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Please discuss the Virtues of the nrMBP....

C

CochlearArch

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 25, 2014
29
0
Hello Team,

Just bought the 27 inch iMac listed in my signature.

I would like to purchase a Macbook pro. My budget is no more than $1500. Seriously thinking of the Non Retina Mac Book Pro with 8 gb of ram and 1TB ATA hard drive. I am not an extravagant person but I like nice things and do not need the high end models. This notebook is for visits to a friend or relatives home, hotel, or cafe along with use at home.

My main computer is the 27 inch iMac at home. To the iMac I will add ram, a TBD and possibly one of those huge thunderbolt storage drives for photos and video.

So please discuss the pros and cons of the non retina MacBook Pro with the 13 inch screen. Feel free to make other suggestions.
 
CochlearArch said:
Hello Team,

Just bought the 27 inch iMac listed in my signature.

I would like to purchase a Macbook pro. My budget is no more than $1500. Seriously thinking of the Non Retina Mac Book Pro with 8 gb of ram and 1TB ATA hard drive. I am not an extravagant person but I like nice things and do not need the high end models. This notebook is for visits to a friend or relatives home, hotel, or cafe along with use at home.

My main computer is the 27 inch iMac at home. To the iMac I will add ram, a TBD and possibly one of those huge thunderbolt storage drives for photos and video.

So please discuss the pros and cons of the non retina MacBook Pro with the 13 inch screen. Feel free to make other suggestions.
Click to expand...

I would say the SSD and Retina screen are the two biggies. The non-retinas are great machines in their own right. Having now owned a retina I could never see myself getting a standard MBP, but that's just me
 
Can't see the point of getting the 13-inch non-retina MacBook Pro over the MacBook Air for your use. Much lighter, much quieter and you're not likely to need a 1 TB drive for those uses.
 
I'd the the most important question is how much data (music, photos, videos etc.) you need to have with you on the go. If it is a lot I would say the 'old' MBPro is still a good option. You can always swap the HDD for an SSD for more speed (not at point of purchase but DIY!). The Air is nice but very limited storage.
 
MarvinHC said:
I'd the the most important question is how much data (music, photos, videos etc.) you need to have with you on the go. If it is a lot I would say the 'old' MBPro is still a good option. You can always swap the HDD for an SSD for more speed (not at point of purchase but DIY!). The Air is nice but very limited storage.
Click to expand...
Two nephews who are in the scouts. All manner of sports including archery, fishing, skeet and trap. Lots of family photos . 100 gigs of music on top of the photos and videos.
 
CochlearArch said:
Two nephews who are in the scouts. All manner of sports including archery, fishing, skeet and trap. Lots of family photos . 100 gigs of music on top of the photos and videos.
Click to expand...

You have a main machine. Why do you need to store everything on two computers? You don't. Buy a Retina refurb.
 
If $1500 is the budget I would get the cMBP in the 13" and add the Ram myself to get 16 GB and then upgrade the hard drive myself also to an SSD. You could always put the hard drive that comes in the machine in an external enclosure if you need the storage. I've regularly seen stores in my area have the base 13" for under $1000, 16 Gb of Ram for under $150 and a 500Gb Samsung 840 Evo for under $350. I know its pushing your budget, but that would be a great little computer that would last you a long time. And you don't need the 16Gb of Ram, but if you max it out you won't have to worry about putting 8 Gb in it and then in a year or so, need to upgrade again. Just do it once and be done with it. And it's pretty easy to do both of those upgrades. I did this exact thing with my 2011 MacBook Pro when I got it and it was a great little machine until I sold it to fund a retina MacBook Pro.

Victor
 
I don't see why you need all that storage if you have an iMac as your main machine. The Retina MacBook seems perfect for your needs and will be easier to transport. The pound doesn't seem like much on paper, but it matters after a day of schlepping.
 
In my opinion, the non-retina MBP has only one virtue - you can put tons of storage in it for less money.
 
I'd say a MBA is a better option then the cMBP at this point. You get Haswell performance with aweomse battery life.

The only reason I can see the cMBP making sense if you want the optical drive and/o upgrade the internals
 
In my opinion the Air is fine if you have it as a 2nd computer (on the go, around the house etc.) and have something with 'proper storage' at home. Same for the Retina with a 128 GB SSD.

I still think the 'classic' is a good option. For the price you get a 500 GB hard drive and whatever you need you can put inside in the future. If you want to use a Retina as your only PC and set it up with for example a 500 GB SSD, the 13" costs an eyewatering 1800$
 
I think for 1500$ you could get a very fine rMBP that will serve the purpose.
The old MBPs were great machines but are very much on the way out. One thing that is certain is that the standard pixel will become smaller, the retina is going to become a norm. Even if you pick out the base model 13" with retina you're still getting a great machine that will last a good few years.
 
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