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I May Have to Return rMBP 13inch and Go for Different MB & iPad; Help :)

HappyDude20

HappyDude20

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jul 13, 2008
3,688
1,479
Los Angeles, Ca
Hi everyone! Long time member from the forums here, thought I'd express my thoughts on the rMBP 13inch and perhaps you can help steer me towards a wiser choice. Let me explain:

My previous MacBook was the 2009 MBP unibody of which lasted me till the day the 3rd Gen "New" iPad was released in April(?). Since April, I've been using only my iPad. As a University student this isn't the easiest thing. Further, as a MacRumors member it isn't the easiest thing. I had a 500GB HDD in that 09' MBP. It was great but when the iPad 3rd Gen came out, my parents wanted my 09' MBP. I gave it to them, purchased a wireless bluetooth Apple keyboard and would either write or speak my essays into Pages on that iPad. I was purposely waiting for a 13inch Retina MBP to be released. When it finally was a few weeks ago, I decided to purchase it at any cost, considering its been the default laptop i've been wanting. Admittedly, I read all the specs (or therefore lack of) before making the purchase and yet didn't care. However, now that I have this 13inch rMBP in front of me and am typing into this thread... I realize that I'm not too happy sitting here, knowing Apple shafted me.

I'll admit, the screen is absolutely stunningly gorgeous.. but for the price I paid for it, I'm saddened I'm at 50GB's left; considering that 500GB HDD I've always had. In fact, that 500GB HDD has traveled with me to Japan, China and all about the U.S.

Anyhow, I purchased the rMBP 13inch a week ago and my folks caught wind of this as well and said, "Son! We want your 3rd gen iPad!" I said, yes... only because the truth was (and remember i've been using that iPad as my sole device for the past couple of months) the iPad 3rd Gen would pretty much be useless to me unless I would charge it the night before...and as a college student, I forget to charge it quite a bit (drinking, party, girls, etc. (It happens)).

Anyways, the fact remains. Here I am with a great rMBP, but I feel like I got raped by Apple for the price... especially when I consider the lack of what should have been included. Buyers remorse? To some degree. I spent $1700 on a subpar machine and only for the beautiful screen. Don't get me wrong, I can't emphasize enough the beauty of this screen...Actually, I also love the battery life, the weight at 3.6lbs and HDMI port (though that port isn't crucial).

So here I am, considering selling my 3rd Gen iPad to purchase 2 iPad Mini's. One for me and one for the folks. I get that the mini sucks in comparison, but my folks really want one and admittedly I found the 3rd gen iPad a bit too heavy for long use. I get it, I have weak arms... but when it's your only device you notice these little things. That and the charging just sucks and is slow... but this thread isn't about the iPad.

I would get a MBP that comes with optical drive and HDD... but I do indeed enjoy the weight reduction in this rMBP... but don't enjoy the 128GB SSD.

So long story short, I'm thinking:

Option 1: MBA 13inch & iPad Mini 16GB

Option2: MBP 13inch & iPad Mini 16GB (But it weighs more, and I am one of those ppl that takes their MBP with them everywhere, including dates and even grocery store outings, so weight is a concern of mine)

Anyways, enough rambling.

Let's Talk.
 
Naimfan said:
Option 2.

And leave everything at home when on a date . . . ;)
Click to expand...

..but what if we wanna watch a movie? :p

Since posting this thread I was thinking that hell, I can always sell whichever product I wish before the latest Retina comes out next year. I guess i'm trying to stay positive by thinking I can downgrade from Retina for just a year... but even as i'm typing this sentence on my rMBP I love the quality. It truly is gorgeous.

Prices will come down, retina will become more available...

...it's funny though, i'm looking at the 13inch rMBP now, my 3rd Gen iPad and iPhone 4...and all have Retina. It'll be interesting to go back.
 
Long story short: you didn't verify how much storage you need, and didn't buy enough.


My option in your case would be an cMBP 13" with 750gb momentus XT hybrid and an ipad.
 
throAU said:
Long story short: you didn't verify how much storage you need, and didn't buy enough.


My option in your case would be an cMBP 13" with 750gb momentus XT hybrid and an ipad.
Click to expand...

I've normally been around 300GB's in usage. Which includes primarilly self filmed movies and photos. I've never been an external HD kinda guy. I've always loved to have everything on my at all times and it's worked pretty well for the past few years.

