I want to buy a MacPro -What should I get?

I'm new to this forum and new to apple laptops. After some review I think I would like a MacPro with Retina display. I think the larger screen is better for me. That's about all I know. More ram has always been what I went for in the past but I am not sure that is as important with Macs as it was with MS Windows gear. I don't do music development. I am not a super photographer. I do a little gaming (more than I should). I don't have vast files. Weight of the laptop is unimportant to me. I always thought a disk drive was important to have but Mac doesn't seem to offer that.

Could someone help me with this, please?

So the retina display macbook pro is basically a really expensive ultrabook but with a higher resolution screen, non user upgradable internals, and OSX. With the new version of OSX it has become a very light OS as far ram usage goes. I never have any troubles with 8gb of ram. I do not miss the DVD drive but if you want to have one then you will need an external drive.

What might be a good option for you is the 13" retina macbook pro with an external monitor. you save a ton of money over the 15" and you don't seem to need the i7 processor over the i5.

If you know anything about specing out a PC, specing out a Mac is exactly the same.
Get the specs you need and don't bother with anything else.

If you're doing a lot of photo editing, lots of layers, etc then having a quick CPU and a good amount of RAM (for swap) is always nice to have. 8GB I say is the minimum for an enthusiast, 16 if you need it or like piece of mind. 4GB is plenty if all you're going to do is browse, do spreadsheets, make documents, and send e-mail. However you also have to balance this with cost and what you can afford.

In terms of this being a hardware purchase, it's no different than anything else. What is your budget?


Edit: I should also note, you're interested in a Macbook Pro. The Mac Pro is an entirely different machine. I realize that can be confusing for people not familiar with Apple's naming scheme.

if you're going to game you should get the 650M.

Buy last year's 15" rMBP at a significant discount and get the benefits of both worlds (retina, discreet GPU, and deep discount)

This has all been very helpful! I think that I will go with a retina display. And an earlier version Mac Pro (though it's tough on my tech ego to do so). I understand that 8 meg ram would be sufficient, but if the price is not much different I will go with the 16 meg. Same with the 13" and the 15". This has been helpful. Thanks to all contributors. Much appreciated.

I got the 13' normal MacBook Pro, I like the display, though retina would be an extremely better looking I guess. I havent upgraded the memory on the laptop yet, but Im not doing any heavy processing or program usage... The battery life is ok for lasting a number of hours, 15 hours out of a MacBook Air is better but doesnt work as much as the pro...

Okay. To add to my confusion I was told yesterday that a Mac Air is exactly the same as a MacBook Pro just much lighter. I was told the only difference was a hard drive vs. a flash drive. Is this true?

Go with PC laptop, it is the same thing as Macbook Pro, the hardware guts are the same. Buy the Mac OS on Ebay for cheap, dual boot the system to give you both Windows and Apple OS choice. Cheaper to do in my opinion.

I know some true Apple geeks that finally switched over to Windows. Better support for games, and really good support for common application software for design and artist software. Plus there lack of good support for the Macbook Pro using the Nvidia video chip, burned a lot of loyal people. Apple knew and went ahead sold thousands and 10's of thousand laptops.




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I am actually trying hard to move FROM the MS Windows environment. The nature of my work exposes me to a lot of overseas connections and it has been really difficult to keep my MS Windows environments "clean" no matter which combinations of anti-malware I use. Berkeley Unix (MAC OS) will at least help in that arena.

I believe that your technical answer is sound. It is just not the way I need to go right now.

I also did a little further research. It appears that the Air is best for basic office users but the MAC Pro is better if any gaming icon the table.

Do you concur?

MacBook Pro > MacBook Air

The graphics hardware is different and the processors are different.

MBA has only Intel HD Graphics 5000, while the MBP now has Intel Iris Pro Graphics as well as the NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 2GB of GDDR5 memory and automatic graphics switching. (of course, this is the higher end machine...)

If you game at all, you're probably gonna want the MacBook Pro.

A Air only has a Dual core CPU (2 thread), a Pro has a Quad core (8 thread), the pro is better in every-way except weight.

Okay. Good. That does it for me. Thanks again to all responders. Much appreciated