New MBP vs Upgradeable 2012 MBP

[mfram]

As for the SSDs in the later rMBPs, here is one option: https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/macbook-pro-retina-display/2013-2014-2015

Or you could find a genuine Apple unit on eBay possibly. Honestly, you're probably better off storing extra stuff on an external USB 3.0 drive. And, yes, you can encrypt the external drive assuming you re-format it to GPT/HFS+.

The 13" rMBP does not have the dGPU as an option. Only the 15" rMBP.

 

[kiwipeso1]

I have a 1TB 7200rpm HDD, and 8GB 1600 DDR3 RAM.

This all started yesterday when I didn't have time to clone my MacBook before the library closed, and when I logged in before bedtime El Capitan got screwed up With an endless Apple screen

Later today I am going to go buy a 2nd external HDD enclosure and take Weaselboy's advice to try and create an updated clone of my screwed up HDD.

Here s the bigger issue...

If I cannot find an easy way to fix El Capitan, it will couple take me most of the week to rebuild my current MBP which involves reinstalling El Capitan, reinstalling all of my software, configuring everything, transferring over 600GB of data, and so on.

If I am going to have that much aggrevation in my life, I would just assume invest it on a new laptop!

I am sooo pissed right now!!!
[doublepost=1470169535][/doublepost]BTW, on the MBP with these stats...

Apple 13.3" MacBook Pro Notebook Computer (Mid 2012)
2.9 GHz Intel Core i7 Dual-Core
4GB of 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM
1TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
Integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000
13.3" LED-Backlit Glossy Display
Cost: US$1,300

The goal would be to put 16GB of RAM into it - can you add more than that?

And either add one 1 TB SSD, or maybe two 500 GB SSDs, or possibly a smaller SSD and a 1TB HDD.

I travel a lot for work, and the idea of needing an external drive makes me nervous from a security standpoint.

You can put 16GB ram in it, and have either a single SSD, or remove the Superdrive for a second SSD or shift the HDD there. 2TB SSDs are available now, they are just expensive. 2TB 2.5" HDDs are also available, just not as expensive as the SSD.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

You may want to take a look at this thread, seems there is now an adapter that will allow you to swap out your own drives. Other than that it's actually cheaper to buy the 1Tb option at Apple silly upgrade price than to buy the OWC version or even a second hand drive off of eBay.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ro-late-2013-and-later.1985514/#post-23186489

 

[RUGERMAN]

I think my mid-2012 MBP 9.2 is giving up the ghost, and I'm not sure if I want to even spend week rebuilding it.

When I started coming here back in January of 2016, a couple of people said that the current model of MBP that I have is better than the new ones, because it is upgradeable.

Is that still true in August 2016?

If I get a new MacBook, I would like it to have a SSD and tons of RAM so that it is wickedly fast. (I do lots of development, audio editing, Photoshop, and am looking at getting into video editing.)

What i don't want is to drop a couple grand on a new laptop oly to find out it is outdated in a year and that I have to go out and buy yet another one.

Likewise, i don't want to buy a brand new version fo what I have now, and find out that even if I pimp it out that it cannot compete with a new MBP.

Can anyone offer some advice on this?

(I am VERY upset that I didn't have enough time to clone my current MBP yesterday, and then El Captian became corrupted when I logged in last night!! It takes so long for me to rebuild and configure computers that I would rather have a root canal...)

Please help!

You don't have a Time Machine and/or a CC Clone BU?? Tm would have it up to date.

 

[ggibson913]

I think my mid-2012 MBP 9.2 is giving up the ghost, and I'm not sure if I want to even spend week rebuilding it.

When I started coming here back in January of 2016, a couple of people said that the current model of MBP that I have is better than the new ones, because it is upgradeable.

Is that still true in August 2016?

If I get a new MacBook, I would like it to have a SSD and tons of RAM so that it is wickedly fast. (I do lots of development, audio editing, Photoshop, and am looking at getting into video editing.)

What i don't want is to drop a couple grand on a new laptop oly to find out it is outdated in a year and that I have to go out and buy yet another one.

Likewise, i don't want to buy a brand new version fo what I have now, and find out that even if I pimp it out that it cannot compete with a new MBP.

Can anyone offer some advice on this?

(I am VERY upset that I didn't have enough time to clone my current MBP yesterday, and then El Captian became corrupted when I logged in last night!! It takes so long for me to rebuild and configure computers that I would rather have a root canal...)

