Hey, im trying to sell my dell XPS laptop for a macbook pro but I have one problem. Which macbook pro would be right for me ? I am a college student going into computer science So i have a lot of writing code, papers, and all sorts of stuff I have to save so would the macbook pro 13" with 180 gb and 2gb ram be enough? or would I have to step it up to the 360gb 4gb ram? I have an external hardrive which i keep most of my work on anyways but i'm still curious if the small version would be good enough. The reason I am thinking about the small one is because I want to put an insurance plan on whichever one I get and thats like 400 bucks:S:S Please tell me what you think and thanks!

Hey, I'm going into computer science next year too (in Australia), and I have a macbook pro 15" with 2gb ram and 250Gb hard drive.

The 15" has worked great for me, but my sister has a 13" macbook (not pro) with 2gb ram and 160gb hdd and it still performs great, I even found the 9400M video card to be capable of some half-decent video editing/render times with adobe after effects :)

The macbook pro 13" should have a better CPU than hers and all the other specs should be the same if not better. I think the smaller one should do just fine.

Like you said, you have an external HDD so storage space won't be a problem and you can always whack in some more ram later on if you need it.

My sis has two XPS laptops and they were nothing but trouble, but both of our macbook pros have worked great, I love mine :D

So in a nutshell, I think the smaller one should be fine, unless you're going to be doing a lot of video editing/gaming/3D modelling on it (most of that should still work pretty good). Otherwise you might want to do some research into the models with the 9400M/9600M GT inside.

Hope you enjoy your mac :)

sounds great. I'm into a little big of 3d design/rendering but only beginning to learn it. all of that i save on my hardrive..

Also i would play a few games such as maybe world of warcraft... would that hold up or not?

I think the weakest link in the machine for world of warcraft might be the GPU, but I still think it should run at close to if not maximum settings. I think basic 3D modelling and rendering should be fine on it too.

I took a look at the recommended system requirements for WOW and the 13" MBP is way above them so you should be fine.

If you are going into computer science I would suggest saving some money and building a quick decent desktop for $600. Reasons being is I notice a lot of other students who bring laptops into class do not use them for studying or writing notes. Most play games or just look at stuff online the whole class. Even then some professors do not even allow laptops in the classroom. Another is yes you can dual boot windows on the Mac, but if you are doing a lot of coding and you want to use what a lot of (not all) professionals use, you'll be using visual studio.

If you are getting into 3d modeling also you may want to check out Zbrush, it isn't on mac's yet, and yes again you could dual boot (which would then be splitting your harddrive into different partitions so less overall space) but for the price of a macbook you could build a vastly superior desktop and run all of your apps better, and handle better games.

Another great thing about getting a desktop is it will be quite easy to upgrade in the future (if you get the right parts). With a mac book (or any laptop) you can't upgrade anything, so after a year or 2 you have an obsolete piece of hardware that was inferior to a decent desktop rig for half the price at the time of the mac books purchase.

All of your 3D modeling can be achieved quite easily on a windows machine, and you won't be splitting your hard drive into separate partitions for dual booting. 3DS Max student license and Zbrush both run great on windows.

Quote: Original post by JonConley
Another is yes you can dual boot windows on the Mac

You can also just use VMWare Fusion and run windows apps in OSX without dual booting.

Quote: but if you are doing a lot of coding and you want to use what a lot of (not all) professionals use, you'll be using visual studio.

In the vast majority of computer science programs you will be using some distribution of 'nix and the GNU tools. I use Visual Studio a lot in OS X through Fusion and I also use XCode a lot as well.

Quote:
All of your 3D modeling can be achieved quite easily on a windows machine, and you won't be splitting your hard drive into separate partitions for dual booting. 3DS Max student license and Zbrush both run great on windows.

You don't have to split your drive into separate partitions if you just boot VMs with Fusion. Also note that Maya, Blender, and many other 3D tools work perfectly fine on the Mac.

Obviously a desktop is going to be more powerful for less money, that is the cost of mobility. Myself I would go with a 13" MBP if I were in a comp sci program. You can use X and all the 'nix tools without having to dual boot or use cygwin, etc. You likely won't be booted into Windows very much depending on your program.

Alright, welll i guess I kinda half to think about it now. I would like to have a laptop just because I go home a lot and therefore it would be portable. And I use blender for 3d modeling, and for my computer science class I use jGRASP.

Quote: Original post by chrisparton1991
I took a look at the recommended system requirements for WOW and the 13" MBP is way above them so you should be fine.

The MacBook should handle WoW at full detail on an HD external monitor…

Quote: Original post by JonConley
If you are going into computer science I would suggest saving some money and building a quick decent desktop for $600.

I would also advocate this approach, but not for the same reasons. For the price of a 13" MacBook, you can build a $700 quad-core + high-end GPU gaming desktop, and a $300 atom netbook for taking to class.

Quote: Reasons being is I notice a lot of other students who bring laptops into class do not use them for studying or writing notes. Most play games or just look at stuff online the whole class.

Sure, I do this all the time. I also run straight A's, so it plainly isn't hurting anyone.

Quote: Even then some professors do not even allow laptops in the classroom.

I have been told to put it away by a couple of humanities professors, but never by a Math/Science/CompSci professor.

Quote: if you are doing a lot of coding and you want to use what a lot of (not all) professionals use, you'll be using visual studio.

This applies more to industry, as academia is almost universally Linux-oriented. If you go with a Windows machine, you will be dual booting to linux anyway for homework assignments, so Mac dual-booting to Windows is no worse.

Quote: If you are getting into 3d modeling also you may want to check out Zbrush, it isn't on mac's yet

You might want to check your facts - ZBrush has been on Mac for several years.

Quote: Another great thing about getting a desktop is it will be quite easy to upgrade in the future (if you get the right parts). With a mac book (or any laptop) you can't upgrade anything, so after a year or 2 you have an obsolete piece of hardware that was inferior to a decent desktop rig for half the price at the time of the mac books purchase.

This I would agree with.

Quote: All of your 3D modeling can be achieved quite easily on a windows machine, and you won't be splitting your hard drive into separate partitions for dual booting. 3DS Max student license and Zbrush both run great on windows.

Again, check your facts. You can get free student licenses for Maya on the Mac, ZBrush runs on the Mac, as does Lightwave, Carrara, Cinema4D, Hexagon, Modo, Silo, Poser, etc. - as well as all the open-source stuff: Blender, Wings, ...

I understand all this but if i got a 300 dollar netbook I wouldnt be able to take it across the state to "my home" on the weekends and do 3d work on it would I?

I think getting a desktop would be a really great idea but I want something portable that I can take to different spots and still use the coding program I have or 3d program.

Quote: Original post by l jsym l
I understand all this but if i got a 300 dollar netbook I wouldnt be able to take it across the state to "my home" on the weekends and do 3d work on it would I?

A newer ($500-600) netbook with a dual core atom 330 and an NVidia ION chipset would do all that fine. Then again, so would any $500-600 laptop.