[Jingol]

Hi every body

I have decided buy MacBook Pro

I will use MacBook for browse in Internet and sometime Photoshop

Which MacBook is faster when open 10 tab with safari and play music and edit document by office at the same time ?

MD102 or MD212 ?


MacBook Pro : MD102LL
13-inch
2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i7
Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
8GB 1600MHz memory
750GB 5400-rpm hard drive

OR

MacBook Pro : MD212LL
13-inch with Retina display
2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz
8GB 1600MHz memory
128GB flash storage


MacBook speed with 2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 processor but hard drive is better or 2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 with flash storage ?

[Dorian Gray]

Flash storage makes a big difference in responsiveness when opening apps, switching between open apps, and saving and opening large files.

The processor speed differences are minor by comparison, and will really only become noticeable when doing something specifically processor-intensive such as encoding a video.

The Retina Display is a great advance, especially if you spend a lot of time working with text. It’s much sharper, and really reveals the differences between fonts. However, 128 GB of storage is small these days. Certainly too small for me.

[GSpotter]

With the non-retina MacBook, you can easily upgrade the hdd to a SSD yourself. I bought the basic version and upgraded the RAM an HDD myself. 10 screws, 15 minutes of work, now I have a 512gb Ssd and 16GB RAM for much less than what Apple wants for this setup. You cannot upgrade RAM in the Retina versions, and SSD is also much more restricted. By buying the non-retina MacBook, you can upgrade later, so start with the HDD and if it is not fast enough, buy the SSD some time later...

[Quagmire]

I would go for the non-retina 13" MBP. Simply because of the integrated Intel GPU. It is a POS to begin with. It will be taxed trying to power the retina display. So any other GPU intensive tasks you may do will suffer more(like Photoshop I believe).

[Jingol]

Thanks a lot for advise

I have 3TB External HDD and less than 50GB SDD internal storage is enough for me.


I had read a review that 13" rMBP took longer to display when several tab and app opened together because with no dedicated GPU and high resolution, processor must push it

It's true?

[Partial]

Buying the 13" non-retina would be a curious decision right now given the minimal cost difference. This is the new model... so support and availability could be issues with the old one.

The display is amazing. I love mine!

[Jingol]

I heard can't upgrade the 13" MBP hdd to a SSD easily ! confirm ?

[turtle]

The MBP is really easy to upgrade actually. It still uses a 2.5" drive.

[Yontsey]

Just like turtle said, it's very easy. To swap a drive, it should only take a minute or two.