Buying a MacBook Pro

Hey guys so I will be starting an engineering degree in October and will be buying a MacBook Pro however I'm currently stick between the old model with disc drive and the 256gb retina model . I am hoping for some insight on this, thanks

Reply 1

The Clockwork Apple

18

Original post by singapaul

Hey guys so I will be starting an engineering degree in October and will be buying a MacBook Pro however I'm currently stick between the old model with disc drive and the 256gb retina model . I am hoping for some insight on this, thanks

Having both, I can tell that unless there isn't a massive price difference, the retina is better. It's more recent, so better hardware (my old Macbook Pro has 4 GB RAM and my Retina has 8 GB RAM, this might not be generic, can't remember if I asked for an improved one). I barely use disks, and there's nothing really which you can't put in a thumb drive. Disks are used rarely now, so I'd say an external disk reader will do the occasional job (I might use a disk twice a year haha, and only when I'm bored and have to do extra exercises for class which are in the textbooks' disks), whilst a Retina display is not something you can put on an old Macbook. You can really tell the difference in graphics. Plus, the newer, the better ^^

Reply 2

ForestCat

18

Whichever one you go for you'll want to do it soon,Apple has a really good back to school offer on at the moment but it finishes on the 9 th September.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 3

username612415

21

The basic Pro is old hardware now and can be outdone by £400 Windows laptops without much difficulty. In my opinion I'd either go Retina, save yourself the cash and get a better spec Windows laptop for £4-500, or buy a more powerful Windows machine.

Reply 4

Alfissti

20

Original post by singapaul

Hey guys so I will be starting an engineering degree in October and will be buying a MacBook Pro however I'm currently stick between the old model with disc drive and the 256gb retina model . I am hoping for some insight on this, thanks

It is rather unlikely you'd ever need the optical disc drive on a laptop in any frequency that warrants having one built in with your laptop.

I'd take the retina display and not have to squint when you view an autocad file drawing :biggrin:

Reply 5

ihavemooedtoday

17

The new Pro is a much better deal.

New Pro:
Faster CPU, more RAM, insanely fast SSD, much faster graphics, 2 hours longer battery life, much lighter, higher resolution screen.

Old Pro:
More disk space, optical drive, slightly cheaper.

Reply 6

singapaul

OP

8

Original post by ihavemooedtoday

The new Pro is a much better deal.

New Pro:
Faster CPU, more RAM, insanely fast SSD, much faster graphics, 2 hours longer battery life, much lighter, higher resolution screen.

Old Pro:
More disk space, optical drive, slightly cheaper.

My biggest concern is only having 256gb of storage, things like iTunes library is 50gb

Reply 7

ihavemooedtoday

17

Original post by singapaul

My biggest concern is only having 256gb of storage, things like iTunes library is 50gb

Yeah that's the downside of the new Pro. Most people use it with an external hard drive.

You can upgrade it to 512GB, but that's not cheap by any stretch of imagination.

Reply 8

Scott1541

12

I think 256GB is the sweet spot for SSDs. Any more and you're going to put more stuff than you actually need on it, any less and you won't have enough and will have to use external drives unnecessarily.

Reply 9

Brom_91

If I'm not mistaken Apple have an offer whereby if you buy before the 9th you get a £60 voucher. You could use this toward a thunderbolt drive and that would work out cheaper than upgrading to the 512 gig hard drive?
I think there's a cheaper external hd on the online store too.
Not sure if this helps? I'm also looking to get a mac, I'm doing Building Surveying though so I expect I'll only really need the MacBook Air :smile:

Reply 10

agukn

for real you won't find a windows laptop for 500 with better specs than a macbook pro retina *just saying*

Reply 11

username612415

21

Original post by agukn

for real you won't find a windows laptop for 500 with better specs than a macbook pro retina *just saying*

I know, I said I was talking about the basic, non-retina Pro.

Reply 12

gr8wizard10

21

I ended up buying a Windows HP Pavilion 1GB RAM.. I decided I needed some money for basic necessities, especially during my first few months as the money will be tight, if I don't get given a scholarship.

Reply 13

JenniferAnderson

6

Original post by Anonynous

I ended up buying a Windows HP Pavilion 1GB RAM.. I decided I needed some money for basic necessities, especially during my first few months as the money will be tight, if I don't get given a scholarship.

Good choice, most engineering software are only created for Windows, you would of had to partition your drive and run BootCamp on Mac to run windows.

Reply 14

Camoxide

14

Original post by Anonynous

I ended up buying a Windows HP Pavilion 1GB RAM.. I decided I needed some money for basic necessities, especially during my first few months as the money will be tight, if I don't get given a scholarship.