[6foot6yellaboi]

Hey guys, I'm about to make the switch from windows over to my first MacBook Pro. I've already made the jump to an iPhone and iPad but I need to make the final jump to a laptop. I don't work with graphic intensive programs. I'll be using it for editing family photos and HD videos as a hobby as well as general surfing and word processing and number crunching spreadsheets. My issue is that I don't upgrade laptops for (don't laugh lol) 5-6 years if possible. I have a budget of $2000 but not afraid to spend more to really future proof my machine. What specs should I shoot for? WWDC is around the corner, should I wait for an update? Thanks for your ideas!

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[warcraftWidow]

I do t really think the MBP, at least the retina ones, will be updated at WWDC since they were updated in the fall. But who knows.
Apple is really good at supporting their laptops for a long while. Mavericks will run as on MBP from late 2007 which gives them 6+ years. If you search the forums, you can find many people reporting that it was running fine on their 2008 or 2009 MBP.
As far as the 2K price, you should be fine.
When it comes to customizing it, my recommendation would be to maximize memory (RAM) first because this will probably affect its useful life to you and cannot be upgrade later. 8 would be he minimum to get and 16 would be even better. Then CPU, then hard drive space. The hard drive (SSD) cannot be upgraded later (unless you go with the older MBP with a DVD drive and regular non-SSD hard drive but those haven't been updated in well over a year and most think that Apple is going to phase them out), but can easily be augmented with an external drive.
Screen size is just personal preference. The 15" does come with quad-core rather than dual-core CPU which will make video rendering somewhat slower but as video editing is just a hobby I wouldn't make that a primary consideration of which you get.

[Peter Cohen]

Buy when you're ready to buy, Apple's upgrade cycle be damned. Accept that whatever you're buying is going to be obsolete in less than a year; less buyer's remorse that way when new products come out.

If $2000 is your cap, my recommendation would be to go for the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display, upgraded. $1499 gets you a very nice system with the base processor (2.4 GHz), 8 GB RAM and 256 storage. If you want faster and better, the $1799 model gets you a 2.6 GHz processor, 8 GB RAM and 512 GB storage. That's a sweet rig.

[6foot6yellaboi]

Wow, great points! Do you think the baseline 15" with 16GB would be over kill for my situation? I see it listed right at $2066. My only fear is that I'll run out of hard drive space since it only has 256gb.


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[6foot6yellaboi]

Peter your comment about buyers remorse make me look at the process in a different way. I hate having buyers remorse!


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[warcraftWidow]

Wow, great points! Do you think the baseline 15" with 16GB would be over kill for my situation? I see it listed right at $2066. My only fear is that I'll run out of hard drive space since it only has 256gb.


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The more memory the better as long as it's within budget. You can always get an external drive.

[cinematicme]

Nothing is future proof.


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[anon(4698833)]

Apple's computers don't really go "obsolete" like smart phones and other products like that do...case in point, we have a 2011 Macbook Pro that my wife just sold to her sister. It was a back up with an i5 processor and 4GB of RAM. We upgraded it with an SSD and the thing literally feels as fast as my 2012 that I have all spec'ed up (for general usage purposes that is). I'd use that 2011 model all day long for normal, every day usage and it'd be perfect for it.

I have a 2012 model non-retina display. This is the model I have ended up with after owning a 2011 i7 and 2013 retina model. The retina model just wasn't for me, because I prefer to have the ability to go crazy with the internal if I want to. My 2012 has 16GB of RAM, dual boot HDD and SSD (running the OS off the SSD) and besides having a lesser screen, this machine is as fast or faster than the retina model I sold to buy and build it. I don't like feeling trapped, so for the time being, this computer is my work horse, and it does it without as much as a hiccup.

With $2,000...you are in a decent place for options. If I were you, I'd build a 2012 non-retina model completely top spec'ed with the high end i7 and I'd spend the excess money you'd have on a decent sized SSD and 1TB HDD dual boot. That's just me though.

If you must have the retina model, definitely have at LEAST 8GB of RAM. That will quickly become the standard. Storage is kind of a personal preference...you can always do external, but I like having internal storage for my personal stuff...maybe I'm just stuck in the older generation, but I haven't really bought into cloud storage and prefer internal to external.

Future proofing something like computers is kind of an endless effort, but with $2,000, you should be able to get a very nice machine over several spectrums and options.

[jclisenby]

If you want to future proof for 5-6 years, get the max amount of Memory you can. Also, get an upgraded processor. Those are the 2 things that will drag you down in the future.


Tappin and Talkin from my iPhone 5

[Peter Cohen]

Wow, great points! Do you think the baseline 15" with 16GB would be over kill for my situation? I see it listed right at $2066. My only fear is that I'll run out of hard drive space since it only has 256gb.

I love my 15-inch; I have faith I'm going to get years out of it. Mine has 512 GB, and I find myself running out of space already, after having had it for a year (and transferring data from my previous laptop). It's trivial to use external storage, though. And hopefully, sooner or later, you'll be able to upgrade the SSDs on these things...