Seriously I need your advice guys, MBP or rMBP????!!

Alejandro Aleman

I need your advice because I'm very doubtful about what to do.

I were lots of years anti-Mac, but now almost everything I have is apple (iPod classic, touch[lost], iPhone 4, iPad, atv, time capsule), and now I'm decided to buy a MacBook Pro (i never had one at all), and the most interaction i had with them is at stores were i just move the cursor... it is going to be my first time!

I don't know which one I should buy, the standard or the retina one, the purchased one will be in the standard stock which is available in the stores, not the personalized one (this is because I have the money in a gift card and I only can pay with it in one single store).

I would like to have a good (very) replacement of my just sold HP laptop, I want it to last 2 or 3 years without being outdated nor having problems to run some apps or games.

I know it depends about what I plan to do with it so this is it:

Im a software engineer (being transformed into Project Manager [halo theory]) but I use just VisualStudio, NetBeans and some small device specific compilers, lots of RS232 comm, my apps are small because they are made for devices (C/C++) or financial transactional components); Also I like to run few "heavy" games sometimes, other times just editing RAW photos or watching movies (Facebook is the less resources hungrier here); I think with 40Gb partition for windows will be enough, the rest for OSX.

I would love to have that slim MBP with retina, nice speakers and all flash drive (turbo) however 256gb seems small (I never been near to fill that on my last laptop even with W7 and Ubuntu installed).

On the other hand, the standard 15" MBP could come with bigger HDD, CD drive, and being upgradable of RAM, despite the "low res" LCD and of course would be cheaper.

With all that background, here come my questions:

• How (good/bad) is for a Mac system to have about 180gb of space?
• Which one you would buy?
• How much Office 11', Lightroom, iLife, iWork and utilities take from the HDD? (approximately)
• How much space takes iOS dev tools?
  I would like to take on the go about 10Gb of music, 1 or 2 Gb of photos (storing the rest at the time capsule at home), possible?

I have one week before making the choice, and I would like to choose something that doesn't make me doubt after I sign the receipt.

Thank you guys in advance, really!!

Recylops117

I would defiantly shell out the extra cash for the Retina MacBook Pro. It would fit your needs perfectly. I think you are someone that would actually benefit from the MacBook Pro with retina than others who just buy it because its thinner and has a higher PPI. I think the 250GB Flash SSD is enough for the programs you use. We both use similar uses, but I have a few games on top of that on my 500 GB HDD on my iMac and I only used 16 gb in apps and I have iLife, iWork, Lightroom, Pixelmator, Final Cut Pro X, Motion, and Aperature and much more. If it bothers you you can buy the model with 500 gb flash SSD if you need it that much. But i think its fine. Trust me you, once you get over the cost, you will fall in love with your mac. 

ar_turnbull

I'd get the retina as it is most consistent with Apple's "vision" for portable computing.  A new old MBP would look dated in a couple years. (much like a plastic macbook looks incredibly dated next to the aluminum)

Buy the retina with a time capsule or generic external HDD.

Oh, and hopefully it lasts you more than 2-3 years!

Alejandro Aleman

Thank you all!

Well, unbelievable but i purchased the 2.6Ghz/8Gb/512 one... literally my hand were shaking while signing the voucher... but now i have to wait "at most" until 15th of July to get it...

And just for the record, i dropped today my iPhone about 4 or 5 meters (to the next floor downstairs).. it turns on but the display its cracked a lot... :( now ill have to pay for a repair after spending on the rMBP :(

stueee123

I have the base rMBP and it is really awesome. it will definately last longer than 2 or 3 years, we had our old iMac (aqua) for around 8 years before upgrading, and it still worked dandy, just slow. I would expect you'll get 6 or 7 solid years. P.S. its an amazing laptop. if you are crunched for space, you can disable the creation of the sleepimage file, itll save 8 gbs of space, the only downside being if the laptop runs out of batteries while asleep, it wont save your apps. google it.

Alejandro Aleman

Oh thanks stueee, ill keep that in mind (about the sleepimage!)!

BTW, im writing from my shiny new rMBP!

Matt Bodindecha

i'm going to buy mbpr and i'm not sure about 8gb ram is it enough or i have to buy16 instead?

Alejandro Aleman

Well that really depends of the use you want to give to your rMBP, but i can tell that 8Gb seems just great, and also there is a point (hard to define) when you should look for a better HDD than adding more memory... 

I have a coworker with 24Gb on his PC and the bottleneck is the HDD (SATA III but at the end is mechanical), and the optimal path to upgrade is definitely the SSD and he realized that after spending on the memory sticks... but as the rMBP has SSD i think it could be enough 8Gb...

adjeff8

I am also in the market for a new MacBook Pro. I actually bout the 15" non retina then returned it because the screen was inferior to my 4 yr old MacBook Pro. Not as sharp. I've been going back and forth, retina/Non retina. I DO NOT want to get a 1st generation retina. Then the other day a apple floor person showed me a test. We had both laptops side by side. He clicked on a huge photoshop type of program on both. It took the retina 10 seconds to open it. It took the non retina 50 seconds. This is due to the Internal flash hard drive as opposed to the traditional spinning hard drive on the non retina. For me that's the selling point. Therefore, I will hold out for the 2nd generation retina 15". I hear it may come out in March

GuNs

Its Very Good Idea.Buy it..