Want a new MacBook, but which one?

[liorp]

Hi, everyone!

I am currently living in a place where a desktop computer is a no-go, so I've had to say a temporary goodbye to my 5K 27" iMac and take my old Lenovo laptop to use at home. I thought that I'd be cool with using a PC again, but this thing lags like you wouldn't believe, and it's a 2016 machine. So I need a mac, and soon.

What for:

• Adobe Premiere Pro and Photoshop: Mostly editing 1080p video and raw photos.
• Avid Pro Tools: My job. I don't plan on working with my laptop that much, since most studios have their own systems, but being able to open 20-30 track sessions (at least) with plugins is important to me.
• Email, Pages, social media, etc: 'Cuz you gotta write a letter and check on what your friends had for breakfast every once in a while.

I'm thinking about going the 15" fully upgraded i7 CPU and a 512GB SSD route (MacBook Pro), but if you have any other ideas or some general feedback, let me know, by all means.

Thanks!

 

[oldtime]

That machine would serve your needs well. If you want to save some coin and avoid some of the pitfalls of the recent MBPs, you could go for a 2015 15" and still be good.

 

[liorp]

If you want to save some coin and avoid some of the pitfalls of the recent MBPs, you could go for a 2015 15" and still be good.

By "pitfalls" do you mean - lack of ports?
The 2015 seems nice, but will it last with its specs, the latest version of MacOS and battery?
I like saving my coin, but I don't exactly buy computers once a month, so I just want to know what I'm getting into. Thanks

 

[oldtime]

By "pitfalls" do you mean - lack of ports?
The 2015 seems nice, but will it last with its specs, the latest version of MacOS and battery?
I like saving my coin, but I don't exactly buy computers once a month, so I just want to know what I'm getting into. Thanks

Yeah, the port issue + the keyboard which isn't exactly a fan favorite. How long do you plan on keeping your computer? I imagine the 2015 will hold its value pretty well, so if you upgrade in 3 or 4 years you should still get a good chunk of change for it.

 

[Falhófnir]

By "pitfalls" do you mean - lack of ports?
The 2015 seems nice, but will it last with its specs, the latest version of MacOS and battery?
I like saving my coin, but I don't exactly buy computers once a month, so I just want to know what I'm getting into. Thanks

I’d second oldtime’s post, if not a 2015 then upgrading beyond the basic specs of the 15” will be overkill for what you’re doing (sans the bigger SSD, which I would recommend in whatever you get) there again, in a couple of months we could see a/ several new 2018 models which might throw things back up in the air - whatever you do don’t waste your money on the cpu upgrade though, it won’t really help longevity at all.

 

[liorp]

Yeah, the port issue + the keyboard which isn't exactly a fan favorite. How long do you plan on keeping your computer? I imagine the 2015 will hold its value pretty well, so if you upgrade in 3 or 4 years you should still get a good chunk of change for it.

I tried the keyboard on a 2016 MBP at an Apple store a while ago and thought it was fine. I plan to keep it as a daily driver for as long as it runs, so... 4 years? Maybe more.

 

[oldtime]

I tried the keyboard on a 2016 MBP at an Apple store a while ago and thought it was fine. I plan to keep it as a daily driver for as long as it runs, so... 4 years? Maybe more.

If it doesn't bother you then by all means, go for it. I had planned on getting a 2017 MBP, but after playing with it in store I just couldn't stand the kb. I have the luxury of waiting, so I decided to just stick it out with my 6 year old MBA until Apple updated the MBP line with (hopefully) an improved kb.

 

[liorp]

I’d second oldtime’s post, if not a 2015 then upgrading beyond the basic specs of the 15” will be overkill for what you’re doing (sans the bigger SSD, which I would recommend in whatever you get)

Bigger than 512 GBs? Is it REALLY necessary? I mean, Apple's storage upgrades are crazy expensive. I don't know that I'd need that much internal storage, especially at that price.

in a couple of months we could see a/ several new 2018 models which might throw things back up in the air - whatever you do don’t waste your money on the cpu upgrade though, it won’t really help longevity at all.

There's another reason for my doubts and questions - Maybe I should just wait a while and see what's introduced this year.
Also, why not get a better CPU? Longevity aside, I think that a higher clock speed would only do me good. Am I wrong?

 

[oldtime]

The small bump in CPU is going to be practically unnoticeable and should be your last consideration, really, after SSD/RAM.

 

[liorp]

The small bump in CPU is going to be practically unnoticeable and should be your last consideration, really, after SSD/RAM.

Good point. Thanks.

 

[Falhófnir]

Bigger than 512 GBs? Is it REALLY necessary? I mean, Apple's storage upgrades are crazy expensive. I don't know that I'd need that much internal storage, especially at that price.

There's another reason for my doubts and questions - Maybe I should just wait a while and see what's introduced this year.
Also, why not get a better CPU? Longevity aside, I think that a higher clock speed would only do me good. Am I wrong?

