Buying Macbook Pro 13" - Specs?

[hough]

So I'm thinking of purchasing my first Macbook Pro 13" (without touch bar) because I'm tired of having to deal with coding on Windows.

I constantly max out the RAM and CPU on my Razer Blade Stealth with 16GB RAM and Intel Core i7 7500U CPU @2.7GHz. And I never play games – just have loads of tabs open and push it pretty hard doing normal work stuff.

I don't know what specs I should get so I thought it might be a good idea to ask before I waste my money on something that might not need.

Here are my confirmed specs:
256GB SSD
16GB RAM

Specs I am tossing up between:
2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.0GHz
or
2.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz

Can you guys help?

Also, is it worth it going for a refurbished one? Or should I just buy new?

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Buy refurbished they are as new from apple.

I would say go for the 15 inch the quad core processors will make all the difference, as will screen real estate for your work case.

The dual cores just aren't up to the job for you by the sounds of it if your razer won't cut it, then neither will the 13 inch MBP non TB, they are basically the same apart from the razer has a dGPU that you don not need.

 

[hough]

Buy refurbished they are as new from apple.

I would say go for the 15 inch the quad core processors will make all the difference, as will screen real estate for your work case.

The dual cores just aren't up to the job for you by the sounds of it if your razer won't cut it, then neither will the 13 inch MBP non TB, they are basically the same apart from the razer has a dGPU that you don not need.

I don't know if I like the 15" form factor or the touch bar. My current laptop is a Razer Blade Stealth, not a Razer Blade. I don't have dedicated graphics and I believe the CPU us worse.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I don't know if I like the 15" form factor or the touch bar. My current laptop is a Razer Blade Stealth, not a Razer Blade. I don't have dedicated graphics and I believe the CPU us worse.

Its still a dual core 15W CPU made in the last 4 years they are all much the same performance wise to be honest.

The 28W ones found in the Touch bar 13 inch ones are slightly better and have much better integrated graphics but even then it sounds like its cores you need not a slight sustained speed bump.

 

[hough]

Its still a dual core 15W CPU made in the last 4 years they are all much the same performance wise to be honest.

The 28W ones found in the Touch bar 13 inch ones are slightly better and have much better integrated graphics but even then it sounds like its cores you need not a slight sustained speed bump.

I still don't think I'm comfortable with the form factor or price of the 15" model.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I still don't think I'm comfortable with the form factor or price of the 15" model.

and that's your choice of course but I'm just saying I doubt it will be any better performance wise than what you already have, you will still max out the CPU and RAM (although apple RAM management is excellent and may well give you far more overhead out of 16gb).

 

[hough]

and that's your choice of course but I'm just saying I doubt it will be any better performance wise than what you already have, you will still max out the CPU and RAM (although apple RAM management is excellent and may well give you far more overhead out of 16gb).

You think something like this is a good option? https://www.apple.com/au/shop/produ...core-Intel-Core-i7-with-Retina-display-Silver

I'm really worried about how much bigger it is. Is it that big?

And if I did think 15" was too big, do I need to upgrade CPU speed or should I just stay with the base one?

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Yeah that looks an excellent option, although the 2017 isn't much more for bang up to date specs and kabylake 4K hardware acceleration.

To be honest Apple have got the 15 inch MBP down to a very small size for the screen real estate, and its lighter than the pre retina 13 inch machines and not much bigger footprint wise. However that's always going to be personal preference. I assume from your link that you are in Aus and that getting to a shop to have a play around with them is not so easy otherwise you would have done that already.

Do remember that you have a 14 day return period no questions asked so if you really don't like it you can return it for a full refund and reconsider. They are a lot of cash I do understand, your reluctance the 13 inch is perfect for me as well but my usage requires little in the way of performance.

What sort of development do you do?? do run a lot of VM's?? where is all your processing power being used??

 

[hough]

Yeah that looks an excellent option, although the 2017 isn't much more for bang up to date specs and kabylake 4K hardware acceleration.

