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NCD: MacBook Pro 13" Retina

 
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alexkhan



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Chino, CA

PostPosted: Sun Apr 12, 2015 7:03 am    Post subject: NCD: MacBook Pro 13" Retina Reply with quote

A new computer day is just as good as a new guitar day or a new amp day. Very Happy My 4-year-old MBA is showing its age so I figured that I needed to upgrade and go for raw power as I'm planning to use it for the next 4 years. My oldest son who's in 9th grade can use a computer as well so I decided it's time for a new one and pass on my old faithful MBA to him which had served me so well.

I loved the MBA with its sleek look and light weight but I was disappointed that the latest version didn't have the Retina screen. The 13" MBP with Retina is 3.5 pounds so it is 0.6 pound heavier but that's not much - especially since I'm now using a backpack with wheels for my business trips while I strap on a gig-bag with the .strandberg* Boden 6.

I went all out and maxed out the specs with the 3.1GHz version (3.4GHz turbo - whatever that means), 16gb RAM, and 1TB SSD. Essentially, it's at least 4x as powerful as the '11 MBA with 4x the RAM and storage. I put all of my music (in Apple Lossless format, no less) and movie library (around 50 of my all-time faves) in there and I'm only at 420GB so it's very unlikely I will ever run out of space.

And, man, this machine really is blazing fast. At least for the next few-to-several months until Apple comes out with an updated 15" MBP Retina with a discrete graphics processor, this is the fastest and the most powerful laptop in existence. Way overkill for my modest needs but I typically use a computer for 4~5 years so it made sense to max it out.

The Retina screen really is awesome. I'm used to it on the iPhone 6 Plus and the iPad Air I have but it's something else to see this kind of clarity on a laptop. Now the 27" Thunderbolt Display I have seems fuzzy and pixelated in comparison. I'll have to get a Retina HD 5K display whenever Apple comes out with it - maybe two, one for home and one for work.

Apple really is the ultimate "drug dealer". They know exactly what to come out with to force people to upgrade even though the existing stuff works just fine. What can I say? I'm an Apple gear addict. But, for me, it really is about getting stuff done with the gear and enjoying it in the process. I'm not a tech nerd although I follow the industry more for learning about business strategies, marketing, supply chain management, etc.

What Apple is doing now in the realm of business is totally unprecedented. Apple is indeed like Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan of the business world. Wink Even Microsoft, IBM, GM, Exxon, GE, Sony, Toyota, etc. in their heydays cannot compare to what Apple is achieving now. Not even close... Kind of like Guthrie! Haha. Laughing BTW, when I advised Guthrie I was getting this machine he replied that he had been thinking of getting the same. Seems he is indeed serious about recording on the road for his next solo album. Wink

Here are some pics, including the always-exciting unpacking process. Man, no one packages products like Apple - no one. There are many imitators but Apple's got packaging down to an art and science.







And here it is configured to exactly as I want it with all the files transferred over from my old MBA, media files added (which I accessed through an external drive before), and with a backup drive connected. Yes, that's a 1TB SSD backup drive.



Here's a closeup of the new Samsung T1 SSD. It's amazing how tiny and light it is. It weighs 1.1 ounce (30 grams)! Shocked Amazing... I'm not a fan of Samsung but I just had to get this. No doubt about it: Samsung does make the best semiconductors and displays on the planet.



Well, I'm one happy camper now and I believe this little rig will serve me very well for the next several years. Now I'm going to patiently wait for the Retina 5K HD display to hook this up to. Very Happy
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.strandberg* Guitars USA
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Guitar Center Inc.
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petros



Joined: 26 Feb 2015
Posts: 78
Location: Cambridge, UK

PostPosted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 11:45 pm    Post subject: Re: NCD: MacBook Pro 13" Retina Reply with quote

alexkhan wrote:
A new computer day is just as good as a new guitar day or a new amp day. Very Happy My 4-year-old MBA is showing its age so I figured that I needed to upgrade and go for raw power as I'm planning to use it for the next 4 years. My oldest son who's in 9th grade can use a computer as well so I decided it's time for a new one and pass on my old faithful MBA to him which had served me so well.

