Upgrade Options for rMBP 2015

For most users, my advice is to spend money on storage, RAM and CPU in that order. I

f you plan on dealing with video, those files can be very large. If you do not have sufficient storage, then you are facing the prospect of an external HDD and the umbilical cord that goes with. That does not help in the ease of portability.

With SSD storage, that mitigates the need for a lot of RAM. If the bank account permits, do install more but be aware that RAM not used is wasted. Additional RAM become really useful if you are using very resource intensive applications.

Faster CPUs are important in a vocational environment where time indeed is money. In an academic or avocational situation, it is not likely that it will be of benefit in most of your activities.

Ciao.

As I indicated earlier, I would spend money on RAM before the faster CPU. If the bank account needs thinning, get both. 🙂

danielunite wrote:

Also as an aside, does Apple at all sell these upgraded models in Retail stores, or are they only available to be ordered online?

It may depend upon the store so give them a call. I have always purchased online.

Ciao.

Oglethorpe has pretty much nailed it. The CPU upgrade provides a measurable boost but I doubt most people will find the benefit matches the cost. Those who really need the horsepower should look at desktop computers as the faster CPU also comes with a higher energy usage.

Apple is shipping its SSD based notebooks with the RAM they need today and probably tomorrow. The great thing about an SSD is that they operate so fast that when the computer must rely on virtual memory it doesn’t begin to drag the computer down. I think the 8GB stock RAM on the rMBP is going to be more than sufficient for most of us for the next 3-4 years. If I were hoping to keep my notebook 5 years or more upgrading the RAM would probably be an attractive idea. (I tend to keep my notebooks less than 5 years.)

To me the hard drive is the first place look to an upgrade. For every notebook (indeed nearly every computer) I’ve owned, a hard drive has been the first component I’ve had to upgrade. My MBA is the first exception…sorta. I cannot upgrade the SSD but I do use the SD Card slot to hold my media. I started with a 32GB card and have since upgraded that to 64GB and then 128GB. The card now holds my media and some archived documents I’m not comfortable moving into the cloud.

So: Drive, RAM, CPU in the order