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Should I wait to buy the upcoming Macbook pro or buy late 2013

S

sdimas

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 14, 2014
73
1
USA
I will be going off to college in August and the college that I am going to heavily favors Apple products over Windows. They even give their incoming freshman one of the latest model iPads (16gb).
This will be my first ever Apple computer. I intend to have it for a very long time.
I am trying to decide whether I should buy the top spec 15" Macbook Pro retina (1tb SSD, 16gb Ram, upgraded CPU) now and get used to it for school. Or if I should wait until the holiday season when the new Macbook is supposedly coming out and buy it near the end of the first semester.
I am planning to spend around $3500 for this purchase. So what do you think, buy the late 2013 rMBP or wait for the new 2014 version?
Apple CEO stated they will be ready for the holiday season, but its a stretch to be here for the back to school season.
 
sdimas said:
I will be going off to college in August and the college that I am going to heavily favors Apple products over Windows. They even give their incoming freshman one of the latest model iPads (16gb).
This will be my first ever Apple computer. I intend to have it for a very long time.
I am trying to decide whether I should buy the top spec 15" Macbook Pro retina (1tb SSD, 16gb Ram, upgraded CPU) now and get used to it for school. Or if I should wait until the holiday season when the new Macbook is supposedly coming out and buy it near the end of the first semester.
I am planning to spend around $3500 for this purchase. So what do you think, buy the late 2013 rMBP or wait for the new 2014 version?
Apple CEO stated they will be ready for the holiday season, but its a stretch to be here for the back to school season.
Click to expand...

It will almost certainly not be ready for back to school.

What sort of work are you planning on doing? For a first year student, and even for most professional users, a maxed out rMBP is overkill. If you are looking to dump tons of money on a computer, pouring it into a laptop before you invest in a desktop is a huge mistake. There is such a huge premium on mobile components that if you get the maxed out version then you had better be using every inch of power you purchase. If you need it, then absolutely get the machine that best fits your needs, but otherwise I cannot recommend it. You would probably get a lot more out of buying two baseline machines every two years than getting a maxed out rMBP every four years. Get what you need right now, and in the long run you will get more power than if you bought the maxed out version.

Matt
 
3500 is some mad overkill. Here in Korea baseline 13 inch RMBPs go for $1600, but on craigslist there have been two Haskell baseline models that went for $1200 and $1300. Go on craigslist and get a Haskell RMBP for cheap and skip Braswell. Haswell will be good for at least 3 years. And like the other person said, don't go nuts getting a made spec'd machine, just buy something good and upgrade every 2 years. Can't recommend that enough.
 
sdimas said:
I will be going off to college in August and the college that I am going to heavily favors Apple products over Windows. They even give their incoming freshman one of the latest model iPads (16gb).
This will be my first ever Apple computer. I intend to have it for a very long time.
I am trying to decide whether I should buy the top spec 15" Macbook Pro retina (1tb SSD, 16gb Ram, upgraded CPU) now and get used to it for school. Or if I should wait until the holiday season when the new Macbook is supposedly coming out and buy it near the end of the first semester.
I am planning to spend around $3500 for this purchase. So what do you think, buy the late 2013 rMBP or wait for the new 2014 version?
Apple CEO stated they will be ready for the holiday season, but its a stretch to be here for the back to school season.
Click to expand...

If you plan on keeping it for a very long time, I would personally wait for the next gen and pick up a maxed out spec 15" like you planned to. They are very powerful today, but will get even better and if you're certain you're dropping that kind of cash on it then it will be worth it to wait.
 
taelan28 said:
3500 is some mad overkill. Here in Korea baseline 13 inch RMBPs go for $1600, but on craigslist there have been two Haskell baseline models that went for $1200 and $1300. Go on craigslist and get a Haskell RMBP for cheap and skip Braswell. Haswell will be good for at least 3 years. And like the other person said, don't go nuts getting a made spec'd machine, just buy something good and upgrade every 2 years. Can't recommend that enough.
Click to expand...

