New MBP Retina with 16GB ram. What to choose? Where to buy?

[podly]

Hello everyone.

I have a dilemma of choice in buying a new Macbook. My budget is around $ 1600-1700.

I want to buy in the USA MBP Retina who will have 16GB of ram, 256gb ssd drive and graphics card minimum Iris, and the best will be nvidia 650 or better.

at the moment I have a mac mini with 16GB of ram and ssd drive, which in terms of performance is great for my work (Adobe CS6 suite).

The problem is very poor graphics card - Intel HD 3000. Currently by throwing max ram 512MB card is available but it is not enough for me.

I read a lot about Intel Iris My favorite is currently installed in the MacBooks, I compared it with the performance nvidia 650M which was in a macbook pro 2012.

It turned out that the older model is faster and it's no problem to play CS GO, Diablo 3 on Windows via bootcamp etc.

----

I have a choice:

Refurbished oct 2013 13.3 2.4 i5 MacBook Pro with Retina Iris, 8GB ram, 256GB ssd - $ 1,269
Refurbished jun 2012 15.4 2.4 i7 MacBook Pro with Retina nv650M, 8GB ram, 256GB ssd - $ 1,599
Refurbished feb 2013 15.4 2.4 i7 MacBook Pro with Retina nv650M, 8GB ram, 256GB ssd - $ 1,659

or buy via Powermax:
configured to order: 13.3 2.4 i5 MacBook Pro with Retina Iris 16GB ram, 256GB ssd - $ 1,669

In Macmall the same configuration like in Powermax costs $1,629.99.

For prices and the need to sometimes add tax (MA) and it's sad, i can't get any school discounts

What do you think i should choose? Or do you know better place to buy?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Brandon083]

Adorama

You can get a 13.3 2.6 256 16 with AppleCare from adorama for 1699 right now using a code from Appleinsider. Not sure if you would have to pay tax though.

 

[p3ntyne]

Don't forget to consider that the Oct 2013 rMBP will have a much faster SSD which should be more beneficial than a GPU and i7 for most CS 6 work and for general OS navigation.

The main difference is between the size of the machines. If you want a 13.3 inch, I would suggest the $1269 model. If you would prefer a 15 inch and want to do some more intense gaming, get the $1599 model (or the $1659 if it has more warranty).