Please help me decide: cMBP 15" and rMBP 15" with specs. I'm very appreciated

[dragonjinse]

cMBP 15" $1449 (refurbished)

Originally released June 2012
15.4-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen display, 1440-by-900 resolution

4GB (2 x 2GB) of 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM
500GB Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm
8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 512MB of GDDR5 memory


rMBP 15" $1599 (refurbished)

Originally released June 2012
15.4-inch (diagonal) Retina display; 2880-by-1800 resolution at 220 pixels per inch
8GB of 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
256GB Flash Storage
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory



Which one should I get?
Do you think 256 GB Flash Storage is enough?

These 2 prices are affordable for me. I also have 1TB external hard drive storage.
I will use the laptop mostly for school work, surfing internet, emails, watching movies and listening musics.
I am also concerned about rmbp doesn't have a external internet port.

It's really hard to decide because 1.I'm new to Mac product. 2. The prices are not quite different from each other.

Thanks in advance.

 

[BuCkDoG]

For $100 more, you can the amazing Retina Display, much faster storage in SSD, and a much better form factor. In my honest opinion, I don't think its even close. I would snap choose the Retina any day. I have had the pleasure of having this computer for the past few months and it is by far the best machine I've ever had. You will greatly appreciate the retina display, trust me its worth the extra $100. I honestly think investing your money in a non retina display isn't worth it. Just my 2 cents. Hope everything works out!

 

[dragonjinse]

Thanks for the great advice.

Do you think 256 GB storage is enough?
Also, do you think the external internet port is important?
How about the battery life of rMBP?

I'm concerned about these 3 things on the rMBP.
I have 2 iPads with retina screen and non-retina screen. To be honest, I don't pay much attention and don't see much different from retina and non-retina screen on iPads though.

For $100 more, you can the amazing Retina Display, much faster storage in SSD, and a much better form factor. In my honest opinion, I don't think its even close. I would snap choose the Retina any day. I have had the pleasure of having this computer for the past few months and it is by far the best machine I've ever had. You will greatly appreciate the retina display, trust me its worth the extra $100. I honestly think investing your money in a non retina display isn't worth it. Just my 2 cents. Hope everything works out!

 

[BuCkDoG]

Thanks for the great advice.

Do you think 256 GB storage is enough?
Also, do you think the external internet port is important?
How about the battery life of rMBP?

I'm concerned about these 3 things on the rMBP.
I have 2 iPads with retina screen and non-retina screen. To be honest, I don't pay much attention and don't see much different from retina and non-retina screen on iPads though.

1) To be honest, I think the 256 isn't enough. Unless you plan on the machine never leaving your desktop where can you tether an external drive thru USB 3 or Thunderbolt. Otherwise, your going to want the bigger internal drive. Good news though, is that OWC sells an aftermarket SSD for the machine. I believe is a 480 GB SSD. So it really depends on where you want to go from there.

2) As far as a built in Gig E port, I don't believe you really need it unless your a heavy video user and downloading/uploading tons of data. Apple sells a Thunderbolt to Gig E port for $ 30 and it gets the job done. I have one but don't really need it. 802.11n is plenty sufficient for my needs, not to mention 802.11 AC is out and making its way into macs already so expect to see that transition soon.

3) As far as the battery life is concerned, I've been generally happy with it. It all depends on how you use your machine though. If you are light web browser, occasional email, and some YouTube videos here and there, you can achieve the 7 hours. If you are a gamer, video editor, 3 hours is where your gunna for heavy use. But as for a general overall use, I would say 5 1/2 hours is where you can expect your average to be. It's very good for all the power your getting in wih a slim design.

Hope this helps!

 

[sofianito]

According to your usage, you should be very fine with the new MBA! Check it out.

When you say internet port, I understand you are referring to the Ethernet port. You could access internet either through WiFi (no adapter or cable needed) or through Ethernet (thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter + Ethernet cable to connect to the router are needed). Ethernet is faster and more secure than wifi, but it is less mobile. You could combine both. If you are near a internet router use Ethernet, and when you cannot connect through cable use then WiFi...

