I've decided on the 1TB for storage, but have the following questions:
- Should I upgrade to the i7? Would it make that much of a difference for me compared to the i5?
- Should I upgrade to 32GB of RAM? How long will the 16GB be sufficient for?
I'd like to keep this laptop for the long haul, and I can upgrade one of the above. Which would you suggest?
You said so yourself - you do a lot of UI/UX design and basically it's your production workhorse. You also want to keep it for the long haul, so a powerful Mac should serve you well, even when the work landscape changes.
- 1TB is a good size.
- Both i5 and i7 processors are 4 cores. The i5 is fine unless you're literally counting your productivity in seconds for rendering times (beneficial for heavy After Effects)
- 16GB RAM is definitely acceptable, but to future-proof, 32GB (if your current workload becomes more intense).
Doing 1TB, i5, 16GB RAM will cost you US $2k. Making it 32GB RAM will put you at $2.4k. Bear in mind that this is the same price as the entry-level 16" MBP, but that has 6 cores, a larger screen (and footprint obviously), and better dedicated graphics, which After Effects would really benefit from.
But if you were to choose one upgrade, RAM over i7.