I was waiting for the 12" announcement before buying and now that it has come and gone, I've decided I don't want the 12" and will just get a Pro. So my big question: Because I don't care about retina display but want a ~500GB hard drive, should I purchase a 13" Pro and upgrade the memory from 4GB to 8GB or are the new hardware changes to the RD models significant enough that I should get a 13" RD model?
I'm shopping in the education store, so the difference will be:
13" Pro (non-RD) - $1,089
Processor: 2.5GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz
Memory: Upgraded to 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM 2x4GB
Storage: 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
And of course no new trackpad, etc.
OR
13" Pro with Retina Display - $1,699
Processor: 2.9GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz
Memory: 8GB 1866MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
Storage: 512GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
And of course it has the new trackpad, retina display, etc.
So clearly the new one is $600+ more expensive, which I'm not sure is worth it. My issue is that I have no idea what a lot of the tech. stuff means, like in the memory, "1600MHz" and "1866MHz" means nothing to me. Or the storage: what is "Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm" and how does it compare to "PCIe-based Flash Storage"?
I'm a grad student/TA and think most of my usage is pretty casual (mostly writing and research in Word and Adobe Acrobat, streaming Netflix, Spotify, etc.) so I'm thinking these tech differences aren't a big deal for my needs. The only thing that may matter is that I use Photoshop a bit. If the cost of the RD model isn't worth it, I could always use Photoshop on a library computer though.
Any advice is greatly appreciated!
I'm shopping in the education store, so the difference will be:
13" Pro (non-RD) - $1,089
Processor: 2.5GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz
Memory: Upgraded to 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM 2x4GB
Storage: 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
And of course no new trackpad, etc.
OR
13" Pro with Retina Display - $1,699
Processor: 2.9GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz
Memory: 8GB 1866MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
Storage: 512GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
And of course it has the new trackpad, retina display, etc.
So clearly the new one is $600+ more expensive, which I'm not sure is worth it. My issue is that I have no idea what a lot of the tech. stuff means, like in the memory, "1600MHz" and "1866MHz" means nothing to me. Or the storage: what is "Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm" and how does it compare to "PCIe-based Flash Storage"?
I'm a grad student/TA and think most of my usage is pretty casual (mostly writing and research in Word and Adobe Acrobat, streaming Netflix, Spotify, etc.) so I'm thinking these tech differences aren't a big deal for my needs. The only thing that may matter is that I use Photoshop a bit. If the cost of the RD model isn't worth it, I could always use Photoshop on a library computer though.
Any advice is greatly appreciated!