mbp advice

[jfvelamoscoso]

Hey,

I am planning to get a new macbook and I need some advices.

I am between mbp retina 13 with 16 gb ram. If you have limited budget and you can upgrade one feature which one will you decide?. 256 gb instead of 128. Or increase the cpu to i7 or the more power i5.

Which one is the best value for the money.

 

[Tomorrow]

How do you plan to use the machine?

My hunch is to tell you to upgrade the processor, since you can't do that later (you CAN upgrade the SSD later, if you like).

 

[jfvelamoscoso]

Will it be valuable to increase the procesor from regular core i5 to a high power core i5 or core i7? I have read on several post that there is no big difference in the performance

 

[Tomorrow]

Again, how do you plan to use the machine?

 

[jfvelamoscoso]

Actually doing a master of engineering. Some simulations on matlab nos to heavy. But most as office laptop, network administrator, heavy spreadsheet, like to have several tabs open at the same time

 

[Tomorrow]

If you're going to use matlab for OS X I would get the i7. For everything else you want to do the i5 should work well.

 

[jfvelamoscoso]

Ok, I will use core i5 16 gb of ram, do you think that 128 gb will be enough or is a good idea to increase up to 192?

 

[Tomorrow]

If it were me, I wouldn't go less than 256, either from Apple or aftermarket.

 

[AFEPPL]

I've got both combination. I'm currently on the i5 one right now with 128GB.
You won't see any increase in usability from the processor. I'd be tempted to just get the cheapest one, you really don't need either and i use NAS for storage so i don't see that as a must. So save the money and go i5 128GB.

However the 256GB is faster due to the number of lanes, so if i had a gun to my head to spend the cash it would go in that direction.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

To be honest I'd get a 15 inch refurb if I was you a 256 SSD and 16gb RAM 13 inch new is $1700, a refurb end 15 inch will be great for matlab and excel for screen size and comes with 256gb and 16gb RAM and a great quad core i7 not to mention IRIS pro graphics, it also cost $1700.

http://www.apple.com/shop/product/F...-22ghz-quad-core-intel-i7-with-retina-display

 

[theluggage]

I am between mbp retina 13 with 16 gb ram. If you have limited budget and you can upgrade one feature which one will you decide?. 256 gb instead of 128. Or increase the cpu to i7 or the more power i5.

What have you got at the moment and what limitations are you hitting?

Personally, on a laptop, I'd go for the biggest SSD you could afford (a desktop is a different matter, you can use NAS or External and keep the SSD for OS and applications, but I'd still want 256 minimum) but if your current drive is still half empty that may not be important.

Processors speed bumps are usually the least cost effective, esp. with multicore - that really depends on how heavy your Matlab work is. If its running acceptably on your current setup, that's probably not an issue. Reality is, most modern processors don't really break a sweat unless you hit them with video or 3D stuff.

I'd even question the 16GB RAM upgrade - again, unless you're manipulating huge data sets in Matlab 8GB will probably do.

Of course, on a generous budget I'd max out everything because future-proofing...

 

[RedCroissant]

Hey,

I am planning to get a new macbook and I need some advices.

I am between mbp retina 13 with 16 gb ram. If you have limited budget and you can upgrade one feature which one will you decide?. 256 gb instead of 128. Or increase the cpu to i7 or the more power i5.

Which one is the best value for the money.

I would say that neither of them are the best value for the money. I would still go for the Mid 2012 model given that it's currently on sale and it has more potential than the retina models.

By that I mean that you can install a SSD now and replace the existing 5400rpm drive and have similar performance as the retina model. You could go a step further and install a second SSD in the superdrive bay and put them in RAID and have a machine that out performs the retina model. That and add 16GB of RAM and you have a machine that would be perfect for your uses (since it's not graphics design that you're after).

The only thing that the retina model can do that the non-retina model can't do is the retina display. Everything else can be added, and for less!

 

[AFEPPL]

You'd have to be crazy to do that IMO...
The SSD drive is nowhere near the performance of the PCIe cards, software raid on mac is poor at best, the weight is going to be through the roof. The retina screens are one of the best features and you'd be losing that.

A MBP is what 1k?, $200 for a SSD? That makes its the same price as a rMBP so unless you are meaning a used item i don't see the value in it. You "could" also just get a mac mini and a big screen and carry that around too

 

[theluggage]

I would say that neither of them are the best value for the money. I would still go for the Mid 2012 model given that it's currently on sale and it has more potential than the retina models.

