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How would you change 15" rMBP?

N

Newtype

macrumors member
Original poster
I'm still waiting for my rMBP and since some of you had a chance to use it for a while now, I'd like to know:

What additions/changes would you like to see in the next revision of 15" rMBP?
 
Newtype said:
I'm still waiting for my rMBP and since some of you had a chance to use it for a while now, I'd like to know:

What additions/changes would you like to see in the next revision of 15" rMBP?
Click to expand...

Off the top of my head

-User upgradeable ram
-User replaceable battery
-Sleep indicator
-L-magsafe connector

These are obviously design components that i was somewhat disappointed with. Likely won't change.
 
Newtype said:
I'm still waiting for my rMBP and since some of you had a chance to use it for a while now, I'd like to know:

What additions/changes would you like to see in the next revision of 15" rMBP?
Click to expand...

A GPU that can hardware scale the resolution of the rMBP.
 
Quite a few things actually:
-13"in Size
-Better GPU
-Haswell
-User Upgradable
-Ethernet port
-Price drop
-Bigger base SSD
-Sleep and battery indicator
-If possible a better battery
-L shaped Magsafe option

Well thats my 2 cents, I love the new Retina Display MBP but there are some things that I would like to see in it first. Such as a 13" in RMBP, Bigger base SSD and the Retina model cheaper. Although I REALLY hope that they do make it upgradable (In my dreams only most likely unfortunately 🙁)
 
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Mavrack said:
Quite a few things actually:
-13"in Size
-Better GPU
-Haswell
-User Upgradable
-Ethernet port
-Price drop
-Bigger base SSD
-If possible a better battery
-L shaped Magsafe option

Well thats my 2 cents, I love the new Retina Display MBP but there are some things that I would like to see in it first. Such as a 13" in RMBP, Bigger base SSD and the Retina model cheaper. Although I REALLY hope that they do make it upgradable (In my dreams only most likely unfortunately 🙁)
Click to expand...

I don't get why people keep thinking Haswell will be such a jump from Ivy Bridge. The MCM upgrade that'll be featured in Broadwell/Skylake will be much more noticeable - all Haswell might offer is slightly less power consumption, which is nice but not dealbreaking (imo).

My big ones:
-Less Expensive (who wouldn't want that 😛)
-More battery (again, who wouldn't 😛)
-Software bugs worked out (faster and more efficient GPU scaling)
-A 13" Option
-A 32GB RAM option (hey, maybe I WANT 16 VMs up at the same time)

That's pretty much it, though. Like that, it'd be pretty much perfect. I'll probably pull the trigger now, because the first two are things people always wish for, the third really isn't a hardware issue, the fourth doesn't matter to me, and the fifth is more of a pipe dream than anything.
 
standard port ssd. I don't think people should pay apple 2-3x the amount of storage when third party solutions from intel, ocw etc. provide better, faster, and more reliable components.

I also don't get why due to the custom port ssd I can't have hardware level aes encryption on a pro machine.

+1 to the poster who talked about a gpu that can hardware scale the screen.

To me in everything else but the display this machine is a disappointment. Apple took away pretty much everything and offered a better screen (well lg offered the better screen but anyway...), namely:

dual hd (for bulk storage) + ssd configuration (why did we lose the optical anyway?)
upgradable ram (because in a couple of years ram will be much, much cheaper, higher clocked, and with smaller latencies)
industry standard ssd
sleep and battery indicator
ethernet
non glued battery.
 
Slivortal said:
I don't get why people keep thinking Haswell will be such a jump from Ivy Bridge. The MCM upgrade that'll be featured in Broadwell/Skylake will be much more noticeable - all Haswell might offer is slightly less power consumption, which is nice but not dealbreaking (imo).

My big ones:
-Less Expensive (who wouldn't want that 😛)
-More battery (again, who wouldn't 😛)
-Software bugs worked out (faster and more efficient GPU scaling)
-A 13" Option
-A 32GB RAM option (hey, maybe I WANT 16 VMs up at the same time)

That's pretty much it, though. Like that, it'd be pretty much perfect. I'll probably pull the trigger now, because the first two are things people always wish for, the third really isn't a hardware issue, the fourth doesn't matter to me, and the fifth is more of a pipe dream than anything.
Click to expand...

