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Laptop help - purchasing

D

decdec8

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 28, 2013
7
0
Hi I am a first time laptop buyer. I have gotten hammy downs all my life and now I am in the market for a new laptop. The reason I have not purchased a new laptop is because I am waiting on the macbook pros.
here are my requirements:
-13 inches or bigger
-a nice screen mainly for netfix
-something powerful enough to handle basic to mid level app programming
-hopefully an i7 processor <- for gaming mainly but I am not a huge gammer, mainly a little minecraft
-windows 7 or mountain lion if i get a laptop with windows 8 I will probably switch to linux
- i have just around 2000
-i need the laptop by late october
 
I wouldn't get hung up on i5 vs i7. It's virtually meaningless. As for the other stuff, if you want a 15" below 2000, I suggest looking at refurbished options. The general consensus on here seems to be that many of them are due to returns.
 
Laco said:
If I were you I would buy this.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/F...-23ghz-quad-core-intel-i7-with-retina-display
Click to expand...

+1

This is a great option. I purchased one, and it is gorgeous. Haven't had any problems with mine, and haven't had any issues with the screen or anything really. Just a wonderful machine and a solid buy in my opinion. If you were to get the 13" I'd just wait until the Haswell refresh.

Plus, the extra screen real estate of the 15", coupled with resolution scaling, should be a boon to your programming since your usable screen space will be increased.
 
bhayes444 said:
+1

This is a great option. I purchased one, and it is gorgeous. Haven't had any problems with mine, and haven't had any issues with the screen or anything really. Just a wonderful machine and a solid buy in my opinion. If you were to get the 13" I'd just wait until the Haswell refresh.

Plus, the extra screen real estate of the 15", coupled with resolution scaling, should be a boon to your programming since your usable screen space will be increased.
Click to expand...

How long have you waited? A day?

Just wait until it's a few years after purchase, I say typing on my mac, as the screen wobbles, and I pushes the exposed wires in the charger lead away in fear of electrocution.

As for OP

Macs are not good for gaming. Very few have dedicated graphics and Minecraft does not run well on them. You could build a dream PC for the price of a mac with an i7 over 3ghz (macs more like 2.3) and a GTX 7xx series
 
decdec8 said:
Hi I am a first time laptop buyer. I have gotten hammy downs all my life and now I am in the market for a new laptop. The reason I have not purchased a new laptop is because I am waiting on the macbook pros.
here are my requirements:
-13 inches or bigger
-a nice screen mainly for netfix
-something powerful enough to handle basic to mid level app programming
-hopefully an i7 processor <- for gaming mainly but I am not a huge gammer, mainly a little minecraft
-windows 7 or mountain lion if i get a laptop with windows 8 I will probably switch to linux
- i have just around 2000
-i need the laptop by late october
Click to expand...

lol hammy downs!

on topic:

I would go for a refurbished rMBP or refurbished cMBP (13")
 
@OP: anything in the current Apple's laptop lineup will completely satisfy your needs. I would recommend a 13" MacBook Air or a refurbished 15" retina MBP. If you want a 13" retina model, I recommend you to wait for the refresh in the autumn.

revalationist said:
Macs are not good for gaming. Very few have dedicated graphics and Minecraft does not run well on them. You could build a dream PC for the price of a mac with an i7 over 3ghz (macs more like 2.3) and a GTX 7xx series
Click to expand...

You are kidding, right? We are talking about Minecraft, not BF4 :D Sure, Minecraft is poorly programmed, but its still far from being a demanding game.
 
Thank you all

Thanks for all of your replies! A big help. I especially liked the idea of a refurbished 15 rMbp. I have a few other questions. I found a great deal on a 15 rMbp and was wondering if I should buy it now. But I am aware of the upcoming MacBook Pro release in September, October range. Would the price drop significantly enough to make me want to hold out and also what would I be missing out by buying the current MacBook Pro. Also I was wondering about another option besides apple? Maybe a windows equivalent to the MacBook Pro, but still fits into my original requirements. Thanks again!
Also I was thinking since I qualify for education pricing should I buy the refurbished retina now because I get $100 off plus a $100 gift card and the deal ends before the new macs come out
Or will the price go down enough to compensate for the loss of the education pricing
 
Last edited:
decdec8 said:
Thank you this was exactly what I was looking for. Since education prices end september 6th should I buy now or wait until the upgrades. If I wait will I still get the same amount off
Click to expand...

