[TekNinja81]

Hey folks, this will be a bit of a long one as I want to provide as much details as possible, so as to get the most complete answer possible. ;P

I'm looking at picking up, most likely, the i5-2.6GHz/8GB/256GB 13" MacBook Pro in the near future. I plan on transitioning this to become my primary computer, and ideally selling off my old custom-built PC in its favour. I'll probably make use of USB hubs etc so as to retain use of my 27" monitor, keyboard/mouse, sound mixer/mic, external storage and etc. (So it'll be a "mobile desktop" of sorts.)

The bulk of my computing time is just social media consumption, keeping up with tech news, and video streaming etc. But I also do enjoy the occasional game, and do some audio/video work including podcasting/vlogging.

I'm looking at my future MBP to handle all of the above. I use Sony Vegas for my video editing, though I've used iMovie in the past and want to try to switch to Adobe Premiere or Final Cut, depending what's easier and/or more cross-platform friendly. That said, I also need native access to both Mac OS, and Windows 8.1, so I'll be using BootCamp but probably also a VM of some sort--used VirtualBox in the past with some success...

I'm wondering how a MBP specced as above will do for this usage; my home PC is a 1st-gen i7-950 with 10GB RAM and dual Radeon 5870s. Obviously the Intel Iris GPU won't be as much of a powerhouse but it's also not key. My PC does everything beautifully, renders 720p/1080p video at an acceptable rate (for me?) and my guess is that the i5 MBP being several generations newer, should yield similar results. Am I right to assume this, or will I possibly need to budget more toward the i7 version?

I was originally looking at the MacBook Air for this, but I definitely want the Retina screen and the higher performance of the MBP's processors & Iris graphics.

One thing I'm wondering about: I suspect the 256GB SSD might be a little on the small size, with the dual-OS setup. I will definitely be using external storage, and will probably pick up one of those PNY StorEdge cards for non-essentials like my iTunes library etc... any thoughts on this?

Greatly appreciate any experienced input you folks can provide. Thanks in advance!

[Just_Me_D]

In my opinion, any of the Mac you mentioned above should be sufficient, but the storage size, as you've already stated, may be too small, depending on what you save to it. If you can swing a 500 GB or a terabyte, go for it.

[cardfan]

Sounds like a big downgrade from what you already have though. I'd keep the setup and just get a base mbp (or cheap mba) if you want some mobility.

But if you get rid of the desktop, I'd consider at least the 15" mbp possibly a refurb that has a quad core cpu.

[TekNinja81]

...If you can swing a 500 GB or a terabyte, go for it.

I'm debating maybe ordering one of the Refurbished units from Apple's website, as the 512GB model is about the same as the brand-new 256GB.

Sounds like a big downgrade from what you already have though. I'd keep the setup and just get a base mbp (or cheap mba) if you want some mobility. But if you get rid of the desktop, I'd consider at least the 15" mbp possibly a refurb that has a quad core cpu.

I expect particularly compared to my 2x5870 setup in my home PC, the MBP wouldn't compare in terms of graphics performance for gaming. However, I honestly don't do a lot of heavy PC gaming these days -- mostly just stuff like Minecraft, and the odd bit of Diablo 3, Starcraft II, and emulators -- all of which the newer Intel GPUs handle fairly well as long as you don't try to max-out graphics settings. As for the 15", I have looked at them, but as I still want a fairly portable machine, they'd probably be just a tad too large/heavy for my preferences. --although, I used to have a 15" MBP back around 2007-2008 and it wasn't TOO horrible to carry around...

[TekNinja81]

Hey folks, just following up on my thread.

So I went and picked up the i5/256GB/8GB 13" MBP yesterday at a local Future Shop, as they had it on sale -- regular $1,599, one-day sale for $1,479.

Pretty sweet deal; though, the sales rep must have tried every possible trick in the book (for about a good 20 minutes) trying to talk me into buying their GeekSquad Total Protection Plan... I have every intention of buying AppleCare when I have the money, and no intention of buying the GeekSquad stuff, especially not being tied into a 2-year $30/mo contract for something I most likely would never need. (The MBP is "only" $1,479, why am I going to spend another $720?!)

Anyway, warranty-sales tactics aside, so far I'm loving having a MacBook again! I haven't had time to do a lot with it yet, still just setting things up and re-familiarizing myself with the updated OS X. But I can't wait to put this machine to work!

[warcraftWidow]

Congrats! Enjoy your new machine. And just in case you didn't know, you can purchase AppleCare on a MacBook any time during the first year. So no rush if you need to save the money up for it.