I was in the 'wait for Haswell' camp until I thought it out (plus tried out Lion GM on a buddy's rMBP - MUCH BETTER scrolling) as if you follow GPU development cycles, next year's rMBP discrete GPU is only going to be marginally faster. For one, TSMC still has issues with 28nm yields, let alone the next gen 20nm. Next year's GPU's are most likely going to be refreshed 28nm parts, along with big Kepler (this is a desktop only part if you're counting the ridiculous 10+lbs laptops). AMD seems to be only focusing mostly on APU's now. You're going to have to move to 20nm for the next big mobile GPU upgrade. So next year's rMBP main advantage is going to be a faster iGPU and just a slight improvement in power consumption as Haswell is still a 22nm part.
The CPU side is going to be 10-15% faster at most unless Intel pulls something like a P4-Conroe jump which is highly unlikely.
 
- User replaceable RAM
- Non-glued in batteries
- Ethernet Port

All totally possible even with this form factor, there are a few ultra books that are just as thin or thinner with a collapsible Ethernet jack. Was really surprised apple didn't come up with something like that, they are most certainty capable of it. I don't mind the batteries being tucked away, but glued down... That's just ridiculous... And for the RAM well, I definitely understand why they couldn't use standard DIMMs. I'm just hoping they figure something out for the future, it's no secret apple plans to make all their machines as thin or thinner than the rMBP in the future. I'd rather have custom proprietary RAM, much like the SSD, over over soldered on non-replaceable memory.
 
magbarn said:
I was in the 'wait for Haswell' camp until I thought it out (plus tried out Lion GM on a buddy's rMBP - MUCH BETTER scrolling) as if you follow GPU development cycles, next year's rMBP discrete GPU is only going to be marginally faster. For one, TSMC still has issues with 28nm yields, let alone the next gen 20nm. Next year's GPU's are most likely going to be refreshed 28nm parts, along with big Kepler (this is a desktop only part if you're counting the ridiculous 10+lbs laptops). AMD seems to be only focusing mostly on APU's now. You're going to have to move to 20nm for the next big mobile GPU upgrade. So next year's rMBP main advantage is going to be a faster iGPU and just a slight improvement in power consumption as Haswell is still a 22nm part.
The CPU side is going to be 10-15% faster at most unless Intel pulls something like a P4-Conroe jump which is highly unlikely.
Click to expand...

I agree completely - it'll be an Ivy Bridge all over again (although Intel likes to market their tick/tocks).

If we look at CPU performance, the last BIG jump was C2D to i3/i5/i7 series - a chipset arch change (Northbridge to PCH) that caused HUGE performance increases. The next chipset arch upgrade is PCH to MCM - a change that literally can't happen on full-size processors until we get a 14nm die shrink. Which is Broadwell, but considering that Broadwell is a "tick", we might STILL not see MCM until Skylake (the micro arch upgrade).
 
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I bought the 2012 non-Retina. The following changes would have made me buy a Retina; user replacable/upgradable ram, hdd/sdd, battery, and a 2gb GPU or lower resolution screen.
 
User replaceable RAM and SSD! mSATA will work fine, no reason not to use it. Unless you're Apple and you're money hungry. 🙄
 
blow45 said:
standard port ssd. I don't think people should pay apple 2-3x the amount of storage when third party solutions from intel, ocw etc. provide better, faster, and more reliable components.

I also don't get why due to the custom port ssd I can't have hardware level aes encryption on a pro machine.

+1 to the poster who talked about a gpu that can hardware scale the screen.

To me in everything else but the display this machine is a disappointment. Apple took away pretty much everything and offered a better screen (well lg offered the better screen but anyway...), namely:

dual hd (for bulk storage) + ssd configuration (why did we lose the optical anyway?)
upgradable ram (because in a couple of years ram will be much, much cheaper, higher clocked, and with smaller latencies)
industry standard ssd
sleep and battery indicator
ethernet
non glued battery.
Click to expand...
What makes a MBPR a "pro" machine?

