Purchase current rMBP or Wait for Haswell rMBP?

[oldsaintnich]

Hey guys,
My hackintosh has been functioning as my main desktop-system for quite some time now, but I am enrolled for university in the fall, and I plan on purchasing a rMBP. I plan on purchasing a refurbished baseline 15" rMBP model from Apple to avoid the usual debt associated with the purchase of an Apple computer with a retina display.

I am torn between two options at the moment, purchasing the current refurbished 15" rMBP model for $1599, or waiting some time into the fall season when a refurbished Haswell/Iris Pro 15 "rMBP is released. Due to the fact that the I want my machine as a refurbished model, this would most-likely delay the availability of this given model. Also, I am uncertain on whether the price of the updated rMBP's would increase or decrease.

To set things straight, I am not really concerned with increased service duration (in reference to Haswell technologies) or anything of the like; I am only concerned with increased system stability (partially due to the strange nature of 1st gen rMBP's) and an improved GPU. I will be utilizing this computer for a music-creation application on OS X, and mechanical engineering applications in Win. 7 via Bootcamp.

I would like to seek opinions on the topic of waiting for the release Haswell rMBP update, or purchasing the current rMBP model. I do not want to be in the situation of being stuck without a much-needed portable computer long into the first semester of university classes.

Thanks.

 

[timmillea]

Well just a thought for you. if you are happy with the speed of the current generation of MBPs why not consider a MacBook Air with build-to-order (Haswell) i7 ? They are faster than the 2.6Ghz MBPs and you would appreciate the lightweight lugging it around. Go for the 11" and you would have a wolf in sheeps clothes. What you would save would pay for a big external display (non Apple of course).

http://www.macworld.com/article/204...13-holds-its-own-against-the-macbook-pro.html

These have not yet appeared in the refurb channel but are likely to many months ahead of the Haswell MBPs. Then again, the Applestore student discounts on Macs often match or beat the refurb discounts. Not sure where you are but here in the UK buying from Apple's Higher Education store also gives a free 3 year global warranty, which is very valuable when it comes to reselling.

 

[oldsaintnich]

I may just consider the Haswell MBA option, now that I think about it. Would the integrated graphics capabilities of the Haswell MBA be comparable to that of the rMBP/normal MBP's (both have the HD4000 + OC'd GT 650M)? I just want to make sure that Solidworks and MATLAB would run somewhat-smoothly on the machine.