Best Value MacBook Pro 15 inch

[jamesoutofideas]

I am getting a MacBook for University. It will be used for 1080p and some 4K video editing, using both FCPX and Adobe PP. Raw files will be deleted after projects and put into longer term storage

 

Do I... upgrade the RAM to 32GB (Pic 2, £2,752.80), or upgrade the storage to 1TB (also £2,752.80, Pic 3)? Can't afford both haha.

 

Or should I just leave it as the stock 15 inch configuration (Pic 1,£2,428.80). Which option would be considered as the 'best value' for money.

 

All the prices above are education pricing which I will be paying, so that's why it's cheaper than usual.

[Techguy1993]

Drive capacity is obviously a huge factor when buying any laptop, especially for what you intend to use it for.. HOWEVER, since Apple and other companies are soldering every component to the board now upgrading isn’t an option. My opinion would be to max out the RAM cause external storage is cheap AF. I have a couple USB C / A sticks that get 200mb R/W speeds.

 

or if you want to be like me an upgrade my ram in my MBP by swapping the whole logic board lol.

[Joshcanread]

get a pc lol

[GoldenLag]

id suggest getting a render box with an 8700k to export projects and to work on the projects for 1500-1600£ and getting a portable Huawei Matebook X Pro (1200£++) as a daily driver

 

 

otherwise @Techguy1993`s advice isnt half bad. 

 

the issue is that the macbook Pro 2018 isnt great value regardless

[Techguy1993]

11 minutes ago, Joshcanread said:

get a pc lol

A Mac is sometimes a course requirement 

[Kirrr]

14 minutes ago, Joshcanread said:

get a pc lol

MAC is a pc. Ther is absolutely no diference... Forget this sh... already. 

[GoldenLag]

1 minute ago, Techguy1993 said:

A Mac is sometimes a course requirement 

considering the wide use of the adobe suite wouldnt a windows laptop capable of running adobe suite at an acceptable level be the requirement?

 

(i am asking, ive not looked to much into this, but schooles locking people to a single set of machines that have a very high pricetag does sound very idiotic)

[boey]

2 minutes ago, Kirrr said:

MAC is a pc. Ther is absolutely no diference... Forget this sh... already. 

There is. Looking at physical specifications alone, they are stupidly overpriced. However, due to the branding and the software(like iOS and stuff which can be useful) and compatibility with iPhones it's pretty worth imo

[Sauron]

If you can't afford it why don't you get one of these? They cost about 2700£ with the 1tb ssd, 32gb of ram and the 4k touch screen. They're a bit heavier but not too much. The cpu is slightly slower on paper but given the macbook's throttling problems they should perform about the same. Also, RAM and ssd are not soldered.

 

But I do agree with @GoldenLag that you're better off with a cheap ultralight and a desktop for heavy loads.

[Sauron]

19 minutes ago, Techguy1993 said:

A Mac is sometimes a course requirement 

I've never seen a course that absolutely requires you to have a mac, the only exception being an ios programming course which was entirely optional. They may recommend that you buy a macbook because that's what the teacher uses, but you can do 99.9% of the same things just as well on a windows pc.

16 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

considering the wide use of the adobe suite wouldnt a windows laptop capable of running adobe suite at an acceptable level be the requirement?

 

(i am asking, ive not looked to much into this, but schooles locking people to a single set of machines that have a very high pricetag does sound very idiotic)

See above, but yes, it would be absolute bullshit - the same goes for the adobe suite itself though. This problem is much worse in high schools where microsoft and adobe (and occasionally apple) get to indoctrinate a whole batch of students who will only ever be taught how to use microsoft^tm office and adobe^tm photoshop^r.

[GoldenLag]

5 minutes ago, Sauron said:

They may recommend that you buy a macbook because that's what the teacher uses, but you can do 99.9% of the same things just as well on a windows pc.

Or just run MacOS on the Win based machine itself through dualboot. 

[Sauron]

5 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

Or just run MacOS on the Win based machine itself through dualboot. 

Technically illegal.