Please help!

You could go the refurbished route. At this point I would upgrade to a newer MacBook Pro, a refurb of the current model would be ideal. Use the savings to get Apple Care for piece of mind or increase your specs.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Honestly I think the appeal of an upgradable 13" MBP isn't really worth it at the moment, with what offerings there are. It hasn't been updated since 2012 and you can really only upgrade the RAM (to 16GB) and the HDD anyway.

But the Retina model, for not much more, offers:

• 2-3 hours better battery life
• Thinner
• Lighter
• 2x Thunderbolt 2 & HDMI
  
• More RAM as standard
• Quicker RAM
• Much better display
• Better CPU
  
• Better GPU
  
• Much quicker storage (will be more than twice as fast than fitting an SSD in the cMBP, as it uses PCI-e rather than SATA)
• New Force Touch trackpad

So as much as I love an upgradable machine, you really do get a lot more value for money with the Retina offerings.

If you find a used 13" cMBP for 50% off RRP, that would be a far better option than buying a new one if you really really want an upgradable machine.

Okay, so please tell me what you think about the following combination...

13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display

• 2.7GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz
• 16GB 1866MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
• 128GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
• Intel Iris Graphics 6100
• Force Touch trackpad
• Backlit Keyboard (English) & User's Guide

Cost: US$1,499



Solid State Drive UpgradesMacBook Pro with Retina Display 13" & 15" Late 2013, 2014, and 2015
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/macbook-pro-retina-display/2013-2014-2015

OWC 1.0TB Aura SSD Upgrade Kit for Mid-2013 and Later Macs Mfr P/N: SSDAB2MB10K OWC SKU: OWCSSDAB2MB10K High performance internal flash storage and enclosure, designed for mid 2013 and later Mac notebooks. 3 Year OWC Limited Warranty

Cost: US$649


Would such a set up meet my above stated needs - for the most part - and leverage what you and others imply is in my best interest (i.e. buying NEW technology)?

(The hope is that by the time I would need more than 1TB of SSD storage, that I could upgrade to a larger SSD.)

 

[kiwipeso1]

Okay, so please tell me what you think about the following combination...

13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display

• 2.7GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz
• 16GB 1866MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
• 128GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
• Intel Iris Graphics 6100
• Force Touch trackpad
• Backlit Keyboard (English) & User's Guide

Cost: US$1,499



Solid State Drive UpgradesMacBook Pro with Retina Display 13" & 15" Late 2013, 2014, and 2015
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/macbook-pro-retina-display/2013-2014-2015

OWC 1.0TB Aura SSD Upgrade Kit for Mid-2013 and Later Macs Mfr P/N: SSDAB2MB10K OWC SKU: OWCSSDAB2MB10K High performance internal flash storage and enclosure, designed for mid 2013 and later Mac notebooks. 3 Year OWC Limited Warranty

Cost: US$649


Would such a set up meet my above stated needs - for the most part - and leverage what you and others imply is in my best interest (i.e. buying NEW technology)?

(The hope is that by the time I would need more than 1TB of SSD storage, that I could upgrade to a larger SSD.)

Sure, you could do that, but OWC Aura drives have problems relating to performance and are incompatible with Boot Camp. So long as you're not planning on running windows games, you should be fine.

 

[maflynn]

incompatible with Boot Camp.

OWC now includes a patch/utility that allows boot camp to be installed. With that said, i'd have misgivings over the long term usage of having bootcamp on that drive (which requires a special utility/patch to enable windows).

I think the OP can find something better, i.e., larger SSD from ebay. They have plenty, while they are a product pull from an existing laptop, they're definitely more compatible

 

[FreakinEurekan]

What i don't want is to drop a couple grand on a new laptop oly to find out it is outdated in a year and that I have to go out and buy yet another one.

If you'd be satisfied today with a four-year-old laptop, then get a brand new Retina configured the way you want it. Four years from now when it's no longer suitable, sell it and buy something new at that point.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

OWC now includes a patch/utility that allows boot camp to be installed. With that said, i'd have misgivings over the long term usage of having bootcamp on that drive (which requires a special utility/patch to enable windows).

I think the OP can find something better, i.e., larger SSD from ebay. They have plenty, while they are a product pull from an existing laptop, they're definitely more compatible

I'm confused... On page 1 someone said that newer MBP's use a special, proprietary SSD that either has to come from Apple or OWC.