To be honest Apple have got the 15 inch MBP down to a very small size for the screen real estate, and its lighter than the pre retina 13 inch machines and not much bigger footprint wise. However that's always going to be personal preference. I assume from your link that you are in Aus and that getting to a shop to have a play around with them is not so easy otherwise you would have done that already.

Do remember that you have a 14 day return period no questions asked so if you really don't like it you can return it for a full refund and reconsider. They are a lot of cash I do understand, your reluctance the 13 inch is perfect for me as well but my usage requires little in the way of performance.

What sort of development do you do?? do run a lot of VM's?? where is all your processing power being used??

I am in Australia, but there is an Apple store down the road from me . I intend to go there today or very soon, I've just been busy.

It's mostly back-end web development (Ruby, Javascript etc). I wouldn't say it's that alone that causes me to max out my current laptop though. It's more so that I have a million things open at once, sometimes I am using things like photoshop, and I use a second monitor.

 

[lukeyyyyy]

I’m in a similar position I’m a Developer, and recently looked at upgrading my 13 inch 2013 MBP, after asking a few questions and viewing a few different benchmarks in terms of raw power the current 13 inch wouldn’t be much of a difference. However intel have just released the 8th generation coffee lake chip which U series (used in 13inch mbp) has a quad core, a pretty big upgrade.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I am in Australia, but there is an Apple store down the road from me . I intend to go there today or very soon, I've just been busy.

It's mostly back-end web development (Ruby, Javascript etc). I wouldn't say it's that alone that causes me to max out my current laptop though. It's more so that I have a million things open at once, sometimes I am using things like photoshop, and I use a second monitor.

Well you then have a choice, close things you are not using and have a more responsive 13 inch machine that can cope with what you are working on (its not like apps don't open instantly with the insanely fast PCIe ssds these days) or you get more performance from a bigger machine.

I’m in a similar position I’m a Developer, and recently looked at upgrading my 13 inch 2013 MBP, after asking a few questions and viewing a few different benchmarks in terms of raw power the current 13 inch wouldn’t be much of a difference. However intel have just released the 8th generation coffee lake chip which U series (used in 13inch mbp) has a quad core, a pretty big upgrade.

This is a good point however those chips have been announced and the 15W 'kabylake refresh' quadcores are available, however the 28W for the touchbar versions with better graphics seem to be missing from the announcements so far.

 

[hough]

Well you then have a choice, close things you are not using and have a more responsive 13 inch machine that can cope with what you are working on (its not like apps don't open instantly with the insanely fast PCIe ssds these days) or you get more performance from a bigger machine.



This is a good point however those chips have been announced and the 15W 'kabylake refresh' quadcores are available, however the 28W for the touchbar versions with better graphics seem to be missing from the announcements so far.

I ordered a 13" after going to the store today. The 15" was way too big for me. A lot of things I have open I actually use but I really could close some chrome tabs. I think I need a better way of storing things I want to look at later. I do have the pocket extension but I never use it.

I got the base CPU: 2.3GHz but 16GB RAM. Is it really necessary to get the best CPU clock speed?

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I ordered a 13" after going to the store today. The 15" was way too big for me. A lot of things I have open I actually use but I really could close some chrome tabs. I think I need a better way of storing things I want to look at later. I do have the pocket extension but I never use it.

I got the base CPU: 2.3GHz but 16GB RAM. Is it really necessary to get the best CPU clock speed?

No I doubt that it will make all that much difference to you, The difference in performance is not huge. I hope it’s what you need when it arrives enjoy the new machine.

 

[Jamalogo10]

The difference in performance from upgrading the i5 to the i7 in the nTB is roughly 8%, and it's often not worth the price tag. The only reason I pulled the trigger on the i7 was because I wanted the fastest, best, nTB money could buy. I saw no need for the slightly improved igpu because lets gets real, it still can't compete with any dgpu's or egpu's. I expect to get some return on the computer when I resell it in 3-4 years and I know the kaby lake i7 will garner more attention on the used market than the i5 so maybe i pick up an extra $50 when I sell it.
What's $200 over 4 years? ... It equates to cents a day.