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Those that did not go retina

Orlandoech.com said:
Provide the numbers. Same spec with $700 savings after mods. Doubtful.

What are these "amazing" speakers, Bose? Lol
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cMBP

2.6ghz i7
8gb ram
750gb 7200rpm
gt650m 1gb
apple care

$2600

OWC data doubler + mercury electra 6g 120gb $180
Audioengine A2's $200

total $2980

rMBP
2.6ghz
16gb ram
768gb
gt650m
apple care

$3700

-$180 for 16gb ram upgrade I saved approximately $520.

With the ram it would have been $700

I still saved close to $700 all in all.
 
BlazednSleepy said:
cMBP

2.6ghz i7
8gb ram
750gb 7200rpm
gt650m 1gb
apple care

$2600

OWC data doubler + mercury electra 6g 120gb $180
Audioengine A2's $200

total $2980

rMBP
2.6ghz
16gb ram
768gb
gt650m
apple care

$3700

-$180 for 16gb ram upgrade I saved approximately $520.

With the ram it would have been $700

I still saved close to $700 all in all.
Click to expand...


ok, first thing, the AudioEngine A2 speakers... are well... AMAZING lol. I have the same speakers with a Hi-Fi DAC, get a DAC for them, it makes a huge difference. The SoundBlaster X-Fi HD DAC is good for $80 or the AudioEngine D1 DAC is awesome too, but its $180.

Why would you EVER get a 768GB SSD, the cost is insane lol. I got a rMBP 2.3/16/256 for $2230.

I reallu want the AudioEngine A5s now :\
 
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The only reason why i didnt buy retina is the upgradeability. Im buying a MBP to use it for at least 3+ years.
 
qwerty123123 said:
The only reason why i didnt buy retina is the upgradeability. Im buying a MBP to use it for at least 3+ years.
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There is a slight possibility 32GB could be slotted in a year or so. So there is that. I waited because I saw how business apps that are slow to adopt new stuff anyway looked on the display. Blurry mess. I have stopped buying them until updates are all available. If all you need is Apples app ecosystem it is great. But not ready for enterprise prime time. Probably in a few months, possibly a year from now. It depends. Once everything is retina quad pixel there will be no choice and I will embrace the new awesome. It is a great display. I want one but it is impractical right now. The combo drive is great for the still shipped DVD's I make images of and by the time everyone else starts DL only apps I can ditch it and throw my 750GB factory drive in and use with my 240GB OWC extreme. 990GB of storage (you wont feel much difference either as long as SSD is boot), 32GB Memory, USB 3, TB, c'mon?
 
Orlandoech.com said:
ok, first thing, the AudioEngine A2 speakers... are well... AMAZING lol. I have the same speakers with a Hi-Fi DAC, get a DAC for them, it makes a huge difference. The SoundBlaster X-Fi HD DAC is good for $80 or the AudioEngine D1 DAC is awesome too, but its $180.

Why would you EVER get a 768GB SSD, the cost is insane lol. I got a rMBP 2.3/16/256 for $2230.

I reallu want the AudioEngine A5s now :\
Click to expand...

lol yes they are! You mentioned them in another thread and I did a bunch of research and decided to buy them. Got the white ones. Very crisp sound and good bass. I would love to get the D1 but probably sometime later in the future. I already spent a pretty penny on all this stuff haha.

The reason I bought 768gb was because I work in windows alot with a game program as well as programs like maya and mudbox making models and textures, lots of space is easily used. and I have a crap ton of music and photos. Needed all the space I could get lol.
 
BlazednSleepy said:
lol yes they are! You mentioned them in another thread and I did a bunch of research and decided to buy them. Got the white ones. Very crisp sound and good bass. I would love to get the D1 but probably sometime later in the future. I already spent a pretty penny on all this stuff haha.

The reason I bought 768gb was because I work in windows alot with a game program as well as programs like maya and mudbox making models and textures, lots of space is easily used. and I have a crap ton of music and photos. Needed all the space I could get lol.
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Nice, well enjoy the speakers because they are awesome. I can't recommend these speakers enough, but when you want them to sound better and really bring them to life, get s DAC for sure.
 
Didn't get one because it's waaaay to expensive for me.

No regrets. Love my machine. Next computer I get (unless this one has an untimely end, let's hope not) will be retina-equipped; in four or five years, it'll be the normal price.
 
Those of you with the Classic MacBook Pros... is your machine utilising the full 16gb of RAM? I just had a chat with someone on the Apple website about this and she said that the 16gb would be recognised, but not utilised. Any comments?
 
Saw and played with the retina, bought a refurbished 2011 classic. Added SSD and 16GB RAM, saved a ton of dough. I use an external monitor most of the time anyway.

Your Applecare rep is not correct. Can all 16GB memory be utilized? Yes of course it can. Will it be? Not by most. Some of us use these things for work. I can run 2 VM's to replicate a web site and a 3rd to test Windows browsers while Photoshop and Office are all running on the Mac. Boo ya! It was $89 and I did it myself.
 
