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Apple mac book pro?

B

BlueEyes

pfm Member
Is it worth it?

I am considering an Air but being the "clown" I am I know little more about PCs than I do about balancing a tonearm but believe in buying once and buying well.

Joking apart your opinions would be greatly appreciated in myself making a decision.

I know I might only use a fraction of it's power but don't really need the portability of the Air and the Pro dosen't now in October style weigh much more.

Quad-core as well rather than dual core even though I won't be editing any Hollywood blockbusters.

I really want to buy the Pro as a one-off and have never used Apple before and I am writing this on an android Google Nexus 4 that I hope to connect to it.

Many thanks.
 
The MBA with i7 processor is pretty damn fast. I was going to buy the MBP 13" Retina, but at the time of its release, it was considerably more expensive than the 13" MBA, so I bought the latter instead. I have zero regrets. The 256GB SDD is plenty for me, but you may wish to consider if that's enough for you.

I think the quad-core is available only for the 15" models.
 
I bought one of the last of the old MBPs. I wanted the ability to swap out components, add extra ram and of course have a big hard drive. It's a wonderful machine, I'd look at the refurb store and see if there's anything there. I don't think the retina screen is signifucantly better, and tiny SSD drive didn't make sense to me. Maybe next time I buy they'll be cheap enough to have a decent sized one.
 
I bought the bottom-of-the-range Macbook Pro 4 years ago and have been able to record and mix big projects on Apple's Logic music software without wishing I had bought a bigger spec.

It has never had anti-virus software or any other security software and it has never been in for repair, rebuild or software reinstall. I am not saying it is better than a Windows machine but I am saying it has been more reliable than any Windows machine I have ever owned. And I go through quite of few of those in my day job.

Sounds like you are a bit like me...not a heavy user particularly....the cheapest will probably do. But the consumer in me also want to upgrade soon to a quadcore etc etc....thing is, this one is just a trooper......it still performs like new.

Prediction: this thread will end in an Apple is better than Windows squabble.
 
once you experience a retina display, everything else will look awful by comparison. it is very, very nice.

that said, if you are considering the mbp-retina and have issues with font-smoothing, then i would advise staying away from the 15" model. with anti-aliasing turned off, it just does not render correctly. keep in mind that these displays can not be used (realistically) at native resolution, everything is just too tiny that way. hence, not an ideal fit on re-sampling on the 15" and why i got the 13" instead.

as for speed, the solid state drive is what makes these things fly. i found little difference between machines with different processors. unless you are doing some exotic stuff, i would save my money on the cpu front and simply get the basic offering.



vuk.
 
vuk said:
as for speed, the solid state drive is what makes these things fly. i found little difference between machines with different processors. unless you are doing some exotic stuff, i would save my money on the cpu front and simply get the basic offering.



vuk.
Click to expand...

I'm still scared of the solid state drives....what if it seizes? They are glued onto the board, aren't they?

I have just looked an the Apple site and can only see solid state drives except for the very bottom end one at £999. is this right? The disc drive is being phased out already?
 
richgilb said:
I have just looked an the Apple site and can only see solid state drives except for the very bottom end one at £999. is this right? The disc drive is being phased out already?
Click to expand...

Yes, and that's the only model I'd go for myself. I'm just not convinced by the 'glue-together and dispose when breaks' build of the Retina model, let alone ready to trust SSD devices. I run the now-deleted bigger brother to the £999 model, exactly the same thing, but with a faster 2.9GHz i7 CPU and a larger HD, and IIRC that's what Richard (Lordsummit) bought recently too. I also like having an optical drive as, amongst many other things, it's my music server. I can't be doing with farting about with external HDs, external CD drives etc. I've enough junk as it is! All my data needs to be on my computer. The only external stuff I have is my backup strategy. I'm expecting to run my MBP for another 3 years or so, popping a bigger HD and maybe 16GB RAM in mid-life. I hope Apple have something that appeals in their range at that point (one would sincerely hope SSD was of a more useful capacity, cheaper and more reliable by then).
 
Tony. I find myself a little alarmed by that. My post Xmas present to myself will be an Air with the 512Gb ssd.

