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Please help me decide on what Mac I should purchase with $1200 on Black Friday

R

RipCitiBoi

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 28, 2013
13
0
I will be working with AutoCAD, SketchUp, Photoshop, Illustrator, and also be using parallels for Revit. I know Black Friday has $200 off for a 13" MacBook Pro with retina. Is that a good deal with everything stock? What should I upgrade with my budget? I was thinking perhaps at a later date I could use a large capacity flash drive to store my documents in and it may save me money? I am not knowledgeable enough to know how to maximize my money for hardware that will suit my daily use. Things such as RAM, GHZ, etc.

So please help me before I go out on Black Friday. I know this is short notice but if you have valuable insight of any form please help me out. Any advice on all Macintosh within my budget would be great.

Thanks again!
 
Considering your limited budget, I'd get a computer with at least 8GB of RAM (16GB if at all possible). The RAM in the computer is soldered to the motherboard so that is one component that you can not upgrade in the future. RAM helps when running VM's like Parallels or multiple applications at the same time.

You can upgrade your internal storage at a later date using SSD's like the ones OWC sells http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Air-Retina/Apple-MacBook-Pro-Retina-2012-Drive-Internal-Flash or you can get an external drive to store your files if you need more room.

Upgrading the processor is only noticeable if you have to run your computer at 100% for extended periods of time. Personally I don't think that the CPU would be a good upgrade given your constraints.
 
COrocket said:
Considering your limited budget, I'd get a computer with at least 8GB of RAM (16GB if at all possible). The RAM in the computer is soldered to the motherboard so that is one component that you can not upgrade in the future. RAM helps when running VM's like Parallels or multiple applications at the same time.

You can upgrade your internal storage at a later date using SSD's like the ones OWC sells http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Air-Retina/Apple-MacBook-Pro-Retina-2012-Drive-Internal-Flash or you can get an external drive to store your files if you need more room.

Upgrading the processor is only noticeable if you have to run your computer at 100% for extended periods of time. Personally I don't think that the CPU would be a good upgrade given your constraints.
Click to expand...

Thank you! That was vitally helpful. RAM upgrade is now a must.
 
For your usage, a refurbished 2012 rMBP would be a good choice; however, its somehow out of your budget. If you want the 13" model, you should probably invest in 8Gb RAM and at least 256Gb SSD, meaning going to the second tier. No idea how much it will cost on black friday. Don't forget that those models cannot be upgraded! Once you buy, you stick with your choice.

P.S. As to the specs - don't pay Ghz any attention, just get the cheapest CPU, you won't see much difference between them. There is a significant difference between the 13" and 15" models (double the amount of CPU cores). For your usage, 8GB might be a good choice, 4GB is certainly possible but probably won't make you happy long-term. SSD size... well, you should know how much you would need. I am pretty happy with 256GB, some other people have extensive photo albums (which they for some reason want to carry with them all the time :D ) and thus will need more.
 
RipCitiBoi said:
I will be working with AutoCAD, SketchUp, Photoshop, Illustrator, and also be using parallels for Revit. I know Black Friday has $200 off for a 13" MacBook Pro with retina. Is that a good deal with everything stock? What should I upgrade with my budget? I was thinking perhaps at a later date I could use a large capacity flash drive to store my documents in and it may save me money? I am not knowledgeable enough to know how to maximize my money for hardware that will suit my daily use. Things such as RAM, GHZ, etc.

So please help me before I go out on Black Friday. I know this is short notice but if you have valuable insight of any form please help me out. Any advice on all Macintosh within my budget would be great.

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

Where do you plan to purchase it ? The $200 discount sounds like a good deal, if where you look for 8gb RAm and 256GB SSD
 
RipCitiBoi said:
I will be working with AutoCAD, SketchUp, Photoshop, Illustrator, and also be using parallels for Revit. I know Black Friday has $200 off for a 13" MacBook Pro with retina. Is that a good deal with everything stock? What should I upgrade with my budget? I was thinking perhaps at a later date I could use a large capacity flash drive to store my documents in and it may save me money? I am not knowledgeable enough to know how to maximize my money for hardware that will suit my daily use. Things such as RAM, GHZ, etc.

So please help me before I go out on Black Friday. I know this is short notice but if you have valuable insight of any form please help me out. Any advice on all Macintosh within my budget would be great.

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

where are you seeing $200 off retina 13 except for the base unit at Best Buy?
 
with that budget, id go for a maxed out mini. or if you need a laptop then with a i7 retina with max ram, sad may be possible to upgrade later - hopefully owc will come up with something. this will go over you budget but you'll be happy that you did :D
 
RipCitiBoi said:
I will be working with AutoCAD, SketchUp, Photoshop, Illustrator, and also be using parallels for Revit. I know Black Friday has $200 off for a 13" MacBook Pro with retina. Is that a good deal with everything stock? What should I upgrade with my budget? I was thinking perhaps at a later date I could use a large capacity flash drive to store my documents in and it may save me money? I am not knowledgeable enough to know how to maximize my money for hardware that will suit my daily use. Things such as RAM, GHZ, etc.

So please help me before I go out on Black Friday. I know this is short notice but if you have valuable insight of any form please help me out. Any advice on all Macintosh within my budget would be great.

Thanks again!
Click to expand...
sell whatever you have and get mac pro.
 
I would get a used 17" iMac and probably replace the drive. Or get a discontinued one that sells as new. Because rendering is going to be a problem.
 
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