FileVault 2 does not work with the MBPR because the controllers in the SSD it uses do not support partial volume encryption. The recovery partition isn't encrypted and doesn't need to be. Also, any Bootcamp and Linux partitions likely aren't going to be encrypted by FileVault 2.

Encryption is moot if you're not using it for business, and if someone steals your MBPR all bets are off anyways.

Why keep the ODD when it only really gets used 1% of the time? Optical drives need to be banished to external a few years ago. The only way I can justify putting on more size and weight to accommodate an ODD in a laptop is if there is a quantum leap of improvement to ODD-based storage.

Looking to the future, SSDs are just a stopgap - there are memory technologies that make both memory and storage behave as one. Until then, SSDs really need to be moved onto the PCI Express bus altogether. Forget SATA4, native bootable PCIe is the way to go.

OWC SSDs are really just SandForce drives with Mac-friendly *ware interfaces.
 
My wish list:

- Better graphics scaling routines (lag issue)
- upgradable memory
- 32 Gb Max RAM
- upgradable ssd
- dedicated docking station (w/o Apple monitor)
- minor improvements to anti-glare
- swappable battery
- fingerprint based authetication
- better anti-theft mechanisms (e.g. back to my mac in firmware)
- cheaper applecare
- better QC of components
 
Platform-independent killswitch.
64GB max RAM.
High-write-endurance SSDs e.g. Intel 710's.
Better battery life with dGPU
Ethernet port.

As my next major system upgrade will be 2-3 years from now, I don't care what Haswell/Broadwell has in store, as the replacement to my MBPR will most likely run on 14nm or better anyway.
 
jcpb said:
Platform-independent killswitch.
64GB max RAM.
High-write-endurance SSDs e.g. Intel 710's.
Better battery life with dGPU
Ethernet port.

As my next major system upgrade will be 2-3 years from now, I don't care what Haswell/Broadwell has in store, as the replacement to my MBPR will most likely run on 14nm or better anyway.
Click to expand...

Broadwell is 14nm...
 
I'd like for Apple to explore alternatives to aluminum as a chassis material. I'm sure they have, somewhere in their secret lab, I'd just like for them to release one to the public. Magnesium would have my vote. Not as heat conductive as aluminum, but it performs better as a structural material. All that's just mostly wishful thinking. 😛
 
voronoi said:
I'd like for Apple to explore alternatives to aluminum as a chassis material. I'm sure they have, somewhere in their secret lab, I'd just like for them to release one to the public. Magnesium would have my vote. Not as heat conductive as aluminum, but it performs better as a structural material. All that's just mostly wishful thinking. 😛
Click to expand...

Personally waiting for my adamantium MBPR...
 
jcpb said:
and it's a marginal improvement over the 22nm Haswell.

It can well happen that, by the time I upgrade my MBPR, Intel will have troubles shrinking transistors beyond 5nm...
Click to expand...

Hey, we could see MCM as early as Broadwell. If that actually happens, Broadwell will be HUGE (might not be until Skylake, though).

Not to mention Broadwell in itself, just by being under 16nm, will require a solution to quantum tunneling (another huge step forward).
 
Brighter screen
6/8 cores that don't get hot ever
better battery
thinner
lighter
improved software (less bloat, animations and improved memory management)

so basically a 2015/2016 mbpr
 
The only problem I have with mine is that it gets so damn HOT. I like to use my laptop in bed and I'm going to have to use a cooling pad or other surface if I want to continue to do that. Idling doesn't get toooo hot (still actually warmer than my 2007 MBP was), but the second you want to watch streaming video online etc. the thing heats up like crazy.

Other than that, it's pretty much perfect.

But really... the heat is a big issue for me.
 
It's time to face facts....the current cMBP are the last MBP units that will have user replaceable parts! Simple as that! Apple has always wanted their computers to be 100% proprietary and now they have it. So, instead of crying about it....just build a computer that will last a few years and be happy that apple has the highest resale value of any PC manufacturer!
 
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