Well I bit the bullet

Jasiono

And I bought a Macbook Pro

It's really wierd how the specs seem little for what you pay for but this thing freakin flies!

ptilsen

Retina?

Jasiono

I don't need retina, although it was pretty nice, but I can't justify spending 400 more on that lol. I just got the regular one, mid 2012. I might return it though since the rumors are coming around in regards to a refresh. I might pick up a retina one if their price goes down to flush them out to make room for the new ones.

I installed my Ableton on here and it's SIGNIFICANTLY faster than my windows based laptop with roughly the same specs.

ptilsen

My thing with the Retina is it's viable for gaming. The screen itself is secondary. But even the regular one should be great. Let us know how you like it after you've had it a while. Personally, I'm holding out to see what they come up with when Haswell comes out, both Apple and the PC makers.

Jasiono

Haswell has been a heavy rumor on the new imacs I think. I wouldnt be surprised if they are put into the next laptop refreshs. I just reinstalled mountain lion and I'll be returning this week. Im going to hold off on buying one so thay I can get a more recent one. Buying a mac for over a grand doesnt sit right with me when its almost a year old.

The battery life on this thing is superb. I used to be extremely against apples line of computers until recently. I did some research and found out that they aren't as resource hogging as windows, among other things that sparked my interest. Its truly a well built and quality product. The customer service is something I have always loved from apple.

tpatt100

I think every computer is relatively fast if it is brand new. The main advantage probably is that the laptop doesn't have a lot of bloatware installed to subsidize the price. I usually don't buy cheap laptops and noticed the lack of extra junk pre loaded. I skipped retina for price mainly.

It's the stupid little things I noticed that I like a lot such as the magnetic cord.

webgeek

tpatt100 wrote: »

It's the stupid little things I noticed that I like a lot such as the magnetic cord.

lol so true

NotHackingYou

Welcome to the dark side! I have a 15" retina and love it. Did you notice for the $400 more you also get an SSD and HDMI + 2 thunderbolt (three external displays)?

spicy ahi

I just got back my early 2011 2.2GHz i7 MBP from the spousal unit who was using it until she bought an 11" Air. As an accountant, she only uses Quickbooks, Timberline, and Excel. It was a crying shame to use such a beast of a laptop on... excel. The Air is better suited for her, plus it's light enough that she carries it around in her bag. Now to get GNS3 et al working on the MBP again...

MiikeB

If the computer had a regular bios, keyboard and I could install windows without bootcamp I would probably by MBPs all the time. The hardware and build quality is just so top notch.

webgeek

MiikeB wrote: »

If the computer had a regular bios, keyboard and I could install windows without bootcamp I would probably by MBPs all the time. The hardware and build quality is just so top notch.

VMware / Parallels / VirtualBox

Jasiono

tpatt100 wrote: »

It's the stupid little things I noticed that I like a lot such as the magnetic cord.

I didn't need to charge it yet. The fact that the battery lasts SO long in such a powerhouse of a laptop simply amazes me.

CarlSaiyed wrote: »

Welcome to the dark side! I have a 15" retina and love it. Did you notice for the $400 more you also get an SSD and HDMI + 2 thunderbolt (three external displays)?

I see Windows being more of a dark side now haha. I was so ignorant toward Apple computers. I have an SSD laying in my basement which hasn't been used, not sure what the thunderbolt is. No need for an HDMI for me. I have an apple TV, so if I want to connect to it I can just use that. Maybe when the refresh happens and they go down in price I will pick up the retina one.

spicy ahi wrote: »

I just got back my early 2011 2.2GHz i7 MBP from the spousal unit who was using it until she bought an 11" Air. As an accountant, she only uses Quickbooks, Timberline, and Excel. It was a crying shame to use such a beast of a laptop on... excel. The Air is better suited for her, plus it's light enough that she carries it around in her bag. Now to get GNS3 et al working on the MBP again...

Ha. All those resources not being used

jibbajabba

Jasiono wrote: »

the rumors are coming around in regards to a refresh.

There are ALWAYS rumors

Mutata

I ALMOST bought a MacBook pro. They are really well-built swanky devices, unfortunately by the time all was said and done (and of course me being me I needed everything pretty much topped out) my price tag was around $4300CDN after tax/warranty.

I decided I could do better with some research, and considering I upgrade my laptop every 1-1 1/2 yrs I wasn't prepared to shell out that kind of cash that frequently.

I ended up with the Asus G74. After having it for 3 months, there are pros and cons to my decision. Size/Battery life are definite negatives at almost 9lbs and 2 hours under high performance. However; Price/Performance this laptop has it hands down, I have 32GB RAM/i7-3620/SSD/HDD and a GTX660M - for 1700$CDN

I guess the fact that I have another smaller Asus i7 laptop to compensate when I want to be more mobile helps as well

NotHackingYou

MiikeB wrote: »

If the computer had a regular bios, keyboard and I could install windows without bootcamp I would probably by MBPs all the time. The hardware and build quality is just so top notch.

Uh, I installed Windows on bare Macs all the time at my old job. Just boot from a USB or DVD and format the drive for NTFS and install Windows. Zero trouble. Everything from the old dual core 13" MBP up through the 2012 i7 MPB. Have not tried it on my retina.

dave330i

It's mainly the SSD. My win7 pc boots in about 10 sec. 5 sec of that is BIOS timeout.

olaHalo

dave330i wrote: »

It's mainly the SSD. My win7 pc boots in about 10 sec. 5 sec of that is BIOS timeout.

My Windows 8 laptop boots in under 10 secs every time.
I keep thinking it wasnt turned all the way off.

Congrats on the mac OP. Just too pricey for me

N2IT

Retina on the iPad mini and I5 is great.

Totally worth it IMO

MiikeB

CarlSaiyed wrote: »

Uh, I installed Windows on bare Macs all the time at my old job. Just boot from a USB or DVD and format the drive for NTFS and install Windows. Zero trouble. Everything from the old dual core 13" MBP up through the 2012 i7 MPB. Have not tried it on my retina.

I have done this before but IIRC some of they keyboard stuff did not work anymore like brightness adjusting the screen. Its possible, there is just no way to do it without feeling somewhat shortchanged over a regular windows laptop.