New with EDU discount or early 2013 Refurb?

[TooSmooth]

Hey guys, I am trying to figure out what will work best for me. I am someone who is a fairly casual user. I will occasionally use a windows VM, photoshop, and final cut pro, but non of those are regular occurrences. Not sure if it matters, but i usually connect my mac to an external display as well.

I am somewhat of a gamer, I use PS3/360 when I am at home, but while out in university I do get craving to play games. I currently play some team fortress 2 and L4D2 on low settings, but would like to play more and more intensive games if possible (I am currently on a 2010 MBA )

I am trying to decide between:

A Late 2013: $2180 (education pricing)
2.0GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz
8GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
512GB PCIe-based Flash Storage

or

Refurbished Early 2013: $2200
2.7 GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz)
16GB of 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
512GB Flash Storage
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory

 

[applegeek25]

I am trying to decide between:

A Late 2013: $2180 (education pricing)
2.0GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz
8GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
512GB PCIe-based Flash Storage

or

Refurbished Early 2013: $2200
2.7 GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz)
16GB of 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
512GB Flash Storage
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory

I'd go for the refurb. Hands down it's the best option between the two. Most early reviews have found the Iris Pro iGPU to be subpar to the 650M. Personally, I think spending over $2k on a 15 inch MBP without the dGPU is absolutely insane.

 

[TooSmooth]

My only issue with the refurb is that it says "available to ship: 30 business days"

Does this mean they don't actually have one in stock?

 

[johnnylarue]

My only issue with the refurb is that it says "available to ship: 30 business days"

Does this mean they don't actually have one in stock?

Potentially, but those estimates can change within a day or two.

I'm with the above poster--the refurb is a better deal for the price if you think you'll use those 16GB of RAM.

 

[Atomic Walrus]

As long as you're not battery focused (and it sounds like the gaming performance is a bigger interest for you) the refurb is definitely the better option. Nothing in the new model (TB2, faster SSD, Iris Pro, power efficiency) will do anything for you from what you've described.

You're getting a faster GPU (~20%), CPU(~7%) and more RAM for about the same price. Same warranty, option for AppleCare.