Which pro would better suit me?

[katehmoss]

Hi,

I just recently killed my new macbook pro. (do not drink near your computer..) So I am in the market to purchase a new one and was interested in the SSD.

A little about me, I'm a college student majoring in radiology. I dabble in photography, not too much, just as a hobby, and basically will use my mac for school and personal use. I was looking at a few refurbished models and was wondering which might better suit me:

macbook pro 2012 with 4gb ram and 128 ssd
or a pro with 8gb ram and 500 gb aerial ata drive @ 5400 rpm


before these i was looking in the air, however, after talking to a couple of people they have scared me away from the idea of possibly running out of space and resorting to external memory, which i would rather not do.

thanks!

 

[whoknows87]

Hi,

I just recently killed my new macbook pro. (do not drink near your computer..) So I am in the market to purchase a new one and was interested in the SSD.

A little about me, I'm a college student majoring in radiology. I dabble in photography, not too much, just as a hobby, and basically will use my mac for school and personal use. I was looking at a few refurbished models and was wondering which might better suit me:

macbook pro 2012 with 4gb ram and 128 ssd
or a pro with 8gb ram and 500 gb aerial ata drive @ 5400 rpm


before these i was looking in the air, however, after talking to a couple of people they have scared me away from the idea of possibly running out of space and resorting to external memory, which i would rather not do.

thanks!

if your considering the pro 128GB why not consider the 128 on an Air? either you can use an external for everything else, the SSD will make the MB a lot faster and smoother, just get the 13 Air, but if your set on a pro go with the 8GB keep in mind that you will lose out on the SSD, you can always upgrade it later but might cost you a few hundred bucks

 

[fleawannabe]

I see Apple making all their computers in the future like the MBA and Retinas now, non upgradable. I would go with the Pro while you still can.

 

[Dark Void]

I see Apple making all their computers in the future like the MBA and Retinas now, non upgradable. I would go with the Pro while you still can.

I could see that too unfortunately.

Thin laptops with basically no ports and soldered hardware. Almost like a tablet with a keyboard and trackpad attached to it.

If you prefer expandability OP, the Pro is your best choice. I would get whichever of those models is cheaper and upgrade via aftermarket.

 

[Ledgem]

A little about me, I'm a college student majoring in radiology. I dabble in photography, not too much, just as a hobby, and basically will use my mac for school and personal use. I was looking at a few refurbished models and was wondering which might better suit me:

macbook pro 2012 with 4gb ram and 128 ssd
or a pro with 8gb ram and 500 gb aerial ata drive @ 5400 rpm


before these i was looking in the air, however, after talking to a couple of people they have scared me away from the idea of possibly running out of space and resorting to external memory, which i would rather not do.

thanks!

Why not do the upgrades yourself? 4 GB of RAM will probably be sufficient for you right now. 16 GB of RAM is currently in the $80 range and has slowly been dropping (was high 80's two weeks ago, now seems to be mid- to low 80's).

SSDs are a similar deal; I saw this morning that Newegg has a 120 GB SSD from OCZ for $80, or $60 with a $20 mail-in rebate. If you're worried that 128 GB won't be enough, wait a year or two for the prices to drop even farther, and then get a larger SSD.

 

[PortableLover]

The standard 13 inch mbp would be a beautiful solution for you. The standard lowest price stock configuration would be best, the ssd is tempting but you may miss the storage.. Even the 13 mba would be great but lacks upgradability so if you decide you want more power in the future, you may regret the MBA. So i would go for the MBP 13 inch.


Trust me for now you will not use the full 4gb of ram,buying more maybe a waste of money at this point in time.

 

[Dweez]

I would go with the MBP as you'll have upgrade options down the road if you like. I swapped in an SSD and will never purchase another system without an SSD. Spinning media is great, but the SSD experience needs to be, well, experienced.