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Buying a secondhand MBP, stuck between two

J

juliancs

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 24, 2006
424
1
Hi guys,

Looking at grabbing a second hand MBP - I've got two options and I'm not sure which I'd prefer.

First is a late 2011 2.4Ghz i7 with 16GB RAM, a 128SSD and a 750GB HD in the optical slot.

Second, for a fraction more, is a mid 2012 Retina, 2.3Ghz i7, 16GB RAM and a 256GB SSD.

I'm looking to use it mostly for my day job (internet/email etc) but also working on music in Logic Pro X and some light gaming when Im away from my mac pro. The first has a little more storage, but I'm wondering if there is something else I'm missing - does the second have USB 3.0, where the 2011 model doesn't? How much will having to put games at the retina resolution affect bootcamp gaming performance? Finally, I'm assuming I won't lose much power in the 2.4 vs 2.3 processors - also because the 2012 is a 'newer' processor?

It's the retina screen's impact on performance I'm mostly worried about.

Many thanks in advance!
 
The question comes down to a few things but more specifically. How much storage space do you NEED when you are mobile vs. how much you really want Retina.

Yes the 2012 MacBook has USB3, but that's not any good to you if you NEED 2TB of data with you without having to plug in.

I hope that simplifies things.
 
Hey, thanks for the quick reply!

I'll almost definitely put in more storage into the optical bay slot (is that still possible on the 2012 models?), but also be looking at a USB3/TB storage drive. 1TB would probably do me just fine when moving about, so either another SSD in the computer or a portable one will be cool.
 
juliancs said:
Hey, thanks for the quick reply!

I'll almost definitely put in more storage into the optical bay slot (is that still possible on the 2012 models?), but also be looking at a USB3/TB storage drive. 1TB would probably do me just fine when moving about, so either another SSD in the computer or a portable one will be cool.
Click to expand...

The 2012 Retina models don't have an optical drive so that would not be possible. Also it's very expensive to upgrade the internal SSD's in the Retina Macbook Pros. If you need additional storage in a rMBP you'll have to look at external USB storage or SD card storage.
 
Ryan Burgess said:
The 2012 Retina models don't have an optical drive so that would not be possible. Also it's very expensive to upgrade the internal SSD's in the Retina Macbook Pros. If you need additional storage in a rMBP you'll have to look at external USB storage or SD card storage.
Click to expand...

Shows how out of touch I am with this stuff! Guess I won't be opening it up then. A solid state drive in an enclosure into the TB/USB should give fairly high speeds, right?
 
juliancs said:
Shows how out of touch I am with this stuff! Guess I won't be opening it up then. A solid state drive in an enclosure into the TB/USB should give fairly high speeds, right?
Click to expand...

Thunderbolt will give you any speed you like, natively it will give you full PCI-E 16x capability, but it will also interface with eSATA, USB3, and etc with the right adapters.
 
Cool, thanks for the replies. I'll be stuck with the 256 for a while but do have 2x1TB USB drives for dumping stuff if I need them. I'm looking around for gaming performance due to the retina screen, but not much luck.
 
juliancs said:
Cool, thanks for the replies. I'll be stuck with the 256 for a while but do have 2x1TB USB drives for dumping stuff if I need them. I'm looking around for gaming performance due to the retina screen, but not much luck.
Click to expand...

I haven't done any REAL gaming on my rMBP 2012 but I also haven't noticed any bad performance. I played Lego Star Wars and COD 4 at full 2560x1600 and got no lag or stutter.

Take that for what its worth, I'm not sure what games you'll be playing but I haven't noticed problems. Does the model you're looking at purchasing have an dGPU or is it just the HD4000?
 
Yea, I had a look through the benchmarks and the 650M works decently enough for what I'll be doing on it. I'm just worried about the jump from a normal 15" res to doubling that for the retina - whether or not this will negate much of the benefit of the discreet GPU.
 
Any way you look at it, it will kick the backside out of the HD4000 chipset which isn't bad by any means for an IGP... You can also always run your games scaled to a specific resolution.
 
juliancs said:
Yea, I had a look through the benchmarks and the 650M works decently enough for what I'll be doing on it. I'm just worried about the jump from a normal 15" res to doubling that for the retina - whether or not this will negate much of the benefit of the discreet GPU.
Click to expand...

I havent noticed any difference. I had a 2011 model before I upgraded to the retina model and it works just as well. You can always change the settings and resolution if you do get poor performance, but I don't think you'll have any trouble.
 
I would avoid the 2011 model if you can... as others have mentioned the graphics failures it is prone to can be an absolute nightmare. Also once you go retina its quite hard to go back.
 
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