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Ryan Stoppler
90 Pointshey
Hey guys
3 Answers
Craig Watson
27,930 PointsHi,
My advice would be a larger screen as some of the software you'll come across possibly photoshop illustrator and so on ,have many tools and it is certainly easier on the eye.
The new mbp is much thinner and lighter than previous so portability is not an issue with the larger mb.
as for the ram you really need to think on the demands your going to put on the laptop such as multiple programs running.
From your choices, and this is simply my opinion I would have No.2 and consider Ipad Air
No.2 because I use text editor and chrome most of the time with the addition of running mamp and have illustrator to do all my graphics work. External storage for all my files. (+ i actually have No. 2 )
If you will be installing a number of programs however just bight the bullet and get the bigger ram then you know your comfortable.
Ipad Air because the TreeHouse app is great!!
Craig
Andrew Shook
31,709 PointsI would go with #2, because you can buy the additional 8 gigs of ram and install it yourself for much less than the $220 price differences.
Ryan Stoppler
90 PointsOnly problem is these are all retina models and the ram is not upgrade able .... Does that change your choice at all?
Andrew Shook
31,709 PointsSorry, forgot that the Retina Display models won't let you upgrade the ram. I would still recommend #2, unless you plan on using a lot of Adobe products( ~2gb of ram a piece ) or you plan to do a lot for animation/video/graphics work. Those kinds of programs will gobble up your ram.
Ryan Stoppler
90 Pointssounds good man thanks, and is your reasoning for the 15" over the 13" just screen space like craig, or is it for the extra grunt?
DavidPaul sullivan
17,377 Pointsthe 15" comes standard with an i7 cpu (forgive me if I'm wrong) which is actually really nice if you see yourself doing a fair bit of graphic or video work but to have the extra screen space can be night and day when it comes to coding.
Another option, as far as screen space/price is concerned would be to get the 13" plus an IPS monitor which usually run around $125-$300
Hope this helps!
Ryan Stoppler
90 PointsI could do that if I get the 8gb 13". Would that be sufficient/powerful enough for programming work? To be honest the extra battery life and portability would be nice for commuting. But I want to make sure the computer can handle my studies.
Ryan Stoppler
90 Points?
Craig Watson
27,930 PointsCraig Watson
27,930 PointsI cant believe i wrote all that about No.3, clearly referencing the fact that I have no need for a bigger RAM, anyway ive updated it .........
Ryan Stoppler
90 PointsRyan Stoppler
90 PointsThanks for the input, very much appreciated. Which version of the 15" do you have? The #2 option here is the late 2013 with iris pro graphics.
Craig Watson
27,930 PointsCraig Watson
27,930 PointsHi Ryan,
I am currently using October 2013 model with Retina Display, 15" and its display resolution is listed at 2880 x 1800.
8GB Ram,
Runs no issues with everything ive ever done!
Ryan Stoppler
90 PointsRyan Stoppler
90 Pointsnice, do you run any vm's at all? I spoke to the head of my program and apparently I need to run linux and windows in vm's for some assignments/courses. I'm definitely going with the 15" now thanks to your guys recommendations as well as the black friday sales one right now. 15" 8gb is on for $1499 no tax and the 16gb is on for $1699 no tax as well.
Andrew Shook
31,709 PointsAndrew Shook
31,709 PointsI have used vm's in the past and it's been disastrous. It might be better now, but I would tend to stay away. The two I would recommend if it's unavoidable are Parallels and Virtualbox. If you can ask your the head of the program what you will need linux for, because unless you are doing kernel programming you should need linux itself. OSX (Mac's OS) is a unix based system, so it will function just like linux as far as scripting and command line. If all you need linux for is command line, you could also install Vagrant + Virtualbox and get an Ubuntu install.
As for windows, I would recommend using BootCamp. It's a program built into OSX that will create a partition for you to install windows on and give you all the drivers you need to make your laptop work with windows. You won't be able to run both OS at the same time, so if you want to use one or the other you will need to restart the computer and boot into the other OS.
Ryan Stoppler
90 PointsRyan Stoppler
90 Pointssounds good, will go with bootcamp and find out what we need linux for. That confuse dme as well because I thought most of what you would need linux for could be done in the terminal on mac.