MBP Advice!

I'm heading off to college this fall and want to take a MBP with me!

It sounds like the regular MBP won't be updated anymore, and the rMBP might me later.

What's my best option? I don't think I care too much if I get retina or not but they tend to be more discounted in the refurbished apple store.

I think I want refurbished to save money so I can get a better computer.

How much difference is 4 vs 8 gigs of ram? I'm assuming 16 is overkill.

How much difference is 512 mb vs 1 gig of Vram?

I do want discrete graphics unless you all are going to say the integrated is just about as good, which I assume its not.

I'm looking for any advice! Oh and I do want the 15" I think, but could do 13 if it came with dedicated graphics.


EDIT:
As for my intended use, I'm planning on being a computer engineer. Quite frankly I'm not sure what all that requires, but better to have too much power then not enough.

If there are any specific questions I can answer to make answering my questions easier, ask away!

 

Why no retina?

Also, will the refurbished prices fall after WWDC?

 

Kinda added in OP now.

I really don't know. I'm going to school as a computer engineer. Really I think I want to know how much difference does it make? If you have a specific question about it I can do my best to answer it.

Like 512 mb vs 1 gig of RAM. Is that significant for much? Or is that a minor boost? That's really the biggest one.

But across the board, without being real specific to me, just how much of a difference do each of those make?

 

Hm ok thanks for all that feedback!

So I'll shoot for the 1gb of VRAM. Would a 7200 rpm hard drive be a decent upgrade? SSDs are kinda pricey for me.

RAM I can handle upgrading myself.

Finally, is pretty much any of the i7 CPUs that come with the 1GB of vram alright? Not too much of a difference when it comes to .4 ghz, right?

That makes sense. Thanks!

EDIT: Oh- can I expect prices in the apple refurbished store to fall after wwdc assuming new models are released?

 

Ok sounds good.

Assuming that it saves me money to get the MBP and do the RAM and HDD myself, I will be going that route over the rMBP.

I will however price check those and see what the difference would be because who doesn't want retina if its about the same? (and the rMBP in the refurbished store seemed to be discounted more)

EDIT: How does the 1440-by-900 regular screen compare to a 1680-by-1050 (also how good is antiglare?)?

EDIT:

Refurbished 15.4-inch MacBook Pro 2.6GHz Quad-core Intel i7 with Retina Display
Originally released June 2012
15.4-inch (diagonal) Retina display; 2880-by-1800 resolution at 220 pixels per inch
16GB of 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
256GB Flash Storage
720p FaceTime HD Camera
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory

That's 1949.

The first regular macbook pro is 1819 with these specs:
Refurbished 15.4-inch MacBook Pro 2.6GHz Quad-core Intel i7
Originally released June 2012
15.4-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen display, 1440-by-900 resolution

8GB (2 x 4GB) of 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM
750GB Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm
8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory

Doesn't the retina sound better?

 

My understanding is that you get refurbished or education discount, with refurbs being the same or cheaper then the discount.

The bookstore is worth looking into though!

Ok great! Thanks! So you really think there's no way 512 mb of Vram would cut it? I've just never seen the difference but I believe you!

Ok sounds about in line with B...

 

Better to take 8 gigs RAM and 512 gb SSD or 16 and 256?

Also, I've seen reports of

Do I need to worry about this since it is a first gen?

 

So I shouldn't really worry about any of those?

And if I go non retina, you're sure the 512mb vs 1 GB VRAM matters?

 

The first model with 1GB is $1,819 but that includes an upgraded hdd and RAM, where the base would be $1,449 which would save a few hundred dollars I could put towards a SSD or RAM or both. So somewhat significant.

Refurbished 15.4-inch MacBook Pro 2.6GHz Quad-core Intel i7
Originally released June 2012
15.4-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen display, 1440-by-900 resolution

8GB (2 x 4GB) of 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM
750GB Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm
8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
$1,819.00

 

So you think that I could take that and use as is until I can afford an SSD? If so, that's probably what I'll go with!

Also, do you think SSD prices are going to go down anytime soon? They've been out for a while so it doesn't seem like they'd be about to drop.

 

So do you think I should go with that over the retina equivalent so that I can upgrade the HDD and RAM later if I want, but lose retina?

 

That starts at $1,949 which is a lot for just 256 GB of SSD space. And its very expensive to buy that proprietary SSD to replace later on. But good to think about.

So you think even with all the trouble people have been having with the first gen retinas its worth that risk?

And finally, thank you B... for all of the help you have given me! I appreciate it all.

And does anyone else have any input?