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So, basically, occasionally there's mobility, but probably 95-99% it's fixed. In that case, I'd go for one of the 13", particularly the 13" base without touch bar. If it's going to be on a desk, might as well buy a separate large 2K or 4K monitor and full-size keyboard and mouse. Screen size is only an issue if you're a Starbuck warrior or someone who does a ton of works while in bed.

One of your concern is longevity, the reason I say 13 instead of 15" is because the larger model with discrete graphic had a long history of issues. You can search around the forum for those. The 13" however is powerful enough to drive a 4K display now with the lid close, and all versions of integrated GPU have been rock solid. Any version of the current MBP will serve you well based on your usage description, just upgrade the RAM and SSD so you have plenty of storage. Size SSD for documents and applications. If there is a lot multimedia, a Samsung T3 is a good option since the laptop is parked most of the time.

The 15" power is needed by people who do a lot more processor intensive works. Also where it's worth it for them to upgrade every 3-4 years. Marginal ROI on keeping it for 5-8 years isn't great. Single core performance will degrade (because it's old), while heavy CPU utilization tasks are still pretty good because it has more cores. From an experience standpoint, it's actually a very weird position to be in with a 15" workhorse for light users who wants to keep it a long time. If you "don't" need the GPU or CPU of a 15", it might be better to do a 13" ~$2200 and budget it for a 4-5 years replacement rather than a 15" ~$3500 and try to keep it for 6 or 7 years.

Unless you're very early in your law studies, in 4-5 years, you might also become an attorney well paid enough that you can get a new Macbook and longevity become less of an issue.
Hey thanks for your detailed reply
I am in my first year of a four year law degree.

I was going to go for the 2015 15' 'MacBook Pro but having read what you said I am seriously considering going for the 13' non touch bar Mac. What you said does make a lot of sense.

What you mentioned about purchasing the Samsung T3 SSD.....does that mean I should just stick with the 256 memory it comes with and not pay extra for Apple to increase it? Also how would that work...? Does that I mean I save all my music files etc on to the Samsung SSD drive rather than the MacBook pro's SSD? Is that a cheaper option?
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But don't worry, any of the MBPs will help you do office and internet work for the next 4-5 years at least. I'm on a 2008 version and it is still good enough for this. It's just slowly, slowly falling apart since 2014 (fried USB ports)

Built in storage is expensive, I'd seriously consider a separate drive. For consuming music and video the slower speed is not relevant. That money is better spent on something else, like an external monitor for at home. With a 13 rMBP and a monitor you have the best for both situations IMO.
Hey that might be a good option. I think a poster mentioned a Samsung T3 which is like £250....isn't that like the same price Apple charge if you want to increase it?
What is a good monitor for the 13'....
 
Hey thanks for your detailed reply
I am in my first year of a four year law degree.

I was going to go for the 2015 15' 'MacBook Pro but having read what you said I am seriously considering going for the 13' non touch bar Mac. What you said does make a lot of sense.

What you mentioned about purchasing the Samsung T3 SSD.....does that mean I should just stick with the 256 memory it comes with and not pay extra for Apple to increase it? Also how would that work...? Does that I mean I save all my music files etc on to the Samsung SSD drive rather than the MacBook pro's SSD? Is that a cheaper option?
[doublepost=1478614905][/doublepost]
Hey that might be a good option. I think a poster mentioned a Samsung T3 which is like £250....isn't that like the same price Apple charge if you want to increase it?
What is a good monitor for the 13'....

Depend on how much documents you have, or plan to have and what you consider necessity. I would size the SSD based on your need to have mobile, and extra stuffs on the T3 for the 95+ % of the time you can easily have it plugged in. It's basically like a USB pen drive, except slightly larger, and it's a real drive that read/write at ~450MB. Right now the 1TB is $350 and 2TB is $750. About half of what Apple charges for the internal SSD upgrade. I'm actually waiting for them to announce a newer model in January, they've done that around the first week the last 2 years. So I'm expecting like a T4 edition that's faster and slightly cheaper. Keep in mind, the price of SSD is also dropping like a rock, averaging 10-13% per quarter for the last few years. That $750 2TB drive is gonna be around $400 in 13 or 14 months.

You could put your music library on the external drive, depending on how much you have. I'm lazy so I have photos (40GB) and my small iTunes library of 9GB on the internal SSD. If you have hundred of GB of musics, those should probably be kept externally just because external SSD are so inexpensive these days. If it's a small amount, another option is just regular USB pen drives, they come at up to 256GB now in USB-C. Small compact, great if you have stuffs that you just need to read and virtually never writes to. The T3 is much much much faster, great for games and real work, and it can be up to 2TB in size, but also a lot more expensive. There's some trade-offs, but needless to say, the external storage options are endless. It' just the internal storage and what you "need" to have all the time that's the question.
 