No 512 will suffice, I was saying the upgrade to 512 from 256 (which is base storage) is worth it

The quad i7 in the base is already plenty competent for what you want to do, really the higher clocked upgrades are just expensive wastes of money that only very specific use cases will make any sort of use of. It’s up to you, but at most I’d say we are 5 months away from the next model - WWDC, and quite possibly will see something sooner in the spring (March/April time?) the decision is yours of course, but personally I’d be waiting at this point. Especially as they might finally be upgrading the cheaper 2015 model to one more in line with the pricier ones.

 

[laz232]

I'm waiting for a meaningful upgrade to my 2013 13" rMBP and the 2017 models from Apple don't make much sense to me (apart from 8->16GB RAM would improve performance for my use case) and I don't want to deal with all the dongles at the moment.

Just wondering why a 2016 Lenovo would be so laggy? Does it have sufficient RAM and an SSD? The latter makes a *huge* difference.

 

[liorp]

No 512 will suffice, I was saying the upgrade to 512 from 256 (which is base storage) is worth it

The quad i7 in the base is already plenty competent for what you want to do, really the higher clocked upgrades are just expensive wastes of money that only very specific use cases will make any sort of use of. It’s up to you, but at most I’d say we are 5 months away from the next model - WWDC, and quite possibly will see something sooner in the spring (March/April time?) the decision is yours of course, but personally I’d be waiting at this point. Especially as they might finally be upgrading the cheaper 2015 model to one more in line with the pricier ones.

You're right. 256 is definitely not enough for anything serious. 512 is just right. Beyond that, external storage exists.

I was not aware of the 2.9 GHz i7's turbo feature. It makes all the difference and makes the upgrade to the higher tier i7 a waste of money, like you said. I'll give this whole thing a good think, maybe go for the base 15" 2017 model, or maybe suffer a bit longer until WWDC. Cheers!
[doublepost=1515840954][/doublepost]

I'm waiting for a meaningful upgrade to my 2013 13" rMBP and the 2017 models from Apple don't make much sense to me (apart from 8->16GB RAM would improve performance for my use case) and I don't want to deal with all the dongles at the moment.

Just wondering why a 2016 Lenovo would be so laggy? Does it have sufficient RAM and an SSD? The latter makes a *huge* difference.

My Lenovo rocks a Skylake i7, 8GBs of RAM and OK storage (128GB SSD with another 1TB spinning drive). Plus, it's a PC. I've built PCs, used PC laptops, and let's be honest. They lag.

 

[laz232]

You're right. 256 is definitely not enough for anything serious. 512 is just right. Beyond that, external storage exists.

I was not aware of the 2.9 GHz i7's turbo feature. It makes all the difference and makes the upgrade to the higher tier i7 a waste of money, like you said. I'll give this whole thing a good think, maybe go for the base 15" 2017 model, or maybe suffer a bit longer until WWDC. Cheers!
[doublepost=1515840954][/doublepost]
My Lenovo rocks a Skylake i7, 8GBs of RAM and OK storage (128GB SSD with another 1TB spinning drive). Plus, it's a PC. I've built PCs, used PC laptops, and let's be honest. They lag.

I've been SSD only since 2010, thus maybe it's using the 1TB HDD for the swap file? My rMBP gets laggy after a day or two between reboots because it runs out of RAM with only 8GB, using web-browser, large PDFs and occasional VM (3GB allocation). Of course I remember lag back in the days when I had to configure 20MB (!) HDD and 30ms access times was considered fast!... but anyways...

FWIW I'm definitely waiting for a 16GB system, along with a meaningful battery improvement (as current rMBP seem to be a side-grade compared to my 2013 rMBP). The CPU upgrades on the models rarely make sense. GPU upgrades from integrated to discrete *might* do if the applications make use of it, and if you want to deal with the battery-life reduction. For me it's a non-issue as my engineering programs don't make use of the dGPU and I would rather have the battery life.

 

[Tech198]

Hi, everyone!

I am currently living in a place where a desktop computer is a no-go, so I've had to say a temporary goodbye to my 5K 27" iMac and take my old Lenovo laptop to use at home. I thought that I'd be cool with using a PC again, but this thing lags like you wouldn't believe, and it's a 2016 machine. So I need a mac, and soon.

What for:

• Adobe Premiere Pro and Photoshop: Mostly editing 1080p video and raw photos.
• Avid Pro Tools: My job. I don't plan on working with my laptop that much, since most studios have their own systems, but being able to open 20-30 track sessions (at least) with plugins is important to me.
• Email, Pages, social media, etc: 'Cuz you gotta write a letter and check on what your friends had for breakfast every once in a while.

I'm thinking about going the 15" fully upgraded i7 CPU and a 512GB SSD route (MacBook Pro), but if you have any other ideas or some general feedback, let me know, by all means.

Thanks!

Yep,,, if its for Adobe Premier than must be Macbook Pro particularly working with RAW