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Need a high quality laptop for under $2000

cookoutdeac said:
Yeah that's exactly what I was trying to say, was just weird his "drop down" was a 13" with only 8GB when the advantage of that size is you could afford the memory upgrade.
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cookoutdeac said:
Is the 13" with 16GB not in the budget? I'd do either that or the 15" with 8GB.
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Those are the two models the university store has. Otherwise, I'd have to get it customized which may be more of a hassle. DC's plan is ideal. 13" probably works fine for me. Got to see if it would work.

DC, you're being very helpful considering this is just going to help me post even quicker. ;)

DistrictDeacon said:
Ph - Do those prices include the educator's discount?
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Yep. $200 off.
 
Liquid Karma said:
Does the $2000 cover any additional items like port replicators (docking stations) and such?

How often do you use just the laptop without connecting an external monitor/keyboard setup?
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Every time. I never use an external monitor/keyboard.
 
PhDeac said:
Every time. I never use an external monitor/keyboard.
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This could be part of the reason for the short shelf life of your machines as well, especially if they were budget laptops previously.
 
Ha, just because I disagree with a post or two of yours doesn't mean you shouldn't be posting in style. We're all Deacon fans first, disagreeable know-it-all's second ;)

If time is of great importance though, a non-standard config will probably take a couple weeks to get. So that could be a deal breaker. If you need something fast I'd go with the highest level 13" version and just live with the 8gb memory. If it becomes a big deal you can always sell and upgrade within the next year without taking much of a hit.

There are some good arguments going back and forth about the 16gb option. I liked this post:

I have the Haswell 2.4 8gb/256gb.

I just ran as a test simultaneously:
Safari (12tabs), Netflix in chrome, iBooksAuthor, Pages, MS Word, AppStore and iTunes open, edited two small 720p youtube clips in iMovie while working on an image in photoshop (220mb), running vpn in the background.
I had no lag. Everything worked smooth.

This is what memory looked like:
(pic of unstressed memory)

And here is battery:
(pic of battery still at 85%)

-------

Essentially, 16gb is pretty serious overkill unless you really have some demanding requirements, like running Fusion with a developer kit on it or something.
 
Time isn't much of an issue as long as it's not too far into the Spring semester.

My primary requirements would be something like running 15-20 SPSS files (up to 1.5 gigs of data each) simultaneously with Word, Excel, a browser with several tabs, App Store and iTunes open with ESPN3 streaming.
 
cookoutdeac said:
I don't disagree, but think it's pretty funny when twice now the longevity has been mentioned for devices that received significant upgrades to their hardware. The fact that the new macbooks are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to perform upgrades on doesn't help in this department.
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True, and it's not something I'm thrilled about. But, as DC pointed out, re-sale is ridiculous. I sold my first MacBook two years after I bought it for 75% of what I paid at retail. And I wouldn't be surprised to see other OEM's soldering memory either in the near future as machines get lighter and thinner.
 
75%? Damn.
 
PhDeac said:
Those are the two models the university store has. Otherwise, I'd have to get it customized which may be more of a hassle. DC's plan is ideal. 13" probably works fine for me. Got to see if it would work.
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(Assuming that procurement regs at your school allow...) You can order a custom config direct from the Apple Store, get the Education discount and have it relatively quick. The local Apple Store should have a model with your desires in stock too... it doesn't sound like you are asking for anything really 'custom'. Two weeks seems long to me? (YMMV)
 
This is what I got:

15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display
2.3GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz
8GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
256GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
Backlit Keyboard (English) & User's Guide
Accessory Kit
 
PhDeac said:
This is what I got:

15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display
2.3GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz
8GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
256GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
Backlit Keyboard (English) & User's Guide
Accessory Kit
Click to expand...

Nice machine, I'm sure you'll learn to like it.

I'm a dual user - PC at work, Mac at home - and once I got comfortable with some of the differences in the OS, shortcuts, etc., I was really blown away by how much more I enjoy using the Mac. The MBP I bought has been a hoss when working with my photos in Adobe.
 
Thanks for all the advice. Managed to get it in at $1989.

Next task is picking out a 70+" TV. Been a good boy this year.
 
PhDeac said:
This is what I got:

15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display
2.3GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz
8GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
256GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
Backlit Keyboard (English) & User's Guide
Accessory Kit
Click to expand...


Sweet machine. I'll be interested to hear how it runs managing all that stuff at once. Truth is no matter what machine you get you'll be paging memory with 20 1+ gig SPSS files open. But paging to an SSD is massively better than a normal spinning hard drive. Heck of a Christmas present, enjoy.
 
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