, as well as a SSD in whatever size you need.

 

[randomrazr]

baseline is better value

 

[Naimfan]

Welcome to MR.

You might try the search feature--there are scores of threads on your exact question. To summarize, the base 13" is the one to get.

 

[palpatine]

i agree with everything above, especially using the search feature

welcome to mr.

 

[Michael383]

You'll do just fine with the base 13".

 

[thda13]

If i get the base 13" what uprgrades should i get?

and thx for the advice

 

[Skream]

All you can really upgrade is the HD and the ram, but for your needs I don't think you'd ever need an SSD or more then 4gigs of ram.

 

[palpatine]

you can always get the upgrades later. i'd say you ought to give it a try, see what you think, and upgrade if the performance doesn't meet expectations.

 

[zap2]

The SSD is really a great upgrade, even if you don't need it, it saves a ton of time for booting. If you end up wanting a huge amount of storage the HDD is a solid choice, but honestly, I prefer the speed on my laptop(which has very similar usage as yours)

Although I have a desktop to go with it, which gives me more storage choices elsewhere.

 

[thda13]

The SSD is really a great upgrade, even if you don't need it, it saves a ton of time for booting. If you end up wanting a huge amount of storage the HDD is a solid choice, but honestly, I prefer the speed on my laptop(which has very similar usage as yours)

Although I have a desktop to go with it, which gives me more storage choices elsewhere.

i dont have desktop so i will need at least 500gb for sure :/ and is there a big differnce between 4gb ram and 8gb?

 

[lindstedt56]

Baseline - If Apple offered a custom high res in the 13 it would be worth it

 

[zap2]

i dont have desktop so i will need at least 500gb for sure :/ and is there a big differnce between 4gb ram and 8gb?

Depends on how much multitasking is worth to you...if you'd want not worry about it, I'd upgrade.

If you feel comfortable doing your own upgrade is much cheaper, almost a no brainer for that route from a price perspective. And the actual upgrade is quite easy.

 

[thda13]

other than the ram, is there a huge differnce between the 5400rpm and the 7200rpm performance wise and price wise and woould it be worth it?

 

[zap2]

I don't know the price difference off hand, but honestly HDDs are such a large bottleneck, I'd get the fastest possible model.

Not sure how you feel about upgrading the HDD yourself, but there are some 1TB at 5400RPM and 750GB at 7200RPM that fit in the Mac Mini which you can find on newegg. Also there are hybrid drives which help speed things up, having a small SDD and the standard HDD all in a 2.5" enclosure. I think those top out at 500GB though.