HTH

 

[dragonjinse]

Thank you so much! It's really helpful!
I try to spend less money for it due to the high price of the Macbook Pro.
I may not be able to upgrade the SSD for awhile.

Btw, I thought rBMP can't upgrade the memory and SSD. is it right?

But thanks again for the info

1) To be honest, I think the 256 isn't enough. Unless you plan on the machine never leaving your desktop where can you tether an external drive thru USB 3 or Thunderbolt. Otherwise, your going to want the bigger internal drive. Good news though, is that OWC sells an aftermarket SSD for the machine. I believe is a 480 GB SSD. So it really depends on where you want to go from there.

2) As far as a built in Gig E port, I don't believe you really need it unless your a heavy video user and downloading/uploading tons of data. Apple sells a Thunderbolt to Gig E port for $ 30 and it gets the job done. I have one but don't really need it. 802.11n is plenty sufficient for my needs, not to mention 802.11 AC is out and making its way into macs already so expect to see that transition soon.

3) As far as the battery life is concerned, I've been generally happy with it. It all depends on how you use your machine though. If you are light web browser, occasional email, and some YouTube videos here and there, you can achieve the 7 hours. If you are a gamer, video editor, 3 hours is where your gunna for heavy use. But as for a general overall use, I would say 5 1/2 hours is where you can expect your average to be. It's very good for all the power your getting in wih a slim design.

Hope this helps!

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I'd like to get 15" If MBA has 15", I'd definitely get it!
I'm concerned about the rMBP doesn't have the ethernet port. Wifi at my house is very slow sometimes so the ethernet is important for me.

According to your usage, you should be very fine with the new MBA! Check it out.

When you say internet port, I understand you are referring to the Ethernet port. You could access internet either through WiFi (no adapter or cable needed) or through Ethernet (thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter + Ethernet cable to connect to the router are needed). Ethernet is faster and more secure than wifi, but it is less mobile. You could combine both. If you are near a internet router use Ethernet, and when you cannot connect through cable use then WiFi...

HTH

 

[BuCkDoG]

Thank you so much! It's really helpful!
I try to spend less money for it due to the high price of the Macbook Pro.
I may not be able to upgrade the SSD for awhile.

Btw, I thought rBMP can't upgrade the memory and SSD. is it right?

But thanks again for the info



----------

I'd like to get 15" If MBA has 15", I'd definitely get it!
I'm concerned about the rMBP doesn't have the ethernet port. Wifi at my house is very slow sometimes so the ethernet is important for me.

You cannot upgrade the RAM at all. The SSD is upgradeable thru third party vendors. Apple does not support it but it is a viable option for you. By the way, Apple does not make a 15" MacBook Air. That also does not have ethernet either so if your dead set on ethernet, you may need to buy an adaptor for thunderbolt thats all with your purchase.

 

[srsub3]

if you want to buy cheap and then upgrade, cMBP is your choice. Remember that you can add more ram (up o 16 gb) and an ssd after you bought it. the only difference then will be the retina screen.
Moreover, when you will do the ssd upgrade, you will have a usable hdd for external storage.

 

[dragonjinse]

Thank you! Btw, I planned to install windows to my (future) Macbook Pro.
Do you think 256 GB is enough for that and maybe other daily files?

I'm very appreciated you help.

You cannot upgrade the RAM at all. The SSD is upgradeable thru third party vendors. Apple does not support it but it is a viable option for you. By the way, Apple does not make a 15" MacBook Air. That also does not have ethernet either so if your dead set on ethernet, you may need to buy an adaptor for thunderbolt thats all with your purchase.

 

[BuCkDoG]

Thank you! I'm very appreciated it.

Anytime my friend, Anytime. Good luck with your purchase!

 

[dragonjinse]

Last question, Do you think 256 GB SSD is enough for install Windows 8 on Macbook Pro and other daily files?
I'm very appreciated you help, friend

Anytime my friend, Anytime. Good luck with your purchase!

