Buying help with rMBP

[Klae17]

Hello. I have a MBA 13 with 8 gb ram and 128 gb 2012.

I want a rMBP. Refurb is around 1599, with tax about 1710.

I'm going to sell my MBA for $1000. Also I have Mac Pro so the processing and heavy weight stuff I can so at home.

I want the rMBP because I do graphics a lot and miss my 15 inch pro. The air is nice for weight but not for photoshop or gaming at all.

So questions:

Buy the refurb?

Will refurb prices go even lower when the new ones are announced?

Will online retailers lower their prices on old 2012 ones to around $1700 (so no tax so I can get a brand new one with box)?

Or don't upgrade to the 15 and the 13 rmbp is enough?

Will Haswell make a difference in the rMBP to justify $400 in price vs a refurb?

I will wait and see on the new laptops with Haswell of course.

 

[Klae17]

Can anyone offer their advice?

 

[tgi]

I'm pretty sure the prices on the refurbs/older models will go down once the new Macs are announced. It's hard to speculate on whether the Haswell MBPs will be enough to justify buying a brand new one. Since you are waiting until the Haswells are announced, you should just wait until then and re-evaluate.

I'm pretty much n the same boat as you, waiting until the Haswells then deciding on getting a new one or refurb.

Any idea on how long it takes to get refurbs in the store for new models?

 

[rimbaud1854]

I just purchased a 13 rMBP and couldn't be happier. I would have been very content with buying a refurb as it was the same as the model year as the one I bought. However, they did not have any refurbs in stock. Apple was nice enough to give me my choice of an external HD or Disc Reader as an apology.

As for the Haswell chip dilemma. I had to buy my rMBP when I did. My iPad was no longer meeting my needs, and I needed portable computing power. Which the iPad is not a true computer. That being said, if I could have waited for the Haswell I would have done so. The rumors from my Intel friends is the Haswell will boost battery life close to 10 hours of true charge. That means almost never needing to take my chord with me. As for the performance of my Ivy Bridge rMBP, I love it. It took a ridiculously amount of open apps and 3D graphs to see any true lag.

One word of true advice. There is absolutely no difference between the i5 and i7 processors in the 13rMBP line. I'm not even sure there is a difference between them in 15" rMBP. I spent several days researching this and finally someone at Apple confirmed it. That might also save you some money.

Cheers, David

 

[jdblas69]

Looks like your in a position not needing to make a quick decision. If time is on your side I would wait until the Haswells are introduced and then you have more options to choose from.

You may as well drop the 13" rMBP from your list as you mentioned you miss the 15" MBP