MBP 13" advice needed

[Vazza]

First a little background on my current situation...I apologise about the long story in advance! Around 2 months ago my 15" late 2010 MBP began to randomly shut off after 10 minutes or so and then wouldn't restart for a while. After checking the RAM wasn't faulty I eventually took it to the Apple Store who gave me the bad news that the discrete Nvidia GPU had gone. The machine was perfectly adequate for my needs of occasional Photoshop, surfing the net and writing Word documents so I asked about a repair only to be told due to it's age Apple no longer manufacture the logic board and that I could instead take it to an Apple authorised service centre for this where it'd cost upwards of £300-400 or get some side street computer place to solder on a new GPU (which would probably fail at anytime)

I knew the new MBPs were around the corner so decided to wait it out and in the meantime tried to use my crippled MBP with GPU switching off. Although I expected Brexit to have an impact in the future I was shocked by the prices as wasn't expecting the hike to be so soon. I was adamant I would hold off till the next refresh in the hope of a drop, however, this weekend whilst using my current MBP I noticed a burning smell presumably from where it was cooking itself

I've now decided to go for the new 13" MBP as feel continuing to use my current one is unsafe. I'm not too bothered about losing screen real estate TBH given my uses for the laptop. With my NHS discount I can get the base MBP for £1362 which is bearable but in order to future proof it as much as possible I am contemplating going for the processor upgrade to the 2.4Ghz i7, however, this bumps the price up to around £1600 - the same as the mid level MBP with the touch bar, slightly better Iris Pro GPU and 2.9Ghz i5. Truth be told I don't need this performance but I do want to ensure if my circumstances change over the next 5 years it will still be capable.

Which would you go for...the base non touch bar 13" MBP with the processor upgrade or the mid level 13" touch bar one without any upgrades?
[doublepost=1478089161][/doublepost]Or should I just get the base 13" with no processor upgrade for £1362?

 

[Carlson-online]

go for the mid level - no brainer if you add the 2.4 to the base model

 

[supajam]

The machine was perfectly adequate for my needs of occasional Photoshop, surfing the net and writing Word documents

The base line MBP without touch bar will be more than enough for those uses. However it depends if you want the touch bar/touch ID and are prepared to pay an extra £270 (w/ education discount) for it. Yes, it's also better performing but you will notice little-to-no difference over the base line for the tasks you've written.

If you see your circumstances change drastically and decide to take up extensive video/music editing then it's worth considering the 15" MacBook, as the quad core CPU will outpace and outlast any 13" model. But obviously it comes at a whopping £2000+...

 

[Vazza]

The base line MBP without touch bar will be more than enough for those uses. However it depends if you want the touch bar/touch ID and are prepared to pay an extra £270 (w/ education discount) for it. Yes, it's also better performing but you will notice little-to-no difference over the base line for the tasks you've written.

If you see your circumstances change drastically and decide to take up extensive video/music editing then it's worth considering the 15" MacBook, as the quad core CPU will outpace and outlast any 13" model. But obviously it comes at a whopping £2000+...

Of course even the base would be sufficient for my uses but given the amount it'll cost anyway, I was trying to work out which to get in terms of price to spec. I'm leaning towards the mid level one now following a few reviews I've read stating it has a 28W CPU and the touch bar whilst a novelty at the moment might become more useful as developers utilise it better in the future?

 

[supajam]

I'm leaning towards the mid level one now following a few reviews I've read stating it has a 28W CPU and the touch bar whilst a novelty at the moment might become more useful as developers utilise it better in the future?

Yes it could, but it's difficult to conclude at this point since it hasn't even been released yet. I actually see touch ID as more beneficial than the actual touch bar personally as I'm terrible with passwords. I almost pulled the trigger on the non touch model as I believe it offers the best price to performance (the benchmarks for the 15W CPU are surprisingly good) but I'm willing to wait another week or so to see if the touch bar is a gimmick or not.

I would consider the 16GB RAM upgrade over the CPU if future proofing is one of your priorities. Again, it comes down to what you'll be using it for in a few years. That will certainly be overkill for your current uses.

 

[neteng101]

I second the RAM suggestion - if you want to upgrade anything - it should be the upgrade to 16GB of RAM. Though a 256GB SSD is also somewhat limiting for some people. The processor upgrades are the least worthwhile, especially the i7s.