Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Who's buying base Retina MBP with 16GB ram?

Z

zjazz

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 7, 2011
363
64
I decided to get one after seeing it yesterday in the store. Beautiful machine!

The thing is that I really wanted to get it in store and not order it because of the waiting time, but I've been told that 16GB will not make it to the store and is only build to order. I could hunt for one and get the base with 8GB right away, but I want 16GB so there is no way for me to buy it in store, and I have to wait 3-4 weeks...

I'm a musician so more ram is better, I'm sure 8 will be fine and will do the job, and my previous MBP with 4GB was ok with occasional lags, but since it's soldered on RMBP I decided to get 16 and not worry about upgrade anytime in future.

So who's waiting for base 16GB and why?:)
 
I haven't decided to buy or not, but if I do, I'm getting the extra RAM. Even if it wasn't soldered in, upgrading later would probably cost $100 anyway to buy two 8GB chips. Plus the work to put it in (trivial on desktops but not always so on laptops). So this isn't even that much of an Apple Tax.

Add in that this soldered in, and I think everyone should go down this route.

This would be the first time I've ever bought memory from Apple if I decide to buy here.
 
^^^agreed ^^^
And I'm glad that base model is 8GB. Upgrading with a student discount extra 8GB for $180 from Apple is not that bad actually. Yes it could be cheaper if that would be removable, but well...:)
 
Base + 16 here. The main reason I can see for going w/ the high end model is to get the 512 or 768GB SSDs. I can live w/ 256GB and external drives are cheap, plus a 3rd party solution (OWC) is bound to be available in a few months if I really want a larger SSD, but it's now or never w/ the RAM.

zjazz said:
^^^agreed ^^^
And I'm glad that base model is 8GB. Upgrading with a student discount extra 8GB for $180 from Apple is not that bad actually. Yes it could be cheaper if that would be removable, but well...:)
Click to expand...

No, its bad. $180 is reasonable for 1 16GB stick or 2x8GB sticks but we get no credit for the standard 8GB stick or 2x4GB sticks that Apple keeps. It should be a $100 upgrade. That would be @ market retail price.
 
Base +16 here too. I can't see the need for more than 256gb mobile anyway. I'm coming from Air land with 128 so it'll be more space than I'm used to!
 
Mine's prepping to ship. Ordered it an hour after the keynote.

When it does, the second and third thing on there after Xcode will be Xampp and Postgres, so more ram is never going to be a bad thing...
 
NICE! Yes 16GB may look too much right now for my needs, but you never know about tomorrow, and since it's soldered 16GB it is!!!
As far as I can see it looks like many people going this route (base 16GB), I wish they had 16GB version available in stores and not built to order!:)
 
Base retina 16gb ram + ubs3 external hd + a cooling pad. Student discount + You save a little more tax if you ship to a lower tax state. Kinda justify the 16gb upgrade. Extra 0.3 ghz not that noticeable I guess.
 
TallManNY said:
I haven't decided to buy or not, but if I do, I'm getting the extra RAM. Even if it wasn't soldered in, upgrading later would probably cost $100 anyway to buy two 8GB chips. Plus the work to put it in (trivial on desktops but not always so on laptops). So this isn't even that much of an Apple Tax.

Add in that this soldered in, and I think everyone should go down this route.
Click to expand...

Apple's prices for memory upgrades usually roughly reflect market prices (plus some markup) when the machine is released. The problem is, as time goes on market prices fall but the upgrade price doesn't.

I guess the lesson is, only buy Apple upgrades at release time. :)
 
12345aa said:
Mine's prepping to ship. Ordered it an hour after the keynote.

When it does, the second and third thing on there after Xcode will be Xampp and Postgres, so more ram is never going to be a bad thing...
Click to expand...

Mine's preparing to ship too (just a little before you posted).

I went with base+16 because of price. Honestly, I would love 512 GB and 2.6 GHz but $600 extra is too much. My current laptop has 500 GB inside it, so it'll be a tight squeeze. I'll probably have to use a USB 3 external (any recommendations*?) for extra storage.

* Are there any that don't require a power adapter? Maybe thunderbolt is a better option?
 
I went ahead and ordered the high-end retina with 16gb ram. Honestly, it's a machine that is going to last me at least three years before upgrading again, so it's better to future-proof for any software that might require larger amounts of ram in that time.

And seeing as it was only an extra $200 to upgrade... What's an extra $200 when you're already paying like $3000?
 
leaning towards base with 16 as well..

Lots of Photoshop, Lightroom and Sony Vegas Pro 11 in my future.
 
That's exactly what I'm gonna do. Seagate FreeAgent 1 TB! Very nice small portable usb3 HD for just 94$ on Amazon! Don't need no power, all you need is to connect it to USB port and you good to go!:):):)
 
I can't even imaging how much faster 16 gigs would feel compared to 8. I use logic, ableton live, final cut pro, adobe products, parallels/vmware etc on a late 2008 core 2 duo with 4 gigs and although the lag kind of sucks, it's still not that bad. Would I even feel a difference with the 16 compared to the 8?
 
Hesitated and waited a day to order but I got the base + 16. I coulda gotten it right when the store opened.
 
Had to join the forum just to say that I'll be getting this config as well.

It'll be my first mac. I've had my current Dell XPS 15 for a little over 3 years and have had a few HDD failures (mainly due to accidental kid abuse) so SSD was a must. I've looked at my usage and Im barely over 250gb including games and images (I store long term on my home media server).

The processor, I don't think that I would notice a difference between 2.3, 2.6 or 2.7 with my photo processing, memory on the other hand... 16GB is a must, being soldered in and I plan on keeping the machine for 3+ years I'm not about to be stuck with less ram than possible :)
 
I too ordered the 2.3 + 16GB. Won't arrive until June 25th but like others have said I refuse to be impatient and buy the base model in stores. The additional 8GB will eventually come in handy and with the $200 student discount the extra $180 was an easy decision.

Patiently waiting.
 
2008 MacBook Pro with 8GB RAM: frequently swaps.

2011 iMac with 16GB RAM: never swaps.

Similar (but not identical) usage on both. Safari, Word, Pages, Excel, Parallels If I go for a RMBP (MBPR?), it will be with 16GB.

Not really a power user in any way, but how people can say "you'll hardly even even need 8GB, much less 16" I don't know.

(What really ticks me off is that since sometime in 10.6 the OS has gotten "retentive" about memory and I'll frequently see page outs when there is inactive memory available.)
 
trollbert said:
I can't even imaging how much faster 16 gigs would feel compared to 8. I use logic, ableton live, final cut pro, adobe products, parallels/vmware etc on a late 2008 core 2 duo with 4 gigs and although the lag kind of sucks, it's still not that bad. Would I even feel a difference with the 16 compared to the 8?
Click to expand...

Not really, unless you run a few of those at once quite intensely. But in a year or so it will be definitely worth it
 
I kind of need more storage space than 256, and valued that over RAM. I don't want to have to transfer my media all the time. So I opted for the 2.6/512GB model.

I use my comp for all the basic tasks like Safari, Mail, Word, PP, etc., and do some Photoshopping and photography as well. 8GB should hopefully be enough.
 
JohnnyQuest said:
I kind of need more storage space than 256, and valued that over RAM. I don't want to have to transfer my media all the time. So I opted for the 2.6/512GB model.

I use my comp for all the basic tasks like Safari, Mail, Word, PP, etc., and do some Photoshopping and photography as well. 8GB should hopefully be enough.
Click to expand...

Definitely 8GB should be enough, but that will be permanent, and if you planning to use your comp for several years I would suggest to upgrade to 16GB. Just my 2 cents :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back