Advice on a refurbished MBP: 16 or 8 RAM? which video card? which processor?

My 17" MBP from 2009 has had power issues and runs mad slow. I've taken it to a bunch of mac repair places and no-one seems to be able to fix it. Alas. Time for a new machine.

I'm looking at refurbished 15" MBPs and have a few questions:

1 - Should I pay for the extra RAM? My computer right now has 8 gigs of RAM and that has always been enough. I use it for video editing and making music. The only time I wish I had more is when I use Compressor and can't really do anything else with the machine, but generally, 8 has been enough. My thinking is that I will go with 8, and if I need more, buying 3rd party RAM will be about as much as getting it from the get-go

2 - Which video card do I want? I'm not a gamer if that makes a difference. I dont quite get the difference between the machines with just an NVIDIA card, ones with an Intel pro card, or ones with both. I went to the Apple store the other day, and the salesman did a poor job of explaining it to me.

3 - What speed to I want for a processor? I know that sounds really basic, and I know there are websites that describe the speeds. But I don't quite understand what those numbers mean practically. Realistically, the only intensive stuff I use it for would be film editing or music software. I imagine almost any intel i7 will be OK. But is that naive?

Here is the link to the refurbished options if anyone wants to give me specific advice: Refurbished MacBook Pro 15" - Refurbished Notebooks, 1-Year Warranty - Apple Store (U.S.)


Thanks in advance!

Answers:

1. I would get 8gig of ram if it were me. But it depends on which 15" MBP you get. Some are upgradeable by the user after purchase...and some aren't.

2. Video hardware. Get as good as you can afford.

3. CPU. Get as fast as you can afford.

Bottom line. Get the newest model that fits your budget. And if it's a non-upgradeable model...definitely get one that is preconfigured with 8gig of ram.

- Nick

So, I'm choosing between these three. I'm tempted to go with the first. The video card might not be as great as the others.....but it's got a faster processor than option 2, the one with the better video cards, and that means more to me. Thoughts?:

$2,169
Refurbished 15.4-inch MacBook Pro 2.7GHz Quad-core Intel i7 with Retina Display
Originally released February 2013
15.4-inch (diagonal) Retina display; 2880-by-1800 resolution at 220 pixels per inch
16GB of 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
512GB Flash Storage
720p FaceTime HD Camera
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory


$2,199
Refurbished 15.4-inch MacBook Pro 2.3GHz Quad-core Intel i7 with Retina Display
Originally released October 2013
15.4-inch (diagonal) Retina display; 2880-by-1800 resolution at 220 pixels per inch
16GB of 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
512GB Flash Storage1
720p FaceTime HD camera
Intel Iris Pro Graphics and NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M

$2,459
Refurbished 15.4-inch MacBook Pro 2.8GHz Quad-core Intel i7 with Retina Display
Originally released February 2013
15.4-inch (diagonal) Retina display; 2880-by-1800 resolution at 220 pixels per inch
16GB of 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
768GB Flash Storage
720p FaceTime HD Camera
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory

I would actually go with #2...for 2 reasons:

1. It's the newest model (so it has all the latest & greatest Apple has to offer).
2. Because #2 is the newest model...it has a newer version of the i7 cpu (compared to choice #1). So even though choice #2 appears to have a slower cpu (2.3ghz vs. 2.7ghz for #1)...it's actually faster.

Geekbench 3 score (64 bit) for computer #1 (2.7ghz quad-core i7) = 12851
Geekbench 3 score (64 bit) for computer #2 (2.3ghz quad-core i7) = 13357

So #2 gives you better cpu and graphics hardware! I would definitely go with #2 for just $30 bucks more!

- Nick

p.s. By the way. Computer #2 (with the NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M) also has 2gig of VRAM...choice #1 and #3 have 1gig of VRAM.