[GoldenLag]

6 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Technically illegal.

technically a better and cheaper option with the benefits of both ecosystems

 

Indeed that's true. If only we could pay for a liscence

[jamesoutofideas]

Thanks for all the suggestions. The issue is, I ideally need to run Final Cut Pro X. If all I needed was Adobe Premiere, I would buy a Windows based machine straight away. I already own a PC running an i7 4770k and a GTX 770, which is perfectly capable of running Premiere and editing 1080p, and light 4k.

 

My Uni primarily works from FCPX, with some Adobe. iMac suites are available for us to book, but I would like to come back and work on the projects in my own time too. So it's not really a debate of whether I want a PC or Mac, is whether I would want to upgrade to 1tb ssd or 32gb storage on the MacBook.  @Techguy1993 Thank you for your suggestion on that with the storage. If I were to upgrade RAM and keep the storage as stock, I would probably buy a 500gb Samsung T3 or T5 SSD for a lot cheaper than the upgrade to a 1TB from Apple. 

[GoldenLag]

1 minute ago, jamesoutofideas said:

Saying that, is 32GB RAM even needed?

You probably dont need 32GB ram. But it is nice to have.

 

I would suggest look into the laptop @Sauron suggested an look into dualbooting. Or a different 15 inch laptop. 

[Sauron]

7 minutes ago, jamesoutofideas said:

-I really need a mac-

In that case I'd prioritize ram, even if you don't absolutely need it right now, as you won't be able to upgrade it in the future. If 512gb are not enough at least you have the option of using a thunderbolt ssd, which isn't quite as fast as the internal one but for most purposes you won't notice.

[Kirrr]

1 hour ago, _d0nut said:

There is. Looking at physical specifications alone, they are stupidly overpriced. However, due to the branding and the software(like iOS and stuff which can be useful) and compatibility with iPhones it's pretty worth imo

In your interpretation: Get a pc not an Alienware. Or Get a PC not a Razer Blade... etc. Since ten years all the intel laptops and desktops can run osx just fine. "MAC" died with the powerpc era.

[Techguy1993]

1 hour ago, GoldenLag said:

Or just run MacOS on the Win based machine itself through dualboot. 

Uneducated response.

[SeraphicWings]

14 hours ago, jamesoutofideas said:

Thanks for all the suggestions. The issue is, I ideally need to run Final Cut Pro X. If all I needed was Adobe Premiere, I would buy a Windows based machine straight away. I already own a PC running an i7 4770k and a GTX 770, which is perfectly capable of running Premiere and editing 1080p, and light 4k.

 

My Uni primarily works from FCPX, with some Adobe. iMac suites are available for us to book, but I would like to come back and work on the projects in my own time too. So it's not really a debate of whether I want a PC or Mac, is whether I would want to upgrade to 1tb ssd or 32gb storage on the MacBook.  @Techguy1993 Thank you for your suggestion on that with the storage. If I were to upgrade RAM and keep the storage as stock, I would probably buy a 500gb Samsung T3 or T5 SSD for a lot cheaper than the upgrade to a 1TB from Apple. 

Here's my suggestion: Upgrade your RAM to 32GB, storage can stay 512Gb for software (512 is plentiful for software only)

 

Then you can buy an external SSD for raw footage, or even better: DIY external SSD, since SSDs are getting cheaper

[cc143]

A value macbook pro is a contradiction in terms...;P

 

£2800 is stupid, look at the xps 15, there is nothing you will run that can't be done at the same level or better as with a windows machine, I assume you will not be developing because most developers just use linux on a used £200 thinkpad anyway.

 

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptops/new-15/spd/xps-15-9570-laptop?stacks=true

 

The equivalent model costs £500 less and the i9 model even is still £300 cheaper! And you get usb ports, an sd card reader and a touchscreen. Just get that. I mean if you will be using Premiere anyway, there's no point using finalcut.

 

EDIT: +Dell's pro support is amazing, I got the last gen xps15 recently and had an issue with it charging, which ended up being the power adapter. I'm in the middle of my masters exams as well. I called them at 10pm at night, I spoke to a person, who booked an engineer who came over at my flat and fixed the thing the day after. The guy was carrying an entire laptop in parts in a backpack. I was amazed at the level of support they provide.