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Keep the Macbook Pro 13 or go for iMac 21.5 + Macbook Air 13?

What would you do?

  • Sell MBP 13 for iMac 21.5 + Air 11/13

    Votes: 8 47.1%

  • Upgrade the MBP 13, max out the RAM and add SDD

    Votes: 9 52.9%
  • Total voters
    17
thinkinblue613

thinkinblue613

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 13, 2010
283
4
Planet Earth
I got a question for you all, I have some cash to spend and wanted to know your opinions.

Should I sell my MBP 13" (Early 2011) for a iMac 21.5 + Air 11/13?

The iMac would be the 2.8 Ghz model, the Air would be 128 GB and 4 GB RAM.

OR

Should I upgrade my MBP 13 with 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB of SSD (then I'll put the 500GB in the Optical Drive Bay)?

I know the latter will be a cheaper expense.

Thanks
 
thinkinblue613 said:
I got a question for you all, I have some cash to spend and wanted to know your opinions.

Should I sell my MBP 13" (Early 2011) for a iMac 21.5 + Air 11/13?

The iMac would be the 2.8 Ghz model, the Air would be 128 GB and 4 GB RAM.

OR

Should I upgrade my MBP 13 with 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB of SSD (then I'll put the 500GB in the Optical Drive Bay)?

I know the latter will be a cheaper expense.

Thanks
Click to expand...

What are your reasons for wanting to upgrade to an iMac? Is your 13" MBP suitable for your needs? a 256GB SSD and a RAM upgrade is pretty substantial and cheaper. I'd stick with that, personally.
 
mrobit said:
What are your reasons for wanting to upgrade to an iMac? Is your 13" MBP suitable for your needs? a 256GB SSD and a RAM upgrade is pretty substantial and cheaper. I'd stick with that, personally.
Click to expand...

I'm planning on building a home studio setup. The iMac would fill that role perfectly. I do music production and photoshop.

The things I've found most distracting after 1 year of using the MBP 13 is the resolution, weight and fan noise.

Even though I have an external monitor, whenever I am outside of the home, it can become a PITA when I'm working for more than a few hours. And as anyone would know, less weight is better when you're on the go. Especially since I carry another 10-15 lbs of work on my back.

That's where the Air comes in. It's resolution matches the 15" MBP. It's lighter. Not as much fan noise, if any at all.

If this changes anything, I am buying refurbished items.
 
Last edited:
Krazy Bill said:
Looks like you answered your own question. Who are we to spend your money?
Click to expand...

Bam, I agree with Krazy Bill on this one. Valid reasons for you to get an iMac - you basically DID answer your own question there. :)
 
thinkinblue613 said:
I'm planning on building a home studio setup. The iMac would fill that role perfectly. I do music production and photoshop.

The things I've found most distracting after 1 year of using the MBP 13 is the resolution, weight and fan noise.

Even though I have an external monitor, whenever I am outside of the home, it can become a PITA when I'm working for more than a few hours. And as anyone would know, less weight is better when you're on the go. Especially since I carry another 10-15 lbs of work on my back.

That's where the Air comes in. It's resolution matches the 15" MBP. It's lighter. Not as much fan noise, if any at all.

If this changes anything, I am buying refurbished items.
Click to expand...


Photoshop just depends on what you're doing. If you're doing hours worth of work on photography or illustration, you may get tired of that imac display pretty fast, but everyone is different. I have no way of knowing how you're working, how controlled, or how picky you are. Just don't fall into the really common trap of thinking you need a better display, then try to calibrate via colorsync, then become frustrated and purchase a colorimeter because the salesman said it would fix all of your problems..... snipping story there. It's quite common. Make sure you know how picky you are in advance, and do as much research as necessary (which means more than posting on a mac forum for support;)). I know I seem a little vague, but that's the best way I can think of to describe it.
 
thekev said:
Photoshop just depends on what you're doing. If you're doing hours worth of work on photography or illustration, you may get tired of that imac display pretty fast, but everyone is different. I have no way of knowing how you're working, how controlled, or how picky you are. Just don't fall into the really common trap of thinking you need a better display, then try to calibrate via colorsync, then become frustrated and purchase a colorimeter because the salesman said it would fix all of your problems..... snipping story there. It's quite common. Make sure you know how picky you are in advance, and do as much research as necessary (which means more than posting on a mac forum for support;)). I know I seem a little vague, but that's the best way I can think of to describe it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I kinda know where you're coming from. All I know is that we all have our tastes and preferences, and Apple seems to find a way to fit it in there! :cool:

I'll be thinking about this for awhile, its a big decision and change in lifestyle. I may even wait for the refresh of 2012 before finalizing my decision.
 
Personally, I wouldn't want to have more than 1 Mac, simply because I don't want to manage 2 computers! This can be SO annoying :)

I like all my photos and docs on my internal hard drive, I hate it when I always need to plug an external hard drive to access my files. The only data I put it on my external hard drive is movies, I mean I can't do much about it! All my movies are in HD :D

Anyway, I might want to consider an external monitor.

1. Cheap option: Dell Ultra-Sharp monitor
2. Expensive (The BEST): Apple Thunderbolt Display ;)

Good luck with your final decision!
 
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