Help me decide whether to stay or go rBMP

[jerrykur]

I am a software developer by professional and pretty serious photographer for fun. I currently am using a Mid 2010 13" MBP with 8GB memory and a 250 GB SSD and a 500 GB hybrid drive (for images and Parallels).

Under OSX I run MS Office, XCode, IntelliJ (another IDE), various web browsers (Firefox, Chrome), Photoshop, Lightroom, and various databases. I also have to run Windows in Parallels. Under Windows I use Visual Studio, SQL server, and IIS. I never develop concurrently in OSX and Windows. I do 80% of work attached to a 24-27 inch external calibrated monitor.

My current MBPro is a little slow, especially under Parallels. I suspect a lot of this is due to running Parallels from the Hybrid drive, by the core duo CPU may also be an issue So I am trying to sketch an upgrade path.

I see 3 choices for an upgrade (all 13", 15 is too big):

1. A rMBP with 512 GB SSD and 8 or 16 GB of RAM $1600-1900.
2. Replace the 250 GB SSD with a 500 GB SSD and move parallels to that unit. That would run about $300.
3. Get a used 13 inch i5 model with minimal config, $700 Upgrade drive ($300) and memory ($80-160). Total $1200.

Thoughts?

 

[Buck987]

Obviously 1 is best choice but if your talking value...i think 2 gives you a nice option to expand the life of your machine for another year or two

good luck

 

[Ryan1524]

Depending on how hindered you feel at your work, spending $300 vs $1900 is going to be easy to reason out.


Personally, I'd go with option 1, since you run a VM. The extra ram and CPU power will help. Just bumping the SSD is great for enhancing normal use, but VM is a different beast.

 

[Vanilla35]

I'd say go with the new Retina Book Mac Pro

1.

 

[glenthompson]

My experience running Parallels with VS is that it need s lot of memory. Have you run Activity Monitor to see where you have bottlenecks? That would help determine the best course.

 

[Justinhub2003]

i Say option 1 or even option 3.

I have owned both a mid 2010 13"MBP and a 2011 i5 13" MBP and the difference in CPU performance is night and day.

Your bottleneck is probably the Core2Duo.

I am currently selling my 13" MBP now and its very very fast, I've upgraded the HDD to a 500Gb Samsung 840 SSD, 16gb of Crucial 1333mhz ram and the rest of the standard config.

Im only selling it for roughly 1000$, So if you you could get a 2011 model cheaper than 1200.

I can give you some benchmarks if you would like to compare it with your current machine to see whats the better option for you.

 

[AndrewMRiv]

Option 1 sounds like the best in the long run. Having a better cup plus more RAM will make you really powerful! It would so be the most convenient. The other options are a bit risky in that they might not improve enough for your needs.

Option 1 may be more expensive, but I would definitely see it as the best option.

You listed it first, so maybe your gut feeling is trying to tell you something! 😛