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dordal

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 26, 2007
57
7
I generally budget ~$1200 to $1500/year for a Macbook Pro. Time to get a new one, and I'm trying to decide:

- 32GB/2TB/slowest CPU/GPU/etc. ( $3,399.00 )
- 64GB/4TB/fastest CPU/GPU/etc. ( $4,899.00 )

The intensive work I do is photography (Lightroom/Photoshop) and development (running multiple VMs). The rest is just web browsing, email, etc. So I don't really need the bigger machine -- 32GB RAM would be enough for the VMs, and I can't see myself taking an extra 2TB of pictures in the next few years.

I'd expect to replace the slower one in three years; the bigger one in ~4 years.

- If I go big I get four years of awesomeness, vs. three years of goodness, but not as awesome. More overhead to not worry about deleting files. Not worry about having tons of VMs running at the same time, or Photoshop + VMs. Faster CPU with more cores to make everything go faster.
- But conversely if I go small I get whatever new machine Apple has in three years, not four.
- I could lose/break/drop the machine, so having a more expensive one is bad.
- There could be some terrible flaw in this machine that Apple can't fix without a redesign (like the keyboards of the 2016-2018 machines), and I'd be stuck with the flaw for longer.

I've talked myself into both options about a dozen times now. Any thoughts? WWYD?

D
 
I have similar use cases to yours. Why don’t you get a third in-between option ? I ordered the fastest cpu, 64 GB and 2TB if storage. This way you’re future-proofing the machine and still have decent space for your VMs and photos.
Come the time you’re running short, move the photos out on an external drive and squeeze a few more years out of it.
I usually aim at 4-5 years per machine but I’m changing my 2018 because I’m sick of the 560X and the fans kicking in every time I do a compile in VS or open more than a few tabs. If the 16” does the same, it’s going back.
 
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