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rMBP buying advice needed.

I

iprime

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 6, 2011
78
0
Currently have a lenovo x220 which I am selling because the screen is too tiny and horrible touchpad. Looking to get rMBP 15" because of the screen and weight. I mostly browse with 15+ tabs open, music playing, word processing, pdf editing. I do HD watch movies, youtube etc. Around like once twice a month, I use lightroom to edit photos and rarely final cut pro for school project or something. I want everything to run smoothly. Multitasking and gestures is my main reason for switching to Mac OS.

Thinking of getting this:
2.7 Ghz
8 GB RAM
256 GB SSD
Currently have 128 GB and it's completely full because of large size RAW photos. Can I get by with 256 Gb ? 512 is just too much $$$

Total = $2549 (including education discount and applecare)

2.7 ghz
16 GB RAM (necessary for my needs ?)
512 GB SSD

Total = $3073 (including education discount and applecare)

That's a difference of $524 which is significant. I will be keeping the laptop for 4-5 years.

Concerns: Recent article about problems with rMBP and exchanging several times. Also, waiting out for Haswell for kinks such as lag fix and better battery life, stronger GPU maybe ? http://9to5mac.com/2013/03/20/macbook-pro-with-retina-display-problems-in-every-dimension/

I need a laptop for this semester until about May 15th and I might get by with nexus 7 tablet. Would haswell rMBP be out by June ?
 
If you have a discover card and link to the apple education store through your discover account, you get another 5% cash back. May save you another $100-$200.

RAM is not upgradable, so running that many apps and tabs may make 16GB worthwhile. At the moment activity monitor says I'm using 7GB of RAM with perhaps 6 apps running like mail and calendar and a couple safari tabs. Adobe CS and some safari web content likes a lot of RAM.

You can always use an external drive if you run out of internal disk drive space but work around for RAM not so easy.

My recent rMBP 15 inch has been flawless.
 
2012 version

stchman said:
Macmall has this deal.

http://www.macmall.com/p/Apple-MacBook-Pro/product~dpno~9232504~pdp.hgdachd

This is only $2400, has 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD.
Click to expand...

That's the 2012 version right? I heard that early 2013 version has some under the hood improvements and better cooling. Also, they charge 15% restocking fee. What if there is a defect with the machine, do I have to ship it back to macmall or can apple store take care of it when I didn't buy it from them ?
 
iprime said:
That's the 2012 version right? I heard that early 2013 version has some under the hood improvements and better cooling. Also, they charge 15% restocking fee. What if there is a defect with the machine, do I have to ship it back to macmall or can apple store take care of it when I didn't buy it from them ?
Click to expand...

If you want the machine exchanged, you have to ship it back to MacMall in the return window. If you want it repaired you can go to Apple. 2013 might be better on paper but in real world the differences are unclear. At best, you get the 5% increase in speed with the 0.1 GHz processor upgrade, which is not worth a lot of extra money.
 
iprime said:
That's the 2012 version right? I heard that early 2013 version has some under the hood improvements and better cooling. Also, they charge 15% restocking fee. What if there is a defect with the machine, do I have to ship it back to macmall or can apple store take care of it when I didn't buy it from them ?
Click to expand...

I bought my MBA from Macmall and the warranty is through Apple, not Macmall.
 
No option of Craigslist? I got the 512gb version for 1700 with receipt and it was the 2013 one. Save tons and still under warranty. You can check the warranty online at apple.com too.
 
I'd go for a ~ $1500 deal then save the extra money to purchase the new rMBP revision.
 
base model

so would base model suffice for the needs I mentioned ?
 
iprime said:
so would base model suffice for the needs I mentioned ?
Click to expand...

Definitely will suffice with your relatively light needs. Although you should max out the RAM if you think you will ever need more than 8 GB, because it is soldered in.
 
iprime said:
Currently have a lenovo x220 which I am selling because the screen is too tiny and horrible touchpad. Looking to get rMBP 15" because of the screen and weight. I mostly browse with 15+ tabs open, music playing, word processing, pdf editing. I do HD watch movies, youtube etc. Around like once twice a month, I use lightroom to edit photos and rarely final cut pro for school project or something. I want everything to run smoothly. Multitasking and gestures is my main reason for switching to Mac OS.

Thinking of getting this:
2.7 Ghz
8 GB RAM
256 GB SSD
Currently have 128 GB and it's completely full because of large size RAW photos. Can I get by with 256 Gb ? 512 is just too much $$$

Total = $2549 (including education discount and applecare)

2.7 ghz
16 GB RAM (necessary for my needs ?)
512 GB SSD

Total = $3073 (including education discount and applecare)

That's a difference of $524 which is significant. I will be keeping the laptop for 4-5 years.

Concerns: Recent article about problems with rMBP and exchanging several times. Also, waiting out for Haswell for kinks such as lag fix and better battery life, stronger GPU maybe ? http://9to5mac.com/2013/03/20/macbook-pro-with-retina-display-problems-in-every-dimension/

I need a laptop for this semester until about May 15th and I might get by with nexus 7 tablet. Would haswell rMBP be out by June ?
Click to expand...

256GB is good enough if you purchase or have an external hard drive. I would spend the money on the RAM. I had the base model 15" rMBP with 8 GB of RAM and had a lot of page outs when photo editing so I returned for the middle of the road rMBP with 16Gb of RAM and have had no issues when photo editing
 
2012 or early 2013 ?

Are there more issues with 2012 version vs. early 2013 rMBP ? There are some good deals on 2012 versions.
 
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