Why are you suggesting eBay? Especially since that implies a *used* SSD...

Why would I buy a used SSD or a new, but "knockoff" SSD for a brand new MBP?

I am talking about buying a brand new 13" Retina MBP assuming I can get a quality 1TB SSD for it. (And the assumption is that it will be lightning fast - unlike what kiwipeso1 said.)

 

[HBOC]

If you can increase your budget, you can get the newest 15" MBP for $300-500 more. I got my MBP that a girl got in February and added Applecare. I paid $2000 total. It is 4 months old. I saved $1200 - but took a few weeks of searching.

All things equal, the 15" would smoke the 13", PLUS you have a bigger screen for on the go. I went from an early 2011 15" MBP to a 13" (same year) and i couldn't deal with the how slow it was (again, none had SSD).

I almost bought a 2012 15" MBP to upgrade myself. However in the end, i still would have had a 4 year old computer.

 

[kiwipeso1]

I'm confused... On page 1 someone said that newer MBP's use a special, proprietary SSD that either has to come from Apple or OWC.

Why are you suggesting eBay? Especially since that implies a *used* SSD...

Why would I buy a used SSD or a new, but "knockoff" SSD for a brand new MBP?

I am talking about buying a brand new 13" Retina MBP assuming I can get a quality 1TB SSD for it. (And the assumption is that it will be lightning fast - unlike what kiwipeso1 said.)

Apple's SSDs are significantly faster than standard SSDs, typically standard SSD speeds are around 500MB/s, but Apple SSD usually go over 1GB/s for recent models, at least as far back as 2013 models.
OWC SSDs are standard speeds, but not as reliable, so I've decided against "upgrading" my MBA SSD with a OWC.

 

[Marshall73]

If I get a new MacBook, I would like it to have a SSD and tons of RAM so that it is wickedly fast. (I do lots of development, audio editing, Photoshop, and am looking at getting into video editing.)

What i don't want is to drop a couple grand on a new laptop oly to find out it is outdated in a year and that I have to go out and buy yet another one.

Based on what you have said above a 13" MacBook Pro is just not going to cut it. Even adding an SSD and 16GB of RAM it is going to be nowhere near 'wickedly" fast.

You would be best to suck it up and purchase a 15" MacBook Pro with 1TB SSD and 16GB of RAM.

The RAM is surface mounted but the SSD blade is removable. It should last you at least 3-5 years if not longer. One thing to consider is that Apple are likely to revise the MacBook Pro range this autumn, there will then be a choice of new models and the previous model via the refurb store. If you are desperate for a MacBook now then grab the 15" Pro along with AppleCare.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Based on what you have said above a 13" MacBook Pro is just not going to cut it. Even adding an SSD and 16GB of RAM it is going to be nowhere near 'wickedly" fast.

You would be best to suck it up and purchase a 15" MacBook Pro with 1TB SSD and 16GB of RAM.

The RAM is surface mounted but the SSD blade is removable. It should last you at least 3-5 years if not longer. One thing to consider is that Apple are likely to revise the MacBook Pro range this autumn, there will then be a choice of new models and the previous model via the refurb store. If you are desperate for a MacBook now then grab the 15" Pro along with AppleCare.

In your opinion, why is a 15" retina MBP so much better (faster) than a 13" retina MBP?

 

[Marshall73]

In your opinion, why is a 15" retina MBP so much better (faster) than a 13" retina MBP?

Simple horsepower. Quad core trumps the older dual core chips and it's multithreaded which gives you 8 threads total increasing the power for tasks like video and rendering etc. It also has discrete graphics and overall performs MUCH faster in photoshop etc than the 13 inch model.

At the end of the day it comes down to price vs power and the trade off you are willing to make to save some money. An initial cost saving the 13 inch is going to be slower at most if not all tasks regarding video and image processing.

If you are getting it as a tool for work then it's a no brainer, get the 15.