Edit: The reason for having everything w/ me at all times is that I just don't know where the next 3 months will take me. Sometimes i'm in Asia, other times in Cali. Others times in NYC and I love to have it all with me, just in case at my disposal.

Edit #2: A reason why I would lean more towards MBA is cause it weighs less and I have to admit the weight reduction is nice. I've carried my Mac with me most days of the year than not for the past 6 years and am getting somewhat spoiled by the 3.6lbs weight of the rMBP... though the same can be said about being spoiled with this Retina display.

(As a sidenote, I think Apple's done a beautiful job, business wise in making me create this 1st world problem thread).
 
if the buyers remorse is only for the price, then I dont see the problem. Keep it.

Though I would say that getting the mba would be a good choice, a fully loaded one is the same price as the rmbp, but you get higher storage and the same cpu power (i7 ulv against the i5 standard voltage).

I never saw the utility of a tablet though. with the ipad mini Im tempted to give it a try, reading books on it should be good
 
HappyDude20 said:
I've normally been around 300GB's in usage. Which includes primarilly self filmed movies and photos. I've never been an external HD kinda guy.
Click to expand...

I'm not an external HD guy either, and this is why i am confused as to why you had ever considered buying 128gb in a machine.

If you're using ~300gb now (I am as well), that is only going to grow. You (like me) ideally want user replaceable storage, and you want 500gb or more, which in SSD is prohibitively expensive.

Which rules out the Air, and rules out the RMBP.

And on a spinning disk, the first half of the drive is considerably faster than the second half... so you want to double the size of your spinning disk if you can, vs what you need in terms of size - for better performance. So you want 700gb-1tb. The only hybrid in that size (again, to try and get closer to SSD performance) is the 750 momentus.

Size constraints rule out the cMBP 15, also.


So you're left with the 13" pro as the only viable option. Get the iPad for when carrying the 13" pro around is impractical. Yes its heavier, but its the only real option to get what I think you'll want for the machine's lifetime.
 
Option 2. Go with the i5 model, ive seen them sell for $999 brand new. Upgrade to a 256GB SSD and move the 500GB HDD to the optical drive bay. Max out the RAM. Even after all this you'll end up with a sweet setup an iPad mini and maybe a little money left over from the returned rMBP.
 
throAU said:
I'm not an external HD guy either, and this is why i am confused as to why you had ever considered buying 128gb in a machine.

If you're using ~300gb now (I am as well), that is only going to grow. You (like me) ideally want user replaceable storage, and you want 500gb or more, which in SSD is prohibitively expensive.

Which rules out the Air, and rules out the RMBP.

And on a spinning disk, the first half of the drive is considerably faster than the second half... so you want to double the size of your spinning disk if you can, vs what you need in terms of size - for better performance. So you want 700gb-1tb. The only hybrid in that size (again, to try and get closer to SSD performance) is the 750 momentus.

Size constraints rule out the cMBP 15, also.


So you're left with the 13" pro as the only viable option. Get the iPad for when carrying the 13" pro around is impractical. Yes its heavier, but its the only real option to get what I think you'll want for the machine's lifetime.
Click to expand...

Oh god I know, i know. I love the MBA's weight, but hate the SSD option. As for the cMBP, I love the HDD option, but hate the weight, plus I wouldn't feel like I'm upgrading and feel I've gone these past 7 months with an iPad only for no reason. It's quite tricky, here I am sitting down attempting to convince myself that going away from Retina will be easy...but here I am with three Apple devices in front of me, all Retina. If Tim Cook was to read this thread i'm sure he would laugh and say, "Excellent" in that Mr. Burns sort of way.

----------
Mr MM said:
if the buyers remorse is only for the price, then I dont see the problem. Keep it.

Though I would say that getting the mba would be a good choice, a fully loaded one is the same price as the rmbp, but you get higher storage and the same cpu power (i7 ulv against the i5 standard voltage).

I never saw the utility of a tablet though. with the ipad mini Im tempted to give it a try, reading books on it should be good
Click to expand...

Admittedly it's comes in handy in terms of portability and reading PDF readings. My major is heavy on readings. Close to 200-300 pages a week.
 
An alternative I guess is a 256gb air (1440x900 in that form factor isn't retina, but its not too bad - certainly better than the old cMBP 13"), and just live with the fact you'll need an external drive...
 
throAU said:
An alternative I guess is a 256gb air, and just live with the fact you'll need an external drive...
Click to expand...

