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What would you rather have?

J

jharvey71884

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 3, 2011
300
27
I do some video editing (Final Cut) and photo editing (Lightroom/Photoshop Express) but also have an iMac, where I can do most of my stuff. With my Macbook Pro, I would probably do some videos that were two to three minutes long and most of time just a small title over them while on the road.

What would you rather have?

(Used) Early 2011 15' Macbook Pro w/ 2.0 GHz i7 quad core, with 8 GB of ram, 500GB HDD

(New) 2013 13' Macbook Pro Retina, w/ 2.4 GHz i5 dual core, with 8 GB of ram, 128GB SDD


Just nervous that the 2011 board will go out.
 
jharvey71884 said:
I do some video editing (Final Cut) and photo editing (Lightroom/Photoshop Express) but also have an iMac, where I can do most of my stuff. With my Macbook Pro, I would probably do some videos that were two to three minutes long and most of time just a small title over them while on the road.

What would you rather have?

(Used) Early 2011 15' Macbook Pro w/ 2.0 GHz i7 quad core, with 8 GB of ram, 500GB HDD

(New) 2013 13' Macbook Pro Retina, w/ 2.4 GHz i5 dual core, with 8 GB of ram, 128GB SDD


Just nervous that the 2011 board will go out.
Click to expand...

Hi,

The 15" would definitely add more of a bang under the hood but the retina display is to die for. Since your video processing needs aren't too heavy, I would recommend the 13", albeit with the 256GB SSD.

Best of luck!
Raptor
 
jharvey71884 said:
Can you tell me your specs?
Click to expand...

In signature.
13", i5 2.4GHz, 16GB Ram, 256GB SSD.
I knew very well that I'd be editting in this machine so I opted into the 16GB ram for that and for the future, because the ram isn't upgradable after after purchase, but I'm sure you knew that.
 
Commy1 said:
In signature.
13", i5 2.4GHz, 16GB Ram, 256GB SSD.
I knew very well that I'd be editting in this machine so I opted into the 16GB ram for that and for the future, because the ram isn't upgradable after after purchase, but I'm sure you knew that.
Click to expand...

Sorry, don't know how I didn't see your signature. :D

Anything video wise that you feel you can't do because of it?
 
jharvey71884 said:
I do some video editing (Final Cut) and photo editing (Lightroom/Photoshop Express) but also have an iMac, where I can do most of my stuff. With my Macbook Pro, I would probably do some videos that were two to three minutes long and most of time just a small title over them while on the road.

What would you rather have?

(Used) Early 2011 15' Macbook Pro w/ 2.0 GHz i7 quad core, with 8 GB of ram, 500GB HDD

(New) 2013 13' Macbook Pro Retina, w/ 2.4 GHz i5 dual core, with 8 GB of ram, 128GB SDD


Just nervous that the 2011 board will go out.
Click to expand...

Neither, I would get the 13" rMBP with a 256Gb SSD - 128GB is just too small for todays world.

I had a 15" early 2011 MBP and had it replaced under AppleCare for graphics issues, so I wouldn't personally go with it.
 
TheIguana said:
Neither, I would get the 13" rMBP with a 256Gb SSD - 128GB is just too small for todays world.

I had a 15" early 2011 MBP and had it replaced under AppleCare for graphics issues, so I wouldn't personally go with it.
Click to expand...

Even if I already have two 1 TB externals and an iMac with 500 GB.
 
jharvey71884 said:
I do some video editing (Final Cut) and photo editing (Lightroom/Photoshop Express) but also have an iMac, where I can do most of my stuff. With my Macbook Pro, I would probably do some videos that were two to three minutes long and most of time just a small title over them while on the road.

What would you rather have?

(Used) Early 2011 15' Macbook Pro w/ 2.0 GHz i7 quad core, with 8 GB of ram, 500GB HDD

(New) 2013 13' Macbook Pro Retina, w/ 2.4 GHz i5 dual core, with 8 GB of ram, 128GB SDD


Just nervous that the 2011 board will go out.
Click to expand...

I'd go for neither, because:
1. The early-2011 15" models have a manufacturing flaw that causes the Radeon GPU to fail. All 2011 (early and late) 15/17" models have that manufacturing flaw that causes it to fail at the 3-year mark.

2. The rMBP you chose only has 128GB. I never recommend working off an external drive because it's slower, draws more power and is inconvenient to carry around.
 
yjchua95 said:
I'd go for neither, because:
1. The early-2011 15" models have a manufacturing flaw that causes the Radeon GPU to fail. All 2011 (early and late) 15/17" models have that manufacturing flaw that causes it to fail at the 3-year mark.

2. The rMBP you chose only has 128GB. I never recommend working off an external drive because it's slower, draws more power and is inconvenient to carry around.
Click to expand...

Here is the situation I'm in. I have a 15' 2011 Macbook Pro i7 8GB of ram and after three years, I'm worried about that board going out. I got an offer of 1050 for it trade with Simply Mac. I think I could dish out enough cash to upgrade the ram on a 13' and cover the difference.
 
yjchua95 said:
I'd go for neither, because:
1. The early-2011 15" models have a manufacturing flaw that causes the Radeon GPU to fail. All 2011 (early and late) 15/17" models have that manufacturing flaw that causes it to fail at the 3-year mark.

2. The rMBP you chose only has 128GB. I never recommend working off an external drive because it's slower, draws more power and is inconvenient to carry around.
Click to expand...

I agree. AMD gpus on laptops are always a reason of concern. With 128GB, you'll be buying external storage which will cost practically the same as buying the 256GB ssd version. 256GB is the baseline to have your OS and Apps comfortably installed if you're looking doing anything minimally serious with your laptop.
 
jharvey71884 said:
I do some video editing (Final Cut) and photo editing (Lightroom/Photoshop Express) but also have an iMac, where I can do most of my stuff. With my Macbook Pro, I would probably do some videos that were two to three minutes long and most of time just a small title over them while on the road.

What would you rather have?

(Used) Early 2011 15' Macbook Pro w/ 2.0 GHz i7 quad core, with 8 GB of ram, 500GB HDD

(New) 2013 13' Macbook Pro Retina, w/ 2.4 GHz i5 dual core, with 8 GB of ram, 128GB SDD


Just nervous that the 2011 board will go out.
Click to expand...

I will go for the new 2013 model. From what you describe, you don't do many heavy duty video editing on the laptop. The 13 inch Macbook Pro should be powerful enough for the job. The SSD will be much faster and give you an overall faster feeling. The retina display is nice too. Plus, there are a lot of discussions on the discrete graphic card issue in the early 2011 model. You may not encounter the issue but it is probably not worth the risk to get a used one.
 
If you put spec aside I've always had 13" machines as I prefer the smaller size.

From a spec point of view, the 15" gives you more zoom but the retina display is just so nice, it's worth the small performance drop. You could also get a Nifty drive or something similar to turn your SD slot into another 128gb space.
 
I'd keep the iMac and rMBP 13". The 15" rMBP is nice, but You've already got this setup in place, and I think you'd likely run into storage issues with *just* the 15".
 
I'd do the latter, the 15" rMBP, pick up an external USB3 or TB drive and don't worry about storage limitations.
Maybe even a 64GB-128GB Nifty MiniDrive if you want/need more space all the time on the go.

Even when you do some editing you'll love the i7. One could also say you don't know what you're missing if you've never had it but once you do put an i7 to work you won't want to go back.
 
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