That's all ill need for a few years. And if anything I was under the impression that ssd's were more reliable than the standard HDD?
 
arthur said:
Tony. I find myself a little alarmed by that. My post Xmas present to myself will be an Air with the 512Gb ssd.

That's all ill need for a few years. And if anything I was under the impression that ssd's were more reliable than the standard HDD?
Click to expand...

I think it is too early to say ssd is more reliable than disc drive. they need a couple more years of consumer use in my opinion
 
arthur said:
Tony. I find myself a little alarmed by that. My post Xmas present to myself will be an Air with the 512Gb ssd.

That's all ill need for a few years. And if anything I was under the impression that ssd's were more reliable than the standard HDD?
Click to expand...

Don't necessarily be alarmed, I'm possibly just stuck in the past and too much of an ex-IT support guy / control freak to trust a computer where I can't easily swap even the HD or battery out myself. It also annoys me as the outgoing generation (the model I use myself) is to my mind the best laptop computer ever designed. It is stunningly well made, easy to work on and easy to upgrade all wrapped up in an all but aesthetically perfect solid aluminium and glass package. It makes any competing laptop I've ever seen look and feel like shite by comparison, even getting on for 5 years after the initial design first hit the shops. A genuine design classic. The Retina MBPs have the style and build quality along with an even better screen, they just lack the serviceability or versatility. I'm not saying not to buy one at all, though if it was me I'd be buying AppleCare at the same time and looking at a 3 year life-span, i.e. flip it onto eBay just before the AppleCare runs out and buy another new one. Apple kit holds it's value exceptionally well and tends to last well as it is very well built, but the last thing you want to be stuck with is a machine you can't even flip the dead battery out of, let alone anything more significant.

PS read iGary's recent woes with SSD. It's nowhere near as solid and reliable as one would expect yet. It will be, it's clearly the way forward, but it's taking it's time getting where I'd want it to be in a machine where it would be a PITA to swap-out in event of failure.
 
I too bought one of the last gen MacBook Pros in May this year with the 500GB hard disc and disc drive, without the Retina display, 15" - all the things that I thought were important to have.
Six months later I now in hindsight realise that the disc drive could be a USB plug-in jobbie on the two occasions I've used it. The Retina I suppose is better, but i can't see much in it, and I at least have the option to swap to a SSD, but then it would just be like a modern one, so why didn't I just buy a Retina!
Either way, I have no regrets. After 20 years of PCs I am in heaven - I love it to bits.
I don't think you'll regret buying the MBP or the Air - I doubt you'll kick yourself afterwards either way. Personally I'd go for the MBP until cloud storage has come of age, which seems entirely down to internet connections being a generation up from this point, and free to access with 100% free coverage. That's when the Air completely makes sense.

As mine is a work machine and I support myself, wife & kids with it, I will trade it in for a new one every 2 years.
 
I find it odd one would be concerned that the ssd is 'stuck' to the motherboard. This is how it is now. They work. If they go wrong you take it in and get it sorted.

If conceptually you disagree with this then apple very much is not going to be for you moving forward.

However you won't have a lightning fast machine with the best input methods available running rock solid OSX with no viruses (Even after 13 years of PC uers saying its coming next year)
 
I still use my 2009 MBP 15 in than my Mac Pro (which is mainly used for HD video editing and photo work)
It's an awesome bit of kit. Never upgraded the hardware, no frustrating anti virus to slow it down, doesn't need it. Still feels as fast today as it was when new.
Would I go back to a plastic pig Dell? Erm.....
 
garyi said:
I find it odd one would be concerned that the ssd is 'stuck' to the motherboard. This is how it is now. They work. If they go wrong you take it in and get it sorted.
Click to expand...

