How old of a Macbook Pro could I get and still have decent performance?

[Naimfan]

I've learned to live with externals since it's cheaper (and now much easier) to buy a Western Digital external than it is to upgrade the internal storage in my Macs. I have a 1TB desktop for Time Machine, the 1TB portable, and a 500gb portable that has old schoolwork on it.

This what drives me nuts with the retina models. Having to get used to externals defeats the purpose of having an all-in-one laptop. Good machines, but I still can't stand the pursuit of thin above all else.

/rant off

 

[KUguardgrl13]

This what drives me nuts with the retina models. Having to get used to externals defeats the purpose of having an all-in-one laptop. Good machines, but I still can't stand the pursuit of thin above all else.

/rant off

It wasn't retina that caused me to buy externals. I filled up my 2009 MBP's original 160gb HDD really fast. Since I'm on a college budget and not super technical (plus at the time I needed space for "acquired" media), I bought an external instead of upgrading my internal. This was 2010. I also wanted to start doing backups. I bought the 1TB a few months ago since I've been downloading a LOT of digital copies of movies in iTunes and don't want them taking up the 256gb SSD in my rMBP. It's also USB 3 while the other two are USB 2. Apple gave me the 500gb HDD for my 2009 MBP because I went in with a SATA cable issue and they didn't have the 160gb drives in stock anymore (that was last summer).