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First MacBook Pro Configuration ?

nanogirl21

nanogirl21

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 20, 2011
757
91
Midwest United States
I am looking into getting my first MacBook Pro near late August. I am a long time PC user, and have never really used a MacBook Pro outside of the Apple Store. I have had iPad’s, iPod's, and iPhone's and have loved them all, so I am sure I am going to love the MacBook Pro. I would like to get the 13” Retina, however I am having a little trouble decided on which configuration would be best for me. To be honest, I am clueless in this area so any advice is appreciated.

Here are some info about my windows PC.
  • Intel Core i7-3632QM Processor (2.2 GHz)
  • 8 GB DDR3 RAM
  • 750 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive (441 GB is used)

I use my computer for:
  • Photo editing (Adobe Photoshop)
  • Video editing (Sony Vegas Pro)
  • Movie streaming & downloads (Netflix, Amazon, iTunes)
  • Music files (28,000+)
  • Media conversion software
  • YouTube
  • General web surfing
  • Social networking
  • Skype & Oovoo
  • RP gaming (2-3 times a week)
  • Creating document (word, excel, access)

80% of the time, I will be multitasking doing as least one of the mentioned items paired with using Adobe Photoshop or Sony Vegas Pro.

Right now it is really difficult to multitask. I can’t have anything else open if I have Skype, Adobe Photoshop or Sony Vegas Pro open. The computer buckle downs and things start to freeze. I am assuming that the multitasking issues are due to the 8GB of RAM. Is it necessary to bump this up to 16GB? I have read that 16GB of ram is pointless, so I am kind of confused. It is necessary that I run multiple programs at once without any issues. Also, I do plan to clean up my computer and not transfer everything over to the MacBook Pro. However, most of the files on my computer are media and software files that I use regularly. I do have things backed up on an external hard drive, but would still like to keep things on my computer (ie. current movies that are synced to my iDevices, entire music collection, current media projects, school documents, and photos).

What do you guys think the best configuration for my needs would be? Thanks in advance.
 
Salukipilot4590

Salukipilot4590

macrumors 6502
Mar 17, 2009
282
2
Los Angeles, CA
I seem to do about the same things you do and I love my 15" (Non-Retina). The quad core processor is definitely worth it when you're editing GoPro movies together etc.

I've got 16GB of ram as well...mainly because it was relatively cheap when I bought it but I'll tell you...I'm not going to buy another macbook without 16gigs of ram again.

If you can stomach the price I'd say go for a 15" with 16gigs of ram, why the hell not right?
 
Barney63

Barney63

macrumors 6502a
Jan 9, 2014
799
1
Bolton, UK.
The amount of data that you already have will fit on a 512GB SSD.
You are also using an i7 so I would stick with the same.
I think you would benefit from a dGPU so I would go for the top off the shelf 15" (2.3GHz i7 / 16GB RAM / 512GB SSD / GT 750M)


Barney
 
Meister

Meister

Suspended
Oct 10, 2013
5,456
4,310
nanogirl21 said:
What is dGPU?
Click to expand...
Dedicated graphics processing unit, a processor dedicated to everything involving graphics.

Barney is right. The top end 15" would be best for such a heavy workload.
The 2.4/8/256 and low end 15" will work, too.
Depending on the kind of video editing we are talking about.
 
K

kelon111

macrumors 6502
Mar 16, 2013
303
4
nanogirl21 said:
Here are some info about my windows PC.
  • Intel Core i7-3632QM Processor (2.2 GHz)
  • 8 GB DDR3 RAM
  • 750 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive (441 GB is used)

I use my computer for:
  • Photo editing (Adobe Photoshop)
  • Video editing (Sony Vegas Pro)
  • Movie streaming & downloads (Netflix, Amazon, iTunes)
  • Music files (28,000+)
  • Media conversion software
  • YouTube
  • General web surfing
  • Social networking
  • Skype & Oovoo
  • RP gaming (2-3 times a week)
  • Creating document (word, excel, access)

80% of the time, I will be multitasking doing as least one of the mentioned items paired with using Adobe Photoshop or Sony Vegas Pro.

