
Ask HN: Which config to choose for a new MBP? - oliv__
Hey guys,<p>I&#x27;m thinking of getting a new Macbook Pro but can&#x27;t decide which specs to bump up and whether that&#x27;s even worth considering.<p>I&#x27;m a web dev so my usage is mostly code editors, web browser, and then I&#x27;ll use Photoshop&#x2F;Illustrator occasionally.<p>Was thinking of future proofing and going with 16gb of ram (I always have a million tabs and apps open) and keeping the base i5 processor.<p>Or would the upgrade to the i7 be worth it instead?<p>Thanks!
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gargravarr
The biggest problem with the entire Apple lineup at the moment is that it
isn't upgradeable after purchase - you need to max out the RAM before you pay,
or you're stuck with that forever. Much as I hate to say, you'll definitely
need to max out to 16GB for web dev. I imagine you'll need RAM more than CPU -
resource consumption of pretty much all the apps you list is a burst of
activity followed by slow user interaction. An i5 would likely be fine for
this use pattern. The entire i-series is pretty long-lived; the i7 only really
comes into its own for intense gaming and the like.

My company buys MBPs fairly regularly and we always max them out, even for our
web team (our product is native C++). The trouble is that even a mid-range MBP
is going to hit $2,000 easily, which is an insane amount of money for a
disposable, non-upgradeable machine. If you're not completely tied to Mac,
you're likely to find a cheaper machine elsewhere.

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oliv__
Thanks for the lengthy answer! This helped.

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FBISurveillance
Get the top one if you use this machine professionally. In my opinion, time
savings will pay off it many times, even if that'll be 10% boost in
performance.

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viraptor
You're already working on some kind of laptop, right? See what usage you get
at the moment. Look at the resource activity graph. Are you ever pegged at
100% CPU for more than a few seconds? You'll know the answer from there.

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oliv__
I've got a 2011 Macbook Air (1.7Ghz i5).

That's a good idea. I don't seem to be using that much CPU yeah... I was
mostly thinking about future versions of MacOS that might require more power.

