Confused between MBPr 15" (Late 2012) OR MBPr 15" (Late 2013)

[marcus waugh]

Hello Ranchers ,

This is my first post , and hence forgive me if I write something naive/wrong . I am Java developer with around 3 years of experience. I am thinking of purchasing a Mac book Retina(MBPr) 15" both for personal and Java development .

My confusion started when I checked awesome deal on Mac Mall for MBPr15" (http://www.macmall.com/n/macNavLinks-758?q=9835334&qt=9835334) .
The configuration is : Apple 15.4" MacBook Pro with Retina display, quad-core Intel Core i7 2.8GHz, 16GB RAM, 768GB Flash Storage, Intel HD Graphics 4000, 1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M .

When I spoke on Mac Mall live chat to confirm this deal the person told me that this is Late 2012 model with OS X Mountain Lion. He told I can upgrade this to Mavericks as it is free now . Also, this seems to be a good deal with almost 20% discount . I am ready to spend 2500$ for this awesome deal. I have free shipping and no service tax . Also 1 year apple warranty is applicable, so if anything goes wrong I can go to Apple Store .

The second option is buying MBPr Late 2013 version (Oct 2013 release) which is the latest MBPr version available . I will need to buy it from Apple store , as there is no discount available on this latest version on any sites .Now with 2500$ I will not get the configuration as mentioned above and need to settle with less RAM and memory .

I googled to compare Late 2012 vs Late 2013 but the results were too much of technical comparisons , rather then telling the features differences between these 2 versions .

So my question to fellow Ranchers who have old/latest MBPr , is it worth to invest in MBPr Late 2012 model with awesome configuration or invest in latest 2013 version with configuration compromised.

Also, if anyone has ordered from Mac Mall please let me know their service/reviews as they are giving such heavy discount of almost 20% .

Any help is appreciated .

Thanks in Advance,
Mark

[Bear Bibeault]

You're not going to go wrong with either machine.

If the major difference between specs is the RAM, RAM is cheaper to buy after-the-fact and to upgrade yourself. crucial.com is great place to buy memory.

I've bought from MacMall many times without any issues.

[Tim Cooke]

Like Bear says, you're not going to go wrong with either machine. At home I'm still happily plugging away on a 2009 iMac of lesser spec than those with no problems. At work I have some new fangled MBP that's much more powerful but I don't notice much benefit.

A colleague of mine got a second hand MacBook Air from eBay for about £400 ($600 ish). Does the job just nicely and is super portable.

[marcus waugh]

Thank you very much Bear and Tim for your valuable inputs and pointers . I will go with MacMall offer

Although I have used Mac book Pro at Work , I have never updated/installed updated OSX myself . I hope installing Mavericks on 2012 Lion OSX would not be a big problem .

In case , you know any special care I need to take while installing Mavericks , please let me know . Also in case you know some important MUST HAVE Applications/Tools for Macbook please let me know .

And , finally thanks agian for your valuable inputs , which has helped me to decide my new Macbook Pro .

[Bear Bibeault]

Updating an OS X installation is a breeze for all the normal stuff.

For us developers, there is a little bit of work as development stuff is usually not migrated. Before doing anything, get yourself an external hard drive and make a Time Machine backup. Don't skip this step. Do it. Right away.

After upgrade, re-install Xcode; that will install/upgrade a bunch of development tools. Then start up something that uses Java; for me, it's IntelliJ. That will trigger the installation of Java.

After that, add any other command lines tools that you need/want.

Grab stuff from the Time Machine backup as required.

With regards to tools, things I use on a day-to-day basis: IntelliJ, WebStorm, Text Wrangler, Transmit, all the browsers, Parallels Desktop, DbVisualizer, Adobe CS 6, OmniGraffle, Evernote, Dropbox, TextExpander, 1Password, iTerm2 and more...

[Tim Cooke]

On the whole the OS X upgrade process is about as painless as you're going to get (A lot better than the bi-annual lottery that was an Ubuntu update). However, it is not without its quirks. The main ones for me being that the upgrade will uninstall git and maven.

The applications you need will probably be different to the ones I use as it greatly depends on what you are doing. For me anyway my day to day apps are: IntelliJ IDEA, iTerm2, Browsers, SQL Developer, Growly Notes, Screen Hero. At a push I could probably get along with IntelliJ, iTerm2, a pencil, and some paper.

[marcus waugh]

Thank you again Bear and Tim for this important updated

I am ordering Mac Book from Mac Mall in coming 2-3 days .

This is awesome website with awesome people to help around