Should I Buy The Base 15.4" MBPr With 512 GB SSD Upgrade

[gregpod9]

I currently have the late 2013 13" MBPr (i5 2.6/8/512) and I recently returned a refurbished 15.4" MBPr (i7 2.5/16/512/750M) because it had clouding on the screen when scrolling and bad back lighting, and the battery lasted only 4 hours. I'm not a pc gamer anymore, because I do all my gaming on my PS4. My questions are:
1. Should I buy the base model 15.4" MBPr with the 512GB SSD or should I retry the refurbished 15.4" MBPr (i7 2.5/16/512/750M)? I really need to have the 512 GB SSD because I need to use about 80GB (Windows updates, and other programs) on my Windows 8.1 Pro bootcamp partition. Also I want a guarantee Samsung SSD over the Sandisk SSD (The 256 GB SSD is a lottery between the Samsung and Sandisk).

2. Is there a noticeable speed difference in the from my i5 2.6GHz , i7 2.2 GHz and i7 2.5 GHz?

 

[yjchua95]

I currently have the late 2013 13" MBPr (i5 2.6/8/512) and I recently returned a refurbished 15.4" MBPr (i7 2.5/16/512/750M) because it had clouding on the screen when scrolling and bad back lighting, and the battery lasted only 4 hours. I'm not a pc gamer anymore, because I do all my gaming on my PS4. My questions are:
1. Should I buy the base model 15.4" MBPr with the 512GB SSD or should I retry the refurbished 15.4" MBPr (i7 2.5/16/512/750M)? I really need to have the 512 GB SSD because I need to use about 80GB (Windows updates, and other programs) on my Windows 8.1 Pro bootcamp partition. Also I want a guarantee Samsung SSD over the Sandisk SSD (The 256 GB SSD is a lottery between the Samsung and Sandisk).

2. Is there a noticeable speed difference in the from my i5 2.6GHz , i7 2.2 GHz and i7 2.5 GHz?

Between the i5 and any i7, the difference is massive. Between the two i7s, not really.

You should retry the refurb. It's kind of hamstrung to upgrade the SSD but not the GPU, even if you don't need it now. You can always disable the dGPU with gfxcardstatus when you don't need it.

 

[gregpod9]

Between the i5 and any i7, the difference is massive. Between the two i7s, not really.

You should retry the refurb. It's kind of hamstrung to upgrade the SSD but not the GPU, even if you don't need it now. You can always disable the dGPU with gfxcardstatus when you don't need it.

I decided to retry the refurbished 15.4" MBPr (i7 2.5/16GB/512GB SSD/750M). I just placed an ordered for it. A new base 15.4" MBPr with the 512 GB SSD would cost $2299, and who knows when the base model with the specs I want would appear in the Apple refurnished store. For $200 less, I got a better specced system. I know that Apple refurbished MBPr are like new, but a very few mbpr's get overlooked in the refurbished process, that happened to me in my first try with this particular model. I hope that I get a like new refurbished MBPr in this second try.