Right now it is really difficult to multitask. I can’t have anything else open if I have Skype, Adobe Photoshop or Sony Vegas Pro open. The computer buckle downs and things start to freeze. I am assuming that the multitasking issues are due to the 8GB of RAM. Is it necessary to bump this up to 16GB? I have read that 16GB of ram is pointless, so I am kind of confused. It is necessary that I run multiple programs at once without any issues. Also, I do plan to clean up my computer and not transfer everything over to the MacBook Pro. However, most of the files on my computer are media and software files that I use regularly. I do have things backed up on an external hard drive, but would still like to keep things on my computer (ie. current movies that are synced to my iDevices, entire music collection, current media projects, school documents, and photos).

What do you guys think the best configuration for my needs would be? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

The 5400 RPM HDD in your laptop makes the computer feel really slow when it shouldn't. The CPU is pretty good. If you want to keep your existing laptop , you should get an SSD and maybe upgrade the RAM.

What GPU does your laptop have? An integrated one only or a dedicated one in addition to an integrated one?
 
nanogirl21

nanogirl21

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 20, 2011
757
91
Midwest United States
kelon111 said:
The 5400 RPM HDD in your laptop makes the computer feel really slow when it shouldn't. The CPU is pretty good. If you want to keep your existing laptop , you should get an SSD and maybe upgrade the RAM.

What GPU does your laptop have? An integrated one only or a dedicated one in addition to an integrated one?
Click to expand...

Is this the info that you are asking me about? Sorry, as I said before I don't know much about this.

gpu.png
 
nanogirl21

nanogirl21

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 20, 2011
757
91
Midwest United States
Barney63 said:
The amount of data that you already have will fit on a 512GB SSD.
You are also using an i7 so I would stick with the same.
I think you would benefit from a dGPU so I would go for the top off the shelf 15" (2.3GHz i7 / 16GB RAM / 512GB SSD / GT 750M)


Barney
Click to expand...


I have started looking into the higher end 15” due to graphics like you suggested. Do you think that the i7 2.6GHz with turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz has a huge performance/speed boost over i7 2.3GHz with turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz? Or is the difference between the two unnoticeable?

I looked up some info about my current processor (Intel Core i7-3632QM Processor 2.2 GHz), and apparently that is quad core too. This confused me a bit, because I am assuming the 2.3GHz is a minimal upgrade compared to the 2.2 GHz so the MacBook Pro would be running at about the same speed as my current computer. Please correct me if I am wrong.
 
Y

yjchua95

macrumors 604
Apr 23, 2011
6,725
233
GVA, KUL, MEL (current), ZQN
nanogirl21 said:
I have started looking into the higher end 15” due to graphics like you suggested. Do you think that the i7 2.6GHz with turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz has a huge performance/speed boost over i7 2.3GHz with turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz? Or is the difference between the two unnoticeable?

I looked up some info about my current processor (Intel Core i7-3632QM Processor 2.2 GHz), and apparently that is quad core too. This confused me a bit, because I am assuming the 2.3GHz is a minimal upgrade compared to the 2.2 GHz so the MacBook Pro would be running at about the same speed as my current computer. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Click to expand...

The 2.3GHz i7-4850HQ of the 15" rMBP is faster than the 2.2GHz i7-3632QM in your current PC.

Proof: http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/compare/503811?baseline=591568

Even when compared to the 2.0GHz i7-4750HQ in the base 15" rMBP, it will still be far faster than your PC because the rMBP has a PCIe SSD. Your PC only has a regular 5400rpm HDD.

To give you an idea of the performance gap between a 5400rpm HDD and a PCIe SSD:

5400rpm read/write: 100MB/s read and write.

256GB SM0256F PCIe SSD in the rMBP: 720MB/s read and 680MB/s write.

An rMBP will boot up in just 8 seconds.
 
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