Erk! No. Obviously, it meets some peoples' needs or Apple wouldn't still be selling it but, in general, you'd be buying a new, old computer. I'd only consider that if you have some very specific use case that means you really need an internal optical drive, a wired Ethernet port (and can't use a dongle or dock) or absolutely need 1TB or more of internal storage on a budget.

Yes, you could DIY-upgrade to get the same RAM and SSD numbers for a bit less than the rMBP equivalent, but you'd have a far inferior display, slower processor (& I think its an older generation, so even clock-for-clock won't compare), worse GPU, slower SSD, only 1 Thunderbolt port & no HDMI (so max 1 external display - or none if you want to use a Thunderbolt device which doesn't have dual ports), thicker, heavier... and though the hard drive is officially user-replaceable, putting a drive in the optical bay might give you warranty problems (plus, although its not rocket science, its a fiddle).

If you need to penny-pinch that much, I'd look second-hand/refurb first.

 

[RedCroissant]

You'd have to be crazy to do that IMO...
The SSD drive is nowhere near the performance of the PCIe cards, software raid on mac is poor at best, the weight is going to be through the roof. The retina screens are one of the best features and you'd be losing that.

A MBP is what 1k?, $200 for a SSD? That makes its the same price as a rMBP so unless you are meaning a used item i don't see the value in it. You "could" also just get a mac mini and a big screen and carry that around too

Of course the SSD is near the performance of the PCIe card especially when they both have the same max data transfer rate. SO with 2 SSDs, the non-retina would R/W faster every time. And I have used a software RAID on my PowerMac G5 Quad, my Mac Pro 1,1 and have installed software RAIDs on others' MBP of the same model with no issues at all.

It also on;y weighs in at alb more. And if you remove the heavier items and then install lighter ones, then you'd be decreasing that gap in weight and increasing performance.

And be honest, carrying around a Mac mini is not the same as carrying around a 4.5 lb MBP. Especially when the weight difference is only 1 lb stock.

Erk! No. Obviously, it meets some peoples' needs or Apple wouldn't still be selling it but, in general, you'd be buying a new, old computer. I'd only consider that if you have some very specific use case that means you really need an internal optical drive, a wired Ethernet port (and can't use a dongle or dock) or absolutely need 1TB or more of internal storage on a budget.

Yes, you could DIY-upgrade to get the same RAM and SSD numbers for a bit less than the rMBP equivalent, but you'd have a far inferior display, slower processor (& I think its an older generation, so even clock-for-clock won't compare), worse GPU, slower SSD, only 1 Thunderbolt port & no HDMI (so max 1 external display - or none if you want to use a Thunderbolt device which doesn't have dual ports), thicker, heavier... and though the hard drive is officially user-replaceable, putting a drive in the optical bay might give you warranty problems (plus, although its not rocket science, its a fiddle).

If you need to penny-pinch that much, I'd look second-hand/refurb first.

It is an older ten processor and the performance gains with the newer gen, along with the same data transfer speed limitations make the current generation of retina MBP leaving me wanting for more before even considering going away from the mid-2012. Even the mid 2012 i7 upgrade would be a better option in my opinion.

The uses are not graphical in nature at all, and that machine still performs very well. Put in the SSD and more RAM and I highly doubt anyone would be able to tell the difference in performance.

Putting a drive in the optical bay does void the warranty. I would still think it's worth it considering the performance gains to be had.

The other observations are true but I don't see only being able to support 1 external display as a bad thing.

 

[AFEPPL]

Of course the SSD is near the performance of the PCIe card especially when they both have the same max data transfer rate. SO with 2 SSDs, the non-retina would R/W faster every time. And I have used a software RAID on my PowerMac G5 Quad, my Mac Pro 1,1 and have installed software RAIDs on others' MBP of the same model with no issues at all.

It also on;y weighs in at alb more. And if you remove the heavier items and then install lighter ones, then you'd be decreasing that gap in weight and increasing performance.

And be honest, carrying around a Mac mini is not the same as carrying around a 4.5 lb MBP. Especially when the weight difference is only 1 lb stock.

I'd recommend you trying bench marking it then... The PCIe M.2 version is much faster than the SATA connected SSDs. SATA III is up to 6Gbit/s (which equates to around ~550MB/s real-world), PCIe M.2 cards is 16Gbit/s and hits well over 1100MB/s thats over TWICE the speed. (it runs 4 lanes.... vs 2)!!!!

Dont believe me, heres a 2010 vs a 2015 PMSL!!!!