Well, that is a very sound advice and I fully agree with taelan28. Also fully agree with the other guy... "don't go nuts getting a made spec'd machine, just buy something good and upgrade every 2 years." In fact, this is way to go if you want to stay abreast with the up to date technology. Honestly, it does not make any economical sense to max out in current model unless for work requirement and fat budget to spend.
 
sdimas said:
I will be going off to college in August and the college that I am going to heavily favors Apple products over Windows. They even give their incoming freshman one of the latest model iPads (16gb).
This will be my first ever Apple computer. I intend to have it for a very long time.
I am trying to decide whether I should buy the top spec 15" Macbook Pro retina (1tb SSD, 16gb Ram, upgraded CPU) now and get used to it for school. Or if I should wait until the holiday season when the new Macbook is supposedly coming out and buy it near the end of the first semester.
I am planning to spend around $3500 for this purchase. So what do you think, buy the late 2013 rMBP or wait for the new 2014 version?
Apple CEO stated they will be ready for the holiday season, but its a stretch to be here for the back to school season.
Click to expand...


Why would you want such a highly tricked out Macbook Pro for college? Those machines make sense for people who do video editing for a living or as a mobile audio recording device (if that).

I just bought a recent 13" retina for business type use, photo editing and audio applications and a simple refurbished $1300 machine works like a charm for that. Seriously, even for complicated engineering software or stat tools you don't need a 3.5K laptop.
 
Why not 2012?

If you're looking for a 15" rMBP, consider getting it refurbished from Apple. I got one on Black Friday this past year, first generation, and it's both great and cost me several hundred dollars less than the updated version--plus I have the nVidia(?) GPU, rather than the Iris graphics. Not that I know for a fact the former is better, but I'd already heard that the Iris component was a step up for the first-gen 13" rMBP but a step down for the first-gen 15".

That may not be the case. I can really only confirm it's about six or seven months in, and it's a great machine. Plus I used the money I saved to buy an rMini and a serious set of earphones.

Hope that helps!
 
I have to agree with the majority opinion in this thread. A top of the line rMBP really is a powerful machine. Whether you need this much power or not is a good thing to consider. If you want advice on this, it would be very helpful for you to post your field of study and expected typical usage. Also, I think it is important to consider the short refresh cycles of modern tech. Yes, the upcoming 2014 fully loaded rMBP will be an absolute beast today but in a couple years it may already be on par if not worse than an entry level machine of the same caliber. You will surely be able to continue using yours for years to come but it may be more cost efficient to purchase entry level machines and upgrade every couple of years.


Also,

willentrekin said:
plus I have the nVidia(?) GPU, rather than the Iris graphics.
Click to expand...

From what I understand, the Iris is actually marginally better than the 650M for almost everything excluding gaming and a few video related applications (no surprise there!).
 
Working with new software before getting there sounds like a very good idea compared with the small performance bump you would get by waiting. Get things loaded and get use to what you are doing with the machine. You might want a Time Capsule for backup and could attach additional storage to that, rather than getting a 1TB SSD, which costs a fortune. Yes, the 16GBs of RAM is probably a good idea, but other than that, buying a cheaper machine and upgrading in the future is the way to go.
 
I have a 15" rMBP and love it, but it would be a bit clunky for daily student use if you'll always have it on you. You'll be fine on a 13" mba for most things, upgraded to 8gB ram. If you think you need more power and want a better screen, the 13" rMBP w 8GB will be fine for nearly everyone. Save the rest for an upgrade when you figure out your use better.

As I student, my bet is portability will trump your need for power. But in the Apple ecosystem, the 13" rMBP at $1500 is making very few compromises.
 
I appreciate all of your replies. The reason I was considering the maxed out version is because I have received a scholarship that is only for books and other supplies, computer or laptop purchase is allowed, so this purchase will be partly subsidized.
I will be a chemistry major, possible Bio double major (I've been told it is very doable for me because I will have nearly a year of credits from dual credit courses), planning on going on to grad school although I am not sure what exactly, med school, pharm school? We'll see how this turns out. I am certain I will be doing something in the medical field.
From what I've learned from your replies, I will purchase the top tier stock 15".
I think I will stick around on these forums for at least a couple months so I can read and learn how to use all the features Mac OS has to offer.
 
sdimas said:
I appreciate all of your replies. The reason I was considering the maxed out version is because I have received a scholarship that is only for books and other supplies, computer or laptop purchase is allowed, so this purchase will be partly subsidized.
I will be a chemistry major, possible Bio double major (I've been told it is very doable for me because I will have nearly a year of credits from dual credit courses), planning on going on to grad school although I am not sure what exactly, med school, pharm school? We'll see how this turns out. I am certain I will be doing something in the medical field.
From what I've learned from your replies, I will purchase the top tier stock 15".
I think I will stick around on these forums for at least a couple months so I can read and learn how to use all the features Mac OS has to offer.
Click to expand...

Excellent decision. You got cash to blow but don't need to blow all of it.
 
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