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Really could do with some advice please :-)

R

RichGiles

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 4, 2013
17
0
I know there is a million and one of these properly, but I know this is a friendly community and I'm genuinely in need of some help, I want to buy a mac in the UK. I'm eyeing up the MacBook Pro 13 for upgradability, I design websites, the odd graphics, I'm just starting to cut my teeth with in design and basic music production.

I would have liked to be able to play basic games but its by no means a priority as I have a ps3 which I game with. Space is an issue, I don't have a desk, I work of my lap or on my bed.

Any help you could give me would be appreciated.

My gf goes to uni so will buy on her discount for me to register. Also am I buying at the wrong time? I'm struggling to find the will I wait for a refresh, apple never lowers prices much or adds a massive increase processor wise. Is it really worth the months of wait.

Thanks for your help guys.
 
If you need it now just buy it. The next MBP will have a slightly faster chip, maybe even a retina display (which may increase the cost). But I wouldn't expect much else. As you say Apple don't drop prices much, but the refurb section on their website is worth a look. Not sure how this works out verses a student discount ( because I never got one). If you do go the refurb route you still get the years warranty. Make sure you are ready to buy though as they don't hang around for long.
 
It is true that Intel's Haswell chip is coming out in June and presumably the MacBook Pros later in the summer. Apple in the past has only released the 15" MBPs first and then the 13" so its possible you'll not see the 13" model to much later.

I'd say if you want/need one now then go for it. If you can wait until the end of summer then it may be worthwhile though as the other poster mentioned the cpu speed will be small, but the GPU improvement is supposed to be better
 
I could just about afford the 2.3ghz 15inch with the 512mb gpu but it's a little bit of a squeeze, would have to wait a long time to afford the ssd and ram upgrade.

Also I'm concerned I will lose the nice portable feel from the 13, it's a tough one for me.

----------

How good is that 512mb gpu, I've heard you need the 1gb version for it to perform well with games...
 
RichGiles said:
[/COLOR]How good is that 512mb gpu, I've heard you need the 1gb version for it to perform well with games...
Click to expand...

You heard wrong ;) The resolution of the 15" MBP is low enough for 512MB being plenty in modern games.

Anyway: why not get the 13" Mac Book Air? It is mobile, has more real screen estate than the 13" MBP and you won't notice any difference in processing power for your use. Of course, gaming will be slightly less optimal...
 
Photoshop CS6 now requires 512mb VRAM for the 3D features. The current 13" has that (mine doesn't :eek:). So you're fine. Overall, the Adobe suite runs great on these machines. I use After Effects, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, InDesign, and Lightroom with no issues.

I wouldn't wait. Just because Apple usually spends like two years releasing firmware updates. The speed bump is nice, but there's always that horrible bug that creeps up on you and doesn't get fixed until 3-6 months later. My 2011 model JUST got an EFI update in February even. 2012 machines have gotten a handful of them too.

I have no problem playing games either. The graphic intense ones will make the fans go crazy, but gameplay is still solid.
 
Jessica Lares said:
Photoshop CS6 now requires 512mb VRAM for the 3D features. The current 13" has that (mine doesn't :eek:). So you're fine. Overall, the Adobe suite runs great on these machines. I use After Effects, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, InDesign, and Lightroom with no issues.

I wouldn't wait. Just because Apple usually spends like two years releasing firmware updates. The speed bump is nice, but there's always that horrible bug that creeps up on you and doesn't get fixed until 3-6 months later. My 2011 model JUST got an EFI update in February even. 2012 machines have gotten a handful of them too.

I have no problem playing games either. The graphic intense ones will make the fans go crazy, but gameplay is still solid.
Click to expand...

So just to be clear, your recommending the 13" or 15", it's just you said 512 MB VRam and then said you recommend the 13, I thought it was only the 15" that had this.

Also I love the weight and feel of the air but I'm not keen on the keyboard, I like the press action and feel of the pro, I make more mistakes on the air than pro and actually I do like the form factor of the pro still, even though its bigger and heavier, don't get me wrong it's a great machine with a ready to go ssd and comparable specs, I just want a bit more juice in the processor, keys I like to type with and something I won't feel I will break, I'm not a small lad with small hands and fingers, so I think I need a pro, also I will eventually upgrade it to ssd and additional ram, as soon as I've worked out how to create that secure partition apple makes on the original hard drive when you get it with all the recovery things. If things ever go wrong, I want to have that recovery partition there on the hard drive waiting, in a place I cannot accidentally delete or mess up!
 
Just reading more into it, it varies on how much RAM you have in the machine.

But the 13" 2012 models have the standard 512, and then go up to 768. If that wasn't the case, Photoshop would pop n annoying message everytime.
 
I can spend more if I really need to, I didn't want to spend more than the minimum 860 for the base model pro 13 but if its going to make a huge difference paying more than I would consider it, it's around 1070 for 2.9 i7 8gb ram 13" and 1288.80 for the 15" with the 2.3 512 card.

1408.80 for the 2.6 with 1gb VRAM

To be honest, that's a lot of extra cash for me I hoped to stay close to a grand but get the best deal I could find.
 
I would say go for the 13" Pro. The HD 4000 is good for a few basic games at OK settings, and the price is good as well. It also has relative upgradeability so you can add more RAM and an SSD when you can afford it. Also, the portability is great compared to the 15" cMBP. BUT, if you can wait, I would wait, unless you really believe they will discontinue the cMBP this year. I don't, but it is possible they will leave it without a refresh this year, as the form factor has been here since 2007 and is a little outdated by now.
 
Thanks for all the help guys, that's the issue with apple, just when you think you know the logic and when/what they might release, they skip a refresh.

My luck would be a new line up laptops in June/September and being stuck with the newest of the old models....

But I just can't wait till September, I could have potentially waited till June but that's about it...

Would anyone recommend the i7 heavily over the i5 purely on processing power? Does it warrant the extra 200 quid nearly?
 
Woud you have any interest in this?
Im also in the UK so could possibly meet. Im not chasing after a quick sale in case you needed more time, so Im pretty flexible, but its already upgraded to max RAM, 512GB SSD, and 3 year Applecare, all for less then you would get the system new even with the education discount......

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1563675/
 
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