Macbook Pro Purchase Advice

kingtubby

Hi all,

I'm looking for advice on a couple of things with regards to buying a macbook pro.
What would be the best value option to purchase one? From my research so far it seems Amazon is but if anyone knows cheaper options I would be interested in hearing it.

Is 4 gig ram enough? I heard in the new range that you cannot upgrade ram after purchase so its important to consider this going forward. Unfortunately 8 gig is a lot more expensive!

Is there any extras that are necessary or highly advisable when buying a mac?

Thanks in advance

FourFourRED

What's your budget? A great option is Apples refurbished model range

http://store.apple.com/ie/browse/home/specialdeals/mac


4GB is ok but restrictive if your going to be using RAM heavy apps simultaneously. Also as you said yourself on the retina models you can't change it.

If you can tell us what applications you intend on using the MBP for, it will help us choose the ideal machine. If you won't be doing anything too heavy then the 4GB could do you & this machine would be great value - http://store.apple.com/ie/product/FE864B/A/refurbished-133-inch-macbook-pro-24ghz-dual-core-intel-i5-with-retina-display

You could always buy the regular non retina model and upgrade the RAM yourself for a lot cheaper than Apple charge you. You also get the 500GB hard drive but it is a lot slower than the 128GB SSD in the above machine - http://store.apple.com/ie/product/FD101B/A

kingtubby

Thanks very much for the response!

The price range is around 1100 to 1300 euro.

At the moment for the most part I would use my laptop for regular browsing and watching movies. I would use it for Office fairly often. Also I would occasionally have different software apps for work to run on it but these aren't particularly intensive. I guess I would probably do ok with 4 gb, if I was getting more it would be with future proofing in mind more so than anything else.


I hadn't seen the refurbished model range before that does look like a pretty good option here.

FourFourRED

kingtubby wrote: »

Thanks very much for the response!

The price range is around 1100 to 1300 euro.

At the moment for the most part I would use my laptop for regular browsing and watching movies. I would use it for Office fairly often. Also I would occasionally have different software apps for work to run on it but these aren't particularly intensive. I guess I would probably do ok with 4 gb, if I was getting more it would be with future proofing in mind more so than anything else.


I hadn't seen the refurbished model range before that does look like a pretty good option here.

Based on the info above I think you should go for the refurbished MacBook Pro 13" with Retina Display. The refurb models are top quality (you can research more into that yourself anyway). Movies will look stunning on it & for word processing & browsing you will be ok with the 4GB. There is a good app in the store for free that helps free up RAM if needed also.