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Keep or return MBA?

R

RussellJones

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 10, 2012
58
0
Hi,

Last month I bought a retina MBP, after a few problems replaced it and now I have that I can just about live with. It has a LG screen, which is currently showing no image retention, but something could appear later, and obviously never appear at all. The bottom kinda creeks a bit which is getting more annoying by the day. The model I have is the 8gb/256/2.3 which I thought would be sufficient, I will be running autocad and other like programs, although now I am having doubts.

I thought I could return this and get a simple RAM upgrade, but to cut a long story short I got this from the apple at £1620 rather than the £1799, and im not a student, cant really use my discount to get the ram upgrade. I dont think they will let me have a upgraded model for that price + upgrade fee surely, unless im wrong?

So I thought, I could return, keep the money in the bank and get the next updated model, hopefully it will work amazingly out of the box like my iMac did a few years ago, with no first gen issues like this one has had, also I will benefit from a little spec upgrade, and jump on the 16gb ram because the price should drop. In the meantime get a ipad, which will suit me fine. I got this retina because I could get it at the price above.

What do you guys think, should I wait or return, do you think 8gb ram is enough for the 3/4 year uni course i will be doing?
 
I think 8GB of RAM should be plenty for the next 3-4 years, especially if it's for school-related stuff.
 
How did you get your discount?

The same student discount applies to RAM upgrades as well as the machine - but the Apple online store doesn't allow partial discounts (i.e. discounted machine and full price RAM). It's all or nothing.
 
bma said:
How did you get your discount?

The same student discount applies to RAM upgrades as well as the machine - but the Apple online store doesn't allow partial discounts (i.e. discounted machine and full price RAM). It's all or nothing.
Click to expand...

A local electronics store sold retina MBP for 1620, and I bought one, and it was the last one in stock. This had a serious image retention issue, so the apple guys at my local apple store agreed to sell me one for the same price, so i returned it to the local store and bought fro, the apple shop.
 
Hey Russell,

I got the 2.3Ghz/16GB/256SSD Retina Macbook and I too have it with the LG screen. I have owned mine since July of this year and use it everyday with no notice of image retention. Best display I have ever used.

I also have the bottom creaking noise on the right hand side. It is annoying but I only notice it if I squish that end of my macbook with my hand.

Overall I think you're going to be fine with the 8GB of memory honestly. I only got the 16gb because I run Windows onto of OSX with VMFusion.
 
Woodcrest64 said:
Hey Russell,

I got the 2.3Ghz/16GB/256SSD Retina Macbook and I too have it with the LG screen. I have owned mine since July of this year and use it everyday with no notice of image retention. Best display I have ever used.

I also have the bottom creaking noise on the right hand side. It is annoying but I only notice it if I squish that end of my macbook with my hand.

Overall I think you're going to be fine with the 8GB of memory honestly. I only got the 16gb because I run Windows onto of OSX with VMFusion.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your input, I hope so to, I just notice that when I am using it light, I'm still using 4gb of ram and I am worried that when I start using it for heavy cad usage and 3d models it not going to be enough
 
RussellJones said:
Thanks for your input, I hope so to, I just notice that when I am using it light, I'm still using 4gb of ram and I am worried that when I start using it for heavy cad usage and 3d models it not going to be enough
Click to expand...

OSX is fairly good at managing the RAM. My wife has the 17" 2.2Ghz i7 Quad Core from 2011 with 4gb of RAM and 256gb SSD and uses VM Fusion with Windows along with lightroom and photoshop with no real issues. I think the system really benefits from the SSD when virtual memory kicks in. So even if there is a time where you max out on your memory that SSD on the 6GB SATA controller should help keep things running smoothly as oppose to having a 7200rpm hard drive.
 
Woodcrest64 said:
OSX is fairly good at managing the RAM. My wife has the 17" 2.2Ghz i7 Quad Core from 2011 with 4gb of RAM and 256gb SSD and uses VM Fusion with Windows along with lightroom and photoshop with no real issues. I think the system really benefits from the SSD when virtual memory kicks in. So even if there is a time where you max out on your memory that SSD on the 6GB SATA controller should help keep things running smoothly as oppose to having a 7200rpm hard drive.
Click to expand...

Thanks, you have been very helpful
 
To fix your creaking issues have you tried letting someone at Apple just unscrew and rescrew them? I myself had the issue and I did it myself and I have yet to have the issue come back.
 
bchreng said:
I think 8GB of RAM should be plenty for the next 3-4 years, especially if it's for school-related stuff.
Click to expand...

But once you get past the 4 years, will it last longer? Sometimes one will get to the end of the predicted lifetime of the computer (based on personal needs) and realize that it has everything they need for a few more. However, if you had more RAM, you're more than likely to extend the life of the computer for what you need it to do.
 
The only concrete thing you're finding problematic is the squeaky case. As another poster mentioned, a simple adjustment of the case might fix that easily. As for the RAM issue, remember that 8GB was a lot of RAM just a few years ago. It's still quite a bit unless you're into a lot of multi-tasking (e.g., running multiple concurrent virtual machines). Look at your RAM use now and see if you're even coming close to actively using 8GB. My guess is that you're not.
 
RussellJones said:
Hi,

I thought I could return this and get a simple RAM upgrade, but to cut a long story short I got this from the apple at £1620 rather than the £1799, and im not a student, cant really use my discount to get the ram upgrade. I dont think they will let me have a upgraded model for that price + upgrade fee surely, unless im wrong?
Click to expand...

anyone know about this
 
foodle said:
The only concrete thing you're finding problematic is the squeaky case. As another poster mentioned, a simple adjustment of the case might fix that easily. As for the RAM issue, remember that 8GB was a lot of RAM just a few years ago. It's still quite a bit unless you're into a lot of multi-tasking (e.g., running multiple concurrent virtual machines). Look at your RAM use now and see if you're even coming close to actively using 8GB. My guess is that you're not.
Click to expand...

Im currently using about 4gb of ram, just doing light daily tasks, itunes in the background, using chrome and using preview reading pdfs
 
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