I loved the MBA with its sleek look and light weight but I was disappointed that the latest version didn't have the Retina screen. The 13" MBP with Retina is 3.5 pounds so it is 0.6 pound heavier but that's not much - especially since I'm now using a backpack with wheels for my business trips while I strap on a gig-bag with the .strandberg* Boden 6.

I went all out and maxed out the specs with the 3.1GHz version (3.4GHz turbo - whatever that means), 16gb RAM, and 1TB SSD. Essentially, it's at least 4x as powerful as the '11 MBA with 4x the RAM and storage. I put all of my music (in Apple Lossless format, no less) and movie library (around 50 of my all-time faves) in there and I'm only at 420GB so it's very unlikely I will ever run out of space.

And, man, this machine really is blazing fast. At least for the next few-to-several months until Apple comes out with an updated 15" MBP Retina with a discrete graphics processor, this is the fastest and the most powerful laptop in existence. Way overkill for my modest needs but I typically use a computer for 4~5 years so it made sense to max it out.

The Retina screen really is awesome. I'm used to it on the iPhone 6 Plus and the iPad Air I have but it's something else to see this kind of clarity on a laptop. Now the 27" Thunderbolt Display I have seems fuzzy and pixelated in comparison. I'll have to get a Retina HD 5K display whenever Apple comes out with it - maybe two, one for home and one for work.

Apple really is the ultimate "drug dealer". They know exactly what to come out with to force people to upgrade even though the existing stuff works just fine. What can I say? I'm an Apple gear addict. But, for me, it really is about getting stuff done with the gear and enjoying it in the process. I'm not a tech nerd although I follow the industry more for learning about business strategies, marketing, supply chain management, etc.

What Apple is doing now in the realm of business is totally unprecedented. Apple is indeed like Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan of the business world. Wink Even Microsoft, IBM, GM, Exxon, GE, Sony, Toyota, etc. in their heydays cannot compare to what Apple is achieving now. Not even close... Kind of like Guthrie! Haha. Laughing BTW, when I advised Guthrie I was getting this machine he replied that he had been thinking of getting the same. Seems he is indeed serious about recording on the road for his next solo album. Wink

Here are some pics, including the always-exciting unpacking process. Man, no one packages products like Apple - no one. There are many imitators but Apple's got packaging down to an art and science.







And here it is configured to exactly as I want it with all the files transferred over from my old MBA, media files added (which I accessed through an external drive before), and with a backup drive connected. Yes, that's a 1TB SSD backup drive.



Here's a closeup of the new Samsung T1 SSD. It's amazing how tiny and light it is. It weighs 1.1 ounce (30 grams)! Shocked Amazing... I'm not a fan of Samsung but I just had to get this. No doubt about it: Samsung does make the best semiconductors and displays on the planet.



Well, I'm one happy camper now and I believe this little rig will serve me very well for the next several years. Now I'm going to patiently wait for the Retina 5K HD display to hook this up to. Very Happy


Congrats on this! I've had MBPr 15'' for two years now and it's made my PhD an awesome experience. I work with ancient manuscript images every day, so having a fantastic display and an SSD drive is really helping me in work a great deal. What I love about Apple products is that I don't have to deal with the product's problems—I'm free to enjoy its functions and use them to create something. I don't even know how to fix it, as it's never broken down on me (unlike several PCs I had owned in my former life).
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alexkhan



Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 2783
Location: Chino, CA

PostPosted: Thu Apr 16, 2015 2:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yup, that's the cool thing about Apple products: stuff just works (well, for the most part). We can focus on getting stuff done in ways that suits us best. I'm not into customizing things too much. In fact, my setup on the Mac and the iDevices are pretty generic. I'm fine with using mostly default settings that Apple provides. I don't have time to customize the settings just to my liking. These are just tools - very nice tools, of course - and my focus is always on what and how much more efficiently I can get things done with them.
_________________
Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.
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View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
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