Thinking longterm, I know everything will go towards the cloud and SSD will become the norm as prices go down. Apple and the Google Chromebook have it set so we're dependent on the cloud..

The overall solution is...why am I not a millionaire yet?

But even then I'm sure I wouldn't be happy.

I've never seen a male on my campus with an 11inch MBA, only females. This isn't to say 11inch MBA's are dainty, but I do prefer the 13inch screen size...

The situation is... I don't want an external drive.

BEST SOLUTION EVER: 1TB rMBP, with 16GB RAM and Graphics Card. With a Retina iPad Mini and an iPhone 6 that Steve Jobs himself jerked off on. (Apologies if this is inappropriate, but hey, I'm a long time MacRumors member and evidently Apple fan)
 
HappyDude20 said:
The situation is... I don't want an external drive.
Click to expand...

T5BRICK said:
Option 2. Go with the i5 model, ive seen them sell for $999 brand new. Upgrade to a 256GB SSD and move the 500GB HDD to the optical drive bay. Max out the RAM. Even after all this you'll end up with a sweet setup an iPad mini and maybe a little money left over from the returned rMBP.
Click to expand...

I feel like I'm being ignored. :confused:

It seems like a good compromise to me. You get all the storage you want(upgrade that 500GB HDD to a 1TB if necessary), and you keep the price around $1700(basically what you've already spent). The only compromises are weight and you lose the optical drive(but I don't think that matters to you since you're looking at rMBPs and MBAs.
 
T5BRICK said:
I feel like I'm being ignored. :confused:

It seems like a good compromise to me. You get all the storage you want(upgrade that 500GB HDD to a 1TB if necessary), and you keep the price around $1700(basically what you've already spent). The only compromises are weight and you lose the optical drive(but I don't think that matters to you since you're looking at rMBPs and MBAs.
Click to expand...

I started this thread wanting to hear all angles. Let me ask you, how much would this cost?
 
Ah.... I am getting my rMBP 13" tomorrow.
And I am comming from a 2 month old MBA (now I am using it as a slide show device for pics...)
The MBA was a i7 2.0, 256GB and 8Gb of Ram, as a ultra portable I didnt think I would need much space... in fact I dont think I will be needing much space with the new rMBP BUT 128Gb is a little... cramped.

I approched the problem just like the OP... didnt want the 15" rMBP, too big to carry around, and when it was announced they didnt offer a 13" rMBP... So I seattled for the Air.
I have to admit tho the retina screen is gorgeous! I haven't actually played with the rMBP 13" but from what I gathered the screen is amazing.

And here is the configuration I got it with
i7 2.9GHz
and kept the 128Gb SSD
Came to $1900 with corporate discount.

And here is ma contribution to the OP, check this out!
This can help with your home made movies and pics... I am not a HDD kinda guy either!

http://theniftyminidrive.com/

You just boosted your SSD by 50% :eek:
 
SD cards are slow. Looked into them as an option to boot my MBP from a 64gb SD card... they're not really comparable to a true SSD... or even regular hard drive when it comes to sequential transfer...
 
Last edited:
HappyDude20 said:
I started this thread wanting to hear all angles. Let me ask you, how much would this cost?
Click to expand...

Well, tax will have an affect on the prices.

i5 13" MBP - $1000(I see this in the Fry's ad all the time)
256GB Samsung 830 SSD - $170(These were recently on sale for $150)
16GB Corsair RAM - $90(I'm sure you could find some for less if you shopped around)
HDD caddy - $10(Amazon.com, I actually think they're less than this)

Add another $100 if you want to replace the 500GB HDD that comes with the stock config with a 1TB drive.

*edit* The only issue I can't address with this setup is the weight, but honestly some sacrifices have to be made somewhere and this is the direction I'd be leaning. My MBP stays home unless I'm going on trips anyway. If I had an iPad mini, I'd likely take it EVERYWHERE even though I've already got an iPhone. :D
 
I don't know, but really, I would consider a refurbished 13" Air, no iPad and then rethink what you keep on your laptop and why. I am willing to be you do not need all that content all the time. Then, we a nice NAS or even a USB drive connected to an AEBS you can have your stuff whenever you are home without having to plug in an external drive.

