Dilemma £1800 to spend on a Macbook Pro..

Alpherah

Alpherah

Alpherah

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Posting on behalf of a friend who's facing a bit of a dilemma.
He wants to spend approx £1800 on a MBP (15") but cant decide on the base spec Retina with RAM and CPU upgrade or the top spec classic with anti-glare and user upgraded RAM (and SSD eventually).

He's worried about the performance difference between the 512MB GPU on the base Retina compared to the 1GB on the classic (as the 1gb on the up spec retina is out of budget)

So in essence it comes down to (with HE pricing)

Retina 15" - i7 2.6Ghz, 512Mb GT650m, 16GB Ram, 256GB SSD for £1749
or
Classic 15" - anti-glare screen, 1gb GT650m, 750GB 5400 HDD, 8GB RAM for £1597
and then upgrade the RAM and HDD to 16GB and SSD for £1800 ish

so in essence, it comes all down to the GPU (the screen difference isnt much of a big deal, so we can ignore that)

thanks for the advice!
 
Well one of the main driving factors toward the rMBP is the screen... clue is in the title :)

What's he actually using it for? I'd personally opt for the retina, the 'classic' MBP will be 'obsolete' at some point this year I'm sure, and it will be a beast in that spec!

The form factor and screen are amazing IMO, well worth it :)
 
That was my suggestion too but he's worried about the VRAM pushing such a resolution.

Usage is the basic office stuff with video and photo editing with some steam gaming (portal 2 , tf2) on top.

Edit

Can you turn the retina resolution down to normal MBP resolutions? That would solve the VRAM issue if it becomes a problem in certain circumstances surely?
 
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I was facing the same dilemma last week and in the end I went for a normal 15" MBP.

I do really like the retina model, it's hard not to, but the following reasons led to my decision (not in order of importance!)

I'm not a fan of the Magsafe 2 connector

I like the retina display but it's not enough better than the high res 1680x1050 display to really matter

The retina is a first generation product

The retina is non-upgradable

I want the ethernet & firewire ports without using adaptors

The retina is very, very integrated and very expensive to repair (and this coming from an ACMT who could do his own repairs if it broke - still too expensive!)

I couldn't afford the spec I would want in the retina model - specifically HDD & RAM. I could have upped the RAM but the SSD is just so expensive. I'm just about to put a 1tb drive in this machine (I got it today) which cost me £50, and will most likely drop another £100 on a 128gb SSD and move the 1TB to the optical bay.

Downsides of my going for the normal one - if a new MBP comes out with all this and a retina display I will probably feel quite hard done by, and that's a risk, but I was buying now so I chose from what was in front of me. I really like the retina MBP but it's not the right product for me right now. It's a great machine though if budget allows it - to be honest the money I had wouldn't have got me the retina I'd want, which would be mega money.

The 'already obsolete' thing has some weight too but there's the possibility it's the last MBP that's actually going to be upgradable and repairable and that had its own value to me.
 
I'm seeing both 15" retina mbp's come with 1gb GT 650's on the apple store. :S

The only 512mb gt 650 is on the base classic mbp so your friend shouldn't have to worry ?
 
momo56 said:
I'm seeing both 15" retina mbp's come with 1gb GT 650's on the apple store. :S

The only 512mb gt 650 is on the base classic mbp so your friend shouldn't have to worry ?
Click to expand...

Both do exist but the top spec retina is out of his friends range.

If I was buying a MBP today I would make the same decision as PardonTheWait for similar reasons. The screen is really nice but practicality would win at this point in time.
 
It must be an error on the HE site, even the base rMBP has 1GB discrete graphics.

15-inch: 2.3GHz with Retina display
2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz
8GB 1600MHz memory
256GB flash storage
Intel HD Graphics 4000
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory

I have the above, purchased with a friends 18% employee discount :D
 
I have both a retina and a classic mbp. I love both and if I had to choose 1 I would go for the classic for all the reasons PardonTheWait stated plus I also like the battery indicator, infra red (I use the remote quite often) plus using a SSD and HDD combo (I have a 256gb SSD and a 1tb HDD)

In the retina's defence it not only has a great screen, the 650m is clocked higher and you get HDMI plus 2 thunderbolt.
 
Unless you desperately need a built in DVD and Ethernet then retina all the way. It's just such a great form factor, powerful and the screen is amazing. Get the 16gb version and your set.
 
Well, for me it would be the Retina display model.

I personally just got the new retina with 2.6GHz CPU, 16GB Ram and 512GB SSD - and im on cloud 9 permanently. its fast light and goes through everything i throw at it.

The screen is simply great.
 
--- Z --- said:
I personally just got the new retina with 2.6GHz CPU, 16GB Ram and 512GB SSD - and im on cloud 9 permanently. its fast light and goes through everything i throw at it.
Click to expand...

But how much did that cost ?

My 13" MBP has 512G SSD, 8G Ram, cost me less than £1200.

It all depends on your budget and what you want more. It is cheaper to max out a spec for a classic in DIY route than pay Apple to upgrade all the parts on purchase. 512G SSD is something like £800 isn't it?!
 
I guess that isn't TOO bad, especially with 512 SSD.

I am very happy with my 13" MBP though, still have a DVD-RW :D

Can't complain for £1200.
 
To update he went with the Retina, and its so nice I decided to buy one too! (2010 27" iMac coming to members market soon)

Cant believe the inefficiency in Apple's shipping however.
Tracking starts in Ireland (so assume its come here from China or Calif or something) and is shipped via UPS Ireland.
Its since been shipped back (i assume) to China, where it is now awaiting departure again, where I assume it will be making its way back this direction.
Bizarre.
 
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