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Macbook suggestions

 
Greenhorn
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Hey ranch,

I'm looking at getting my first Mac computer, I'm leaning towards the MBP with Retina, however I can't seem to decide on SDD size & Ram size.
Here are few models I have priced:

$1,400
MBP w/ Retina, 2.4 Ghz i5, 128 GB SDD, 8GB

$1,500
MBP w/ Retina, 2.4 Ghz i5, 256 GB SDD, 8GB

$1,600
MBP w/ Retina, 2.4 Ghz i5, 128 GB SDD, 16GB

I'm leaning towards the middle one, seems to be the sweet spot.

 
Sheriff
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I just bought a MacBook Pro and I maxed out the CPU, SSD and the RAM because these are not easily upgradable components. I opted to spend more up-front for a machine that will have a longer lifetime without running up against constraints added trying to minimize outlay cost.

Your mileage may vary.
 
Bear Bibeault
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P.S. The machine is an absolute screamer. I cannot get over how much faster it is than my previous MBP.
 
Michael Gomez
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Thanks for the reply bear, I likely won't be able to max out everything due to my budget. However I might be able to max ram, just wondering if you ever get past 8 gb? I know eclipse takes up a fair bit of memory, and I will likely run a virtual box. This will be a development machine, no video or photo editing of any sort.
 
Bear Bibeault
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Even if you cannot max out everything else, do so with the RAM. 16GB. Always. You will not be sorry.
 
Michael Gomez
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Hey ranch,

Quick update, I decided to go with the MBP retina (8 GB ram, 256 GB SSD).
I ran a bench mark on my Windows machine, I ran every single application I could think of using:
Eclipse (2 instances), iTunes, 2 virtual machines, Firefox with 20 tabs, IE, Microsoft Word, etc, and I only got up to 4 GB RAM.

Still getting used to my new mac, in the process of setting up my development environment
 
Bear Bibeault
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Congrats! I'm sure you'll enjoy your new machine.

(However, memory profiling on Windows wasn't the best way to gauge how much you'd be using on the Mac. Hope the 8G works out OK for you.)
 
Don't get me started about those stupid light bulbs.
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