To me this splits the difference for your needs. Light weight, portability, nice screen and enough storage to take what you NEED, not everything you MIGHT NEED.
 
HappyDude20 said:
I started this thread wanting to hear all angles. Let me ask you, how much would this cost?
Click to expand...

I've got a 6 week old 13" MBP with the 256GB SSD that came with it.

I've also got a 256GB SSD Intel 520 Series that I've been considering adding to my configuration lately.

In other words, all it'll cost you is $90 for your 16GB RAM & around $50 for either your OWC or your OptiBay data doubler...if you swap with me. :D

Are you really not happy with the 13 rMBP so far? I was so darn frustrated when I saw that the 13" version had come out, not 2 weeks after my return period ended!

Of course one of the things I like the best about the rMBP is the dual Thunderbolt slots, b/c I've had a crazy time trying to get the 13" MBP to run dual monitors, along with the laptop screen itself, whenever I'm in the office. Apparently it's a Mountain Lion/Displaylink driver issue, so it'll eventually get resolved, but it's still some kind of frustrating!

----------
T5BRICK said:
Well, tax will have an affect on the prices.

i5 13" MBP - $1000(I see this in the Fry's ad all the time)
256GB Samsung 830 SSD - $170(These were recently on sale for $150)
16GB Corsair RAM - $90(I'm sure you could find some for less if you shopped around)
HDD caddy - $10(Amazon.com, I actually think they're less than this)

Add another $100 if you want to replace the 500GB HDD that comes with the stock config with a 1TB drive.

*edit* The only issue I can't address with this setup is the weight, but honestly some sacrifices have to be made somewhere and this is the direction I'd be leaning. My MBP stays home unless I'm going on trips anyway. If I had an iPad mini, I'd likely take it EVERYWHERE even though I've already got an iPhone. :D
Click to expand...

Did you get one of those $10 HDD caddy's from Amazon yourself, by any chance?

I saw those on there the other day & was tempted to get one, I mean at $10 why not anyway I guess, but then I read some reviews where people were complaining that they weren't even getting the same caddy that was shown in the picture & it wasn't fitting anywhere near the way some of the other reviewers were saying. Like I said, I guess at that price it's worth it to find out though, I wasn't sure how they compared to the OWC or the OptiBay versions.
 
ncadden said:
Did you get one of those $10 HDD caddy's from Amazon yourself, by any chance?

I saw those on there the other day & was tempted to get one, I mean at $10 why not anyway I guess, but then I read some reviews where people were complaining that they weren't even getting the same caddy that was shown in the picture & it wasn't fitting anywhere near the way some of the other reviewers were saying. Like I said, I guess at that price it's worth it to find out though, I wasn't sure how they compared to the OWC or the OptiBay versions.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, no. I actually use my optical drive, so I haven't pulled mine out yet. I've seen several people on here mention them and figured for $10(they're closer to $12 right now) I could take the chance. Amazon also has a great returns policy if you buy from them, but it looks like they're mostly being sold by 3rd party sellers right now.
 
HappyDude20 said:
Oh god I know, i know. I love the MBA's weight, but hate the SSD option. As for the cMBP, I love the HDD option, but hate the weight, plus I wouldn't feel like I'm upgrading and feel I've gone these past 7 months with an iPad only for no reason. It's quite tricky, here I am sitting down attempting to convince myself that going away from Retina will be easy...but here I am with three Apple devices in front of me, all Retina. If Tim Cook was to read this thread i'm sure he would laugh and say, "Excellent" in that Mr. Burns sort of way.

----------



Admittedly it's comes in handy in terms of portability and reading PDF readings. My major is heavy on readings. Close to 200-300 pages a week.
Click to expand...

Reading A4 sized PDFs on an iPad Mini can't be anywhere near as good as on a fullsize retina iPad.

I remember reading articles for school on the iPad2 and the iPad3. The extra resolution helped make text a lot more legible, and vastly reduced the need to zoom.

I haven't tried the Mini, but I just can't imagine going from reading A4 PDFs on the retina iPad to a both lower resolution and smaller screen.
 
HappyDude20 said:
I've never seen a male on my campus with an 11inch MBA, only females. This isn't to say 11inch MBA's are dainty, but I do prefer the 13inch screen size...
Click to expand...
I'm a 6'3" male and use an 11" Air. Love the thing. I may get made fun of by middle school girls, but I don't let it bother me.
 
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