Member of the Month

PartyBullshiit
March, 2024

Online

Welcome to the Newschoolers forums! You may read the forums as a guest, however you must be a registered member to post. Register to become a member today!

Which one between these 4 macbook pro is the best: quality/price?

profile picture
Will.T
Posts: 3453 - Karma: 1,279
I need a computer for college and my parents are paying it..

I'll use it for:

Class notes

lot of video editing

photo editing


the 4 choice are: (im not necessarely buying the best, if i can have something that will be as good as i need, don't tell me to buy the next level one)

13-inch: 2.9 GHz
  • 2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i7
  • Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
  • 8GB 1600MHz memory
  • 750GB 5400-rpm hard drive1
  • Intel HD Graphics 4000
  • Built-in battery (7 hours)2

15-inch : 2.3 GHz

  • 2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
  • Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz
  • 4GB 1600MHz memory
  • 500GB 5400-rpm hard drive1
  • Intel HD Graphics 4000
  • NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 512MB of GDDR5 memory
  • Built-in battery (7 hours)2
15-inch: 2.6 GHz

  • 2.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
  • Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
  • 8GB 1600MHz memory
  • 750GB 5400-rpm hard drive1
  • Intel HD Graphics 4000
  • NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
  • Built-in battery (7 hours)2


15-inch: 2.3 GHz Retina display
  • 2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
  • Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz
  • 8GB 1600MHz memory
  • 256GB flash storage1
  • Intel HD Graphics 4000
  • NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
  • Built-in battery (7 hours)2

  • Thanks and k+ for good answer!
Jul 17 2012 4:16PM
0 0
profile picture
eheath
Posts: 61097 - Karma: 118,198
15" retina display. If your parents are paying, you'd be stupid not to get the best. There are a ton of deals on cheaper MBPs which i would push your way if you were paying for it, but if your parents will pay 2k for the retina MBP, then get it. It will be the fastest MBP you can get right now anyway. Try to upgrade your ram to 16gb if your parents let you :)
Jul 17 2012 4:28PM
0 0
profile picture
Will.T
Posts: 3453 - Karma: 1,279
ok perfect, and the upgrade to 16gb of ram would be amazing ahaha.. and what about the 256gb of flash storage?


Jul 17 2012 5:38PM
0 0
profile picture
eheath
Posts: 61097 - Karma: 118,198
i mean, it depends on how much on computer storage you need. im guessing youre running with alot of externals so internal storage wont be an issue. My first MBP has 120gb hard drive and i never had a problem, mine now is 750 but i only use 100-200 at the most, 90% of which doesnt need to be on my comp ha
Jul 17 2012 5:44PM
0 0
profile picture
family_vacation
Posts: 6200 - Karma: 7,841
I ordered the retina with 16gb of ram.

The small internal drive should be fine. I'll be editing everything off of an external RAID setup, USB 3 should be plenty fast.
Jul 17 2012 5:53PM
0 0
profile picture
Will.T
Posts: 3453 - Karma: 1,279
ohhh ok!

so the best is always to put all the shots on a external drive, i have a 1TB i think, is that enough?

and is there quality one and shitty one? like will i have to buy another one or my 1TB one will be good?
Jul 17 2012 7:08PM
0 0
profile picture
family_vacation
Posts: 6200 - Karma: 7,841
Yeah, there are good externals and bad externals.

The key thing to consider is performance. You're going to want a drive that spins at 7200rpm and is connected via USB 3 or Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt still costs an arm and a leg so I'm not worrying about it. Mechanical drives are not fast enough to take advantage of it anyways.

Also, putting all your shots on a single external is a guaranteed way to lose ALL of your work. You should have at least two matching drives that each contain all your videos;
Jul 17 2012 7:45PM
0 0
profile picture
Will.T
Posts: 3453 - Karma: 1,279
so a good one that i use to work on it and i can still use the bad one to just put the shot so if i loose the shots on the good one, i can put them back on it?
Jul 17 2012 7:51PM
0 0
profile picture
family_vacation
Posts: 6200 - Karma: 7,841
I suppose that would work. It's just important to always have redundancy. I'm actually going to be placing two internal drives in a RAID enclosure when my laptop arrives.
Jul 17 2012 8:08PM
0 0
profile picture
erikK
Posts: 3245 - Karma: 2,325
please don't tell me you paid for 16gb of ram from the factory
Jul 17 2012 8:21PM
0 0
profile picture
family_vacation
Posts: 6200 - Karma: 7,841
I'm aware that Apple makes you pay a retarded premium for memory upgrades.

The bummer is that the RAM is soldered in place on the Retina Macbook Pro. I didn't really have a choice in the matter, haha
Jul 17 2012 8:35PM
0 0
profile picture
erikK
Posts: 3245 - Karma: 2,325
oh wowww classic apple move... that sucks
Jul 17 2012 8:41PM
0 0
profile picture
eheath
Posts: 61097 - Karma: 118,198
Their prices are WAY better than they were 2-3 years ago. On a normal MBP is only like 100 to go 4gb to 8gb and doing it yourself is like 50 so if youre lazy why not eh? but yeah, with the new MBPs they are part of the computer so it could be thinner, so youre kinda SOL
Jul 17 2012 11:37PM
0 0
profile picture
TaranItUp
Posts: 1313 - Karma: 802
Hey Abe, could you point me in the direction of some decent external drives that I could buy? My computer will likely crash soon and I am in desperate need of backup. Thanks!
Jul 18 2012 12:18AM
0 0
profile picture
family_vacation
Posts: 6200 - Karma: 7,841
Is this just for backup or do you want to edit from the drive?

Does your computer have USB 3 ports? How about eSATA?
Jul 18 2012 2:42AM
0 0
All times are Eastern (-4)