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Time to upgrade to 15” MBP W/ Touch Bar

A

ApexNanzo

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 14, 2019
3
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Greetings everyone! So I’m looking to finally upgrade my 2011 MacBook Pro 17”. I know, I know. I’m not too sure how I survived using it this long either. It was fully specd out. I had a 2TB Samsung SSD as the main drive and a 1TB OWC SSD drive in the optical. 16gb Ram. It was very reliable. Had it for years.


However, it’s starting to show age. There a lot of programs and apps I can’t run anymore because it’s outdated.


So, I do a lot of music and I lightly do video and photo work. I use Photoshop and Lightroom for editing and Logic Pro and Ableton for music. When I say lightly, I mean very lightly. I don’t really render anything in 4K and videos are mainly editing and uploading to YouTube.


I wanted to get one of those new 2018 MBP 15” with Touch Bar but was wanting to know what my best options are.


1. I7 or I9? I want something that’s future proof


2. 16gb or 32gb? I was using 16gb on the 2011 model I had but will 32gb be overkill or should I just go ahead and get it?


3. There’s options for 2.2, 2.6, and 2.9 GHz speed. For what I’m doing what is a happy medium?


Like I said I only plan to use this for music production, djing, and light video and photo work. I wanted something strong enough for my needs but at the same time something that wasn’t too overkill.


Sorry for the long post. Thanks for you help.
 
My 2 cents
1. There's little noticeable difference between the i7 and i9 (other than benchmark scores)
2. 32GB
3. i7 2.6
 
ApexNanzo said:
Greetings everyone! So I’m looking to finally upgrade my 2011 MacBook Pro 17”. I know, I know. I’m not too sure how I survived using it this long either. It was fully specd out. I had a 2TB Samsung SSD as the main drive and a 1TB OWC SSD drive in the optical. 16gb Ram. It was very reliable. Had it for years.


However, it’s starting to show age. There a lot of programs and apps I can’t run anymore because it’s outdated.


So, I do a lot of music and I lightly do video and photo work. I use Photoshop and Lightroom for editing and Logic Pro and Ableton for music. When I say lightly, I mean very lightly. I don’t really render anything in 4K and videos are mainly editing and uploading to YouTube.


I wanted to get one of those new 2018 MBP 15” with Touch Bar but was wanting to know what my best options are.


1. I7 or I9? I want something that’s future proof


2. 16gb or 32gb? I was using 16gb on the 2011 model I had but will 32gb be overkill or should I just go ahead and get it?


3. There’s options for 2.2, 2.6, and 2.9 GHz speed. For what I’m doing what is a happy medium?


Like I said I only plan to use this for music production, djing, and light video and photo work. I wanted something strong enough for my needs but at the same time something that wasn’t too overkill.


Sorry for the long post. Thanks for you help.
Click to expand...

1. "Future-proof" is a marketing ploy to get people to spend more $$$. Go for the i7, the thing thermal throttles so much that you won't see a difference.

2. 16GB is more than enough for most people unless you are a video editor.

3. 2.6 is just fine
 
I'd definitely wait a few weeks until WWDC to see if the rumoured redesign comes. If you really need a new MBP before then, I'd be tempted to buy a secondhand one which you can then sell on again at little loss.
 
Like others above I would wait a couple weeks if possible, but if not the i7 2.6 with 16 should be fine. You also might want to consider refurb to get a better deal and maybe the ability to get more ram/storage for a cheaper price then new.
 
ApexNanzo said:
So, I do a lot of music and I lightly do video and photo work. I use Photoshop and Lightroom for editing and Logic Pro and Ableton for music. When I say lightly, I mean very lightly. I don’t really render anything in 4K and videos are mainly editing and uploading to YouTube.
Click to expand...

Given your stated usage patterns, I'd say an i7, 16GB of ram and the base 2.2. I'd also say wait until WWDC and see if apple updates its product lines. Also just to be clear as others stated future proof is a gimmick to entice you to spend more. Besides, the i9 runs a lot hotter then the i7 and when I had the base 2.2 model, it was out performing either 2.6 or the 2.9 because of throttling.
 
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maflynn said:
Given your stated usage patterns, I'd say an i7, 16GB of ram and the base 2.2. I'd also say wait until WWDC and see if apple updates its product lines. Also just to be clear as others stated future proof is a gimmick to entice you to spend more. Besides, the i9 runs a lot hotter then the i7 and when I had the base 2.2 model, it was out performing either 2.6 or the 2.9 because of throttling.
Click to expand...
 
maflynn said:
Also just to be clear as others stated future proof is a gimmick to entice you to spend more.
Click to expand...

Is that true? When ordering a MacBook Pro there are so many options (i5 vs i7 on the 13” 8Gb vs 16 or 32 on a 15”) the only thing I would say is important is storage, I always tend to buy more than what I need at the time of purchase, simply because I know over time I will install more apps, download more films and tv from iTunes and edit more photos in Pixelmator Pro.

I think what a lot of us who are not exactly spec heavy end up doing is thinking that more is better, for example when looking at the 13” MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, there is an i5 or i7 processor option, everyday none tech/spec savvy people are not gong to have a clue which one to get. The same with Ram, but there are people who say more Ram is better (16GB better than 8Gb for example), but if it’s not being used is it really worth it :confused:
[doublepost=1558013864][/doublepost]I would wait and see what happens at WWDC in a few weeks, the MacBook Pro was last up dated in July of 2018, Apple update the machines around every 12 months. If that is indeed the case again this year, we are likely to see new MacBook Pro’s at either WWDC or in early July.

Personally I’m waiting to see what Apple do with the keyboard and what improvements are made to fix the issues. After that if they update the MacBook Pro 13” before the new Airs keyboard, I will just buy one.
 
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