Depend on how much documents you have, or plan to have and what you consider necessity. I would size the SSD based on your need to have mobile, and extra stuffs on the T3 for the 95+ % of the time you can easily have it plugged in. It's basically like a USB pen drive, except slightly larger, and it's a real drive that read/write at ~450MB. Right now the 1TB is $350 and 2TB is $750. About half of what Apple charges for the internal SSD upgrade. I'm actually waiting for them to announce a newer model in January, they've done that around the first week the last 2 years. So I'm expecting like a T4 edition that's faster and slightly cheaper. Keep in mind, the price of SSD is also dropping like a rock, averaging 10-13% per quarter for the last few years. That $750 2TB drive is gonna be around $400 in 13 or 14 months.

You could put your music library on the external drive, depending on how much you have. I'm lazy so I have photos (40GB) and my small iTunes library of 9GB on the internal SSD. If you have hundred of GB of musics, those should probably be kept externally just because external SSD are so inexpensive these days. If it's a small amount, another option is just regular USB pen drives, they come at up to 256GB now in USB-C. Small compact, great if you have stuffs that you just need to read and virtually never writes to. The T3 is much much much faster, great for games and real work, and it can be up to 2TB in size, but also a lot more expensive. There's some trade-offs, but needless to say, the external storage options are endless. It' just the internal storage and what you "need" to have all the time that's the question.
I'm in the U.K. so bare in mind things are a bit more expensive especially with Brexit.

I guess it makes sense to go for the 256gb non touchbar space grey 13'mac and buy the Samsung T3 SSD. I will pay for Apple to upgrade the ram to 16gb but I don't think it's worth paying for an i7 processor for the things I am going to be doing on the Mac?

May I ask how it will work with the T3 SSD. Do I have to change the settings on the Mac that when I download songs etc...it will save to the Samsung SSD and not the internal SSD on the Mac?
[doublepost=1478617386][/doublepost]
I'm in the U.K. so bare in mind things are a bit more expensive especially with Brexit.

I guess it makes sense to go for the 256gb non touchbar space grey 13'mac and buy the Samsung T3 SSD. I will pay for Apple to upgrade the ram to 16gb but I don't think it's worth paying for an i7 processor for the things I am going to be doing on the Mac?

May I ask how it will work with the T3 SSD. Do I have to change the settings on the Mac that when I download songs etc...it will save to the Samsung SSD and not the internal SSD on the Mac?
I know this qus has probably been asked many times but I kinda need advice

I am a university student and need a new macbook pro. I am not sure wether to go for the old 15' model, or the new 15' model with the touchbar or even maybe the new 13' model without the touch bar.

I want a macbook that will last me for at least 4 years plus...... Portability isn't a huge factor for me since the computer will sit on my desk. I would have gone for the iMac but the iMac didn't get renewed....so it makes sense to get a macbook.

I will not be running any heaving programmes on it but i prefer the big screen hence the 15'
i am in the exact same situation as you and I'm doing a law degree as well! What a coincidence!
 
I'm in the U.K. so bare in mind things are a bit more expensive especially with Brexit.

I guess it makes sense to go for the 256gb non touchbar space grey 13'mac and buy the Samsung T3 SSD. I will pay for Apple to upgrade the ram to 16gb but I don't think it's worth paying for an i7 processor for the things I am going to be doing on the Mac?

May I ask how it will work with the T3 SSD. Do I have to change the settings on the Mac that when I download songs etc...it will save to the Samsung SSD and not the internal SSD on the Mac?
[doublepost=1478617386][/doublepost]

i am in the exact same situation as you and I'm doing a law degree as well! What a coincidence!

Pretty much. If you're buying songs off iTunes, just leave it alone. Those never take up that much space, just a few GB for most people. Usually it's the people who digitized their 2000 CDs collection or had a lot of "non iTunes ;)" downloads from the late 90s that need extra space. For those, you just do an Itunes Import, and set it so it doesn't copy the file to it internal library. That'll leave the original file where it was, on a USB external media, or network drive. You still have access to it whenever you have access to that external or network storage.
 
Pretty much. If you're buying songs off iTunes, just leave it alone. Those never take up that much space, just a few GB for most people. Usually it's the people who digitized their 2000 CDs collection or had a lot of "non iTunes ;)" downloads from the late 90s that need extra space. For those, you just do an Itunes Import, and set it so it doesn't copy the file to it internal library. That'll leave the original file where it was, on a USB external media, or network drive. You still have access to it whenever you have access to that external or network storage.
I see
I am still thinking about getting the 15' 2015 model because of the big sgreen, 3 and processor.
 
Pretty much. If you're buying songs off iTunes, just leave it alone. Those never take up that much space, just a few GB for most people. Usually it's the people who digitized their 2000 CDs collection or had a lot of "non iTunes ;)" downloads from the late 90s that need extra space. For those, you just do an Itunes Import, and set it so it doesn't copy the file to it internal library. That'll leave the original file where it was, on a USB external media, or network drive. You still have access to it whenever you have access to that external or network storage.
I am really debating about wether to get the

2015 15' macbook = £1870.80 (with education discount)

or the 2016 non touch bar mac with 512gb storage and 16gb ram = £1,628.40 (with education discount)
 
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