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Retina v. Non-retina MBP

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Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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  • July 2, 2016 at 8:45 pm #2415021
    Jeff G
    Participant

    Well for one, your storage won’t be as fast as the Retina because it uses a proprietary PCI-e SSD. It’ll boot up insanely fast, but unless your workload requires it, you won’t notice it. And if you don’t even understand what I’m talking about, chances are you won’t need it.

    The non-retina is 1400×900, so unless you want that IPS screen (as gorgeous as it is) and the high resolution, you’d do better going with the non-retina and installing the RAM (supports up to 16GB of DDR3, idk about the speed though so Google it) and whatever storage you want on your own.

    Oh, and get the i7 😛 Even though it’s a dual-core.

    July 2, 2016 at 8:57 pm #2415051
    Todd Oddity
    Participant

    Ya, the i7 would be the only factory upgrade I’d take (they offer a slightly faster one in the retinas, but it’s still just a dual-core). Actually, that’s a lie, I’d take their 1tb HD too as it’s a reasonable price. I’d put the SSD in the optical bay and if I’ve read correctly, because it would still register as an internal drive I can use it for booting.

    As for the display, I wish it was 1400. 1280×800 is what it comes with, which is much less than even my old PCs sported, but then again, it’s going to be a dedicated DJ system so what do I really need the resolution for anyway…

    Thanks for the input!

    July 3, 2016 at 12:28 am #2415071
    DJ Vintage
    Moderator

    I personally couldn’t hack it with a 13″, but that is probably an age thing. I do have to say that after a non-retina 15″ and now a retina 15″, I do love the higher resolution. It also allows you to get more info in your library view, which I value.

    So I now have a 15″ i7 with 256 SSD and 16GB, I am a happy camper. BTW, I didn’t buy new, mine was about a couple of years old when I got it late last year.

    July 3, 2016 at 6:15 am #2415091
    Jeff G
    Participant

    Yea you’re right, I was thinking of the older 15″ model (and there are plenty out there in good condition). I’d say the 13″ for weight reduction and price. DJ Vintage did make a good point, though. You could probably find used 15″ Retinas (eBay for one) at great prices, and honestly the price you’d pay for a 13″ could give you a quad-core 15″ Retina laptop, that’ll outperform the 13″ just based on raw CPU power. ALWAYS get a quad-core if you can afford it. I honestly wish they’d stop making dual-cores for anything that’s not a tablet or a phone, and even a lot of phones are quad-cores now (except the iPhone but that dual-core CPU is a monster).

    July 10, 2016 at 10:31 pm #2417261
    Kent Sandvik
    Participant

    You could always get a used older MacBookPro and replace the internal hard drive with an SSD. Not that those laptops show age so don’t expect huge Ableton Live projects to work well, smaller and decent sized Traktor setups are Ok.

    I’m looking at maybe getting a MacBookAir as I think for most purposes such a system has enough hardware power to run Traktor. And they are small/light.

    July 11, 2016 at 8:11 am #2417331
    Terry_42
    Keymaster

    I have the last non-Retina 15” with i7 etc.
    Works good for me. Yes the Retina is nice, but not a must have in my opinion.
    I like the screen real estate of the 15”.

    July 21, 2016 at 1:53 am #2420931
    Todd Oddity
    Participant

    Thanks for all the advice on this everyone. It all sorted itself out when over the weekend someone I know decided to sell his backup 13″ non-retina MBP. Great condition, even better price, couldn’t say no. Picked it up on Monday and the SSD and ram upgrades go in tomorrow.

    Gives me some breathing room to play around in the ecosystem before I commit the dollars to a new unit.

    Anyway, thanks again.

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