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Which Macbook should I buy?

Daveb517

Daveb517

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 5, 2017
7
0
Hello guys!

I'm thinking about buying a Macbook, but I'm quite indecisive, because I don't know which one to choose. I'm also not really familiar with the specs, like is i7 better with lower Ghz or i5 with higher Ghz, and all that stuff. I would use it for basic stuff (browsing, chatting, watching videos, school etc.) and for photo-editing in Photoshop (I'm doing photography) and maybe video editing in the future. I'm a student so my budget is quite limited, that's why I would like the "cheapest" one if possible.

I was thinking about Macbook Pro 13" 2.7 GHz Retina display, 128 GB, because it has higher Ghz, but I'm not sure if I need that much. Also the storage is a bit small, but I could buy an external disk. I would be really thankful if somebody could explain me how to choose the right Macbook considering the specs, like what is for what, where do I need invest more money and where don't.

Thanks in advance. Have a nice day!
 
Daveb517 said:
Hello guys!

I'm thinking about buying a Macbook, but I'm quite indecisive, because I don't know which one to choose. I'm also not really familiar with the specs, like is i7 better with lower Ghz or i5 with higher Ghz, and all that stuff. I would use it for basic stuff (browsing, chatting, watching videos, school etc.) and for photo-editing in Photoshop (I'm doing photography) and maybe video editing in the future. I'm a student so my budget is quite limited, that's why I would like the "cheapest" one if possible.

I was thinking about Macbook Pro 13" 2.7 GHz Retina display, 128 GB, because it has higher Ghz, but I'm not sure if I need that much. Also the storage is a bit small, but I could buy an external disk. I would be really thankful if somebody could explain me how to choose the right Macbook considering the specs, like what is for what, where do I need invest more money and where don't.

Thanks in advance. Have a nice day!
Click to expand...

Have you considered a 2015 model with perhaps a larger hard drive? You would be able to edit photos just fine, but videos would push the machine if they get large enough.

Don't worry much about the processor. For your needs the GPU, Ram, and SSD are the most important.
 
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smallcoffee said:
Have you considered a 2015 model with perhaps a larger hard drive? You would be able to edit photos just fine, but videos would push the machine if they get large enough.

Don't worry much about the processor. For your needs the GPU, Ram, and SSD are the most important.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply. Could you link me a specific model please?
So the most imporant is the ram, so I should go for 16gb? How's that the processor is not that important? And also, what is gpu? Sry if I'm being annoying, I just want to understand it
 
Daveb517 said:
Thank you for your reply. Could you link me a specific model please?
So the most imporant is the ram, so I should go for 16gb? How's that the processor is not that important? And also, what is gpu? Sry if I'm being annoying, I just want to understand it
Click to expand...

Sorry on my phone. I would just search the refurbished products.

The CPU is basically unimportant here because it's not your bottleneck. So imagine you have 3 things, and you need them all to do a job. Item 1 is really really fast, item two is pretty fast, and item 3 is quite slow. You would want to upgrade item 3 to increase the overall performance of whatever these three things are doing.

The CPU in modern laptops is item 1. It's really, really fast. It's rarely ever your bottleneck. You'll want to target something else to get the best performance increase.

For your situation, it depends on your budget. For a generic answer, GPU > ram > SSD size > everything else.

Typically the GPU is the most expensive upgrade, like you would need to buy a 15 inc MacBook Pro to get a dedicated GPU, so for you if you're looking at 13 inch machines you'll want to upgrade the ram/hd as much as you can afford to have the best performance increase out of your options.

If you can handle a small hard drive, go for 16gb ram. If you need a larger drive, get a 256 ssd.
 
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Either a base-model 2016 without the touch bar, or a base model 13" inch 2015 edition, will suit your needs quite well.

You can find the 2015 models for around $1,000 and sometimes a bit under. The trade off is the smaller hard drive (128 GB), but that may fit your budget quite well.

It is also worth mentioning that the 2015 MacBook Airs have been spotted as low as $550 in new, open-box specials.
 
Thanks guys for you replies. So I searched the refurbished ones and I found this one. It has bigger RAM and also the graphics card is different from the 2016 models (not sure if worse or better, though). 256 GB storage would be just enough.

What do you think, would this be good for me? I also checked this one, but I'm not sure if I need that powerful Macbook for photo editing (now I edit photos on my Asus g750jw and it's alright) and in the future by video-editing I meant mainly cutting videos and uploading them to Youtube.
 
Well the 2015 13" MBP is a good machine and I think u will be satisfied.

On the other side, bigger and newer is always faster;-)

so it depends how much u want to spend and if u don't want a more mobile/lighter/smaller device. the 15" will give u more real estate for working with pictures and has about double the performance (quad core vs dual core and Iris Pro) but is also a pound heavier.
The 2016 13" with touch bar has about 20% faster GPU than the 2015 model. Apple says up to 100%, but take that with a grain of salt.
 
Would I notice that big of a difference between the 2 Macbooks? Like the 15" is faster, because it has quad core? I also just realized that the 2016 Macbooks don't have the basic ports like 2015 do and I would have to buy adapters, which is a downside for me. Also I like the bigger touchpad, but for example I don't need that Touchbar or what it is called. I don't think it's that useful that I should pay extra money for it, but again as you said, the newer is always better. Probably I will stick to the 2015 MBP 13", the one I linked in my previous post.

I'm planning on buying it at the end of the summer, so hopefully I'll be able to find it somewhere even then :D
 
U will see the performance difference only while using intense task like applying filters to big fotos, cutting 4K videos etc. and then it can be significant.
u'll find some test online.

But for day to day tasks like browsing web no different and if it's just a hobby and u don't make money out of it...

And if u r waiting till end of summer anyway, u can wait till autumn because than the MBP will be ready for the next upgrade. U know: faster, better;)
 
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Pick whatever 2015 model meets your budget.
I would recommend the 256gb SSD as "the minimum size", however.
 
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