new non retina mbpro, basic or ??

[roeliepoelie]

Hello,
I need a new laptop so my white macbook can go to macheaven.
After a lot of looking around on the web and trying to figure out if i have to go for the retina or the 'normal' macbook pro i decided to go for the macbook pro, non retina.
That based on the following things...
1- i don't need the laptop for my work, so i will do video editing, but just home videos, i will work with photoshop, but just for fun. So there for i don't need the retina screen.
2- i don't like to buy a laptop that i can not up grade. If i buy the macbook retina it will be 'outdated' in a couple of years, with the normal mbpro i can upgrade memory and RAM. So if my photoshopping/videoediting are running out of hand i can still upgrade...
3- An normal mbPro with an high res screen will do it for me...

Now for my question;
1- there are two macbook pro's 15". the 2.3 and 2.6 Ghz. There are a few differences i need some info on. What is the difference between NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory or the one with 512Mb

The 2.3 has 4 RAM, and the 2.6 had 8 RAM. Would that make the big difference? Because i am thinking of upgrading the RAM to 16 anyway... (i believe i can do that myself?)

I also understood that i can put an extra SSD in the place were the dvd drive is.. (and do that also myself?)

I want to upgrade the screen to high-res glare, that would be a nice extra option, that way i got a better screen than now on my white macbook....


That for my thoughts, maybe some final advice..?

 

[h00ligan]

Get the basic. Upgrade it on your own.

 

[angelomango]

For your purposes, I think the base 2.3 GHz should suit your needs. Upgrading the RAM and swapping out the optical drive for an hdd/ssd are fairly easy tasks. There are many tutorials out there. I would recommend looking at ifixit.com tutorials. I, myself, ordered a non-retina with the hi-res antiglare screen.

Good luck with your decision!