Help me evaluate my Macbook options

[wmitch]

I am weighing my options for my upcoming macbook purchase and need help because I am finding it difficult to compare the refurbished products with the new ones.

Here's a list of the models i'm looking at trying to stay under $1200.
I will primarily be using for PowerPoint, word processing, and light photo editing (photoshop elements) and basic internet.

I love the 13" MacBook Airs but haven't found a good way to back up external storage. I have a TC that I could hook a spare drive into but it wouldn't be backed up anywhere so if I lost my wife's photos i'd be in trouble

New $1099 13-inch: 2.5 GHz
2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz
4GB 1600MHz memory
500GB 5400-rpm hard drive
Intel HD Graphics 4000
Built-in battery (7 hours)

Refurb $929 13-inch: 2.4 GHz i5
4GB (2 x 2GB) of 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
500GB Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm
8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 384MB of DDR3 SDRAM

Refurb $1149 13-inch: 2.8Ghz i7
13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen display, 1280-by-800 resolution
4GB (2 x 2GB) of 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
750GB Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm
8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 384MB of DDR3 SDRAM

 

[wmitch]

Which is faster?

So I pretty much have it narrowed down to 2 option:
2012 base 2.5 i5 ivy bridge
Late 2011 2.8 i7 sandy bridge

On the surface it would appear that the 2011 model is faster, so other than USB 3, is there any reason to buy the 2012 model? Or does the processor switch make a bigger difference than I'm accounting for?

 

[sylvermm]

Macbook pro

I dont really like the 13" MBP at all the resolution is so low 1280 by 800 I like the MBA a lot better if you are going 13" its res is 1440 by 900. if backup is an issue use a service like carbonite or the time machine.

 

[wmitch]

I dont really like the 13" MBP at all the resolution is so low 1280 by 800 I like the MBA a lot better if you are going 13" its res is 1440 by 900. if backup is an issue use a service like carbonite or the time machine.

My issue isn't backup of the internal drive. My wife Has a lot of pictures and videos so they wouldn't fit on the MBA hard drive. My concern is that if I use an external drive to store all that stuff I wouldn't have a way to back it up if that external fails. Is this a valid concern?

 

[sylvermm]

sort of, there is the chance that an external drive will fail but so can a DVD and the fact is that if you put all those files on DVD's you will probably not want to access them anymore because its so inconvenient. You could upload all the files that are priceless and the store the rest on a external. if you hardly ever use it hard drive failure is next to 0 I have on external hard drive that is almost 10 years old i never use it but when I do pull it out it works like a champ.

 

[wmitch]

Sorry, maybe I'm not making sense. right now I have a MacBook on its last leg with a 750 gb internal drive that backs up to time capsule. There is about 350 gb worth of stuff on the drive- a lot of that is pictures and videos.

I want to get the 128 gb model and use the internal 750 in an enclosure plugged into my time capsule. We would keep all of the pictures and videos on that drive so they could be accessed wirelessly when at home or unplugged and taken with us on trips. This drive would be accessed regularly when we add pictures, videos, etc.

My concern is that if that drive ever crashed there would be no backup since time capsule won't allow a backup of an external drive.

Does that help?

 

[sylvermm]

to back up an external drive with time machine to a TC remove it from the exclude list. but if you want a Macbook pro the differences if you are not going to use USB 3 are minor between 2011 and 2012.

 

[wmitch]

to back up an external drive with time machine to a TC remove it from the exclude list.

well, like I said, if I could solve the storage and backup issue, i'd buy the MBA. I tried what was listed above and couldn't get the drive to show up in available Time machine backups. it only showed up when plugged into the machine. Maybe thats a thread for the MBA forum though.

the purpose of this thread was to find out the speed comparison between the new 2012 2.5Ghz MBP and the 2011 2.8 Ghz MBP.