 

[MRrainer]

The reason you can buy actual Apple PCIe SSDs on eBay is that they are taken from actual laptops (irreparable broken mostly).
You can also search aliexpress and alibaba for them (which I assume a larger part of the ones from eBay actually come from anyway). A co-worker got two fans for a 2012 MacMini for less than what iFixit wanted for one. It took several weeks to ship, though.
Simply put, what you want from a notebook (field-upgradable, swappable parts) you cannot have from Apple anymore. And increasingly, also neither from any other manufacturer.
All notebooks are heading the "appliance"-way: ultra-portable, ultra-light, ultra-highly integrated and pretty much unrepairable.
User-replaceable parts were never part of that equation or a consideration at the design-phase.
What I would suggest is to set yourself a budget that you can think you can write-off/amortize in three or four years and buy the most amount of "laptop" you can get for that budget (favoring RAM over SSD-size over GPU). After three years, Apple care will have run out and whenever something essential (or minor) breaks at that point, repair-costs will likely exceed the residual value of the machine and thus the purchase of a new one is on the table. If you like that or not - Apple does not care in the slightest. Welcome to the 21st century.

If your business depends on a functional laptop, I would either try to find someone who can provide you some sort of same-business-day service (with a focus on hardware exchange vs. repair - maybe some Apple Business Partner or what they're called?) or just buy two identical models and store all of your stuff in one of the preferred cloud-services (or an external drive).

As for the internal storage: once we have Thunderbolt 3 external connectors (in the form of USB-C), we will see more and more external SSDs that use this interface. I believe that their size is also going to shrink. We should be able to fit 1 TB into the size of a typical (oversized) thumb drive pretty soon.

If you encrypt everything with Filevault2 (as mentioned by another post, you can also encrypt external volumes and the Time Machine backups), you can safely hand-in your laptop to any repair-service. They will not be able to read it. They might format it, though, to get a usable OS to boot up. For this reason, backups (Time Machine) are even more important these days.
I might go as far as saying that if you don't have (daily) backups, you're not a serious business. Or none at all. Or not any longer, after a crash and no way to recover.

BTW: people in the MacBookPro forum often report of overheating-issues with GPU-models of the current MacBookPro series. The thermal profile of the laptop does no longer fit the built-in parts. AFAIK, this can partly be worked around with some sort of stand/plate you put under it.
All Apple notebooks except for the ultra-ultra-portable 12" MacBook are at least one or two generation behind Intel's current offering. Updates are supposed to come out towards later that year (whenever that is).
So, you could say that whatever you buy, it's already outdated anyway.

In any case, I would advise *not* to get the 2012 "classic" MacBookPro. There might have been good reasons to go for it in 2014 - but those most certainly do not apply anymore in 2016 (or rather 2017, which it will be in a couple of months).
Maybe if you can a used, fully-decked out one (1 TB SSD, 16 GB RAM for a couple hundred bucks). But Apple's current OS really works better with higher resolutions.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Awesome post!

All notebooks are heading the "appliance"-way: ultra-portable, ultra-light, ultra-highly integrated and pretty much unrepairable.

I see that now.

What I would suggest is to set yourself a budget that you can think you can write-off/amortize in three or four years and buy the most amount of "laptop" you can get for that budget (favoring RAM over SSD-size over GPU). After three years, Apple care will have run out and whenever something essential (or minor) breaks at that point, repair-costs will likely exceed the residual value of the machine and thus the purchase of a new one is on the table.

Do you think 16GB of RAM in a 13" Retina MBP is enough to last 3 years?

If you like that or not - Apple does not care in the slightest. Welcome to the 21st century.

Yeah.

All Apple notebooks except for the ultra-ultra-portable 12" MacBook are at least one or two generation behind Intel's current offering. Updates are supposed to come out towards later that year (whenever that is).
So, you could say that whatever you buy, it's already outdated anyway.

In any case, I would advise *not* to get the 2012 "classic" MacBookPro. There might have been good reasons to go for it in 2014 - but those most certainly do not apply anymore in 2016 (or rather 2017, which it will be in a couple of months).
Maybe if you can a used, fully-decked out one (1 TB SSD, 16 GB RAM for a couple hundred bucks). But Apple's current OS really works better with higher resolutions.

This week I am going to buy a 2015, 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, 2.9GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz, 16GB 1866MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM, 1TB PCIe-based Flash Storage.

 

[grahamperrin]

… going to buy a 2015, 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, 2.9GHz Dual-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz, 16GB 1866MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM, 1TB PCIe-based Flash Storage.

Two things catch my eye: memory, storage. Both reasonable amounts.

… (field-upgradable, swappable parts) you cannot have … increasingly, … from any other manufacturer. …

If that includes sealed-in batteries: I can't imagine that becoming the norm during this decade. This argument will be off-topic from the Apple products (and the buyer's decision) so let's continue under https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/posts/23243004 (a recent upgrade-related argument) or a topic that's specifically about upgrades.