Which Macbook Pro is better value

[spirie]

Looking to upgrade my MBP 13" to a 15" retina.
Have seen 2 specifications that are currently the same price in UK - £1999.

MGXC2B/A - 2.5GHZ i7 with 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM (std price)
or
ME874B/A - 2.6GHZ with 1TB SSD, 16GB RAM, (reduced by £350 apparently)

Seem to be pretty much identical in terms of graphics. From a quick search it appears the 2.5ghz is mid-2014 and the 2.6ghz is late 2013, but for double the storage it might be worth getting the older model? I'm not sure which processor is actually faster on paper.

Which would be the better buy in terms of spec, or should I wait till black Friday at the end of the month and see what discounts Apple offer on MBP and use the saving to upgrade RAM?

Probably won't mak much difference to daily use as I generally use for email/internet as well as some photo and gopro home video processing, but want to get the best possible at the time of purchase to give it longevity.

 

[Zorgoth]

16GB RAM is pretty future-proof, and I don't think you can upgrade higher anyway. The processor on the model with less storage is much better. 1TB SSD is very expensive, but not very useful for most people compared to 512GB SSD (I don't know if it is useful to you specifically) - even 256GB is plenty for the average person. If I had to choose between those models, I would take the processor over the SSD; the SSD is technically better value (more expensive), but the processor will make more of a difference. 1TB SSD might also be less valuable in a few years as the technology matures and becomes cheaper, whereas a cheaper processor will probably make the computer lose more value.

I would like to note that even the most basic model of a new Macbook Pro 15" Retina is probably future-proof for five years for anyone who isn't doing computationally intensive work or gaming. The Intel Iris Pro 5200 graphics are actually quite good, the highest-end processors make a minimal difference when you consider that the Macbook is a small form-factor computer without the best cooling, and 256GB SSD storage is enough for most people (and external HDD storage is far more economical if you need to have extra but don't necessarily need to carry it around).

For perspective, I am a PhD student in math who has to run highly intensive numerical simulations on my laptop, and the base model is plenty for me; it is a mid-level mobiile workstation class machine.