 

[devilcm3]

add $150 for a retina display is a no brainer for me, i wouldn't hesitate to go for the rMBP anytime with that price

----------

Last question, Do you think 256 GB SSD is enough for install Windows 8 on Macbook Pro and other daily files?
I'm very appreciated you help, friend

depends, i would run windows on VM on external HDD though and not the SSD.

 

[ColdCase]

Thank you! Btw, I planned to install windows to my (future) Macbook Pro.
Do you think 256 GB is enough for that and maybe other daily files?

I'm very appreciated you help.

I agree that the rMBP is right for you.

As far as SSD size, it depends on if you want to take all your music and photos/videos on the go. There is where big chunks of storage is eaten up. If you can live with just a 100 songs or so and a few videos on the go, then save you can save your larger libraries on the external drive.

If you think you really need more internal storage, its best to buy that as part of the rMBP as the SSD can be upgraded... but it costs more to do it that way.

You can use SD cards to augment internal storage, which many MBA folks have learned to love. A 64GB SD card is relatively low cost, 128GB and more get expensive at the moment. They may be slow for a boot image, but certainly OK for file storage.

Get a TB to ethernet adapter or a better wireless access point for the house.

What do you have that you think will take up a lot of internal storage space?

 

[sofianito]

Last question, Do you think 256 GB SSD is enough for install Windows 8 on Macbook Pro and other daily files?
I'm very appreciated you help, friend

Nowadays, I think you'll be short with 256GB SSD, unless you want to carry with you an external usb3 disk, and lose 33% of your time swapping data between both disks...

 

[dragonjinse]

Haha... Yeah I know! $100 different for rMBP = sound's good to me!


And thanks for the advice. I'm dumb for the electronic things especially Mac system! So I need to learn more about it!

All 3 windows laptops I had before and also the current one I'm using, they all get 1TB for the storage. So I never paid attention of how much I used it until now lol

add $150 for a retina display is a no brainer for me, i wouldn't hesitate to go for the rMBP anytime with that price

----------



depends, i would run windows on VM on external HDD though and not the SSD.

 

[devilcm3]

Haha... Yeah I know! $100 different for rMBP = sound's good to me!


And thanks for the advice. I'm dumb for the electronic things especially Mac system! So I need to learn more about it!

All 3 windows laptops I had before and also the current one I'm using, they all get 1TB for the storage. So I never paid attention of how much I used it until now lol

option two is to get the mini nifty drive and sdcard...go google it

 

[dragonjinse]

Right now, I only have less than 60 songs on my laptop. But I have alot of movies though and lots of pictures.

But I try to clean up an storage by moving all pictures and some movies to my external hard drive.

I agree that the rMBP is right for you.

As far as SSD size, it depends on if you want to take all your music and photos/videos on the go. There is where big chunks of storage is eaten up. If you can live with just a 100 songs or so and a few videos on the go, then save you can save your larger libraries on the external drive.

If you think you really need more internal storage, its best to buy that as part of the rMBP as the SSD can be upgraded... but it costs more to do it that way.

You can use SD cards to augment internal storage, which many MBA folks have learned to love. A 64GB SD card is relatively low cost, 128GB and more get expensive at the moment. They may be slow for a boot image, but certainly OK for file storage.

Get a TB to ethernet adapter or a better wireless access point for the house.

What do you have that you think will take up a lot of internal storage space?

 

[duervo]

If you're going to use BootCamp at all, then you will probably want the 512GB SSD option. There won't be a whole lot of space left for Apps/Games/etc. in OS X and Windows after you have both of them loaded onto a 256GB drive.

 

[PDFierro]

Right now, I only have less than 60 songs on my laptop. But I have alot of movies though and lots of pictures.

But I try to clean up an storage by moving all pictures and some movies to my external hard drive.

I think storage space completely depends on the individual. Most people say 256GB isn't enough, but that really depends how much stuff you need to have stored locally. I'd take a look at what you want to store on there.

