Please help me decide on first Macbook

[Fredo C]

Hi,

Really torn between 2 of the Apple refurbs:

Option 1 $1,099: MBP 13.3 Retina, March 2015 2.7ghz, 128GB SSD, 8GB RAM

Option 2 $1,149: MBP 13.3 Retina, July 2014 2.6ghz, 128GB SSD, 16GB RAM

It will be used primarily to power an external monitor (perhaps 2) that I'll use to log in remotely to my work PC through Safari. Of course the usual iTunes, Youtube, surfing. Nothing very intensive will be done on it. I want it to last 4-5 yrs though. Not as concerned about battery life as it will mostly be used on a desk.

I'm leaning towards option 2 but still not sure.

Thanks

 

[ApolloBoy]

You'd be just fine with the 2014 model, 16 GB of RAM is overkill for what you do.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Hi,

Really torn between 2 of the Apple refurbs:

Option 1 $1,099: MBP 13.3 Retina, March 2015 2.7ghz, 128GB SSD, 8GB RAM

Option 2 $1,149: MBP 13.3 Retina, July 2014 2.6ghz, 128GB SSD, 16GB RAM

It will be used primarily to power an external monitor (perhaps 2) that I'll use to log in remotely to my work PC through Safari. Of course the usual iTunes, Youtube, surfing. Nothing very intensive will be done on it. I want it to last 4-5 yrs though. Not as concerned about battery life as it will mostly be used on a desk.

I'm leaning towards option 2 but still not sure.

Thanks

You don't need 16gb of RAM so get the 2015 and have the better graphics, force touch trackpad and the option of 4K monitors @ 60Hz in the future.

 

[zhenya]

I agree. The 2015 model gets Force Touch, the new Broadwell chip and better graphics, and a new insanely fast SSD. All of those things will make a real difference in how it feels to use the machine, and how quickly it begins to feel dated. The difference in RAM will probably never be noticeable to you.

The only thing I'd question is whether 128GB is enough for you? That's tight today. How will it feel to be limited by that for the next 5 years?

 

[Fredo C]

Thanks this is helpful. Was initially leaning to the 2014 as from what I've read the 2015 only has a 5-10% performance increase. Force Touch is nice but I don't think a necessity. My thinking was that 16GB RAM would be more future proof while not giving up much performance. Running 4K monitors is nice but not sure if I will ever do that. Mostly using this for boring stuff like spreadsheets.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Thanks this is helpful. Was initially leaning to the 2014 as from what I've read the 2015 only has a 5-10% performance increase. Force Touch is nice but I don't think a necessity. My thinking was that 16GB RAM would be more future proof while not giving up much performance. Running 4K monitors is nice but not sure if I will ever do that. Mostly using this for boring stuff like spreadsheets.

8GB of Ram is overkill for office work, it doesn't sound like 16GB will ever be used by you, so it's just a waste of cash more RAM is only any use if your workload or apps require it and they are few and far between.

 

[zhenya]

Force Touch is a big deal to me. I have a hard time going back and using the old style trackpads now. It's just so much more consistent and predictable.

 

[Wolfpup]

8GB of Ram is overkill for office work, it doesn't sound like 16GB will ever be used by you, so it's just a waste of cash more RAM is only any use if your workload or apps require it and they are few and far between.

Not anymore it's not. I'm using 7.2GB right now, not counting caches the OS is doing.

 

[marioman38]

16GB on a machine with 128 ssd is nuts. Get 8gb and try to find 256gb ssd.

"Mostly using this for boring stuff like spreadsheets."

If I were in your position I'd get this

 

[Wolfpup]

16GB on a machine with 128 ssd is nuts. Get 8gb and try to find 256gb ssd.

"Mostly using this for boring stuff like spreadsheets."

If I were in your position I'd get this

I sure couldn't live with 128GB on my main machine! My main one is an Alienware notebook from 2012, with a 500GB SSD, a 750GB 7200RPM secondary drive, and I *STILL* have to worry about where to put things. I couldn't get away with 128GB since at least a decade ago. (Heck, I just set up a new system I use for one task, and I bought the cheapest Crucial/Micron SSD I could get, and *IT* has 250GB!)