Retina or No Retina Macbook Pro - Purchasing Help

[patdowd08]

Hello All,

I am looking to purchase a Macbook Pro and I need assistance. I have been reading the threads and I am concerned, not sure what to buy. I would love the retina display, but I also want a large amount of harddrive space. I am not sure if I can justify the extra $1000 basically to get a 700+ SSD. I am just out of college and this is a graduation present, so my parents are helping me. Should I foot a larger part of the bill and go with the Retina system maxed out?

Lastly, how will windows look on the new machine through bootcamp, and will there be any visual issues with videogames? (Not just for videogames, some personal video editing and photo editing for advertisements for a family business. )

Please help!

 

[Rizzm]

Hello All,

I am looking to purchase a Macbook Pro and I need assistance. I have been reading the threads and I am concerned, not sure what to buy. I would love the retina display, but I also want a large amount of harddrive space. I am not sure if I can justify the extra $1000 basically to get a 700+ SSD. I am just out of college and this is a graduation present, so my parents are helping me. Should I foot a larger part of the bill and go with the Retina system maxed out?

Lastly, how will windows look on the new machine through bootcamp, and will there be any visual issues with videogames?

Please help!

It's only up to you if you can justify the huge premium for Apple's pre-installed SSD.

Your options are the legacy Pro, or cheaper Retina with external drive if you want to save money.

 

[mohsy90]

Personally, I don't ever need to carry around over 256GB of data around with me. Settle for either the 256Gb or 512GB and get a cheap external hard drive. Like the above post said, it's all up to you.

 

[charlieegan3]

This should answer your windows question.
Anandtech: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6008/windows-8-on-the-retina-display-macbook-pro

Need to wait to get videos games fully tested, however i would imagine they will be ok.

I would go with the Retina, with the fast thunderbolt and usb3 external storage is more feasible.

 

[Stetrain]

Unless you absolutely have to have that much onboard storage, I would go with the 256GB SSD and an external drive.

The benefits of booting and running apps off of an SSD will outweigh the storage constraints for most people.

 

[stevelam]

The only usage case you mentioned is games under windows. Please don't waste your parents money.

 

[FreudianSlap]

Get the normal MacBook Pro but have the hi-res screen put in for $100?(1680x1050 resolution)

Anyone know if the finder bar is possible to reasonably see on the new retina MBPs, its hard enough on a 15" MBP with a hi-res display and with there being no way to change it's size (that i'm aware of) it must be uber-tiny...

Also the standard MBP is more upgradeable if you wish to do so in the future.

 

[Stetrain]

Get the normal MacBook Pro but have the hi-res screen put in for $100?(1680x1050 resolution)

Anyone know if the finder bar is possible to reasonably see on the new retina MBPs, its hard enough on a 15" MBP with a hi-res display and with there being no way to change it's size (that i'm aware of) it must be uber-tiny...

Also the standard MBP is more upgradeable if you wish to do so in the future.

The Retina Macbook Pro has UI scaling, just like on the Retina iOS devices.

The default setting makes everything the same physical size as the old 1440x900 display, just sharper and more detailed.

There are also settings that make things the same physical size as the 1680x1050 high-res option, and 1920x1200 (same "real estate" as old 17" MBP).

This video review covers some of the options:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e30yCrIN-gk#t=2m45s

 

[tamvly]

Coolness factor: go with the Retina.

But for my money, I just ordered a 2.3 GHz 15" with non-glare screen. I'll use the extra cash to max out the RAM. Then I'll move the Intel SSD from my current 13" MBP. An extra pound or so means nothing to me.