Best machine to hold me over?

[joeysarks]

I will most likely be upgrading to Haswell next year, since it seems to be very mobile centric. I have a baseline 13 MBP from last year and it's just not cutting it for the video editing i've been doin, and live streaming 720p is really straining it. What would be a better machine to hold me over till I can get a MBPr with Haswell next year? BTW i'm also speaking in terms of selling whatever I get to put towards Haswell laptop.

iMac 21 inch
i7 3.1ghz
256SSD
16gb RAM

or

MBPr 15 inch
i7 2.3ghz
256SSD
16gb RAM

I would assume they'd both even out to about the same price (hopefully) and the 27 inch is probably out of the question since upgrades would put it well above the 21 inch iMac. Will one of them payoff more in resale value? Has ML been helping with the MBPr framerate issues. I can almost deal with the framerates as long as it does what it needs as far as workload goes, but any advice on this? Really driving myself crazy with this decision...

 

[Spink10]

rMBP would certainly hold you over.

 

[joeysarks]

BTW I can see how 16gb would be good for background rendering, but if I leave that off and just render when I stop for a few mins randomly is it needed? Does 16gb of ram do anything for rendering separately or when exporting?

 

[pjfan]

BTW I can see how 16gb would be good for background rendering, but if I leave that off and just render when I stop for a few mins randomly is it needed? Does 16gb of ram do anything for rendering separately or when exporting?

I can't answer that question specifically, but 16 gb ram will certainly help sell it next year!

 

[J&JPolangin]

I will most likely be upgrading to Haswell next year, since it seems to be very mobile centric. I have a baseline 13 MBP from last year and it's just not cutting it for the video editing i've been doin

Why don't you increase the RAM in your 2011 13" MBP and add a 128/256Gb SSD to hold you over until next year?

I too am waiting for Broadwell to hit the 11" MBA's hopeful that the battery life will get closer to the 7+ hours we now get on the 13" models...I was trying to decide between a 13" 2012 MBA open box @ $1,070 and a 13" 2011 MBP open box @ $806...

With the MBA I get a higher res screen, lighter machine and USB3 but I'm limited to a 128Gb SSD and 4Gb RAM.

With the MBP, its heavier by 1.5 lbs, the screen resolution is the same as my 5,2 9400m Whitebook its replacing (but its a little lighter), the CPU is faster than the MBA or my Whitebook, I can upgrade the RAM to 8Gb (with RAM I have) and use the MBP RAM in my 2011 iMac so that both machines will have 8Gb RAM in them and lastly, I got a 512Gb M4 Crucial SSD for $349 = I'll have a more powerful CPU, double the RAM and 4 times the internal storage over the MBA for $85 more than the cost of the open box 2012 MBA with the open box 2011 MBP = this machine will tide me over until Broadwell hopefully meets my mobil computing needs fully.

 

[joeysarks]

Why don't you increase the RAM in your 2011 13" MBP and add a 128/256Gb SSD to hold you over until next year?

I too am waiting for Broadwell to hit the 11" MBA's hopeful that the battery life will get closer to the 7+ hours we now get on the 13" models...I was trying to decide between a 13" 2012 MBA open box @ $1,070 and a 13" 2011 MBP open box @ $806...

With the MBA I get a higher res screen, lighter machine and USB3 but I'm limited to a 128Gb SSD and 4Gb RAM.

With the MBP, its heavier by 1.5 lbs, the screen resolution is the same as my 5,2 9400m Whitebook its replacing (but its a little lighter), the CPU is faster than the MBA or my Whitebook, I can upgrade the RAM to 8Gb (with RAM I have) and use the MBP RAM in my 2011 iMac so that both machines will have 8Gb RAM in them and lastly, I got a 512Gb M4 Crucial SSD for $349 = I'll have a more powerful CPU, double the RAM and 4 times the internal storage over the MBA for $85 more than the cost of the open box 2012 MBA with the open box 2011 MBP = this machine will tide me over until Broadwell hopefully meets my mobil computing needs fully.

Cuz I feel like if i'm gonna spend over $500 on new stuff (including external cuz im using usb2/3 right now, 3 would be nice) and gonna take apart my computer (which I would pay money to dodge, hence my love for the retina) then I figure I might as well just upgrade till Haswell at least.
Reason I say that is cuz I was also debating on using the new 21.5 iMac to hold me over till Haswell, seeing as how i'd prolly go mobile from then on if the promises of keeping the computer cooler pan out.
It kinda just comes down to which one will resale better for me come 12 months from now, an iMac with 256 SSD, i7, and 16gb of ram, or the Retina with the same.

The main thing is having a 4 core with HT, because for how often I export things, especially with file sizes and tons of efx too, it would so much faster not being constrained by 2 cores.