 

[Grohowiak]

If you plan on taking the laptop outside then I strongly suggest the hi res screen with anti glare. They are around $1599 refurbished
My brother has the retina MBP and in most cases he uses mine simply because glare makes it horrible to read outside or super bright light conditions.

People buy laptops and put them on the desk without actually using them as mobile computers. What's the point of that??

You need 60-90GB for bootcamp windows partition unless all you want to have is Windows installed. It can grow big within short period.

SSD. Well it's fast but not as reliable as regular SATA drives. Do you need super fast access?? Is your work so time sensitive that those extra few seconds will save your day?

Retina screen is pretty no doubt about it but not practical especially with native apps optimization that's deep in the woods at this point. If you do a lot of photo retouching then retinas are great. For everything else just a novelty that needs a bit of time to mature (ecosystem).

 

[ugahairydawgs]

If you plan on taking the laptop outside then I strongly suggest the hi res screen with anti glare. They are around $1599 refurbished
My brother has the retina MBP and in most cases he uses mine simply because glare makes it horrible to read outside or super bright light conditions.

People buy laptops and put them on the desk without actually using them as mobile computers. What's the point of that??

You need 60-90GB for bootcamp windows partition unless all you want to have is Windows installed. It can grow big within short period.

SSD. Well it's fast but not as reliable as regular SATA drives. Do you need super fast access?? Is your work so time sensitive that those extra few seconds will save your day?

Retina screen is pretty no doubt about it but not practical especially with native apps optimization that's deep in the woods at this point. If you do a lot of photo retouching then retinas are great. For everything else just a novelty that needs a bit of time to mature (ecosystem).

Why would you say a SSD is not as reliable as a spinning HDD?

 

[leman]

if you want to buy cheap and then upgrade, cMBP is your choice.

The price difference is only $140... you won't even get a decent 256GB SSD for $140... so upgrading it yourself will cost you more and you will end up with a heavier computer... I fail to see how its is supposed to be a better choice.

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My brother has the retina MBP and in most cases he uses mine simply because glare makes it horrible to read outside or super bright light conditions.

Sure, the anti-glare will be marginally better. I don't have any problems with my rMBP outside. And under 'super bright light conditions', no backlit laptop will be readable, anti-glare or not.

SSD. Well it's fast but not as reliable as regular SATA drives. Do you need super fast access?? Is your work so time sensitive that those extra few seconds will save your day?

Sorry, but this is nonsense. First of all, SSD are not any less reliable. Second, have you ever worked with a SSD at all? Its a massive quality of life improvement.

Retina screen is pretty no doubt about it but not practical especially with native apps optimization that's deep in the woods at this point. If you do a lot of photo retouching then retinas are great. For everything else just a novelty that needs a bit of time to mature (ecosystem).

I haven't seen a single application that would have problems with my rMBP, aside resizing performance of the App Store (which is hardly a productivity app that I spend a lot of time on ^^). The retina screen is excellent for anyone working with text, because the displayed fonts are much crispier and 'print-like'. I have considerably less eye fatigue after moving to the rMBP.

----------

Last question, Do you think 256 GB SSD is enough for install Windows 8 on Macbook Pro and other daily files?
I'm very appreciated you help, friend

It really depends on what kind of work you do and what kind of data you have. I have a windows 7 partition with multiple (large) games on it, and I have a hard time maxing out the 256GB. In fact, I still have over 90GB. Then again, if you are a person that has a large photo/movie/music collection (I have none of those things), then you will find it too small...

 

[Rhinoevans]

Retina screen highly over rated. I would buy the cMBP and upgrade the ram. For me 16G a must, which easily eliminates the retina.

On my cMBP the other night running Windows 8 and a few other items and was using 13.3G of RAM. Good luck with that on a 8G pretty Retina Mac.

Havent upgraded my hard drive yet to SSD, becuase 512 not low enough. Running a Samsung 830 256 on my Sony and it seems to be enough, if you offload all your videos, pics, and music to an external. So yes, 256 is probably enought if you manage your content.

Only way I would buy a Retina is if it had 16G RAM!

Love the thinner design of the rMBP thought!