Taking The Plunge - A Few Questions

[nyvart]

I'm an iPod, iMac, iPhone, iPad owner -- taking the plunge at work and want to replace my PC for an every day rMBP. I have a few questions - I'm not a super user by any stretch with the non portable devices (iMac, MacBook Pro, etc..).

I will be using this 70% for work but will want to take advantage of the iCloud functionality (music streaming, want to learn how to do some light video editing in iMovie). Predominantly will be used for Microsoft Office 2011 apps.

Questions:
1) How much of a difference is there in speed between the 13" dual core 2.4 GHz and the 15" quad core 2.0 GHz?
2) Should 256GB of storage be enough for saving a LOT of word/excel docs and only moderate music/pictures OR should I splurge on the 512GB?

Money isn't a HUGE objective but if the $1,499 13" machine covers everything I need there's no sense in paying another $500+.

PS - I've read this forum a lot over the years and appreciate all of the info i've received. I just 'registered' and this is my first post.

Thanks!

 

[KUguardgrl13]

I'm an iPod, iMac, iPhone, iPad owner -- taking the plunge at work and want to replace my PC for an every day rMBP. I have a few questions - I'm not a super user by any stretch with the non portable devices (iMac, MacBook Pro, etc..).

I will be using this 70% for work but will want to take advantage of the iCloud functionality (music streaming, want to learn how to do some light video editing in iMovie). Predominantly will be used for Microsoft Office 2011 apps.

Questions:
1) How much of a difference is there in speed between the 13" dual core 2.4 GHz and the 15" quad core 2.0 GHz?
2) Should 256GB of storage be enough for saving a LOT of word/excel docs and only moderate music/pictures OR should I splurge on the 512GB?

Money isn't a HUGE objective but if the $1,499 13" machine covers everything I need there's no sense in paying another $500+.

PS - I've read this forum a lot over the years and appreciate all of the info i've received. I just 'registered' and this is my first post.

Thanks!

I can't really answer your first question, but I think I can take a stab at the second. I've been using MacBook Pros for a little while. I just got a new rMBP to replace my dying mid-2009 and chose the 13" 2.4ghz with 8gb ram and the 256gb SSD. I'm in college and have several Word docs as well as several years worth of pictures and a bunch of iTunes music stored. I still have about 120gb of free space currently. I supplement my internal drive with 1.5TB of external storage.

 

[jondunford]

1) How much of a difference is there in speed between the 13" dual core 2.4 GHz and the 15" quad core 2.0 GHz?

it depends on the tasks you will be doing. for some programs that can only make use of a limited number of cores the dual core will be faster as each individual core has a higher speed. for most cpu intensive tasks though the 2.0 quad core will be a lot faster

2) Should 256GB of storage be enough for saving a LOT of word/excel docs and only moderate music/pictures OR should I splurge on the 512GB?

256 should be fine unless they are like 10,000 row spreadsheets etc

 

[Hungry&Foolish]

http://appleinsider.com/mac_price_guide

How about 1799 tax free 768 ssd.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/999994-REG/Apple_z0n4_md2132_13_3_MacBook_Pro_Notebook.html

And always keep Apple Refurbished in mind.

 

[Shubbeh]

How about 1799 tax free 768 ssd.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/999994-REG/Apple_z0n4_md2132_13_3_MacBook_Pro_Notebook.html

Please note: that's the 2012 model, or early 2013, I don't know, either way it's Ivy Bridge, not Haswell, so your battery life will not be as good.

 

[john123]

Please note: that's the 2012 model, or early 2013, I don't know, either way it's Ivy Bridge, not Haswell, so your battery life will not be as good.

At least on the 15" models (i.e., not this specific one from B&H), the difference in battery life is not that large. 7 hours to 8 hours is a 14% increase. Nice, but not jaw-dropping. Given the price difference, the 2012 refurb is extremely attractive. Plus it has the 650M dGPU.

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Questions:
1) How much of a difference is there in speed between the 13" dual core 2.4 GHz and the 15" quad core 2.0 GHz?
2) Should 256GB of storage be enough for saving a LOT of word/excel docs and only moderate music/pictures OR should I splurge on the 512GB?

Quad core actually makes a shocking amount of difference. I can't tell you how elated I was when quad core finally came to Mac laptops. It just removed so many bottlenecks singlehandedly.

As for storage, based on what you said, 256GB ought to be plenty.