MacBook Pro or MacBook Pro with retina??

[Samwaltham48618]

I am in need of some advice from some fellow mac users!

I am going to purchase a macbook for work related tasks. Creating videos of products, newsletters and documents. I will also use it for personal use - iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, browsing the web etc.

Scenario 1

MacBook Pro non retina display 13 inch with the standard 4 GB ram and 500 GB hardrive. I will upgrade to either 8 or 16 GB of ram and then purchase a 256 SSD. I will do this independently as I can save quite a bit of money that way!

Am I also worth paying the little more for the i7 - 2.9ghz compared to the standard i5 2.5? Or won't that make a noticeable difference.

Scenario 2

Purchase the MacBook Pro retina display but only get 8 GB of ram and the 128 SSD.

I won't be able to upgrade any of this on the MPR. Is the retina really worth all of this??

Scenario 3

Purchase a MacBook Air 13 inch with 1.7 ghz and 8 GB and 256 SSD.

Personally I love the look and feel of the MacBook Air, but I'm worried it won't perform that well for alot of video editing. This is where the Mac mini may come in handy though?




I will probably look to get a cheap Mac mini this year and boost it with 8 GB of ram and 512 SSD.

This is my firsts at on here.... I look forward to hearing everyone's feedback!!!

Sam

 

[brdeveloper]

Well, there's a lot of questions. If you need maximum serviceability, get a standard i7 Macbook Pro 13". I would get the best processor that my pocket can afford because I don't like buying new laptops every year. Currently, the standard MBP supports a maximum of 16GB RAM, but who knows in the future? Maybe in one or two years we'll have plenty of 32GB kits for Pro Macbooks. Also, you can install standard form-factor SSDs and/or remove the superdrive for installing extra HDD storage.

However, the retina has an option for quad-core i7, which is a nice feature, although you'll be stuck on 16GB RAM in the future. With standard MBPs there is hope that someday it will support dual 16+16GB modules. If you need working with very large files, having plenty of RAM is sometimes more important than processing power.

In short, there isn't a silver bullet solution, but you must choose the one that fits better your requirements.

 

[MeUnix]

If it were me, I would buy the most "future-proof" system I could afford at the time.

But mainly, buy what fits your needs; I know this isn't the best advice you'll receive but I can't stress that enough.

As far as the MacBook Air goes with video editing, I really have no experience personally with using one and doing video editing. However, I have friends who prefer their MacBook Pro's over their MacBook Air's for "heavier workloads", and use their Air's for when they travel, etc.

Just my $0.02

- Kyle