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Is 13" rMBP timeproof?

S

Simurgh87

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 12, 2012
36
0
I know there are zillion threads about 13" vs 15" but I still do have the question in my mind for which I would appreciate some input...

I bought my mid-2010 15" MBP (i7, 4Gb RAM) 3.5 years ago and I was really happy with it for all this time. It became a bit sluggish recently (HDD), and battery is pretty much dead. Also display have a few small bright spots.

Now I am thinking of buying rMBP. The thing is I can't decide between 13" and 15". I LOVE portability of 13" as it's very good experience (compared to 15") to carry it around and I do it a LOT.

I don't play any games on computers and I don't do heavy video editing stuff. I know if I buy 15" rMBP it will serve me very well in the next 3-4 years. But how about 13" - let's say I take the conf with 16Gb RAM. Is Quad core (or likely to be) a MUST have in years to come?
Also I can survive next 6-7 months with my old mac. Do you think it's worth waiting for the next update?

I know this is a bit "up to me" question, but I would like some input. Thanks!
 
My wife is still rocking with me a 2010 C2D 13" MBP. I'd say that for your described tasks, it should be more then enough for the next few years.
 
Thx maflynn.

Also is there any difference in day to day usage in quad core vs dual core. I mean stuff like opening apps, editing text, browsing web, playing HD movies...
 
You won't use 16GB of RAM in the next few years, with your usage. Quad core CPUs won't be required either. Your current Macbook would be much faster with a SSD, though. Quad-core processors don't make a difference for casual tasks. In fact, dual-core CPUs don't use max power to do those things. You'd be fine with a 13-inch rMBP.
 
TheEnthusiast said:
You won't use 16GB of RAM in the next few years, with your usage. Quad core CPUs won't be required either. Your current Macbook would be much faster with a SSD, though.
Click to expand...

I agree for SSD. But the issues with mine are : HDD (slow), quite heavy (I can't carry it around), battery (it's pretty much dead), display (a few spots - don't mind too much). It just makes more sense to get a new one then to try upgrade this one.

16Gb is the only thing I can really upgrade on 13" to make it more towards "timeproof" if you know what I mean.
 
Simurgh87 said:
Thx maflynn.

Also is there any difference in day to day usage in quad core vs dual core. I mean stuff like opening apps, editing text, browsing web, playing HD movies...
Click to expand...

No, You'll not see too much difference between a dual core and a quad core.
 
maflynn, thx again!

Just one more question.

Do you think that investment in better processor (i7 2.8Ghz over i5 2.6Ghz) would be a better than 16Gb RAM over 8Gb RAM?
 
Simurgh87 said:
Also I can survive next 6-7 months with my old mac. Do you think it's worth waiting for the next update?
Click to expand...

If you're planning to get it within the next 6 months at most, I would go ahead and get it now. The price of the new ones is not going to drop, but the resale value of your old computer might. Since the MacBooks were updated just a short while ago, there are no significant updates expected within the next 6 months.

As others mentioned, more RAM is better than higher end CPU for the overwhelming majority of uses. Plus a faster CPU may bring a slight reduction in battery life.
 
I have to admit, the title of this thread made me think of Back to the Future, or any time-travel related context.

1) Not sure if the 13" rMBP can withstand the implications of time travel, specifically iCloud

2) Since the advent of flash storage, I'd say today's notebooks will "feel" faster for much longer than HDD-based notebooks. 5 years with a rMBP should be a lot less frustrating than 5 years with 5400rpm platters and noisy optical drive arms.
 
GSPice said:
I have to admit, the title of this thread made me think of Back to the Future, or any time-travel related context.

1) Not sure if the 13" rMBP can withstand the implications of time travel, specifically iCloud

2) Since the advent of flash storage, I'd say today's notebooks will "feel" faster for much longer than HDD-based notebooks. 5 years with a rMBP should be a lot less frustrating than 5 years with 5400rpm platters and noisy optical drive arms.
Click to expand...

On the contrary, my concern is that now that seek time is a non-issue, programmers will get sloppier, and we'll end up in a situation where they start to feel slower faster. A 5400rpm drive was plenty fast for years, but in the past year or so on Apple machines I've noticed it doesn't feel as fast.
 
I planned to upgrade to 16Gb from the start - it just seems more reasonable thing to do.

Now is there any real world benefit in i7 3.3 over i5 3.1?
 