Apple does not offer educational pricing on refurbished items. So if you want to buy this item there is no reason for waiting. Only you can decided if you should wait for the haswell update but I would guess that after the update a new 15 inch retina Macbook Pro will cost you over $2000.
 
Laco said:
Apple does not offer educational pricing on refurbished items. So if you want to buy this item there is no reason for waiting. Only you can decided if you should wait for the haswell update but I would guess that after the update a new 15 inch retina Macbook Pro will cost you over $2000.
Click to expand...
How much will the price go down for the refurbished MacBook pro
 
decdec8 said:
How much will the price go down for the refurbished MacBook pro
Click to expand...

From my past experience following this the price does NOT usually go down any further on refurbished models right after the release of a new model.
 
leman said:
You are kidding, right? We are talking about Minecraft, not BF4 :D Sure, Minecraft is poorly programmed, but its still far from being a demanding game.
Click to expand...

I disagree about minecraft being poorly programmed, unless you mean it has "bad" graphics/not-top-of-the-line-will-kill-your-gpu graphics.

revalationist said:
Very few have dedicated graphics and Minecraft does not run well on them. You could build a dream PC for the price of a mac with an i7 over 3ghz (macs more like 2.3) and a GTX 7xx series
Click to expand...

Minecraft runs fine on my 2010 13" entry-level MBP (yes, no dedicated graphics on this one). You just have to be satisfied enough not to run at Fancy graphics.

To the OP:

If you will be using a mouse most of the time and not the trackpad, by all means buy a Windows laptop/machine. It'll be a lot cheaper for you to get and the sheer amount of manufacturers gives you a lot of configurations to choose from. The main thing that keeps me with Mac is how I got used to their trackpads which is hands down the best thing ever.

But if you're set on getting an MBP, wait for the newer models. At that point, you can still get discounts on the 2012 stock which'll be better than getting a 100$ gift card on the Appstore if you think that the upgrade isn't all that big a difference to current generation MBPS.
 
offgray said:
The main thing that keeps me with Mac is how I got used to their trackpads which is hands down the best thing ever.
Click to expand...

I cannot reiterate enough how much this is true. The trackpad on the MacBooks is the best one I've ever tried. Windows laptops have started getting close (the Samsung Series 9, specifically, has a really really really good trackpad, but it just barely falls short of the MacBook trackpad in terms of smoothness/responsiveness. It is super close though).
 
offgray said:
I disagree about minecraft being poorly programmed, unless you mean it has "bad" graphics/not-top-of-the-line-will-kill-your-gpu graphics.
Click to expand...

No, I am referring to the rendering engine. It is horrendously inefficient. And they still haven't solved the light artefacts and stuff like that.
 
leman said:
No, I am referring to the rendering engine. It is horrendously inefficient. And they still haven't solved the light artefacts and stuff like that.
Click to expand...

I don't want to turn the OP's thread into a minecraft discussion but I've never experienced the light artefacts (or if I have I might not have noticed). Screenshot?
 
offgray said:
I don't want to turn the OP's thread into a minecraft discussion but I've never experienced the light artefacts (or if I have I might not have noticed). Screenshot?
Click to expand...

I am referring to stuff like this. They improved it in latest updates, but you still get weird glitches around slabs/stairs/corners. As to my remark about 'bad coding' - a voxel engine like Minecraft should have better performance on modern hardware. I know that they were using per-chunk display lists and recently VBOs, but my guess is that they don't use the graphical API optimally. The relatively low Minecraft performance is most likely due to the batching problem. To be fair, it has improved considerably with 1.6
 
leman said:
I am referring to stuff like this. They improved it in latest updates, but you still get weird glitches around slabs/stairs/corners. As to my remark about 'bad coding' - a voxel engine like Minecraft should have better performance on modern hardware. I know that they were using per-chunk display lists and recently VBOs, but my guess is that they don't use the graphical API optimally. The relatively low Minecraft performance is most likely due to the batching problem. To be fair, it has improved considerably with 1.6
Click to expand...

Thanks for showing/telling me what I needed to know.
 
Does anyone have any good windows computers that they would suggest?
 
decdec8 said:
Ya haha my budget is still the same along with my requirements
Click to expand...

I can't think of anything specific (it's been a loooong time since I've looked around for Windows laptops), but as one person has mentioned earlier the Samsung Series 9 laptops have pretty decent trackpads. I've had good experiences with HP laptops. I'd be looking in those two companies' lineups if I was in the market for a Windows laptop.

if you wanna go Windows 8, the Lenovo Ideapad Yoga is a good choice too.
 
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