Free MacBook, which would you choose?

OU812

I currently have two work supplied 15" MacBook retinas, I'm leaving the role next month & have been told I can keep one of them & hand the other back, they don't care which.

Mid 2012 model with:
RAM: 16GB 1600mhz DDR3
VIDEO: Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB
PROCESSOR: 2.7Ghz Intel Core i7
HDD: 750GB Flash Storage

Vs.

Mid 2014 Model with:
RAM: 16GB 1600mhz DDR3
VIDEO: Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB
PROCESSOR: 2.2Ghz Intel Core i7
HDD: 250GB Flash Storage

The 2012 model has a slight ding in the case where I dropped it once. Otherwise they're both in pretty much "As New" condition.

Whichever one I'm keeping will get a full clean install of High Sierra and a licensed copy of office 2016, no other software (unless I buy it personally)

The 2012 obviously has a faster processor & larger hard drive (although I've never been pushed for hard drive space on the smaller model. Would .5mhz make a huge difference in day to day surfing/writing etc?

Which do you think is the one with keeping?

Passenger

I'd go with the 2012 anyway.

OU812

Passenger wrote: »

I'd go with the 2012 anyway.

Any particular reason?

I don’t know the entire history of the 2012, have no idea on the battery life etc

Type 17

OU812 wrote: »

... Would .5mhz make a huge difference in day to day surfing/writing etc?...

No, it does't make a huge difference - I have access to two 2.7 i7 machines (they belong to relatives), as well as a 2.2 i7 one of my own. There is no perceptible difference in everyday activities.

If the RAM was different, I'd go for the bigger amount, as it is fixed in these machines.
The storage size might swing it if you were doing space-hungry stuff like photography, but 250GB is plenty for everyday stuff, so that's not a differentiator either.

If there is a difference that might help you choose, I'd go for the one with the newer-design processor, if you plan on keeping it forever, because the day that you can no longer upgrade to a newer MacOS will be longer coming (In the family, there are two older machines of fairly similar ages (mid-2006 & early-2008, IIRC) and the '08 was able to keep updating to MacOS 10.11, but the '06 one is stuck at 10.7).
You might also download a battery-checking app on both, and see if one battery is significantly better/worse than the other.

Passenger

Simply because of the better specs. In terms of the battery life, you can see how many charge cycles it has made throughout its lifetime. Check this on both MacBook's to confirm how healthy their respective batteries are.

OU812

The battery cycle count on the 2012 is 256 Vs 120 on the 2014 one.

If I was to swap the drives is there likely to be any issues?

Type 17

sugarman wrote: »

The 4770HQ has Iris Pro Graphics 5200 where as the 3740QM only has Intel HD 4000 graphics. The former is significantly better due to the addition of eDRAM. Up to 4-5 times faster than the HD 4000.

This is the difference on the 2006/2008 machines that I mentioned above - they both have 2.0 GHz Intel Core2 Duo processors, but the superior graphics on the later machine is what makes the difference when it comes to the highest MacOS version that it will accept - one day, you may be glad of the better graphics in the 2014 machine.

jeepcj

I'd swap the hard drives around and go for the newer one as said above, download coconut battery app and it will tell you which one has the best battery capacity, not just the cycles

ZENER

The 2012 has 2 graphics systems, Integrated Intel and nVidia GT650 with 1GB dedicated RAM. The system uses the Intel when on battery power though you can force it to use the nVidia if required.

This generation also has issues with this graphics system though luckily mine is still working really well !

Ken

Doodah7

The 2014 one will continue to be supported by Apple for longer when the machines come to be rendered obsolete.

Greentree_uk

can't swap the HDD's. they are different, and if it is successful your drive will be alot slower than the 256. the 2014 should be every bit as good as the 2012 if not better. I would go with that. 2012's also have issues.

OU812

Decided to go with 2014 in the end. Didn't bother with opening up to do surgery, a quick google told me the earlier model had a physical replaceable board & the latter is a chip.

Mr.S wrote: »

Curious... why the need for two work laptops of the same size? One for home / one for the office?

The earlier one was inherited from my predecessor & was put in a drawer after I'd transferred what I needed when they replaced it.