I also went cMBP and I don't regret it one bit.
It's a early 2011 that came with 2 SSDs - shure, not as fast as rMBPs SSD, but fast enough for me. Got 8GB RAM in and threw in 750GB HDD for music, movies and whatnot. It's simply my perfect setup.
The Retina is lovely, but I just can't live with the thought of not being able to upgrade if I want to. Gives me the feeling of being constrained:)
Besides I use my 15" as a desktop replacement, so the display wasn't the deciding factor for me - still I have and was looking for high res anti-glare version and I gotta say it's perfect for me when I don't use external. It's just the right resolution for my eyeballs. Using Retina in maxedout resolution made the text too small for me - though it was super crystal sharp. And the "best for the display" resolution in Retina which is 1920xsomething was basically the same as my external, so that didn't buy me.
Therefore in my opinion - if you go with cMBP you'll be very happy with it. Let's not forget it's still one hell of a slim and beautifully designed machine:)
 
InlawBiker said:
Saw and played with the retina, bought a refurbished 2011 classic. Added SSD and 16GB RAM, saved a ton of dough. I use an external monitor most of the time anyway.

Your Applecare rep is not correct. Can all 16GB memory be utilized? Yes of course it can. Will it be? Not by most. Some of us use these things for work. I can run 2 VM's to replicate a web site and a 3rd to test Windows browsers while Photoshop and Office are all running on the Mac. Boo ya! It was $89 and I did it myself.
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Thanks. I'm a photographer and the new version of Lightroom 4 is one of the most power hungry photo editing applications ever. I'd be surprised if exporting 800 high-res jpegs from 25mb raw files didn't go looking for 16gb of RAM. How did you confirm the full 16gb was being utilised? iStat Pro? Any chance of a screen shot to satisfy my curiosity?
 
nickphoto said:
Those of you with the Classic MacBook Pros... is your machine utilising the full 16gb of RAM? I just had a chat with someone on the Apple website about this and she said that the 16gb would be recognised, but not utilised. Any comments?
Click to expand...

Yes. They are full of crap. Unless they are referring to "shared" memory with the GPU. But that is the same on the rMBP as well. 16GB now, more possibly later when density improves. Z68 can handle 32GB. Only Apple would stand in the way with firmware blocks or something else to push rMBP sales. Interestingly the rMBP has more memory bandwidth with the "soldered on" style even though they are clocked the same and same amount.
http://macperformanceguide.com/mbp15inch2012-speed-memory-bandwidth.html
 
I have a 13" MBP that my daughter is going to use in university this Fall. I decided to buy the rMBP for myself. I really like the lightness and the display is terrific. A few things I don't like is the stuttering that happens when I am web surfing...don't know how I can get around that. Also, I've had to go back to using Safari because all other browsers look like crap with this display.

I never planned to open up any of my Macbooks to modify things anyway, so that part wasn't an issue.
 
I almost got a retina but changed my mind at the last minute and went with a high end mbp with high-res screen.

I just felt the retina wasn't quite ready for me, but I loved the improved thermal management and overclocked GPU.

I'll wait until Haswell when they'll have perfected high volume retina screen manufacturing and also a vastly improved integrated GPU.
 
Haha nice one Sofianto!

Anyone else dropped 16gb RAM into their new MBP? I'd love to know if you've managed to get it all running? I'm pretty confident the apple chat tech was just sticking to the official line, but I'd love to hear from someone with confidence before purchasing.
 
OP just keep saving your money and wait until Haswell come out next year, better hardware cause right now it's getting push to the limit just to drive the display and you should see a price drop next year
 
nickphoto said:
Haha nice one Sofianto!

Anyone else dropped 16gb RAM into their new MBP? I'd love to know if you've managed to get it all running? I'm pretty confident the apple chat tech was just sticking to the official line, but I'd love to hear from someone with confidence before purchasing.
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I have 16GBs in my 2012 cMBP, i haven't put it through it's paces but i got a great deal on 16gb of 1.35v/1600 ram

i'm actually certain i'm generally not using it because most of my software is 32-bit (my mac is a portable recording studio and the programs i use haven't been updated for 64-bit yet)

anyway i went classic because i still need native firewire (some thunderbolt incompatible stuff, weird, right?) and my computer is clamshelled and plugged into an external display almost all the time

i should add that i have a gaming desktop PC that i keep semi-current (just updated to ivy bridge, nvidia 600 series gpu, ssd) so my graphical power needs are handled elsewhere.. still would not recommend a $2200 laptop for gaming though.. if that's your gig get an air and spend the rest on a killer gaming desktop.
 
iapplelove said:
Do you regret not getting the retina version MBP? I'm about to finally pull the trigger and purchase a MBP(completely sick of waiting for the iMac refresh) but not sure if I want to spend the extra money on retina.

Having an ipad3 I can see the beauty and benefits of a higher performance screen but the rmbp is up there in price so I wanted to hear from those using the non retina day in day out
thanks
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No regrets. Somewhat concerned the over-clocked GPU will die early in the Retina anyways (right about 3 years 1 month, at the end of my Applecare).
 
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