checkmate007

Thanks, added the poll to see what the general opinion is!

If there is anyone who thinks that I should go for the 13" 2017 for any reason, I'd love to hear them too! Would be good to hear any possible benefits I haven't thought of (other than weight, thickness, joy of having the latest gadget haha) Edit: Is there any polling feature in LTT forum?

Isn't Iris Pro 5200 a much older graphics chip than the Iris Plus 640? I thought Iris Plus was a successor of the Iris Pro and therefore would be much faster

I am currently split between the purchase of a MacBook Pro: 13" MacBook Pro (2017), Refurbished non-Touch Bar / i5 / 8GB RAM / 256GB SSD / Intel Iris Plus 640 15" MacBook Pro (2015), Used but with AppleCare until April 2019 i7 2.2GHz / 16GB RAM / 256GB SSD / Intel Iris Pro 5200 The price is about the same, so that is not to be considered in this comparison. If you were me, which would you go for and why?

RAID 5 isn't really an option for me since the jump in the price from 2-bay to 4-bay NAS enclosures are quite significant. What exactly do you mean by you can do more with it? I only need the basic functionality such as: Moving and copying files onto/from the disk Playing videos from the devices in real time without copying onto local disk

Over the years, my collection of external hard disks have gotten larger, with a number of smaller drives. As it was getting difficult to track the files on these drives, I plan to get a NAS with 4TB (for each drive in RAID 1). Currently, I am split between the two options right now: Synology DS516J with 2 x WD Red 4TB (US$514 equivalent) WD My Cloud Mirror, Gen 2 with 2 x WD Red 4TB included (US$370 with ongoing promotion) There are a number of things I want to clarify and ask: Will I be able to access the files on these devices using Windows Explorer or Finder and use a normal media player such as VLC to play videos off it smoothly? (1080p FHD) Which of the two would you recommend considering the price of each?

It depends on the games that he wants to play though. 1050 Ti will be fine for light gaming but you shouldn't expect 60FPS in AAA titles. As for the use for Adobe suite, it might be better if you save up on the keyboard and the mouse and use that money to get another 8GB RAM. The benefit you get from the keyboard and mouse are purely personal satisfaction, so it wouldn't make sense to spend the money especially with budget builds. If money is tight, you can opt for "normal ram" over those "gaming ram", since the main difference is the aesthetics. Perhaps, you can also save some money from the chair and use that money on SSD

Would the 16GB 2016 model be considered an "up-specced older model" although it has less efficient processor?

Thanks for the very detailed reply! I want to hear your opinion on a few things: I hope to get at least 3-4 and possibly 5+ years comfortably out of the MacBook. Wouldn't 2015 be a little too outdated for that? Would the difference in the SSD speed and the RAM speed between the generations (1600 MHz vs 2133 MHz) be a significant factor? What do you think about getting the 2016 model, assuming 2015 is not an option?

Thanks for the reply - sorry I didn't see your following replies (the page wasn't refreshed haha)

I read that some keys became unresponsive after getting some dust under the keys and that it's been fixed in the 2017 model (that's what I read on the forum at least). As I am currently very satisfied with the 2017 keyboard, that seemed like a big potential problem. As for the RAM, you're suggesting that the 8GB RAM is enough for the coming years until the machine itself becomes obsolete? As I progress in my coding journey, I am expecting more instances of IDEs or even VMs for testing. Do you think I could fit that into 8GB RAM? (Really hope I can...)

I purchased a refurbished 13 inch MacBook Pro 2017 with 8GB RAM & 256GB SSD. As it's been 7 days since the purchase, I am still eligible for the 14 days returns and I am considering getting a different model of the MacBook Pro. While I am generally happy with my purchase, I noticed my memory pressure can go up to 70-75% when running Windows 10 on Parallels for certain applications that aren't compatible with Mac OS. This is when I assign a mere 2GB RAM for the virtual machine. In addition to that, I am learning to code in C and Python right now and while 16GB RAM may not be necessary, I am thinking it might be better to get 16GB for future proofing sake. I am hoping to get at least 3 years out of this MacBook and hopefully more than 5 years. Right now, I am split between the two refurbish options: 2017 MBP (nTB) with 8GB RAM @ S$1848 (US$1352) 2016 MBP (nTB) with 16GB RAM @ S$1978 (US$1447) While the 16GB RAM on the 2016 model is appealing, I have been seeing some advice on various forums advising against buying the 2016 model as it's the first of this "new generation" MacBook with certain issues such as supposedly poor keyboard design and other unknown issues that were rectified in the 2017 model. What are your opinions on the following? Is upgrading to 16GB help with future proofing considering my uses? Is buying the 2016 model as bad an idea as the forum posts suggest? Also, there is a 2017 MBP (nTB) with 16GB RAM @ S$2089 (US$1529) which is out of stock. Should I buy it instead if it gets restocked? Would love to hear your opinions on this.

Alright, I'll just keep the card and at most mine when the computer is idle (which is pretty much the whole time since I am working summer internship). Thanks for all your responses!

@That_PC_Kid @Ry23n What are your opinions about going for GTX 1060 instead though, since that's available right now? Or would you just keep it for FreeSync?

@mark_p8 @That_PC_Kid @Ry23n I've waited for like 3 weeks for this card to come, which was supposed to be delivered by last week. Next year is my university final year and the next one month is perhaps the only time I will be able to play games for an extended period of time because Y4 is going to be hectic. Assuming that waiting is not an option, what would you guys do?