I wonder how long these Late 2013 rMBP batteries are supposed to last? The fact that you can't replace them like you could the previous models, is a bit concerning.

You can make sure you're set on ram and HD storage, but if the battery life is dead by 2016-2018, and we can't replace it... that kinda sucks
 
andyACEcandy said:
I wonder how long these Late 2013 rMBP batteries are supposed to last? The fact that you can't replace them like you could the previous models, is a bit concerning.

You can make sure you're set on ram and HD storage, but if the battery life is dead by 2016-2018, and we can't replace it... that kinda sucks
Click to expand...

You can still pay like 150$ to replace the battery after 2 years or so of use.
 
TheEnthusiast said:
Why is that? Are you sure you need all that memory? Because it is a lot.
Click to expand...

Right now probably not, but as RAM can't be replaced it is safe bet. I do use more specific programs like matlab for my work and sometimes it does require plenty of RAM.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
I don't play any games on computers and I don't do heavy video editing stuff. I know if I buy 15" rMBP it will serve me very well in the next 3-4 years. But how about 13" - let's say I take the conf with 16Gb RAM. Is Quad core (or likely to be) a MUST have in years to come?
Also I can survive next 6-7 months with my old mac. Do you think it's worth waiting for the next update?
Click to expand...

Well, Haswell is a brand new architecture so it should be good for quite some time. A quad core most certainly won't be a must have in the next few years - however, if you work a lot with numerical computations, a quad core could be noticeable.

One interesting thing about Haswell is that its a new architecture, and its new instruction set does offer some performance improvements to software that uses it. As the compilers mature and more libraries/programs are compiled with AVX2 support, we should see some increase in computational efficiency over the next few years.

----------
thejadedmonkey said:
On the contrary, my concern is that now that seek time is a non-issue, programmers will get sloppier, and we'll end up in a situation where they start to feel slower faster. A 5400rpm drive was plenty fast for years, but in the past year or so on Apple machines I've noticed it doesn't feel as fast.
Click to expand...

On the other hand, the programming model of OS X is just as 'CPU-unfriendly' as it gets - using lots of indirect calls and overheads due to high-level abstractions. And programers don't really access low-level filesystem calls anymore, most will use a specialised database or some API that Apple provides. Because of that, I think that application efficiency won't drop that quickly...
 
leman said:
On the other hand, the programming model of OS X is just as 'CPU-unfriendly' as it gets - using lots of indirect calls and overheads due to high-level abstractions. And programers don't really access low-level filesystem calls anymore, most will use a specialised database or some API that Apple provides. Because of that, I think that application efficiency won't drop that quickly...
Click to expand...

That was my first thought as well, but there's something going on way down in the bowels of Mavericks that seems to slow things up just enough. Maybe it's how the memory is compressed, shaving a few CPU cycles off of performance, or that makes RAM appear slower? I'm not certain what's going on, but I can't help but feel that it's not as responsive.

On the other hand, it may just have been the .0 blues.
 
andyACEcandy said:
How difficult could it be to replace the battery? I wonder if we'll be able to buy batteries and replace ourselves
Click to expand...

There is a lot of glue. You're more likely to damage the top case or puncture the battery than get it right on your first try (hence the replacement of the top case and keyboard with the battery).
 
Simurgh87 said:
I know there are zillion threads about 13" vs 15" but I still do have the question in my mind for which I would appreciate some input...

I bought my mid-2010 15" MBP (i7, 4Gb RAM) 3.5 years ago and I was really happy with it for all this time. It became a bit sluggish recently (HDD), and battery is pretty much dead. Also display have a few small bright spots.

Now I am thinking of buying rMBP. The thing is I can't decide between 13" and 15". I LOVE portability of 13" as it's very good experience (compared to 15") to carry it around and I do it a LOT.

I don't play any games on computers and I don't do heavy video editing stuff. I know if I buy 15" rMBP it will serve me very well in the next 3-4 years. But how about 13" - let's say I take the conf with 16Gb RAM. Is Quad core (or likely to be) a MUST have in years to come?
Also I can survive next 6-7 months with my old mac. Do you think it's worth waiting for the next update?

I know this is a bit "up to me" question, but I would like some input. Thanks!
Click to expand...

If you keep waiting for the next update, you'll be waiting your whole life.

That's the way it is with electronics. One day you have the latest and greatest, and a few days later you've got outdated hardware. Buy what you need, when you need it. The waiting game is useless.
 
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