Alan321 Online Upload & Sell: Off
|
Perhaps the early retina screens were not IPS - I don't know.
Big photos look great on high ppi screens but web photos are generally too small. This is fixed by enlarging them on-screen but that never looks as good as 100% would with a bigger image. Text can be a problem too. I don't think the operating systems have quite got high ppi under control, and in some cases the software is to blame - e.g. Ps menus, etc.
The new retina screens use IPS technology, have a gamut that is close to sRGB, and have 220ppi resolution but a lot of stuff is treated like 110ppi and looks chunky in comparison. I'd rather have the old "high resolution" 132ppi screen than a 110ppi screen. Also, they are still glossy; certainly not as bad as most other glossy screens but still nowhere near anti-glare.
The 2014 and I think late 2013 rMBPs with discrete graphics will handle external 4k screens at 30Hz and so will be good for any monitor you care to attach. I can use a 24" Dell 4k monitor at 185 ppi but not with my 2011 MBP; just with my Windows laptop.
In terms of processing grunt, the rMBPs will do the job very nicely until you need more than 16GB of RAM, but even then the speedy internal flash storage will be much faster than any HDD-based virtual storage ever was. I suggest that you opt for the full 1GB so that you can keep the Lr catalog, previews and smart previews on it. The CPU spec may seem a little on the slow side but so long as the computer is used in a coolish environment they can run at close to maximum speed even when close fully utilised. They will slow down if they get too hot.
For external storage you'll have thunderbolt and USB 3 options available. I prefer thunderbolt but I have not yet been able to use USB 3 on a Mac for comparison. However, on a Windows laptop I found that USB 3 is significantly slower than thunderbolt is on my MBP. I have several thunderbolt drive cases. OWC sell a speedy thunderbolt case called ThunderBay that can hold up to four 3.5" drives; way faster than any drobo, but isn't everything . Akitio do nice cases for one or two 2.5" drives. Any drive on the thunderbolt interface will be as fast as if they were internal on a SATA 6Gbps port.
For backups I use a mix of time machine, routine specific data backups, and whole-of-volume clones. It is dead easy to make any backups with Carbon Copy Cloner (including specific folders or files that do not make up a full volume, which Super Duper could not do). I recommend that you make clones of your volumes (including the system volume) because they can easily and quickly be used when needed without first having to rebuild the system on a new drive. This is one area where OS X is especially better than Windows - booting from external drives without messing up all of your software licensing and activation. I certainly make clones before upgrading the OS, because I've had an OS upgrade trash my system drive several years ago - to the extent that it could not be salvaged.
If you want to avoid buying cases for backup drives that will be used only occasionally then get yourself something like a Voyager Q from OWC. Very handy for using any bare SATA drive.
- Alan
|