Plotting the switch, but when?

Hi, everybody. I've been doing extensive reading here over the past week or two, so I'm quite aware of the potential redundancies in what follows. Maybe the combination will prove novel, but feel free to stop reading if you please.

At some point during the next year, I am, at any rate, intent on transitioning from a PC desktop + perky-but-puny netbook setup to sole reliance on the MBP(r), with docking configuration at home. I'm wrapping up graduate school and entering a period of greater and more consistent mobility than nonstop dissertation writing, so the shift makes sense—I dread being away from my desktop but at the same time dislike the feeling of being "chained" to it for greater productivity, you know the drill—and I've whittled my list of must-have PC applications down to the amazing Citavi, which is now viable under Parallels, as well as perhaps Paint.NET. So I'm ready to do this.

The question for me isn't so much the ceaselessly repeated one of MBP vs. MBPr (I would prefer to wait for v2 with regard to the latter) as of when to bite. The main thing is not whether but when and how most sensibly to enter Macdom, in other words. If I purchase now, it's going to be the non-Retina MBP. If I purchase twelve months from now, provided that the kinks (no point in rehashing those, whatever your perspective) have been worked out and I can get over the idea of potentially surrendering the entire computer for any repair of intermediate or greater magnitude, it might be the MBPr. Obviously, if before then the MBP goes the way of the dodo, that decision is made for me.

My considerations are basically threefold:

- Is it absurd to part with a perfectly functional and still fairly zippy 2.5-year-old desktop for the sake of consolidation to an MBP(r)? I've saved up enough money and fully intend to hold on to the MacBook for at least 3-4 years (16GB RAM/256GB SSD+), so it's simply a matter of when to take action, as mentioned. The original price of the desktop was around $2500, and I expect that resale for at least $600-700 would be fully within the realm of possibility. The desktop will be three years old in January, no remaining warranty, but it's a good upper-mid-range, custom-built multimedia rig.

- Would it be silly to wait for Haswell when the MacBook would be in clamshell mode most of the time and connected to an external monitor, which mode, as I understand it, relies wholly on discrete graphics? Given that the raw speed bump (integrated graphics aside) from Haswell over IB is now projected to fall in the 5-10% range, the only major difference I can imagine would involve improved battery life and thermals, but correct me if I'm wrong. I know that IB has in some cases proved a little dodgy in the latter area, or at least disappointing, though that may be the overclockers who are sore at Intel talking.

- It's possible that I'll be moving overseas at the end of said twelve-month period, so the most annoying scenario would be a major update toward late summer next year (no doubt likely), putting me in the position of angling for a new unit stateside at the eleventh hour. Like a lot of people, once major improvements are on the horizon I'll only want to wait. If I buy now, on the other hand, by next summer I'll be sailing with AppleCare and more focused on the 2015-16 timeframe.

Sorry for the long-windedness. Tl;dr doesn't spring to mind so readily when you're writing a dissertation. To sum up: choices, as Jerri Blank would say!

 

Facetiousness is risky business!

Thanks for your advice, everybody. Order placed.

 

• 2.6GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
• 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB
• 750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
• SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• MacBook Pro 15-inch Hi-Res Antiglare Widescreen Display

Soon to be en route:

• Crucial 16GB kit (8GBx2), 204-pin SODIMM, DDR3 PC3-12800
• SAMSUNG 830 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive

Aiming for four years or so, bearing in mind constant Windows 7 virtualization. I wouldn't have bothered with the processor bump, but I wanted the VRAM upgrade for the external monitor at 1920x1080, probably a step or two larger in future.

 

Thanks! I turn thirty at the end of the month. Guess that's my excuse for indulgence.

As for the data doubler, probably not, at least for now. My hard drive usage is usually relatively low, apart from hi-res photos taken during archival research. And I'd like to have the optical around for making a second backup of those photos sometimes, also still buy physical music CDs and need to rip them. So what I plan to do is enclose the included HDD and store image files there for occasional plug-in (need my USB ports for wired peripherals, such a Luddite), with an aging but capacious enough FireWire drive on standby for Time Machine.

Unless this all sounds bonkers. =P

 

Lp154we3-tlb2, yay!