Fine if you are within the AppleCare period, not so fine if not. I was under the impression you'd gone through several SSD drive failures of late, wasn't that the gist of a recent thread? If so it's not something I'd especially want glued limpet-like into a £1300 computer! If my HD fails I can swap it out myself in 5 minutes with no mess or streess, and with anything I fancy too e.g. a HD, an SSD or a Hybrid. In fact I could stuff a SSD in the HD position and a conventional HDD in the optical bay if I wanted. That's the type of flexibility I like as it means I can alter usage over the machine's lifespan. These are not cheap items, I want a lengthy and useful life out of mine, e.g. when I do eventually replace it I'd probably use it as a dedicated music server in the hi-fi room.
 
richgilb said:
I'm still scared of the solid state drives....what if it seizes?
Click to expand...

what if a regular hard drive seizes? the precautions you must take in both cases are identical.

here is my strategy. i only keep what is absolutely necessary for work on the main machine and that gets backed up routinely, both off-site and locally. i keep a mac mini and NAS down in the garage (where the router sits). this combo acts a "medium server" and helper system. the mini crunches out tedious tasks that i don't wish to have eating resources on the main computer. on top of that, i have this very compact western digital usb 3.0 extrenal drive. this is what will be used for backup strategy during extended vacations (like mick's trips to spain).

i hate having pile of gadets, which is why it's nice to tuck stuff away in the garage (or wherever you keep your router).

tony, eliminating the optical drive has allowed apple to make the MBP lighter and slimmer. i'm in the process of ripping all my CDs with an external one and when that's done, i can't see needing the thing very much at all. do you actually play discs through the computer? what about the noise?



vuk.
 
But I think/would imagine that the ssds apple have sourced bespoke like and tied closely with the software is going to be far more reliable in these devices than a 100 quid device I got on amazon.

I would also imagine/guess the failure rate is pretty low or they would not be an economic advantage to doing so.

I am also prepared to accept they might take a look at my account and see the ridiculous amount of money I have spent on geekery, but my experience with apple stores, even out of warranty, even when my son sat on an broke my ipad and I told them that, they have swapped out, there and then no hassles and generally dealt with me pretty well.

As long as you book an appointment with a gimp, things are usually fixed whilst you go and have a coffee somewhere.

I think you are making to much of it myself. But that being said my laptop really is just a portable device for email etc, probably could have stuck with an iPad TBH, the main work is done on the imac, which has had the issues. The new imacs I think are similar with glued ssds, but then I am now getting into CCC after finally admitting timemachine is a bit shit. This puts a clone of my drive ready to go. So hook that up to a USB carry on working until such time as you can get to an apple store, no biggy.

I would prefer the form factor I have with an 11inch air, than it being bigger and bulkier for the sake of a drive that will go wrong at some point. The fact thats its part of the motherboard in my mind makes it no more or less risky than anything else going tits up on the mother board and rendering it useless, this will happen one way or the other and then you are off to see a gimp. As long as you have back ups its no difference, its not a drive anymore, its part of the computer no?
 
vuk said:
what if a regular hard drive seizes? the precautions you must take in both cases are identical.
Click to expand...

I don't need to knock my dead drive out with a chisel!

vuk said:
tony, eliminating the optical drive has allowed apple to make the MBP lighter and slimmer. i'm in the process of ripping all my CDs with an external one and when that's done, i can't see needing the thing very much at all. do you actually play discs through the computer? what about the noise?
Click to expand...

Do you not still buy music? I probably rip 10-20 CDs a month. What noise? I'm only talking about ripping, I have a CD player in all three systems if I just want to spin a disc that I've not got round to ripping.

PS I must be exceptionally strong and athletic as I can carry a laptop computer with an optical drive without even noticing the difference. 3-4mm of additional 'thinness' (notice how Apple products these days are measured as 'x mm thin' rather than thickness) is of no concern to me at all. I'd certainly not swap it for functionality or serviceability.
 
tony.

you should definitely enter one of those contests dominated by scruffy scandinavians. perhaps they could add a laptop tossing contest.

i have so much music that i don't really buy that much new stuff any more and, when i do, the preference is for vinyl. i've also been enjoying internet radio quite a bit, especially radio 3. on top of that the current ripping exercise (i'm lucky that my mother id doing half of it for me) has reminded me of hundreds of things i'd forgotten that need rediscovery--after i sort out the tagging hell one faces with classical.


vuk.
 
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